From the Contact Station December 2022

Interesting Observations & Meet the New Volunteers

Eagle Behavior:  Sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time.  While doing a November goose count, Barry Woodruff and I had a great experience watching Bald Eagles.  We were counting geese in the field west of #14 when I spotted an adult Bald Eagle cruising low toward us from Long Lake.  Hot on its tail was a juvenile eagle.  The adult dropped its load, a black ball of feathers, in the field and the juvenile swooped in to land and claim it.  The adult landed in the field a respectful thirty or so feet away and turned to watch. The juvenile hopped around, toying with the dead coot then picked it up and moved closer to the adult.  It then proceeded to pluck and eat the bird. During the shuffling around, another adult Bald Eagle did a low fly over and moved off.  It was reported from the Contact Station that the activity was later repeated with an adult bringing in a Cackling Goose to the juvenile.

Knowing eagles are prone to harass other birds and steal prey, I was puzzled that an adult would give up a catch so easily to a juvenile.  Seeing the second adult fly through made me stop and think this might be our pair that nested along Lake River.  But this is November, shouldn’t that young bird be on its own by now?  So, I did a bit of a dive into the literature.  If 35 days of incubation started mid-March (a guess), followed by 8 to 14 weeks to fledge, followed by another six weeks of following the adults around for food, that would mean our juvenile was very slow to get out on its own.  But consider this year’s weather.  We had atmospheric rivers through mid-June that may have delayed egg laying. Then our refuge was so very dry this summer. With no suitable ponds, waterfowl has been scarce and late coming back, while the rivers have been very low for fishing.  Food for eagles has not been so abundant.  That could have delayed egg laying and maturing of the eaglet to a point where it could fledge. After leaving the nest, young are dependent on adults for all food, and often follow adults to foraging sites. Juvenile eagles become more independent through scavenging rather than successfully hunting.  It’s been challenging this year.  Barry captured this great photo.  Note the dark eye and grayish bill on the juvenile.  Young Bald Eagles go through multiple feather molts in their first year.  Just looking at this photo, it looks like a first-year bird to me with some spotty white feathers and what looks like tawny areas on the belly and maybe undertail.  I am not an expert on aging young eagles but given the look and the behavior I would say we have a late bloomer first year eagle here.

Full Flocks and sightings: Mid November finally saw big flocks of Swans, Tundra and Trumpeter, on the auto tour.  Large

numbers were crowded into several lakes (North Quigley, Big Lake, and Canvasback on Bachelor Island). Finally, the lakes were deep enough to satisfy the swans.  Other waterfowl have also become abundant.  The raptors are coming back too.  The arctic breeding buteo, Rough-legged Hawk, has been spotted a couple times.  For me, fall migration isn’t complete until they show up! A beautiful Barred Owl has been spotted a couple of times, but it is not staying in one place. Jim Bradley got this wonderful photo in mid-November.   And a Northern Shrike has been seen off and on atop small trees just before the blind parking area.  Keep a lookout as it will likely stick around for a while, and they are always a treat. It’s nice to have them all back.

New Volunteers:  What a great gift, we have three new volunteers at the contact station that are picking up some of the shifts.  We have long wanted to have more presence on the weekends when visitor numbers are up and now we can.  Let me introduce you to them:

Carl LaCasse has traveled extensively for his work, especially in Southeast Asia. As a professional photographer, he photographed and videoed for numerous humanitarian organizations.  His work has been published by both National Geographic and the Smithsonian.  He also has extensive experience in wilderness rescue, helping people in difficult situations. A few years ago, after some health challenges, he couldn’t travel anymore, so he started to spend more time on the refuge with his camera.

Hearing we needed more help at the contact station he decided to try his hand at volunteering.  Somehow, he says, it all fits with his background in wilderness experience and photography.  He finds talking with visitors to be lots of fun and likes to find out from the kids what they have seen on their visit.  With each visit, he is learning more about the Refuge too.  Having finally found and photographed otters recently, he now knows the furry critters swimming in our waterways are not all nutria!

Brent Waddell has a long history with our National Wildlife Refuges.  His father was the first director for our Refuge when it was established in the mid-1960s.  In addition to moving around the country for different FWS positions, Brent says all his boyhood vacations were to refuges.  A Florida vacation was not Disneyland for them, it was Merritt Island NWR. Brent served as a Youth Conservation Corp lead in summers back in the day. He was involved in goose and duck counts in the early days of our refuge too.  If you need help with identifying that brown duck, Brent is the one to ask.  He has been helping the rest of us sharpen our waterfowl skills this fall.  After a long career in public service here in Clark County, Brent recently retired but his urge to share knowledge with the public continues. Brent wants to continue his father’s legacy of developing our urban refuge and takes pride in sharing his families ties to the early refuge.  You might see him with his spotting scope outside the contact station.  He loves to share a good sighting with his grandson and any other visitors in the area.

David Capolarello is getting close to retirement and thought it would be good to try out volunteer work in preparation for life after work.  Although his biology education took him into the technical medical field, he has always had a deep interest in wildlife.  Feathers, scales, or fur, doesn’t matter. While travelling, refuges and reserves have always been part of his travel plans.  As a young boy he spent a lot of time in Japan and other Asian countries exploring wildlife there.  After the couple of months training and starting afternoon shifts in the contact station, David said surprisingly he has found it especially satisfying to help people understand and enjoy the refuge.  Having helped during Birdfest, David is eager to volunteer for other activities beyond the Contact Station when time permits with his eventual retirement.

-Susan Setterberg, Contact Station Volunteer