St. Vincent beginnings

April 16^th – April 18^th were our first three days of banding on St. Vincent Island. We spent the first half of the 16^th scouting out the island for mist-net lanes and getting oriented. We banded for the rest of that day and the following two mornings, catching an entertaining mix of local birds and migrants. The island abounds in breeding Neotropical migrants such as Prothonotary and Yellow-throated Warblers, Northern Parulas, and Summer Tanagers. We also successfully banded migrants like Ovenbird and Northern Waterthrush using the island as a stopover site.

The refuge as a whole is an impressive entity. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to perform research here and are excited to see what we discover. Here are some photos from our first visit to St. Vincent. If you'd like more background on the research we will be doing, check out this previous blog post. 

We were startled to here a loud thud come from a nearby stand of trees. Upon further inspection we discovered that a Gray Rat Snake had fallen out of a tree with a Gray Squirrel wrapped in its coils.

The eye of a young American Alligator shines in a wooded wetland.

The Oak Toad(Anaxyrus quercicus) is endemic to the southeastern United States and is the smallest species of toad in North America.

The sheltered interior of the island boasts an impressive, diverse forest.

Southern Magnolias are on the verge of blooming.

The vast salt marsh by Tahiti Beach hosts a breeding population of the rare Black Rail.

Master's student Armando Aispuro looks for birds in the forest near our island dwelling. Little St. George Island can be seen through the gap in the trees.

The island is home to a small population of exotic Sambar Deer. We had a couple fortuitous late night encounters with these impressive animals.

Exploration Upriver

The 2015 Apalachicola field season has officially started. Migrants have been slow and steady on St. George Island the past three days with the weather being hot, humid, and stormy. We have successfully sampled from several of our target species, including Indigo Bunting, Northern Waterthrush, Red-eyed Vireo, and Gray Catbird.

The view of the bay from our field site at Unit 4 of ANERR on St. George Island. It has been a steamy few days to start the field season.

Our team took the afternoon yesterday to explore up the Apalachicola River and some of its tributaries for locations for possible future research. Megan Lamb of ANERR and the ECSC captained our adventure. Here are some photographs of our trip on the water:

A young American Alligator relaxes along one of the tributaries of the Apalachicola River.

We saw lots of waterbirds, including one Anhinga. The "snake bird" is known for floating low in the water so only its long neck is exposed above the surface.

We were enthralled to see this spectacular Pigmy Rattlesnake sunning on a sandy road near a remote boat landing.

The channels are lined with a variety of house boats.

Migrants abound! Solitary Sandpipers are in the midst of their trans-continental migration.

Pretty self-explanatory.

On the water.

An Eastern Pondhawk devours a moth.

A wetland specialist, the Least Skipper butterfly.

Dreams do come true on the river.

We were graced with the nearly constant presence of soaring Swallow-tailed Kites. We also enjoyed multiple sightings of Bald Eagles, Broad-winged and Red-shouldered Hawks, Osprey and a Mississippi Kite. 

The Next Chapter: St. Vincent Island

We are excited to announce that this spring field season we will also be working on St. Vincent Island, Florida. St. Vincent Island is the western end of the barrier island chain that protects Apalachicola Bay and is uninhabited by humans. The island is currently managed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and falls within the boundaries of our long-time collaborator, the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Our research on St. Vincent will be an extension of our work with trans-Gulf Nearctic-Neotropical songbird migrants on St. George Island (which will be ongoing as well). Our focus continues to be on the impacts of climate change on songbird migration and wetland habitats on Gulf Coast barrier islands. One particular aspect we will focus on is how St. Vincent's size and diversity affect its function as a stopover site when compared to other more typical barrier islands.

St. Vincent Island is 12,300 acres, and 9 miles long and 4 miles wide. The triangular shape of the island is unique and it is larger than most of the northern Gulf coast barrier islands. The striations on this satellite image are relic dune ridges. Freshwater lakes and sloughs dominate the east of the island, while the west end features dry upland pine forest.

