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PHOTO BY BILL FAVH
The red-bellied woodpecker is just one of several winter wood
peckers in our area.
Winter Woodpeckers
BY BILL FAVF.R
Winter is a great time to look for the woodpeckers. With the bare
tree limbs they are easier to see, and the lack of leaves to muffle sounds
makes them easier to hear. This should make them easier to find as we
look for the several species of woodpeckers in our area.
The smaller woodpeckers, the scvcn-inch-long downy and the larger
hairy, are look-alikes cxccpt for size. Both have patterns of checkered
black and white with a white back. The males have a small red patch at
the back of the head. The hairy lias a much larger black bill. Both birds
feed primarily on insect larvae, ants, eggs, and small insects they gather
from beneath the bark of trees, using the pointed bill and the chisel
shaped tongue to aid in feeding.
One of our most familiar woodpeckers is the
red-bellied woodpecker with its zebra back and red
cap. This 9-to-10/4-inch woodpecker is our only
woodpecker with a zebra back. The whole crown of
the male is red, but the females show red only on
the nape. Young birds may not have red, but will
have a brown head and a zebra back.
The red-headed woodpecker is a formal-looking
bird dressed in black and white. Just smaller than
the red-bellied, this woodpecker has a black back
and black wings with a large white patch. Breast
faver ancj underparts arc white and the entire head is red.
In immature birds the red head will be brown or dusky.
lornVi'IHlCT '?VCCdpCCi*Cr IC t orv*rifinilor KirH *?c
large as a crow. It is our only woodpecker with a red crest, now that the
ivory-billed is considered extinct This is the bird we hear drumming in
the woods on a winter day and we can tell their nesting holes by the ob
long shapes and large size. They often lly across open areas in an undu
lating flight and irregular wingbeats.
Other winter woodpeckers include the flicker and the endangered
red-cockadcd woodpecker. Flickers are fairly common iri our area, but
the red-cockadcd is found only at a few specialized sites where they dig
holes in large pines, allowing the resin to ooze out and coat the opening
to their nests.
Winter woodpeckers arc some of our most interesting birds. They
are with us all year and bear names that are descriptive and fascinating.
Some woodpeckers arc quiet and sccretivc, but most let their presence
be known by loud calls and drumming on dead trees and limbs. All arc
productive insect caters. Watch for the winter woodpeckers as you drive
along our road.) or as you take a winter walk in the woods. They arc fun
to watch and now is the time to learn them.
County Literacy
Council Now A
United Way Member
BY SUSAN USHER in Brunswick County arc the Bruns
Thc Brunswick Co>>n'y Liicracy wick County Volunteer and Inform
Council (BCLC) has been named a alion Center, which coordinates
member agency of the Cape Fear food and clothing distribution and
Area United Way, Inc. emergency shelter services;
United Way. a threc-county non- 1.740; and Hope Harbor Home,
profit agency, helps provide resour- local serv.ee center for victims
ccs for delivering human services in of *>mcst,c violence $22,000.
Brunswick. New Hanover and Pend, P^gHatcd pledges totaling
er counties through a combined an- S (?2t92 wcrc distnbuted to 14 local
nual fundraising campaign. agenc.es, including S3S1 to
Prescription for Excellence, a local
This year's campaign raised SI.76 foundation that promotes personal
million, falling short of its $2 mil- and leadership development. Anot
lion goal, said spokesman Carol her $22,060 was distributed in the
Dcakin. form of service development grants.
The Brunswick County Literacy The information and referral pro
Council, which is located in Supply, gram operated by United Way rc
is one of 23 member agencies to re- ceived $47,000 and its senior
ceivc allocations for 1993 and one AIDES program, S18.800, while
of three new members named this partner agencies received $67,645.
year. Others are the Cane Fear Allocations to member agencies
Literacy Council and Food Bank of totaled $1,184,284 and were as fol
Coastal Carolina. After receiving lows in addition to the above;
small service development grants for American Red Cross, S 144,969;
the past three years, a^ a member Boy Scouts of America, $64,839;
agency BCLC will receive an alio- Brigade Boys Club, S93.000; Cape
cation of SI 1,000 that will be ap- Fear Literacy Council, S10,(XK);
plied to operating expenses. Cape Fear Substance Abuse Center,
... - S52.600; Child Development Cen
It s going to mean that our vol- . ? . r. .
