Editor: Judith Fortney PO Box 51969 Durham NC 27717 [email protected] http://chbc.carolinanature.com

Chapel Hill Bird Club Bulletin Doug Pratt

October 2013 Volume 41 No.7

______Next Meeting: Monday, songbirds. Come and join us as Erich 28 October shares what he and his team of researchers have learned about the

amazing brains of songbirds and the When/where: 7:15 pm refreshments; relationship between songbird 7.30 pm meeting. The lounge, Olin T vocalizations and human language. Binkley Baptist Church, corner of

Highway 15-501 Bypass and Willow Drive, behind University Mall, Chapel Saturday Field Trips Hill. Join us also for dinner at 6.00 Trips are led by Doug Shad- pm at the K&W cafeteria in University wick and depart from Glen Lennox Mall preceding the 7.00 pm meeting. Shopping Center parking lot off This is a regular feature of our Highway 54 promptly at 7.30 every monthly meetings. Saturday morning. All skill levels are welcome. Trips are usually over by 28 October; Erich Jarvis: Vocal noon. Dress for the weather and for learning in songbirds. walking. Details? Call Doug at 919 942 0479. The next time someone calls Call Doug the night before in you “birdbrain,” smile and thank case the trip is not local and leaves them! New research reveals from another location. structures in the brains of songbirds that are similar to our own, structures that enable songbirds to learn songs Book Review and pass them down to the next generation. Erich Jarvis is an Derek Nieman Birds in a Cage associate professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center This book is about World War 2 and the winner of several awards for prisoners of war (POWs) in Germany his research on vocal learning in who survived prolonged imprison-

1 ment largely because of their rated as one of the best bird interest in birds. All four had monographs. Never had redstarts distinguished careers after their been watched in such detail – release – three of them in thousands of hours of observation, . notes written on any kind of paper The four were: that could be found. The fledging, • 2nd Lieutenant John Buxton, though, was not well recorded -– born 1912, captured in Russia’s entry into the war brought Norway in 1940. restrictions on time allowed out- • 2nd Lieutenant Peter Conder, doors. born 1919, captured in France The enthusiasm of these four men in 1940 after 7 days of active was contagious. They formed bird service. clubs, gave talks, reported weekly • Squadron Leader (RAF) John bird lists, explained points of identi- Barrett. Born 1913, captured in fication. When the first chaffinches Germany in 1941. arrived in spring migration, they were • 2nd Lieutenant George Water- observed during every daylight hour ston, born 1911, captured in until they left to go south again. The Crete in 1941. ornithologists were not always happy Three were released in 1945 after with the quality of the amateurs’ being moved often, from one camp notes though. to another, sometimes together, All this was done without benefit sometimes not. Waterston was of binoculars (Waterston buried his released earlier because he was too rather than let his captors take too ill to be a fighting risk. In late them), and initially without books to 1941, Warburg was the camp where help identify species. Eventually a the four first met each other and substantial library (2000+ books!) was began birding together, at first amassed with books sent by family, watching only magpies, crows and a friends and sympathetic guards. Rough-legged Buzzard all foraging in Probably at some risk to the German, the snow. Buxton carried on an extensive Earlier, in another camp, Conder correspondence with Dr Erwin noticed a man who was obviously Stresemann, a German ornithologist watching birds, but did not learn till he had met at an International much later and in another camp Ornithological Congress; Stresemann that it was Buxton and that he was even provided bands for a banding watching Black-necked Grebes, program. When Stresemann pub- which Conder had not recognized in lished a paper on the birds of Crete their winter plumage. In the mean- he acknowledged Waterston’s con- time, advised by his brother-in-law tribution to it. His friendship with (who had established Britain’s first Waterston and Buxton lasted the rest bird observatory on the island of of their lives. Skokholm) that studying one or two Another German ornithologist, species in great detail might help Niethammer who was curator of preserve his sanity, Buxton chose the birds at Bonn Museum, sent the Common Redstart (“for its grace and POWs his three volume Handbuch beauty”) and Goldfinches, His work, der Deutcher Vogelkunde – their on redstarts, published in 1950, is still best field guide. When Niethammer 2 was not curating birds he was an year We meet the third Thursday of occasional guard at Auschwitz for most months – not in December or which he served three years in a during the summer. The speakers are: Polish prison having voluntarily sur- rendered to the Allies. November 25: Don Seriff: Early birders Waterston was repatriated in of the greater Charlotte region. 1943 with other ailing POWs. While in captivity he had written a proposal January 27: Ali Iyoob: My NC Big to purchase Fair Isle (halfway Year. between Shetland and the Orkneys) to develop a bird observatory there. February 24: Scott Winton: Matta- This proposal, his notes on the birds muskeet waterfowl and climate of Crete, his observations on bel- change. ligerent wrynecks, and a paper with Buxton on the future of bird obser- March 24: Charlotte Goedsche: vatories in Britain were in his limited Cerulean warblers of Bull Creek. luggage. The paper on bird obser- vatories was soon published in April 28: : Judy & David Smith: Birding Country Life. Fair Isle was bought Ethiopia. and Waterston became the first director; it now belongs to the May 19: Brian Bockhahn: Spec- RSPB.1 tacular birds of NC state parks. Peter Conder became director of the RSPB, increasing its membership More details in coming Bulletins! from 20,000 to 200,000. John Buxton became an Officers of the Chapel Hill academic, teaching literature at Bird Club Oxford. The distinction between

“ornithologists” – with degrees in Elected Officers science – and birders (amateurs) President: David Smith was becoming more important. Still, ([email protected]) he remained a naturalist, was a Vice President (Durham area): Eddie founder of the Wildlife Trust, and Owens ([email protected]) edited The Birds of Wiltshire. Vice President (Chapel Hill area): John Barrett ran an outdoor Kent Fiala ([email protected]) education center in Pembrokeshire Treasurer: Patricia Bailey (Wales) and inspired many a young ([email protected]) naturalist, though he regretted not Secretary: Edith Tatum ([email protected]) having inspired more POWs to watch Appointed Officers birds. Bird Count Supervisor/compiler: Will Cook ([email protected]) Future Meetings Field Trip Chairman: Doug Shadwick The vice presidents have enlisted a ([email protected]) terrific cast of speakers for our Bulletin Editor: Judith Fortney monthly meetings in the. coming ([email protected]) Webmaster: Will Cook ([email protected]) 1 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 3