[texbirds] Re: Bastrop Fire Survey day II
- From: Brady Surber <supersurber@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Brush Freeman <brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx>, <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:34:56 -0500
Howdy Brush and all,
Thought I would throw out this little piece of information for everyone to keep
in mind. You mentioned predators following human scent. Back during the summers
of 2004 and 2005 while helping a grad student with a Ground-nesting Grassland
bird project. We did notice that there seemed to be a higher nest predation on
nests that got over scented(were checked to often or we tromped around more
closley and longer then we should have). Of course not all of the encountered
nest predation was attributable to us. Nor were statistics ran to see if these
observations were significant. This is purely anecdotal-but it almost certainly
happens. So we bird folk might keep this in mind as we enjoy our nesting and
nestling friends.
Brady Surber
Vernon, TX
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:12:56 -0500
Subject: [texbirds] Bastrop Fire Survey day II
From: brushfreeman@xxxxxxxxx
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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
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