[bsg] least tern survey thru Thursday 18 Jul 13
- From: Hubert Hervey <hawkeyehub1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bird alert <bsg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:21:28 -0700 (PDT)
BSG Members,
I have finished nearly all of the Louisiana portion of the July Least Tern
survey. We have seen 104 Least Terns. 13 pairs are nesting so far, the rest
are all in various pre-nesting displays. This is less than half the usual
number of terns, and way low for number of nests. The season is 4 - 6 weeks
late due to high water nearly all of June. As predicted long ago the Corps has
now succeeded in seeing that no terns are nesting in any of the navigation
Pools of Red River. All of the nesting is in the Cash Point area and north of
Hy2 Bridge near Arkansas. The only section I have not yet seen in Louisiana is
from Hy 2 to Cash Point. The river is at a minus 2.7 ft. Fulton Gauge level,
more than a foot lower than I have ever traveled on it, and boating/surveying
the upper Red River is difficult and needs experienced river boaters. Today we
saw 3 Bald Eagles in the Missionary area, in one case we enjoyed watching the
least terns mobbing an
eagle as it dipped and dodged while passing over a nesting colony of terns.
They also were pretty beligerant with nearby Great Egrets. On Tuesday we had 3
Willets (Western) at L & D 4, an Osprey at L & D 3, Neotropic Cormorant at L 3
and also near Arkansas. All colonies were under 20 birds, which is low, the
nests are far apart, for protection from land predators, nearly all islands are
attached to land when the river is this low. We found lots of fireworks
remains at one colony site, Cattle Island, and coyote tracks are ever present.
The number of eggs per nest is about 1 less than usual, perhaps due to a
fisheries problem caused by the high water in June, but this is purely
speculation. I hope to finish the July survey early next week, and repeat the
whole thing again if possible in August when little fuzzy and feathered birds
might be running all over the hot sand.
Hubert
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