From the Contact Station August 2022

The Stork has Arrived

There has certainly been a plethora of baby animals.  Of course, the stork I mean is the one of myth and legend who brings babies to families.  Probably first and foremost on the Refuge is the hatching of way too many mosquitoes this year.  I try to think of them as bird food, but I carry a tube of hydrocortisone cream with me to ease the itch.  I have found dressing in permethrin sprayed clothing from head to toe also helps.  Although, I have the look of a zombie emerging from the walk to the blind especially when I am wearing a mask.  Who knew an N-95 had another purpose.

But mosquitoes aside, which seem to be abating a bit as we move into August and the standing water has been lowered, baby animals have been around in abundance.  First was a visitor-spotted pair of young coyotes with adult in July on the edges of the flooded area next to Lake River.  After the first mowing just north of the bridge entrance, I watched one young coyote grab a mouse/vole/mole for breakfast in the mowed fields.  This is the scavenger’s happy time of the year.  I swear the coyotes and vultures are smiling.

Early morning drives, when animals are still on or crossing the roads have garnered nice views of young rabbits.  Field mowing and bailing of hay will probably push a few more out to the edges of fields where some wildlife has been hiding.  Nowq that the Kiwa Trail is open, I am hoping we have good views of our furry critters.  One of the tagged Columbia White-tailed Deer has been easy to find along the auto tour and had a spotted fawn with her in late July.

Probably my most exciting baby sighting was a female Wood

Duck in the first lake on the drive with FOURTEEN chicks in tow.  What?  Well, the average clutch of a Wood Duck is about 10 to 11 eggs per brood.   But it is not uncommon for Wood Ducks to have a larger brood and the reason is often nest parasitism, or egg dumping.  Waterfowl, and particularly Wood Ducks, frequently practice egg dumping.  The female lays her eggs over a three- or four-day period. When she takes a break to eat, another female sneaks in and adds a few eggs.  She might also visit another convenient nearby nest and add a few of hers to a neighbor’s nest.

Waterfowl – and wood ducks in particular – often engage in this behavior.  Once she has finished laying, she will incubate and foster all the hatchlings, regardless their origins.  Hooded Mergansers have been known to dump eggs in Wood Duck nests too.  Keep an eye out for a chick that doesn’t match its siblings.  A single female can successfully incubate up to 20 eggs at a time, but if it gets too unmanageable, she might abandon the nest.  No worries, Wood Ducks can frequently produce a second brood each season.

With our atmospheric rivers filling all the ponds and the vegetation growing excessively, it has been hard to spot some of the chicks, especially for the American Coots and the Pied-billed Grebes.  But the latter has been well documented on the sightings board and Bob Eshbach got some wonderful photos of the grebe chicks this year, a parent with a very young chick and a slightly older chick beginning to stretch its wings.  I loved watching the Pied-billed Grebe parent tucking

the young one away in the tall grasses on the water for safety and feeding about 5 yards away. The grebe eggs hatch over several days so the chicks in a brood can vary in size.

And, is there anything cuter than a Virginia Rail chick, a ball of black fluff with toothpick legs.  They were particularly easy to see on the blankets of Mexican water fern covering most of our canals and sloughs.  They traversed the ferns like they were walking on water, which they kind of were.  But no wonder, on day one they weigh a little over 6 grams on average (0.2 ounces), but they do gain 1.5 to 3 grams of weight a day.  A lot of that is feet!   Thanks again to Bob Eshbach for these great photos.

What about the shorebirds this year? River S provided some fine habitat for migrants because of the atmospheric rivers.  Our ponds grew larger and deeper as we progressed into spring migration.  Shorebirds were met with an abundance of shallow water edges and muddy sections to probe for invertebrate foods.  The storm directions and velocity probably also played a part in their selection of migratory routes and stops.  We were prime territory.  Phalaropes, dowitchers, yellowlegs, various sandpipers and plovers were seen.  But what is even more interesting is the early “return” arrival of a young Wilson’s Phalarope.  Generally, they migrate east of the Sierra and Cascades to nest in the northern plains of the US and Canada.  We have had sporadic migration sightings over the years.  But on the 20^th of July, a young Wilson’s Phalarope was spotted on River S.  There was some speculation about where it might have nested.  Usually, we would see adults of most shorebirds return first.  Many adults leave nesting grounds quickly after the young are moving around on their own.  The young stay behind to fatten up on the insects.  Then we would see a following wave of younger birds.  Since it was so early, did our July 20^th Wilson’s Phalarope come from a nest closer to this part of the state?  In June of 2015, a young Wilson’s was spotted on River S.  That was possibly locally hatched given the date, a rarity.  I don’t think we will know with any certainty about this year’s young bird, but it is interesting to ponder.  Regardless, the migration south for the northern breeding shorebirds may bring some interesting sightings of young birds and, right now, Big Lake on the southern end of the drive is a good place to look for them.  It has begun.

Meanwhile, the Purple Martin monitors are busy banding this year’s chicks before they fledge.  We have a few years of data now and it will be interesting to see how the gourd project has helped increase their presence on the refuge.  Watch for birds starting to flock up as they get ready to move south.  Black-headed Grosbeak have fledged and are among the earliest to stage for migration along with Rufous Hummingbirds.  Our striking Yellow-headed Blackbirds will start to fade away through August, with a couple hangers on into September likely.  It feels like we are in the heart of summer and already the babies are grown and leaving the nesting grounds.  Enjoy them while you can.

-Susan Setterberg, Contact Station Volunteer
-images credited as captioned