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].

Field Note #13: severe weather

Date of Survey: 032516

Official Low Tide: 4:25 pm            Survey start time: 3:33 pm   Survey end time: 4:30 pm

Tide heights: -0.2ft/-6 cm

Mudflats exposed? y

Temperature: 84°F/ 29°C            Cloud cover: 90%

Severe thunderstorms in the immediate distance

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	1	F		M
Great blue heron	2	F		M
Little blue heron	1	F	D-1-H	P-1
white ibis	4	F, FO-1		M
Total	8

Notes: 6 fisherman, 2 kayakers fishing directly on exposed mudflats

Severe thunderstorms threatened us the entire survey. At 4pm we suspended the survey due to lightning, and sat in the car until 4:30 hoping to get back out there; but heavy rain set in and we had to leave. We did not take the camera due to the rain, so no photos of our own this week.

So here is this:

Distribution map of Little Blue Heron. Yellow: breeding, green: year-round, blue: nonbreeding. Adapted from: Kushlan, James A. and James A. Hancock, Herons, Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005. (ISBN 9780198549819) (OCLC 54913407)

Since there was not much action today, I am suggesting some reading on Bird responses to human activity:

Wading Bird Response to Recreational Boat Traffic: Does Flushing Translate into Avoidance? Author(s): KIMBERLY A. PETERS and DAVID L. OTIS Source: Wildlife Society Bulletin, 34(5):1383-1391. Published By: The Wildlife Society

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2193/0091-7648(2006)34[1383:WBRTRB]2.0.CO;2 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.2193/0091-7648%282006%2934%5B1383%3AWBRTRB %5D2.0.CO%3B2   

Field Note #12: not much traffic

Date of Survey: 031816

Official Low Tide: 11:40 am     Survey start time: 10:45 am   Survey end time: 12:20pm

Tide heights: .01ft /3cm

Mudflats exposed? Not at first, Y at official LT

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

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	3	F	F=P(1) D-(H)-1	M, P-1
Great egret	2	F		M
Great blue heron	5	F		M
Little blue heron	5	F		M, P-1
white ibis	1	F		M
Tri colored heron	1	F		M
Total	17

Notes: Bird traffic was low. Human traffic was HIGH. Sigh.

Humans = 1 wading fisherman; 10 Kayakers; 11 paddle boarders recorded. As we were leaving we noted more kayakers but did not record them.

When low tide is close to high noon, less birds are present. HOT and sunny.

Here are some shots of the few birds that visited today.