Date: 1/24/26 8:43 am From: Christopher Hill (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Re: Winter Storm Fern and bird populations in the Carolinas
Way back in the day on Carolinabirds I saved a post from Hal Broadfoot, relevant now, perhaps. Here it is:
Subject: frozen birds Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 23:38:34 EST Hal Broadfoot
CBirders, Eric's query about the frozen plover reminded me of a
mid-to-late-nineteen-eighties CBC on which we found numerous frozen birds.
The count was the Southport-Bald Head Island CBC, and I was on one of the
teams counting on Bald Head Island.
That year, we had a winter storm move through right at Christmas and the
weather remained bitter cold through New Year's. The canals and ponds at
Bald head were all frozen solid. There was about six inches of snow on the
ground.
We found sparrows frozen to branches, a couple of gulls and a pelican that
seemed to have frozen dead in flight and dropped to Earth, and a mockingbird
lying on the ground under what I guess was its nighttime roost. Under a
tussock of ornamental grass on the golf course, we found a group of about ten
dowitchers frozen in huddle. The dowitchers formed a circle with their tails
in the center and their bills pointing out like the spokes of a wheel. One
of our group picked up the frozen mass and passed it around intact. For a
while that morning, we had a list of dead species that rivaled the bird count
list.
[end quote]
Chris Hill, Ph.D.
Professor
Biology Department
Coastal Carolina University
Office: Douglas 207H
(843) 349-2567
email: <chill...>