nnieers will be more effective be- tef' S43,760; Community Boys
,1 ^ ,h .m I ,?. Club, S89.628; Domestic Violence
cousc this will enable Uicm lo con cw* -?i??? o p?? ? o/\ r-i i
. , Shelter & Services, $20,000; Elder
ccntratc more on what we re about, . . C}, ~ <;
... . . .. -a haus. Inc., 535,000; f-amily Services
which is tutoring our students sa d q{ ^ ^ ^ y$139 ^
Gladys Wagcnse.l, coordinator for Rxx) Bank ()f Coas|a, Carolina,
council. $10,000; Girl Scout Council,
The council has more than 100 $30,000; Girls Inc., S1 (X).0CK); Hope
volunteers involved in various as- Harbor Home, $22,000; Keys, Inc.,
peek of the program, which offers S22.920; Lower Cape Fear Hospice,
one-on-onc tutoring in basic skills S38,0(X); The Salvation Army,
such as reading and writing. S75.900; Senior Citizens' Services
Its designation brings to three the of Pender, $21,600; Stepping Stone
number ol member agencies actual- Manor/Pathway House, $26,148;
ly based in Brunswick County, Wilmington Family YMCA,
though numerous others offer scr- $50,000; and YWCA of Wilming
viccs to county residents. Also based ton, $51,680.
Media Addiction: Heed Our Cry For Help
When you call us "media people,"
you have no idea just how right you
arc.
I am a hopeless media junkie.
Married one, too. We're not news
addicts. We do news for a living.
And for the sake of our sanity and
our home life, we have a rule against
talking shop after we cross the
Holden Bcac'n Bridge. We have an
other one against watching CNN or
C-Span except under the most extra
ordinary circumstances.
But the other kinds of media are
taking control of our lives.
There arc stacks of magazines be
side Eric's favorite chair and my
place on the couch?just about
every nationally distributed periodi
cal having to do with sailing, motor
cycling, surfing and cooking. Every
room in the house has a pile of
books in progress or that were rc
ccnUy bought, completed or referred
to.
There's a long line of compact
discs beside the stereo?everything
from the Grateful Dead to Thelonius
Monk to Schubcrt. A half-dozen
vidcocasscttcs arc always atop of
one of the two televisions, both with
VCRs, and there's a rack in the back
room holding four of five dozen oth
er tapes, from "To Have And Have
Not" to "Repo Man."
There's a Walkman in my desk
drawer. There's a book on tape?Sir
John Gielgud reading Brideshead
Lynn f
Carlson /
Revisited?in my car's casscttc
dcck. There's a pile of catalogs on
the floorboard. (Subscribing i.o all
those magazines gets you on a lot of
mailing lists.)
There's a tower of old newspa
pers in the guest room closet that'll
be there until some winter Saturday
when ! shsir.c Eric into ink in** them
lo the recycling center. There arc
headphones for the bedroom TV and
the stereo so we can both indulge
ourselves without disturbing each
other.
It's an insidious thing, this media
dependence. There we were, going
blissfully through life, ignorant of
our growing roles as human
sponges. When people arc coming
to visit, we hide our addiction by
sliding piles of printed materials to
the far side of the bed so the clutter
can't be seen by guests on their way
to the powder room.
We continue to acquire media de
spite the obvious negative conse
quences ?a home that lacks the ele
gant order of those who possess ihe
self-control to only receive books as
gifts and not buy them by the arm
load at yard sales and thrift sliops.
I sometimes lose control on week
ends and go on a multi media ben
der, attempting to read a book while
watching a movie and trying out a
rccipc 1 dipped from one of my
magazines.
1 only pray that we gel ourselves
under control before we reach end
stage media addiction, whose prima
ry symptom is attempting to read a
novel while driving on an interstate
highway and listening to talk radio.
The other big warning sign is buying
a tiny cordless television to take to
the beach with you. We've all seen
anij scrupulously avoided these pa
thetic souls. Even I can't imagine
being one.
