[bsg] Re: RRNWR Bayou Pierre Unit, Yates tract/ Red River par 03/30/13
- From: Jay V Huner <jvh0660@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bsg-request <bsg-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, bsg <bsg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:49:00 -0500 (CDT)
BIRD STUDY GROUP
Terry and Others,
I don't visit the Yates Tract much and never at this time of year. When
impoundments are "full", my experience in south Louisiana has been that waders
avoid them in favor of fields that are low and mostly drained with prey
concentrated in depressions of various sizes. The only time I found
concentrations of waders in full impoundments was around dawn until 8-9 AM when
there were major plankton blooms and very low oxygen levels in the water. Prey
species would come to the surface and passing sight feeding waders would be
drawn to the locations and fly across the surface in near stalls with legs down
and grabbing the distressed prey. Sometimes the waders would just land in the
water and walk or, if the water were deep, paddle around grabbing prey. The
phytoplankton starts producing oxygen through photosynthesis at dawn and by 8
AM or so, there is enough oxygen in the water so that the invertebrates
including crawfish, small fish, tadpoles, etc. can submerge. So, the waders
leave searching for more vulnerable prey.
Tactile feeders like the ibises, if present, worked the edges along the levees.
With tactile feeders, it's easier to catch prey in a 0.1 acre, shallow puddle
than a 1 acre 8-12 inch deep impoundment.
I think it's simply a matter of bioenergetics. The birds are going to go to
sites that maximize prey caught per unit of energy expended to catch the prey.
And, birds at 1-2000 feet above the ground can certainly see excellent feeding
sites that we ground bound humans cannot detect even when they are close to
where we are standing.
I found it interesting to read a report a couple of years ago from a wildlife
professor who studied crawfish ponds for one season in central Louisiana and
was surprised to not notice particularly significant use compared to a similar
"natural" control area. Well, despite my efforts to offer assistance based on
my 30 years of watching wading birds in crawfish-rice culture impoundments, the
professor chose not to interact with me. Well, if you go to such locations no
more than every couple of weeks, you're not going to see lots of wading birds
unless there is some unusual concentration of prey such associated with low
oxygen and/or loss of water - accidental or intentional. Way it goes.
The beauty of the crawfish-rice management system that there are always fields
being drained in any given region from February into August.
If any reader of this missive is interested, I have reprints of a review paper
on this topic by Huner, Jeske and Musumeche from 2002 that I'll be happy to
send. Just send a name and address off list and I'll mail the paper within a
few days.
Jay Huner
----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry Davis" <trdavis22@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bulletin Board for Dissemination of Information on Louisiana Birds"
<LABIRD-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, bsg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2013 8:09:07 PM
Subject: [bsg] RRNWR Bayou Pierre Unit, Yates tract/ Red River par 03/30/13
Hi y'all,
Charlie Lyon and I took a shorebird run to Yates this morning. Our best bird
was an American Bittern in unit 7. Aside from that, a hy Bald Eagle was
probably the next best. We also had some outstanding duck nos! There were a few
American Golden Plover, then good numbers of Long-billed Dowitcher, Pectoral
Sandpiper and other expected shorebirds, but it appeared here that things are
just beginning to heat up in that respect. A text-book adult krider's
Red-tailed was nice, too. I took crappy i-phone photos of a dog-tame Virginia
Rail standing and grunting in an opening nearly right at our feet. There were
still good nos of lingering sparrows, especially Savannah, Swamp, White-crowned
and White-throated, then lower nos of Song, LeConte's and Chipping. A very
interesting note was the low numbers of waders, even though many of the ponds
were rather full. We had 6 White-faced Ibis, then only a small handful of Great
Egret- with no more than a single GREG in any unit..........?
Shore birding the dry fields at Robinson Road on the way home was much better
in some respects. We had 150 each of American Golden Plover, then 500 Least
Sandpiper there. A single Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on hwy 1 between the stops
was fos for us, too. I'll post the rest later.
Good birding,
Terry
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