THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406170269
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
DATELINE: 940619 LENGTH: Long
Unlike their striking black and white parents, young eagles are dark brown with white mottling on their breasts and under their wings. The parents are still fishing in Back Bay to feed their young while the eaglets are staying close to the nest.
{REST} ``They're flying from one tree to another testing their wings,'' Lukei said.
While down at Back Bay last week, Lukei also saw a swallow-tail kite flying overhead. Another large raptor, a swallow-tail kite is rarely seen farther north than South Carolina.
Like the adult eagle, the kite is a handsome black and white bird. It has a long forked swallow-like tail and long pointed wings. It can be seen riding the air currents for hours, even feeding on high by catching large insects like dragon flies.
\ IF YOU LIVED IN THE 17TH CENTURY, you probably would be more tuned into the advent of summer than we are today. In fact you might be anticipating the summer solstice on Tuesday, June 21, with a little dread.
``This is the night of mischief,'' said Stephanie Carcano, ``when residents of the forests, `faeries,' wreak havoc on unsuspecting lives.''
Carcano is site manager of the historic Adam Thoroughgood House which is celebrating the onset of summer with a vignette from William Shakespeare's ``A Midsummer Night's Dream'' at 1 and 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Virginia Valley Theater will perform on the Thoroughgood House lawn and members of the audience will be called upon to be the ``faeries'' and play their tricks on Pyramus, Thisbe, Oberon and Titannia. The cost is $2 and includes lemonade and cookies after the play. Call 664-6283.
\ ``THE BIRDS OF VIRGINIA, A TWELVE COLUMN CHECKLIST,'' was recently published by Matthew George Hunter, a Newport News resident. The paperback booklet lists 422 species, with 12 check-off boxes for each species, so a birder can keep a 12-year list, lists for favorite localities or lists from individual field trips.
I think the checklist will be good as a handy reference. For fun, I look up the swallow-tailed kite to see if it had been seen in Virginia. It had been. Then I started thumbing through to see how many of the birds listed were ones I had seen over the years. Not many!
Hunter, who moved to Newport News from Oregon last year, modeled the booklet after a ``Field Checklist of the Birds of Oregon'' which he used while living on the West Coast. To develop the Virginia checklist, Hunter researched the Virginia Society of Ornithology's ``Virginia's Birdlife: an Annotated Checklist'' and the American Ornithological Union ``Check-list of North American Birds.''
The pocket-size booklet costs $2.95 at Wild Birds Unlimited at Hilltop and other nature-oriented stores.
A serious birder himself, Hunter says his year in Virginia has been interesting. He's seen 60 birds so far that he's never seen before. That sure makes the birds we have in Hampton Roads sound exotic, doesn't it?
\ THE JOHN B. DEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB schoolyard habitat was completed just a bit too late for a female mallard duck. The duck decided to nest couple of weeks ago in a clutch of weeds in the corner of a tiny, paved, fenced area beside the school cafeteria - no place to raise a family!
Had the mallard waited a few more days to lay her eggs, she would have had a special spot back off in the far corner of the school playing field. Oaks, wax myrtles, day lilies and butterfly bushes have been planted in a triangular bed along the chain link fence.
The kids hope to attract wildlife like birds and bunnies to their new habitat, said environmental club sponsor June Barrett-McDaniels who is an engineer with her own firm, Aquarius Engineering.
The environmental club members drew their own plans, measured and staked out the project and wrote the letters to get the project approved. Planning and planting the habitat was the culmination of the club's work this year. And next year the mallard and other wildlife will have better housing.
\ P.S. OCEAN COLLECTION BOAT TRIPS with the Virginia Marine Science Museum will take place from 12:45 to 2 p.m. Wednesdays, June 22 through Aug. 31. The trips, leaving from Rudee Inlet, cost $12 for adults and $10 for children, 11 and under. Call 437-4949 to register.
\ LOCAL FIBER ARTISTS from the Tidewater Weavers Guild will model their handmade designs at a free ``walking art show'' at 7 p.m. Wednesday, on the lawn at the Francis Land House. Interpreters from local history museums also will model fashions from the past. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket for seating.
by CNB