THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409130145
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
A red-tailed hawk knew a good thing when he saw it at Rose Criscione's Bellamy Manor home recently.
Criscione, a wildlife rehabilitator, has a small outside aviary where she keeps birds that are recovering from injury or illness. Consequently, she has her share of field mice that are attracted to the seed she feeds the birds.
And what should be attracted to the field mice but the red-tailed hawk! It became a daily visitor to Criscione's yard, hanging out on her fence as casually as the local chickadees, blue jays or other semi-tame backyard birds.
A big beautiful brownish hawk with a snowy white breast, it sat calmly most of the day for several days. It swept its sharp eyes around the yard as if in expectation of what might scurry across the grass.
Once during the hawk's visit, a mouse made its way inside the aviary and Crishione captured it in a live trap. She let the mouse go on the ground outside.
In an instant the red-tailed flew from the fence, landed, grabbed the mouse and ate it within a few feet of the astonished Crishione. Thereafter, she said, whenever she picked up the trap, nothing more than a dark rectangular box, the hawk seemed to show a glimmer of recognition.
However, it wasn't food that made the bird bold. It would sit calmly on the fence as neighborhood camera buffs came up close to take its picture, too. And Bellamy Manor is just that, a neighborhood, with lots of trees, houses, people and cars. This isn't country we're talking about.
The behavior is not too unusual, said local hawk expert, Reese Lukei. A red-tailed hawk, particularly, is an ``opportunist.'' Lukei figured the bird was probably one of this year's young, born within a half mile of Criscione's home. The bird learned at an early age what a good food source a neighborhood can be.
JEREMIAH HOGGARD HAD AN UNUSUAL ENCOUNTER with an animal recently, too. He was bass fishing just before Labor Day off the bridge on the Knotts Island Causeway when he heard a commotion in the ditch behind him.
``I heard a splash, but I kept on fishing,'' he recounted. ``Then I heard it again, so I turned and saw a big wake in the water. At first I thought it must be a nutria or a muskrat.''
So, Hoggard turned back to fishing. He made a few more casts and heard the splash again. And then he knew he wasn't hearing a fish.
``I saw water erupting like a volcano,'' he said. ``Finally within 25 yards of me, it came up. I saw a hump and tail and then I thought, `Is this a dolphin?' But I knew it wasn't.''
Finally the big beast surfaced within five or 10 yards of Hoggard, swam under the bridge and went on down the channel toward Back Bay.
`` `Gracious sakes,' '' I said to myself. ``I can't believe this, but this is a manatee.''
Hoggard, who lives in the Malibu section, went immediately to a cousin's house nearby in Virginia Beach. He had seen manatees in Florida on a recent trip and he was pretty sure of his identification, but he wanted to look up the beast in an encyclopedia to make sure.
Manatees, big mammals that live in inland coastal rivers and creeks in Florida and Georgia, are far out of their range in Virginia Beach waters, but the encyclopedia confirmed everything Hoggard believed. The slow swimming beasts are occasionally seen up this way, and biologists believe they somehow make their way up the Inland Waterway.
Turns out Hoggard's sighting was the second report of a manatee in Back Bay. A few days earlier at the Virginia Marine Science Museum, a caller reported seeing one in the bay up near Sandbridge.
Has anybody else seen a manatee in that area? If so, you may not be as crazy as you think! Call the museum at 437-4949 and let them know.
TINY LITTLE WARBLERS ARE MIGRATING BY THE THOUSANDS now and Seashore State Park is a great place to see them.
I live less than a block from the park and have noticed the little birds flitting through the tree canopy outside my kitchen window. They seem to have an affinity for insects that live around the big live oaks and yaupon hollies that grow there.
The only trouble is the birds dart through the air so swiftly to chase down the little bugs that are zipping through the trees that I never can figure out what I'm seeing. But the intriguing bright flashes of yellow that are revealed when many of them fly, keep me trying.
Gary Williamson, an interpreter at Seashore State Park, knows what he's seeing, however. He said he's seen lots of black and white warblers, pine warblers, prairie warblers and American redstarts recently.
Come to the park, armed with binoculars and a field guide, Williamson advised. Look for warblers in scrub areas where there are live oaks, pines and cedars. And listen for chickadees and tufted titmice, because they are efficient at finding food. Migrating warblers seem to know this too and gather in their vicinity.
More opportunists in the bird world!
P.S. THE ROYAL SPORT OF GOLF, special outdoor program, will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Adam Thoroughgood House.
Co-sponsored by the Church Point Civic League, the program will feature the history of the game and a chance to try your hand at the sport. The fee is $5. Call 664-6283. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
A young red-tailed hawk has been a daily visitor to the backyard
fence of Rose Criscione, a wildlife rehabilitator who lives in
Bellamy Manor.
by CNB