The Pine Savannas

My current job is at the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge in Gautier, MS.  One of the main purposes of the refuge is maintaining the pine savannas, which are specific and ideal habitats for many species of concern.  Henslow's sparrows, Bachman's sparrows, yellow rails, and the Mississippi subspecies of sandhill cranes all use these savannas, but they can become overgrown and unsuitable after several years.  The refuge keeps these savannas in good condition through prescribed burns, which are fires that are planned and controlled to burn specific areas.  The refuge is broken into many units that represent different burn regimes.  These regimes are dependent on how many years since the burn occurred and what time of year they occurred.  For example, some units were burned two years ago in the dormant season.  Part of the work I am doing with yellow rails is determining what burn regimes the rails prefer.  The different burn timings create shrubbier or grassier results, and over time the savannas tend to get more and more woody growth, regardless of burn timing.  Here are a couple pictures from a stormy day on the savannas.

Older, shrubbier savanna

Savanna that was burned a week prior to the photo

Fresh growth from a dormant season burn that occurred a week prior to this photo.

Little Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron (back-left) and Tricolored Heron (front-right)

Female Belted Kingfisher

Answers to Questions:

The fire team keeps the burns within controlled areas by creating fire lines or fire breaks, which are lines around the unit that are dug up and somewhat tilled to remove the flammable vegetation.  These lines are maintained just in case of an unexpected wildfire as well.  With only dirt and mud in these lines, the fire cannot jump over to adjacent units.  The refuge is extremely careful about choosing the correct winds and conditions for a burn, so that there is no chance of the fire crossing these lines.  They must also be cautious of preventing smoke from crossing local roads, and Interstate 10.  

BoomChachalaca

I just wanted to pass along a link to my friend Luke's blog: http://boomchachalaca.blogspot.com.  He has a lot of great posts, and a lot more material than I do at this point, so check it out!  There are several guest writers, some more scientifically written posts, and plenty of great photos!

Third time is a charm!

... But not for Sprague's Pipits or Razorbills.  However, it did work out for a Glaucous Gull.  I have been checking a spot in Pascacougla, MS for a few weeks now looking for this gull with no success.  Today, I decided to make a quick stop by the spot where it was being reported before a trip to the store.  It was supposed to be a rainy day, so no plans were made for a bigger adventure.  I also came across a Common Loon that was close into shore, possibly from all of the rough weather.

 Glaucous Gull (First or second winter)

 Common Loon

Here are a somewhat random assortment of other pictures from the past week!

We found this Pipit while searching a local birding spot for ducks, shorebirds, and raptors.  I wasn't able to get close enough for a photo in my previous encounters with there birds while looking for Sprague's Pipits, but this unexpected find did't mind a little camera time!  The Black-necked Stilt and Egrets were also found on this trip.  I wanted to get a side by side of the snowy and great egrets to show the difference in size.  There are many other differences between these birds other than size, such as bill color and neck size.  

 American Pipit

 Black-necked Stilt

 Bonaparte's Gull

 Chipping Sparrow

 Snowy Egret and Great Egret

 Merlin

I wanted to point out that even within species there can be a lot of variation.  Here is a dark juvenile Snow Goose that really sticks out from the light morph Snow Geese.

 Snow Geese (with a dark morph juvenile)

Sora

 Osprey

Brown Pelican

Dauphin Island

After an unsuccessful first trip to Dauphin Island, Eamon and I went on a return trip when we were sure there would be no parades blocking the only main street on the island.  We had heard many great things about shorebirds this time of year with reports of red knots and a stilt sandpiper.  After getting a fairly early start, we got to the island in the morning with fantastic weather.  I had seen the location of the local Audubon sanctuary on a map, so we headed that direction first.  I didn't realize it was a forest area, which will be great for migration fallout in the spring, but little good this time of year (especially when looking for shorebirds!).  We went to the eastern edge of the island with little luck, and it turned out that all the good reports were from the other side of the island.  There were some buffleheads up close, and some male red-breasted mergansers in the distance and one of the docks.  

Female and Male Bufflehead

Male Red-breasted Merganser

We drove to the west side of the island and went for a walk on the beach, looking for some good birds.  After walking along the shore, we came across some inland pools that looked like they filled with the tide or during storms.  We came to the first pool and were hesitant as to not scare the birds away.  As we got closer, we saw that there were more pools even farther back.  After scanning for the red knot and stilt sandpiper, I decided to walk between two pools in an attempt to get some close ups on some of the birds.  

Dunlin

 

Dunlin making a funny face

Black-bellied Plover

American Oystercatcher

Northern Gannet

Male and Female Redheads

Reddish Egret

Short-billed Dowitchers trying to run away!

After scouring the western beach for the red knot and stilt sandpiper, we decided to try our luck at a beach that was near a golf course on the south central part of the island.  We drove up to the golf course and saw that the gate was closed, and a sign with charges for admission to just walk around the grounds.  We were just getting ready to leave when a man pulled up next to us on a motor scooter.  He asked us in a very Philadelphian accent  if we were trying to get out onto the course.  I told him that we were, and he asked where in Pennsylvania I was from, as he was from Philadelphia.  I told him where I was from, and he knew of the area.  He wanted to know what we were looking for since he had seen my camera and our binoculars.  We explained about working on the Sandhill Crane Refuge and that we were biologists just looking for some bird species on our day.  He was very interested since he had friends who were biologists, and hunters who had hunted for Sandhill Cranes in North Dakota.  I should mention that it is legal to hunt them in many mid-west states.  He told me to follow behind him so he could show us the way the locals get onto the course.

Willet

Horned Grebe

 I got some fairly close pictures of a banded piping plover while on the western beach.  Below is a brief description of all of the different bands on the bird's legs.  Feel free to email me if you want to know any more about them!  scribblingjay@gmail.com

Piping Plover with bands

1.  Regional identifier flag.

2.  Color bands used by researchers to identify individuals in the field (without the need to capture)

3.  Aluminum USGS band with unique identifier number for this bird.

Dauphin Island on Dwellable