[TN-Bird] Pray For Rain-Shorebirds
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, albirds@xxxxxxxxxxx,ARBIRD-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 20:47:47 EDT
April 3-4, 2004
Shelby, Tipton,
Lauderdale and Dyer Co. TN
It's not too late for rain to provide habitat or the Mississippi River to
rise but shorebird migration is here and the river delta land is dry.
I spent most of the weekend visiting wetland sites in the above counties
looking at habitat and counting "Wind Birds." If you have seen my TN Gazetteer,
you will have noticed all the dots strewn across the pages along the
Mississippi
River. These mark wetlands that are used in the spring and fall by migrating
shorebirds and most are what I call historical sites. These are located on
private land and in ag fields or near slashes of woods that indicated old
bayous
and drainage areas, a few are on managed wildlife areas.
I have mentioned before, the devastating and continuing after effects of the
drought years just past. These dry years allowed the entry into areas for the
first time in decades for the clearing and draining of these historic systems.
The strides in mechanization and technology grows each year. Thus today there
are far fewer natural areas for the shorebirds in spring migrations. Spring
migration especially during dry years has ALWAYS been a concern of mine because
you don't know when the dry springs are coming and the prep of areas on
managed land, in order to make good habitat, needs to be started in the fall.
These birds have to arrive on the breeding grounds with enough fat on their
bodies to produce eggs and healthy young. Not enough fat, either lowers the egg
production or deletes it all together. Management thoughts, until recently,
was there was enough wet habitat in the spring and you only needed to provide
habitat in the fall migration. Slowly there has been a change in that thinking
but not enough so at the actual level where it counts, on the sites. I usually
try to age and sex my shorebirds and I've seen some fall migrations when
immature birds in some species are almost non existent due to breeding ground
weather in some cases but how many in dry springs just don't get enough food?
This weekend shows again, just how important very little work in the fall
could provide abundant habitat with most importantly, food, in a dry spring. I
visited 3 managed areas and 18 of my small historical sites Saturday afternoon
and Sunday. There was scant habitat on the managed areas and because no fall or
winter prep took place, there were few shorebirds. Mud flats do not
automatically produce shorebirds and many wet areas on managed land had NO
shorebirds
this weekend. The thing that attracts shorebirds is food produced in quantities
by proper manipulation done in advance of the season be it spring or fall.
In the 3 managed areas I visited, there was a total of 37 Lesser Yellowlegs,
26 Greater Yellowlegs, 21 Least Sandpipers, 71 Pectoral Sandpipers and 64
Wilson's Snipe. Of the 18 historical sites, only THREE had water! BUT in those
three small areas there were concentrations of birds. There was less than 10
total acres involved at these 3 historical sites but they held 227 Lesser
Yellowlegs, 286 Greater Yellowlegs, 73 Least Sandpipers, 85 Pectoral Sandpipers
and
193 Wilson's Snipe. That is quadruple the number on managed land in a DRY
SPRING.
Just think if 40 or more acres were properly managed, in small plots at more
than one location, what birds could be serviced. If 20 to 40 acre minnow ponds
in Arkansas, when pulled down in the spring, can hold 10,000 yellowlegs at
one time, what could happen here along the Mississippi? Certainly the
yellowlegs
are more concentrated to our west but many more Least, Pectoral and others
pass along the Mississippi.
Pray for rain.........
PS. I had a long conversation at one of these wet areas with the farmer. You
learn a lot of history about the areas and inner workings, also occasionally
you get to introduce the farmer to a few of these birds that astoundingly
travel the lengths of the earth and visit with us. Anyway, the water was down
lower
than normal and he said yes he had pulled down a beaver dam but they had
repaired it in a couple of nights so the water was rising again. I thought,
"one
for our side." These farmers have a tough row to hoe and they must be brought
into the equation and worked closely with so all benefit.
After that, he showed me a piece of land where he had been stopped from
harvesting some timber because in involved some wet lands. I though "one more
for
our side" but then he chuckled and said he was later given a permit to put a
ditch through the area.;o0
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society
Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
endorse the views or opinions expressed
by the members of this discussion group.
Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
========================================================
Other related posts:
- » [TN-Bird] Pray For Rain-Shorebirds
