[texbirds] Bastrop Fire Survey day II

  • From: Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:12:56 -0500

  Went back for the second half of the post fire bird survey...Today in a
much different habitat used as a control.  Here the fire was not as
devastating and in places there was none at all, mostly just the understory
was scorched.  But enough so that there are downed trees, brush and yopaun
etc blocking any straight line one wishes to walk.

   Nothing very unusual today tho Summer Tanager are thick as fleas here.
As I was crashing thru the brush , I flushed a Chuck-will's-widow from just
yards away .  Seeing where she flushed from I carefully approached and
after 2-3 minutes of carefully scanning the leaf/needle litter, there
perfectly camouflaged were two half grown chicks, not more than 8' away
I hope it is not true that predators follow a human scent trail.   I have
heard that Pauraque can move their young, even their eggs....I do not know
if that is true but maybe Chucks can as well.  I really wanted to photo
these little guys but when I reached for my little camera that stays on my
belt, the pouch was empty, I had left it home...Too sleepy to notice at
5AM....Not having a camera knocked the wind out of my sails for the morning
and I just rushed thru the remainder of the points I needed to do.

  Ran into a family group of 4 Black-and-white Warblers and two juv.
Pileated Woodpeckers.

  Plant diversity in this area does not look to be nearly as good as it is
in the areas that were completely burned, but one oddity found was a knee
high papaya plant....How a seed found its way to the middle of a pine woods
beats me.

  Almost ran into a large bee colony, saw an Armadillo and my first Brown
Skink since the fire.

-- 
Brush Freeman
Independent and affiliated Field Biologist
361-655-7641
http://texasnaturenotes.blogspot.com/
Finca de los Alacranes., Utley,Texas

Other related posts: