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Wildlife Management Notes

Wildlife Management Notes and Observations
February 18, 2004

Woodland pond at Birdsong.

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT NOTES

Weather

It has been raining – day after day. Peter has recorded 4.68 inches since February 1st. We of course welcome all this rain to re-establish the water table and to encourage early spring growth of vegetation, but we are anxious to get going on our winter burning. Today is our first really clear day in weeks. We’ll burn tomorrow!

All the rain means water is flowing in the creeks and drains, which gives us reliable fire breaks.

Rain and warm days have brought us an early spring. Redbuds, yellow jasmine, violets and quaker ladies are in bloom. Even the white azaleas in the garden are blooming profusely. Apparently our moles and armadillos are in ecstasy with the soil so wet and easy to dig – they’ve been excavating wildly throughout the garden and on the trails.

Gin House Field

The Gin House looks like winter, with its curving terraces exposed, surrounded by trees with no leaves, yet green from the very successful crimson clover crop. The Gin House is a popular place in winter for deer and turkeys that love to eat the new clover sprouts. Lots of birds inhabit this field in winter, too: the Bluebirds are actively courting and singing – always delightful; our flock of Eastern Meadowlarks flushes frequently for visitors, and various sparrows elude most of us. Some of our experienced birders however have recently identified

The Red-shafted Flicker has returned! This is a western species, similar to our local Yellow-Shafted Flicker, but with beautiful reddish-peach feather shafts on the underwing. It is unmistakable when flying. Michael Bell first spotted this bird (we assume it is the same individual) two years ago in the Gin House Field – far from its western habitat. Last season it was not spotted, but now here it is again! It seems to love the Gin House – many of us have had the chance to see it already. It associates with its fellow Yellow–shafted’s and has been seen at all times of the day. So come out, bring your binoculars, and observe a very unusual visitor. We know the Gin House is a very special place, but a return engagement by a western species so far from home pleases us no end.

These ponds are full and the spillway is flowing. We haven’t seen this much water for a long time. A cormorant is fishing in the Farm Pond – our usual pied-billed grebes have not been seen this year.

A dead doe was found recently in the water near the Farm Pond edge. We do not know what happened to her. The alligator must be dormant at this time or she would have been taken by now. Now that it has finally quit raining we will move her to the woods – her presence is a little disturbing to some of our visitors.

The swamp is beautiful in winter. The early spring brings lots of singing birds and singing frogs – it is lovely to just be there. The Great Blue Herons are nesting. You can see their flat nest of sticks and twigs silhouetted high in a water tupelo to the left side of the vista. Both parents were there yesterday in full, colorful courtship plumage, hunched slightly against the cold, one in the nest, one nearby. No sign yet of the anhingas. Bluebirds love all the mistletoe out in the swamps and are singing lustily.

Big Bay Swamp, too, is full of water – not just because of all the rain but because the beavers are back in business. They have piled mud and water- lily roots and branches up against the spillway and raised the water level a good ten inches. We’ll have to keep the spillway flowing in order not to create too much pressure on the earthen dam. It is already full of animal holes and homes. Beavers are fascinating and we love having them, but sometimes they can be challenging!

This field is next on our list to burn as soon as it dries out a little more. We want to burn as hot as possible to control all the short leaf pines sprouting there. Again, the vista here is very wintry; the formerly rust-colored cypress trees around the swamp have dropped their leaves.

Just a few weeks ago Lyn Desautel’s "Frog Pond 101" group trekked out to visit the Spring Pond and Frog Pond on the east side of Birdsong. It had not rained at this point, so our group got to walk down onto the exposed pond floor. These mud bottoms were full of interesting animal tracks. At the Spring Pond we saw what we believe were bobcat, fox or small coyote, raccoon, turkey, and Great Blue Heron or Woodstork. The small pools of water of water left in the middle had concentrated hundreds of tadpoles – easy prey. We also think we saw evidence of a small otter, both tracks and belly slides. At the Frog Pond there was no water whatsoever and there were hundreds of deer tracks covering the bottom.

It was really fun; there aren’t many opportunities at Birdsong to see tracks because most of our trails are covered with vegetation. Now, three weeks later, both ponds are full. The tadpoles at Spring Pond are dashing about, surely knowing their odds for survival have improved.

Our martins are late and we miss them. A couple of scouts were spotted by Amy on January 21^st, but since then the usual arrival of many birds with all the attendant chatter and singing and checking of gourds has not occurred. Usually they are here by the end of the first week of February. They are such delightful birds; we really look forward to their appearance. Betty always anticipated their coming – often they would make it before or on her birthday, January 29^th, and she would make us all drop everything and go do the Martin Dance. I promise we will actually do this when they finally arrive.

The bluebird box monitoring season will begin on Wednesday March 24^th and Saturday March 27^th. Alice Honea, team leader, could really use your help. Please see description on page . The Bluebirds are in brilliant blue courtship attire and singing beautifully right here in the Pecan Grove – we can hear them from the office area. We look forward to another wonderful nesting season and thank all our friends who have adopted boxes on the Bluebird’s behalf.

Large flocks of robins are working on remaining berries throughout the Squirrel Woods and around the house garden. Cedar waxwings are on the mistletoe in the pecans, and are problematic for some very territorial mockingbirds who are trying to defend their yaupon holly bushes, still laden with red berries.

We have not seen great numbers of birds at the Bird Window this year. Perhaps the warmer weather and great amount of wild food still available is enabling them to eat elsewhere. Birds recently seen at the Window include: American Goldfinch, Gray Catbird, Redwinged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Ground Dove, Mourning Dove, Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, American Robin, Eastern Phoebe, Cedar Waxwing, Pine Siskin, Chipping Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Pine Warbler, White-eyed Vireo, Ruby crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, House Finch, and Mockingbird.

So spring is on its way – the evidence is everywhere. The songbirds are singing and courting in the early morning, the days are getting longer, the angle of sunlight has changed, and we can feel the shift.

Please come enjoy Birdsong at this lovely moment in time. Perhaps you will get to see the Red-Shafted Flicker, our friend from so far away who somehow found the Gin House Field and likes it enough to return. We hope you’ll feel the same way.

~KDB

Copyright © 2002, Birdsong Nature Center
Revised -- March 14, 2004