You can work or be friends with a
media addict for years and not have
an inkling of the sickness within.
Take us, for example. A scant three
months ago you'd never have been
able to tell if you'd come to visit us.
We had only moved into the house a
couple of months earlier, so we
hadn't had time to accumulate tcx>
much media.
Well, not media that you could
see. But had you sneaked the key to
the storage room, the sad reality
would have been like a slap in the
face. There you'd have found
dozens and dozens of boxes, jam
med with books, packcd with 25
years worth of record albums, and
overflowing with audiocasscttcs
recorded long ago and never labeled.
Of course, our disease prevents us
from emptying those boxes and
placing their contents on the shelves
we promised ourselves we'd put up
this winter. Denial is so much easier
when the evidence of reality is
sealed and stowed.
July Logic: "When it gets too
cold to go to the beach, and on rainy
weekends, we'll just spend every
Saturday going through all this stuff,
and we'll give away what we don't
want anymore. We'll put up shelves
in the spare room and organize all
these books in library fashion. I'm
really starting to worry that all those
crickets I've seen down there might
get into those boxes."
January Rationalization: "For cry
ing out loud, we haven't had a
weekend since Thanksgiving to just
take it easy. There's no shopping to
do, no company to entertain, no
cakes to bake, and it's supposed to
rain all weekend. Let's just pile up,
cook a pot of soup, watch some old
movies, listen to some music and
catch up on our reading. CrickeLs an
dormant this time of year, aren't
they?"
Sad, isn't it? It makes me wender
what people do who don't suffer
from this problem. They probably
have great shelves.
MORE LETTERS
Story Was 'Feminist Propaganda Festival'
To the editor:
Oncc again the use of a public po
sition for public service and its use
as a propaganda platfonn have been
mixed together. And thusly Eric
Carlson gives us another feminist
propaganda festival.
Karen Acton, the new counselor
at the Hope Harbor Home shelter for
buttered and abused women, pre
sumes not only to help alleviate the
suffering of family tragedy but to
announce the cause, those bestial
men who seek only to have power
and control over women.
She adds the same scary, un
proven, repetitious statistical rat
tlings feminists have been spouting
Tor \'f>irc umiKaiiI t^C!T
terms of sexual abuse and assault;
the cry that most crimes go unre
ported bccause of fear and failure of
a victim's word against that of the
attacker, etc., etc.
Really! But reporters arc sup
posed to ask questions.
How, if at all, docs Ms Acton fac
tor in the feminist drive in the past
few decades to take control over
men? Or the monopoly of columnar
space by women in newspapers and
magazines advising women how to
control and manipulate men? Or the
illustrated psychological devices
used to control men presented in the
TV soap operas'? Or the fact that the
word "henpccked" hit the dictionar
ies long before the political emanci
pation of women?
Or the disrespect for men the
feminist movement engenders? Or
the feminist-dominated school sys
tems where the lag in brain develop
ment of boys is 1 A years behind that
of girls and the teachers can no
longer compensate for the difference
so that girls do not acquire an atti
tude of contempt toward boys? Or
the destructive potential of the femi
nist mouth?
Or the gcomctric growth of the
sirgle-parent "family," where boys
get inferior parental guidance from
incompetent mothers, and after
some years of the feminist-dominat
ed schools arc unemployable, get no
rcspcct and don'i matter much be
cause their girlfriends can collect
from the government and repeat the
cycic of irresponsibility?
The most loving of marriage
unions break down eventually when
there is no respect, and to point fin
gers of guilt at men in such a one
sided and narrow fashion as the fem
inists have done and then control the
"analyses" of the end results of
some tragedies is plainly dishonest.
Do reporters ever ask the men
about these things?
One would hope Ms Acton can
function effectively as a counselor
without indulging in the broadcast
of all the propaganda.
Karl E. Brandt
Shalloue
Shooting, Fire Unrelated
To the editor.
In the Jan. 7 edition of the Beacon
you ran a front page story headlined
"Shooting Victim Loses Mobile
Home In Fire." Could you please
explain to me what the shooting had
to do with the fire and why it was
considered necessary to print all this
so-called information on the shoot
ing incident again and very little on
the fire?