Throughout history, St. Vincent has passed through many different hands. In the 1700s, Creek and Seminole Indians inhabited the island. By the 1900s, the island was in the private hands of the Pierce family and Old World game animals were imported, including zebra, eland, blackbuck, sitka deer, sambar deer. In 1968 the island was purchased by the Nature Conservancy and eventually came into the hands of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a national wildlife refuge.

Most of the exotic animals have been removed from St. Vincent but there is still a feral population of wild hogs and sambar deer. There is an active campaign to remove the hogs from the island but the sambar deer are kept at a sustainable population for seasonal recreational hunting.

In its current wild state, St. Vincent is best known as a breeding location for Red Wolves. The young that are raised on the island will later be released into the wild population in eastern North Carolina. The island is also home to native wildlife such as alligator, white-tailed deer, otter, gopher tortoise, breeding sea-turtles, and a long list of reptiles and amphibians.

Delaware State University researchers Dr. Lori Lester and Alan Kneidel traveled down to St. Vincent Island in early February to visit the island and meet our local contacts with the Supporters of St. Vincent Island and refuge staff.  Here are some photos from our visit:

The sun rises as we cross Indian Pass to St. Vincent Island. The island is only accessible by boat.

Extensive wetlands are found in the depressions between the relic dune ridges. Only a few centimeters change in elevation creates a vastly different habitat.

The ocean front

Cabbage Palm savanna

A lush palm-live oak forest

Live Oaks and a composting toilet near the old homestead site on St. Vincent

Unlike typical barrier islands, St. Vincent has extensive freshwater sloughs and lakes.

Despite their cuteness, wild hogs have a terrible impact on the native ecosystem. They cause a great deal of soil disturbance and slurp down snakes like spaghetti.

St. George Island Wildlife

St. George Island is home to a lot more than just birds...

Broad-headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps)

Gulf Coast Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina major)

Black Racer (Coluber constrictor)

Green Treefrogs (Hyla cinerea)

American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

Thrushes Return to St. George

This past week on St. George Island has been highlighted by an influx of Catharus thrushes. They have been most conspicuous in the shady corners of the island, where they hop along grassy borders and flick through leaf litter.

The Catharus thrushes that are regularly occurring Nearctic-Neotropical migrants on the Gulf Coast (Swainson's, Gray-cheeked, and Veery) are of particular interest to our research. Delaware State University Master's student Mariamar Gutierrez-Ramirez is studying the stopover refueling performance of these species on the island after trans-Gulf migration. Analysis of residual plasma triglyceride levels will indicate whether the birds are refueling on the island. To do this, a small sample of blood is quickly taken from all thrushes that are captured in our mist-nets. Birds are then banded, measured, and released unharmed.

Catharus thrushes have been particularly photogenic along our transects this past week. If you stand still they will often come within just a few meters, intent upon their foraging efforts. See if you can pick out the subtle differences in their plumage.

It won't be long until they return to their northern breeding grounds, where their distinctive, flute-like songs are unparalleled in beauty.

Veery (Catharus fuscescens)

Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus)

Gray-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus)

The Sun Brings Snakes

Calm winds and sunny skies have returned to St. George Island after a period of stormy, unsettled weather. Although many of the birds that were grounded during the past week have left the island, we are still capturing above average numbers of birds.

With the sun comes increased sightings of the cold-blooded residents of the island. Yesterday and today have featured several snake at our field site. This afternoon, our net lanes were the perfect sun bathing location for a cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus).

An Unexpected Guest

Sure, mist-nets are designed to catch small birds. That doesn't mean larger birds can't find their way into them, though!

As Mariamar did a net check this afternoon, she came across an unexpected bird. A Green Heron! With some careful maneuvering, we were able to extract the heron and admire it briefly before releasing it. We made sure to keep its deceptively long neck under control, so that it didn't turn our eyeballs into an afternoon snack.

Green Herons are ambush predators, relying on stealth and camouflage to strike down their prey. They are Neotropical migrants, with the majority of North American breeders spending the winter in the tropics. Whether this is a local or a recently arrived trans-Gulf migrant, no one knows.

Lori poses with the heron, a nice change of pace to our never-ending line of songbirds. 

This freshwater wetland in Unit 4 ANERR is home to Green Herons in the breeding season, and backs up to the net where the bird was caught today.