BIRD BANDING RESULTS FOR

HILTON POND NORTH DURING CURRENT PERIOD

1-15 October 2025

The table below shows birds banded during the Current Period (Columns 1 & 2), each species' Yearly Tally (Column 3), and a Grand Total for each (Column 4) since banding commenced locally in March 2024. Any new species for the current year are in RED. First week of no Ruby-throated Hummingbird bandings since June.

NEWLY BANDED BIRDS

AT HILTON POND NORTH

1-15 October 2025

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Although many nesting birds have been departing our mountains for tropical climes, a few Eastern Phoebes (above) will rough it with the rest of us and stay year-round. These largely insectivorous birds are in the Tyrant Flycatcher Family (Tyrannidae), catching mostly flies, beetles, true bugs, and flying termites and ants, plus smaller bees and butterflies. Come cold weather, overwintering phoebes at Hilton Pond North are reduced to gleaning invertebrates from twigs and tree trunks and waiting for days above freezing when a few aerial insects emerge. They also shift to being partly frugivorous, dining on fruits of Poison Ivy, sumacs, Virginia Creeper, and non-native Multiflora Rose.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

One shrub with fruits that persist into winter and are likely to be eaten by hungry Eastern Phoebes is Beautyberry. We have a majestic mature specimen of this plant at Hilton Pond North, but it's Japanese Beautyberry, Callicarpa japonica, rather than the native American Beautyberry, C. americana. The two species are amazingly similar, except the native has narrower leaves, with berry clusters that form very close to the stem rather than on stalks. Purple fruits of both species are incredibly eye-pleasing, although the Asian vareity has potential to be invasive in warmer climates. (It's listed by North Carolina Native Plant Society as a "Watch List Species.") Despite its ornamental value and usefulness to phoebes, we're strongly considering removing our exotic Beautyberry and replacing it with the native.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

One truly invasive species that occurs at Hilton Pond North is the Chinese Praying Mantis, Tenodera sinensis, shown above shadow-boxing with itself. We've been watching this individual all summer as it grew from a one-inch June nymph to this five-inch October adult, lurking all the while in one of our goldenrod stands. Introduced to North America in the late 1800s, this is one of the continent's most successful invasive arthropods, ranging throughout much of the eastern and central U.S. into southern Canada.

Instantly recognizable by forelegs held prayer-like, these ambush hunters consume vast quantities of insects by sitting motionless on vegetation until prey ventures within striking distance. Despite being biological control agents for agricultural pests, Chinese Mantids raise concern because they prey on native insects and even small vertebrates—yes, including hummingbirds; they disrupt local food webs and compete with native mantids. Here in the Blue Ridge, all praying mantises (native or not) last just one year, dying in autumn and leaving behind egg cases that hatch the following spring. The one in our photo won't make it much longer when cold weather arrives.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Near the Back Mountain trail we found an immobile Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina (above), whose bright yellow markings stood out from fallen brown foliage. This venerable reptile, perhaps the largest of its species we've ever encountered, was definitely alive: When we tapped its carapace it made a noise expelling air from its lungs as it closed its shell even more tightly. It already had begun to dig down into leaf litter and surface soil in preparation for cold weather to come, so we disturbed it no further.

In winter box turtles enter a dormant state called "brumation"; this is not true hibernation because they may awaken several times. Their metabolism slows to near standstill as they wait out frozen months buried shallowly in soft, insulating earth. This strategy depends on finding adequate shelter and digging in before hard freezes arrive. Some box turtles don't survive—particularly if unseasonable and extended warm spells interrupt dormancy and cause them to waste precious energy reserves. (Yet another danger presented by ever-hotter climate change!) The species also faces mounting pressures from habitat loss, road mortality, and illegal pet trade, making our October sighting of a adult Eastern Box Turtle at Hilton Pond North an event worth celebrating. (Incidentally, these shelled reptiles are NOT tortoises; they have the webbed toes of turtles, and are pretty good swimmers.)

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

An immature female Black-throated Blue Warbler we captured this week at Hilton Pond Center had an interesting tail marked by "fault bars" (above). These are lines of weakness that appear across bird feathers, creating visible breaks or marks in plumage structure. Such defects occur when feather growth is temporarily interrupted due to malnutrition, illness, environmental stress, or other disturbances. When normal feather growth resumes it leaves behind a weakened section where barbs don't form properly. Usually a fault bar is translucent or nearly transparent; occasionally the vane is completely gone, leaving only the feather's middle shaft.

In the tail photo above, fault bars occurred in exactly the same place on adjoining feathers because recently hatched nestlings bring in all rectrices at the same time. Sometimes every chick in a nest shows identically placed fault bars at fledging, suggesting something major happened after they hatched—perhaps a stretch of bad weather that prevented parent birds from bringing food. (When an adult bird loses a single feather, any fault bars would appear in only that feather, indicating stress while the feather was growing.) Since feathers with severe fault bars are prone to breaking, faults can significantly impact a bird's insulation or flight capability.

