Life on the Refuge ~ Drift Fences and Blue Birds

June, 2015


Much of our time is spent on the Pine Island unit. Pine Island is popular for those who wish to fish, canoe and or kayak. A primitive boat launch area is provided. And yes, you may be fishing among the alligators...

sign at entrance to boat launch. they really leave you alone. the key is to ignore them and stay away
 from their nests. female 'gators are very protective of their young; they usually hatch in August.
females will lay between 30 & 50 eggs; 80% of which are lost to predation.

Along with fishing, Pine Island is popular with hikers and bicyclists; there are four miles of hiking and mountain bike trails.

We do a couple of things at Pine Island. Drift fences are checked daily; blue bird boxes are checked weekly...

Kelli & I heading out to check the drift fences. they're located near the swamp,
so there are lots of mosquitoes!!

drift fence. we use them to catch insects, reptiles and amphibians for research. we
have three drift fences set up at Pine Island. each bucket contains a sponge which soaks
up any rain water. the critters go along the "fence" and fall into the bucket. lids are put on the
buckets on Friday & removed Monday morning (they are not checked over the weekend)

a net is used to capture the critter. once it is identified, we release it, and then record
the info on a data sheet.

another capture method. four of these are placed at the
end of each drift fence

nope. nothing under this one!

Mostly we've caught eastern narrow mouth toads, southern toads, as well as five-lined skinks...

this guy was a surprise!!

we're finished! 

Heading out to check the blue bird boxes...

As with the wood duck boxes, the majority of the blue bird boxes are located in the "managed" part of Pine Island; a beautiful part of the refuge. Pine Island is almost as diverse as Cuddo...

Norman (one of the local volunteers) weed whacking around the blue bird box

Blue bird boxes are not as tall as the wood duck boxes, therefore,  a ladder is not needed to check them.  As with the wood duck boxes, we knock on the box first. If mom is on the nest, we'll flush her out. We've also heard the baby chicks chirping when we've knocked. We then lift the lid and peek inside. Nests are packed into the box and rise almost to the top of the box. We use a small mirror to peer into the nest. Blue birds make their nest out of pine needles. All information gathered is recorded onto a data sheet.

Kelli checking the box

this nest was abandoned. 

dated them at eight days because their eyes are opened

almost two weeks. beaks are formed.

so cute!

At times we'll find that another species is using the box to nest. Unless it is a sparrow or cowbird, we leave the nest be...

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a field swallow is nesting here. blue birds only use pine needles to make their nests. looking
at the nesting material as well as the feathers, tells us that a field swallow made her nest in
 this box

again, by looking at the nesting material, we can determine the type of bird that is
nesting in this box. this nest was built by a great crested flycatcher

We're really enjoying our time here on the refuge. We're so blessed to have this opportunity to live on a refuge and have so many hands-on opportunities. We're learning new things each day!

Til next time,

Ron, Dawn & Cooper