[TN-Bird] Love is in the air, and an answer to a Smokies question
- From: Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN-Bird <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 10:01:55 -0800 (PST)
No, I'm not talking about St. Valentines day and human. You can read
all you want about THAT topic on other web pages...
I'm talking about the birds and the... amphibians.
On Wednesday I saw birds copulating for the first time this year. As
you might expect, they were Mourning Doves, which sometimes don't
bother looking at the calendar before family planning. To add to the
innapropriateness, I spied them just outside Rockford Elementary
School. This location is just south of Knoxville, near the very
unecessary and destructive extension of I-140. I wonder if the doves
were considering the fact that they are bringing chicks into a world
with decreasing habitat, in order to serve the needs of the local
Excursions, Navigators, Tahoes and other habitat predators?
Ok, Charlie, breathe easy...
Because of illness and problems with the Russian Embassy, we are a
bit short staffed at Tremont for the moment. Some of us have been
putting in long hours. So 4 of us snuck out for a little over an
hour Thursday to go to a spot I won't advertise in the Blount County
section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park to look for Spotted
Salamanders. (Ambystoma maculata, methinks) In 40 minutes of
searching we found one female. She didn't appear gravid, but rather
deflated. The presence of about half a dozen egg masses in a body of
water less than a meter indicated she probably laid the previous
evening and was heading back uphill. These late winter/early spring
rains are just what the doctor ordered for a few species of
amphibians. Pooh to those of you who think this is a dead time of
year! Sadly, there was a LOT of recent hog damage in this location.
Hogs eat salamanders, and also tear up the many temporary shelter
sites the salamanders need. There was also obvious damage from
another sometimes destructive, non-native mammal... toilet paper, a
beer can (even notice the jerks who pollute are usually not drinkers
of quality beer? Always Budweiser or Miller or Coors products - low
class beverage for low class people).
Ok, I'm breathing again!
Finally, a number of local, small bodies of non-flowing water are
just chock full of Wood Frog eggs (Rana sylvatica). Interestingly,
though we've found egg masses and seen both genders in Walker Valley
(Blount County) we have not heard them singing. IN other locations
in Sevier and Blount County we have heard the typical roar of what
most books describe as "duck-like" calls. I personally think they
sound more like clucking chickens. But then I've NEVER heard an
Ovenbird say "Teacher teacher teacher." Must be my poor hearing!
In response to my previous post, a couple folks have asked what to do
if they seen fools approaching wildlife in Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. I DON'T recommend the seemingly logical solution of
driving over them. I DO recommend reporting it to a ranger. Not to
the Cades Cove visitor center. That is staffed by NHA folks, not
park staff. Though the NHA folks are hard-working, smart, caring
people, they have much to do in their official capacity, and can't
always get the info to a ranger in a timely manner.
Of course, getting a ranger to respond is a trick. Thanks to Gale
"the axe" Norton, there is a huge budget shortfall in NPS in general,
and especially in GRSMNP this year, and they are NOT filling the
positions of several key people who recently left - including a key
maintenance position and a Cades Cove area ranger. Kudos to the
folks who are now taking on many other tasks, while fearing the
"privatization" axe.
Enjoy the rain and go find some amphibians!
Charlie
=====
**************************************************
Charlie Muise, Senior Naturalist
Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Townsend, TN lat 35 deg, 38'23" long 83 deg, 41'22"
"Up, Sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough"
- Ben Frankline, Poor Richard's Almanac
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