[texbirds] Re: Call for Bolivar protection/please sign petition..
- From: MBB22222@xxxxxxx
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 01:51:49 -0400 (EDT)
I just received a few wonderful private emails from people who care. I
cannot stop myself from copy one very special. I already went to this site and
signed the petition to protect the Bolivar Peninsula. I think there is
enough Texbirds members to make that petition work. Tomorrow I am going to ask
more people.
Just read this great email:
Mark,
Wait till they fill in Rollover Pass. http://www.rolloverpasstexas.com/
Large amounts of development and "improvements" have been held up because
Gilcrest and the owners are fighting.
Once they fill it in, the resting/feeding flats at rollover will be gone.
Think about how filling it in will change the salinity of that part of the
bay and intercoastal canal.
Guess what's directly across the bay from Rollover ? Anahuac NWR!
I wonder what will happen to the rookery at Smith Oaks ? (When the
salinity changes in that part of the canal and the birds have to fly farther
to
find food.)
I wonder how much of the beach and bay access will become "private" ?
Let's not even think about who really will be paying the insurance
pay-outs the next time a storm washes all the fancy summer only houses away.
Can you say FEMA ? Ok, let's be truthful, can you say US the tax payers ?
Sure the "specialists" said it wouldn't change anything, but who paid them
to do the "study" ? The developers and rich home owners...
Progress for us doesn't mean progress for any other animal.
BTW, another great news; questionable winter LETE data was already put for
review so it is not showing publicly. What a great fast action. Thanks. So
ignore red arrows and question marks in my posted charts.
Mark B Bartosik
Houston, Texas
http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field
In a message dated 4/4/2013 8:47:41 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
MBB22222@xxxxxxx writes:
Because this post will be a little longer I will start with a list of
couple subjects I will try to discuss so one can skip the first part and
go to
the bottom of the page if only interested to read the second part.
1. Bolivar Peninsula might be very important to Least Terns during spring
migration as the first place to arrive of large flocks after crossing the
Gulf of Mexico (base on historical data and my own observations and
numbers
collected this year).
2. Historical data that I used are base on eBird database of entered
records. A few records from February 1988 and 1989 (Houston Audubon
Bolivar
Count) and December (private entry from 1988) seem to be incorrect (will
provide
more details). These entered numbers are too large to ignore possible
mistake
There is practically nothing known about Least Tern winter territories
(probably they are becoming pelagic and are foraging only in open sea far
from
the shore) and migration routes. Usually gone from the Texas shore in
second part of September they start showing back in second part of March.
This
year was exceptional as after March 15 (I saw 16 on that date) they
started
to show in larger numbers (e.g. I counted about 90 on March 22) to reach
the peak of birds in one flock about 600-700 on March 25 and hold this
number
on March 27. So this year (2013) March numbers in Galveston County (and
Texas) are a new record significantly larger comparing to historical
data.
First arrivals seems to be on regular time but the number of arriving
birds
seem to be much larger. See this chart (ignore the red arrows and
question
marks for now as I will get to those later):
http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/149528123
These record numbers are not much of excitement by themselves. But if you
start to compare them to other places (other states and other Texas parts
of
the shore) on Atlantic and Pacific side thing start looking very
interesting. As you will see on the next chart only very few LETE arrived
in March
of this year on shores in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and South
Carolina. No LETE were recorded during this year in March in California,
Alabama
and North Carolina. The largest high count were in Mississippi, 51 LETE
on
March 24.
http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/149528125
Even if we look at historical data less LETE are found during March in
other states (California, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, South
and
North Carolina) compare to Texas. They seem to show there (other states)
in
larger numbers in April. Interestedly counties other than Galveston County
in Texas also show much lower numbers and later arriving dates during
March (including this year).
http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/149528127
When looking at the map (blue point this year sightings; red ones March
in 1900-2012) one thing call for attention. Bolivar Peninsula seems to be
an
arriving point for large flocks in earliest dates (especially well visible
this March). Other parts of Texas shore have not only much lower counts
this March but like South Texas arrivals are at later dates. This suggest
that
the first large flocks of LETE are arriving at Bolivar Peninsula,
probably
spend some time there before commencing further migration. I drawn on the
map a few speculative migration routes that might or might not be
accurate.
But the one marked as green arrow seems to be quite possible and also
suggest that these early flocks that are arriving to Bolivar Peninsula
might be
coming from Pacific side after crossing southern (narrow) part of land in
Central America with possibly stopover at Yucatán Peninsula. So part of
Pacific wintering population will come to California and another part
will
arrive at Gulf of Mexico. Interestingly LETE migrating to California are
arriving in much later dates. See this map and try to draw your own
conclusion.
http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/149528129
Even if my predictions of the migration routes are not very accurate the
fact that so many LETE are arriving at Bolivar Peninsula make this place a
very important area and there is a need to call for special protection
(and
not only because of LETE but other birds as well, as we all know). I
think I
read in the` past about some bad projects for developing this peninsula.
Even slogans one can find on the internet sound like horror for future
welfare of bird populations that are utilizing this part of the shore in
various
months during the year. Examples:
â¦. The Bolivar Peninsula is undergoing a wonderful and radical
transformation into a modern resort area on par with anyplace on the Texas
Coast.
Our modern Bolivar Peninsula bares an uncanny resemblance to the great
historic Roman resort cities of Pomeii and Herculaneum. (I did not
misspelled
Pompeii I just copied the text from internet site âas isâ)
Both the Romans and the Bolivar Peninsula have enabled the development of
resort cities based on water related activities with the addition of
modern
water systems, sewer systems and underground utilities. â¦
I wonder what is done or plan to be done to fully protect this so
important
area.
Now part 2 - correcting/verifying some LETE data in eBird database. The
chart below shows historical data; LETE sightings in Galveston County
(most
sightings are from Bolivar Peninsula). I was unable to extract from eBird
data from all Texas minus Galveston Co. - database choked (anybody knows
if
this operation is possible to do without crashing database?). But if you
look at the first chart I posted and this one you can easy see that most
arrivals are in Galveston Co (Bolivar to be exact). Also you see peaks
that
show high counts of LETE in February and December. Well look at the chart
and
maps attached:
http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/149528131
LETE numbers 50 and 200 in February of 1988 and 89 entered by Houston
Audubon Bolivar Count look like mistyping wrong date into the database.
Especially that in these years LETE practically arrived in larger numbers
in
April (there is almost no data entered for March during these two years).
These
Audubon numbers were never used in any of published material I am aware
of.
I think it should be corrected (verified?) so other numbers when drawing
charts look not questionable because of possible mistakes. December, a
private record, of 320 is also quite unrealistic and make charts looking
bad so
should be verified and deleted from the database if wrong. Some people
were telling me earlier that these kind of mistakes are not important in
statistics - I do not agree this is a case here, again look all chart;
only in
Bolivar (compare to the whole US and rest of Texas) we have huge flocks
of
LETE in February and December showing well on the chart.
I hope a few of you lasted that long to reach this point. I am interested
in all comment. Migration routes - anybodyâs guest is as good as mine but
can give/provoke some new idea. Protection of LETE and Bolivar should be
of
interest to everybody who wants to see these and other birds in the
future
arriving and breeding on our shore. Correcting entries in eBird database
can
only improve the database quality - as you can see it can provide great
output for general analysis especially when data is good. I took many
shortcuts in describing historical data and my own; do not see a point to
write
several pages, at least not now.
Arenât they cute when arriving and checking how their summer home looks?
http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/149528133
Mark B Bartosik
Houston, Texas
http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field
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