Field Note #15-16: two for one

Photo By © Frank Schulenburg /, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30717494

Date of Survey: 040816/041516

Official Low Tide: 3:43pm/10:14 am am

Tide heights: -.09ft/-2.7cm—  .02ft/6cm

Mudflats exposed? y/n

Temperature: 81°F/ 27°C            Cloud cover: 20%/10%

Sunny light breeze. NICE!

Common Name	Counts of birds foraging on mud flats	Behavior Forage-F Rest/roost-R Fly over -FO	Disturbance (Flushing-F, displaced-D, agitated-A)	Feeding location *Primary flat (P)   Mangrove flat (M)
Snowy egret	2	F		M
Great blue heron	1	F,FO		M
Little blue heron	1	F. FO	D-H	M
white ibis	10	F, FO	D-H-1	M
Total	14

Notes: We combined the past two week’s surveys due to very low bird counts.

Humans = 6 kayakers; 3 fisherman; 5 paddle boarders Total 14

Birds are not present when low tide is mid-day. Not even humans were out much. Very hot. These species that are present in this park are winter migrators, so any stragglers are most likely gone. The resident birds that are breeding most likely are staying close to the nesting sites and this is too far for them to forage. Breeding among south Florida's wading birds peaks around April and May (We will continue to monitor through the summer, but spend shorter time at the survey site. There are neglible numbers to warrant staying for the full two hours.

Breeding times for wading birds (taken from: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw309 )

Breeding periods for Florida's wading birds (adapted from Kale and Maehr 2005)

Great Egret	January – June
Snowy Egret	December – August
Reddish Egret	December – June
Great Blue Heron	November – July
Tricolored Heron	February – July
Little Blue Heron	February – September
Black-crowned Night-Heron	December – July
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	March – June
Green Heron	March – June
American Bittern	April – June
Least Bittern	March – July
Wood Stork	November – May
Roseate Spoonbill	March – May, November – December
White Ibis	March – May
Glossy Ibis	May – July

Take a quiz on manta rays

The Defenders of Wildlife often publish quizzes to test your knowledge of wildlife. Here is one about Manta Rays. Check it out. Also click on their link above to learn more about what they are doing to help save the planet.

Click here to take the quiz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manta_ray#/media/File:Dharavandhoo_Thila_-_Manata_Black_Pearl.JPG

Field Note #14: special helpers and a drone

Date of Survey: 040116

Official Low Tide: 9:33 am            Survey start time: 8:18 am   Survey end time: 10:30 am

Tide heights: 0.4ft/12cm

Mudflats exposed? y

Temperature: 75°F/ 24°C            Cloud cover: 20%

Sunny light breeze. NICE!

Common Name	Counts of birds foraging on mud flats	Behavior Forage-F Rest/roost-R Fly over -FO	Disturbance (Flushing-F, displaced-D, agitated-A)	Feeding location *Primary flat (P)   Mangrove flat (M)
Snowy egret	5	F	D-H	M
Great blue heron	2	F		M
Tri Colored Heron	3	F	D-H-2	M, P-1
Little blue heron	2			M
white ibis	4	F		M
Total	16

Notes: Most of the bird action is along the mangrove lines, but still not sure it is enough to warrant a full scale survey of the entire park. The birds seem to have found better foraging grounds—where there are not so many people.

Human counts: paddle boarders- 4; kayaks-8; 4 fisherman; one drone. Humans won today [if you count the drone] 17-16 count.

DRONE!! We debated on getting a drone to do a full scale survey of the entire park, but it was loud and we don’t have a budget. The drone was taking pictures of us taking pictures of it. I believe it was filming the paddleboard girl who has a business and brings lots of humans--that paddle directly along the mangrove lines and displace any birds trying to forage. 

There are lots of laws for recreational viewing of wildlife. Personal experience out on the water shows that most people are not aware of any laws, or etiquette when approaching animals in the wild. Here are some rules and further reading for viewing wildlife.

Alaska: https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/bitstream/handle/11122/4396/M-49%20Responsible%20Marine%20Wildli.pdf?sequence=1

Florida Manatee: http://myfwc.com/education/wildlife/manatee/viewing-guidelines/

Genreal marine mammal guidelines: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/library/national/oeguidelines.pdf

Birding: http://projectbeak.org/basics/into.htm

We are seeing a very small amount of birds; the same few species. So instead of posting another bird photo; we had two very special guest assistants today…. I hope they come every week. Dogs are nice. His name is Gunner [with his dad Leslie].