FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Standifer Gap Marsh

["David and Gloria Patterson" <dgpatterson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Standifer Gap Marsh, Chattanooga, Hamilton county, TN
July 3, 2007
Least Bittern: ZERO, waded 2 hours, all usual sites, no nests, no young, no 
adults, no calls, nothing.  On this date 2005 we had found 22 LB nests, with 10 
still active; similar in 2006.  This year we have found a total of 7, none of 
which got as far as hatching,- in most cases appeared to have been taken by 
climbing predators.  

This may be an example of a predator-prey out-of-phase cycle, common with some 
species of hawks or owls and their rodent prey.  Abundant rodent populations 
feed a growing predator population, predator population grows  enough to 
significantly reduce prey population, predator population decreases due to lack 
of food, allowing the prey population to increase again.

In this case the LB population was never large enough to be a significant food 
source for some predator population, but it may be the case that the predators 
learned how to find LB nests and passed that knowledge on to their offspring.  
Now with no LB's, perhaps the predator population will forget, and LB's will 
have a chance to prosper again, for a few years.

How's that for a weird theory?  Maybe it's just the late freeze.  Or al-Qaeda.

David Patterson
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