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Date: | Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:06:26 EDT |
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I got out again today to recover from the storm damage at the preserve. It's
amazing how the wind simply snapped trees of all sizes. We lost some trees
that had to be 200 years old. It's like losing old friends.
I checked the damage at Wiese Road first today. Eight nest boxes were down
along with their trees. I was able to recover and reinstall six, but the other
two were beyond recovery. There were many shorebirds along the mudflats at
Wiese Road but I wasn't able to do much identification as the shoreline was to
the east and the sun left me with silhouettes and not much more to work with.
A rough guess would be yellowlegs and an assortment of peeps. The American
White Pelicans on the other hand were impossible not to identify. All five
were peacefully perched on a snag between Wiese Road and the boardwalk at Area
M. I didn't get to the boardwalk to determine the status of the Marbled Godwit
or the Wilson's Phalarope. There were a few scattered warblers at Wiese Road
including Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Wilson's, and American Restart.
Also observed a Red-headed Woodpecker and an immature Bald Eagle.
My next stop was to check the damage at Dustin Road (Area L). The old road
resembled the low hurdles at the Olympics. Going up and over with a backpack of
tools was a workout. Five nest boxes were down in this area and I was able
to recover all and reinstall them. On the small peninsula there was a flurry
of activity, mostly warblers, for about ten minutes and then all got quiet. It
was like being in the eye of a hurricane. I then spotted the reason, a
Sharp-shinned Hawk looking for a snack. The warblers here were the same as at
Wiese Road, plus both Blackpoll and Chestnut-sided.
I next looped my way around the point and headed up Little Walnut Creek to
clean and maintain the nest boxes there. At the edge of Little walnut Creek
southeast of the trestle there are some new mudflats and feeding there were 11
Willets and 2 yellowlegs. They caught my eye quickly when several flexed their
wings and that defining white wing stripe appeared. Somehow I managed to
have only two nest boxes down along the creek. Both were recovered and
reinstalled. Since I headed up the creek along the shore I was unaware of the tree
carnage along the path. I used the old roadbed to return to the car and I
constantly had to detour into the woods to go around the large trees that fell
across the path. I didn't see much warbler activity at this location, only a few
American redstarts.
It was a productive morning as I now stand at 190 nest boxes cleaned and
renovated and only 60 to go. Of course many of the last 60 are in areas that
required me to be part mountain goat. The worse will be those in the far
recesses of the coves at Twin Bridges. It's a mile back to them and the elevation
rises and falls by over 100 feet as you go through the ravines. That will be a
two bottles of water hike.
Charlie Bombaci
Hoover Nature Preserve
You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the
habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will
exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means
that [we] have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea
itself. This is vital not only for the preservation of animal life generally,
but for the future existence of man himself—a point that seems to escape many
people.
-Gerald Durrell, The Nature Conservancy
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