On a good day in Spring through Fall, we can see or hear all five of our resident woodpeckers: Common Flicker, plus Red-bellied, Downy, Hairy, and Pileated. However, we usually have to wait until Autumn for our sixth picid: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a more northerly species that typically breeds in northeastern North America from boreal Canada to the West Virginia Highlands. We say we "usually" don't see summer sapsuckers, although there's a distinct possibility we COULD since there is also nesting evidence for all the high mountain counties of North Carolina above 3,500' (including Ashe). On 2 October we captured a young male sapsucker (above) that was finally bringing in adult head plumage, replacing yellowish-red feathers with those of deep scarlet. We knew it was a male by his equally red throat feathers; in females this region is white. From now until spring at Hilton Pond North we'll observe Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers almost daily as they poke sap-oozing feeding holes in a variety of hardwoods, but this week's individual was only our second banded locally since we started Ashe County research in 2024. (Note the prominent flange at the base of this young sapsucker's upper mandible. We believe this is a sign of an immature bird that will become less pronounced as the woodpecker ages.)

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Migratory warblers undergo a remarkable physiological transformation in preparation for marathon journeys, accumulating subcutaneous fat reserves that can nearly double their body mass before departure. Through "hyperphagia"—in which they eat almost non-stop—they lay down high-energy yellow fat, particularly in the furcular region, a depression at the base of the neck where the "collar bones" are fused. An immature Tennessee Warbler (above) we captured this week at Hilton Pond North was literally bulging with furcular fat that will serve the bird well as it heads south toward the Neotropics. Hyperphagia is energetically expensive and requires warblers to spend virtually all their daylight hours foraging intensively on insects, berries, and other high-calorie foods, a feeding frenzy that can last days or even weeks. Birds exhibit remarkable precision in accumulating fat, storing just enough to reach their destination without carrying excess weight that would compromise flight efficiency—a delicate balance shaped by millions of years of natural selection.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

The brightest red foliage in our October forest belongs to appropriately named Red Maples; even the scientific epithet, Acer rubrum, alludes to their fall color. Most maples here at Hilton Pond North are mature trees with limbs high in the canopy. The leaf in our photo was the brightest, lowest one we could reach on a "small" 40-foot sapling. Although Sugar Maple, A. saccharum, typically takes the prize for most spectacular fall color, we haven't yet found that species on our 35-plus acres. This makes sense because Sugar Maple is abundant at mid- to higher elevations (typically 2,500–4,500 ft in Ashe County), while Red Maples occur throughout a broad elevation range, from low Piedmont foothills up to high Blue Ridge summits.

Red Maple reportedly has the widest environmental tolerance of any North American tree—growing naturally in the driest upland ridges and the wettest swamps. On wet sites its roots develop "aerenchyma" (air-filled tissues) that allow oxygen transport in flooded soils, helping it survive long periods of saturation. On dry ridges like those here at Hilton Pond North it grows a deeper, more fibrous root system that lets it handle drought.

As crimson maple leaves start dropping to the forest floor, other foliage becomes more obvious—like that of bright yellow Mockernut Hickory and still-green American Beech. Within the next week or so fall colors in upper Ashe County will be at their peak—another reminder that "October Is Autumn's True Showcase Month."

Various security cameras and trail cams set up around Hilton Pond North continue to reveal comings and goings of all sorts of creatures, enabling us to document new species day and night. The latest to show up in 4 October footage from a highly productive camera location along our driveway was a Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes (click on arrow above), identifiable by its long black socks. We've had two other canid species captured on video: Coyote, Canis latrans, and Gray Fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus, plus actual sightings of several feral Domesticated Dogs, Canis familiaris.

The relationship between our two native foxes in the wild is a subtle mix of competition and coexistence, shaped by differences in habitat preference, behavior, and physical abilities:

1. Gray Foxes are more closely tied to forested and brushy habitats, often preferring rugged terrain, dense woods, or areas with heavy understory cover. Red Foxes favor more open habitats—fields, meadows, edges, and—increasingly—suburban or agricultural landscapes.

2. Gray Foxes are excellent climbers (unique among canids) which lets them use trees for resting or escape. This behavior gives them an advantage in forested areas where they can avoid predators like Red Foxes and Coyotes, both of which are larger. Red Foxes are more dominant during direct encounters with Gray Foxes; where ranges overlap in open terrain, Red Foxes may outcompete or drive out Gray Foxes, sometimes even killing them.

3. Both fox species are omnivorous generalists, eating small mammals, insects, fruits, and carrion. There’s significant dietary overlap, but habitat use tends to reduce direct food competition.

The establishment of Coyotes in eastern North America has led to displacement of Red Foxes, particularly in open farmland and edge habitats that Red Foxes historically favored. Red Foxes often respond by shifting closer to human settlements (suburbs, towns, farm complexes) where Coyotes may be less abundant or less bold. This and the tendency of Red Foxes to be more diurnal can give a false impression their numbers are stable, when in fact their distribution is changing and perhaps declining as they avoid Coyotes and environmental pressure.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Sunset from Hilton Pond North, 10 October 2025. Our usual view of Phoenix Mountain, except this time a cloud bank mimics the distant horizon. Look carefully and you can see a single oak leaf falling at left in the clouds—a sure sign Autumn is underway.