I feel that if you wanted to run an
other story on the shooting incident,
then maybe you should have at least
asked a few questions first and pre
sented both sides and not just taken
everything at face value.
This is the third story I have read
on this incident that is full of lies,
half truths and omissions, and I can
not just sit silently by any longer.
Yes, it is true that my husband
pleaded guilty to this crime. He has
never tried to deny or run from the
consequences of his actions but he
has never said that it happened as
Mr. Evans claims. Twice you have
printed that Mr. Hughes pulled up,
jumped out, and yelled, "y'all are
going to die tonight" at these three
men. Ypi there was a sworn state
ment from one of these men that he
didn't say that.
Not once has there ever been any
mention of the other gun they found
at the scene of the crime, a gun that
Mr. Hughes told them Mr. Evans
had. There was no mention of the
fact that they were all up there
drinking that night. There was only
SOUTH BRUNSWICK
MEDICAL GROUP
Gary D. Ross, M.D. (Internal Medicine)
Samuel W. Kirtiey, M.D. (Fan ily Practice)
For Complete Outpatient Medical Care
Routine Health Maintenance
Adult Medical Concerns/Pediatry's
Women's Concerns
(Pap Smears/Contraception)
Laboratory & X-Ray Facilities
For Complete Minor Emergency Care
CARE
Located off Hwy. 17 at Union School ? .oad
Open Mon.-Fri., 9 A.M. to 6 P.M., Sat. 10 A.M. to 2 P.M.
579-9955 or 579-0800
C199? THE BHUNSWk-K BEACON
the tale of "some man," one they
didn't know, pulling up, jumping
out. yelling "y'all arc going to die
tonight," and opening fire. I guess
this makes better reading for the
general public.
You went on to say that "things
were looking better" as Mr. Evans
had recently moved in with a friend,
Jane Riley. Is this the same Jane
Evans who in the Sept. 4 edition of
the Star News is supposed to bo his
wile of eight years anu who had to
quit her job and seek welfare in or
der to take care of him?
It does seem strange to me that a
man could leave his home and move
in with a friend when he is still liv
ing where, to my knowledge, he al
ways has.
So as you sec, there are always
two sides to every story. And yes,
both my husband and 1 deeply regret
what has happened. But only Mr.
Evans knows in his heart if part of
the blame is his.
Hazel Hughes
Ash
Good Year For Literacy
To the editor:
As a retired educator and currently
a literacy volunteer, 1 was especially
interested in reading your informa
tive "Year '92 In Review" article on
education which appeared rccendy. I
would like to add to it just a few of
the contributions thai were made in
this area by the Brunswick County
Literacy Council
During 1992, BCLC held six tutor
training workshops and certified 57
volunteers as Laubach tutors. Free,
confidential, one-on-one instruction
was provided to 90 people (10 of
these were in the high school) who
wanted to improve their basic read
ing and writing skills.
In addition, 13 volunteers visited
the county's Head Start centers each
week, reading to the children and
enriching the preschool experiences
for these four-year-olds. Two of
these volunteers started a special
music and art enrichment program.
A group of 15 volunteers gave in
dividualized attention to children in
one of our elementary schools, and
this activity resulted in the award of
a state grant to the school to extend
this partnership with the literacy
council volunteers.
During the year, more than 30
public awareness talks were given to
civic, church and business groups in
an eitou to liiiuMti the community
about the seriousness of the literacy
problem which exists in Brunswick
County and to encourage everyone
to participate in the solution.
BCLC looks forward to a continu
ation of these activities in which
volunteers are mobilized to supple
ment the hard work being done by
Head Start, the public schools, and
the community college to ensure
that all Brunswick County residents
receive the education needed to
bring us successfully into the 21th
century.
Joseph Giamalva
Calabash
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Giamalva is
chairman of the Brunswick County
Literacy Council.)
Tbookwomn
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Time To
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With Us
Hours:
Tues-Sat. 10-6
Closed Sunday
& Monday
Locatcd at the bridge to
Holdcn Btach
D 842-7380
OB T7"~
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