Birdsong Nature Center
 |
Wildlife Management Notes | |
Birdsong Nature Center
Wildlife Management Notes
Wildlife Management Notes and Observations
December 6, 2001
Woodland pond at Birdsong.
Weather We continue to enjoy a very beautiful and pleasant fall, although we could really use some more rain. We did get a one-inch rainfall the day after Thanksgiving; it fell steadily most of the day and brought down hundreds of pecans and autumn leaves. Even though most of our colorful foliage has now fallen, there are still patches of brilliant gold hickory, red dogwood, pink sourwood, and purple sweet gum leaves. We were hoping for a hard freeze by now, to help dry out the vegetation for our Gin House Field burn, but it hasn't happened and this week it warmed up and got more humid. It's lovely weather, just not what we need for burning.
Prescribed Burning We've been monitoring the weather and the Gin House Field to see if any crimson clover has begun to germinate. We want to burn the field hot, after a hard freeze if possible, but before the clover sprouts. Since the Thanksgiving rain, clover is appearing in the Star Pasture which is kept mowed and therefore the sun reaches the ground. Elsewhere the grasses are tall and shade the soil surface. As soon as we burn, the field will be thick with clover sprouts.
The Lewis Field was burned on Tuesday, December 4th, because there was relatively low humidity and a fairly consistent east wind, ideal for carrying the fire away from the trail and down-slope into the woods and drain. The creek is a natural fire break that actually has water in it this year. It was a nice steady burn - perhaps not as hot as we'd hoped for, but it did a good job, especially on the open sunny slope. We'll get to the Gin House Field and Big Bay Field as soon as we have the right conditions. After the first of the year we'll be doing a lot of burning and could use some help - please call if you're interested.
Nuts and Berries As mentioned in the last newsletter, it is an incredible year for seeds and fruit. I can't remember a pecan fall quite like this one. There have been literally hundreds and hundreds of pecans falling in the grove around the parking area and office. A lot of our visitors have never picked pecans off the ground; some have never seen them in the shell, so collecting has been a lot of fun for those folks, plus, the nuts are really fat and sweet this year. There are also scores of acorns and hickory nuts on the property, certain to make our deer, turkey, squirrels and woodducks very happy. There is still a lot of yaupon, sumac, beauty berry, dogwood, sparkleberry, and wax myrtle available for the wildlife.
Birds and the Bird Window Predictably with all the natural abundance, there are only a few birds occasionally using the feed at the Bird Window. In addition to all the fruit and seeds there are still thousands of grasshoppers and other insects in the fields - we see them emerge from the grasses flying well ahead of the oncoming flames when we burn. There is a lot of food out there.
A few migrating birds have been seen at the Window, such as white-eyed vireos, catbirds, pine siskins, goldfinches, a wood thrush, robins, a chipping sparrow, ruby-crowned kinglet, and ground and mourning doves. Out on the place there are flocks of robins, bluebirds, yellow-rumped warblers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, palm warblers, goldfinches, blue-headed vireos, phoebes, white-throated sparrows, cedar waxwings, and Bachman's sparrows.
Our volunteer bird expert Michael Bell spotted two more Henslow's sparrows in the Gin House Field - as mentioned last time a first sighting of this species at Birdsong this year - as well as grasshopper sparrows. Three pileated woodpeckers have been active in the pecan trees and are spotted frequently flying to and fro over the House Pasture, making that wild, prehistoric - sounding call. There was a small flock of meadowlarks in the field for a week or two, and just yesterday we saw the beautiful northern harrier with its white rump patch and distinctive low lilting flight pattern, hunting over the field.
The Ponds and Big Bay Swamp The woodducks are here, in good numbers. We can hear them throughout the day and sometimes startle them up off the water near the spillway if we have to cross Big Bay Dam. We're looking forward to sharing their evening arrival from the Ochlocknee River at our Wood Duck Watch in January (see page 2).
Between one and three decent sized alligators have been seen recently in the Farm Pond. You can go watch them yourself from the new bench Bill Waite built and placed on the east bank. Just take the little path off Upper Pond Dam to find it. Roy's Pond is nearly dry. Its' resident gator is nowhere to be seen, but a handsome great blue heron is overseeing the shrinking pool where the fish are being concentrated.
Big Bay Pond, although mostly dry, is incredibly beautiful right now because of its surrounding rings of golden and peach-colored grasses. When the morning or afternoon sun shines in at an angle, it is like a haze of spun gold. Yesterday on the trail nearby, there was a patch of feathers; apparently a woodduck had been taken by a predator. In the middle of the pile of down and feathers was a bolus - a little dry ball of fur with two perfect small rodent jaws complete with teeth. Owls consume their prey and will then cough up an oval-shaped ball of undigestible material. This pellet will be kept in the office if you want to come by and have a look.
Coyote Observations Along similar lines, there have been many, many signs of coyotes on the trails these last few weeks. Bill saw an adult on our east line in early November. It is rare to actually see one. Coyotes leave large scat in the middle of the trails, which can be very interesting to examine to determine what these predators are eating. The scat is composed primarily of compact masses of dry fur and pieces of bone (it is really not offensive). Our coyotes apparently consume a lot of rats, rabbits and deer. Nothing is wasted in nature, so you may have a chance to observe dung beetles at work, and if the mass of fur is fluffed up, ants have gotten into it and carried away whatever useful organic remnants they could find.
Scat is always a big hit with kids' groups. For any of us, however, once you get past the initial reaction it is an absolutely fascinating learning opportunity. Once long ago, when I first started working at Birdsong, I was out on the trails with Betty and we found a huge scat. She promptly made me put it on a paper plate and we went right over to Roy's house to have him identify it. I had not met Betty's brother-in-law before, so I'm sure it made a great first impression: some woman standing on his doorstep eagerly offering him a plate of scat to identify. Betty found this all highly amusing; far more than did Roy, I'm sure. He did confirm our assumption that it was coyote scat.
Wood Rat Report Nicholas the eastern woodrat finally had enough of all the humans prying into his personal life and moved out of his original nest or "the day bed" as we called it. He disappeared the day after the Birdsong Open House when we had 400 visitors here. About a week later he was busy building a new nest inside the bathroom walls, now in complete privacy where no one could stare at him. This situation continued for several weeks, but with one addition: he began ejecting used pecan shells out his little door onto the men's room floor. Then a few weeks ago the nest material in the former day bed began to disappear, then a toilet paper roll went missing, then a paper streamer was found leading to a new nest behind the recycling bin. He's been heard chewing the cabinet boards, building up his nest with the fine wood fibers. He must have really had enough of being looked at those several months, because now he will not sit still and be observed like before. He will, however, privately accept the occasional pecan that someone leaves for him, then neatly toss the shell into the men's room.
From Betty
Love to you all.
Praise and thanks!
Blessed be.
- KDB
"Wildlife Management Notes" appears regularly in our bi-monthly Newsletter. Below is an index of links to previous wildlife management articles:
| Birdsong Home | Hours ~ Location & Map | Calendar of Events | Current Newsletter |
| Mission and History | Wildlife Management Notes | Membership Form | ...future features... |
Birdsong Nature Center
Copyright © 1999, Birdsong Nature Center
Revised -- April 7, 2002