Birders,
Since Dave Leatherman asked for my input about the habitat of the
Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher I found at Adobe Creek Reservoir in Bent
County in September 2002, I'll weigh in. The improbable habitat used by
that bird was stunted tamarisk (salt-cedar) trees along abandoned inlet
canals on the west side of the reservoir. While there were a couple of
Russian-Olives and sickly cottonwood trees scattered there, that did not
seem to be the habitat preferred by the bird.
I have another species that I did observe in Russian-Olive habitat, that
was definitely feeding on the fruits. A Piratic Flycatcher was present
at Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in September of 2003. It was confined to
Russian-Olives. I saw that bird on September 16th (ironically, today is
the anniversary of that sighting) with Brian Gibbons.
Duane Nelson
Las Animas, Bent County, CO
On 9/15/2020 10:33 AM, DAVID A LEATHERMAN wrote:
The Russian-olive removal at Crow Valley Campground was done at the
behest of the US Forest Service who is in charge of the area. These
days the USFS does almost all on-the-ground work, except firefighting,
through contractors. I believe the removal of the olives at Crow
Valley Campground was performed by some locals out of Briggsdale. My
guess as to how this all went down is that there was a pot of money in
a veg management account that would have to be returned if not spent
by September 30 (the end of the federal fiscal year), somebody in
Greeley or Washington knew about, or ascribed to, the paradigm that
R-o is evil, also knew that giving a contract to the two guys with a
dog, chainsaw, magnetic sign and pick-up would give somebody brownie
points for "hiring local", and it was done deal. As far as I can
tell, it was a quick and dirty operation with no removal of the cut
wood, no treatment of the stumps, no replacement planting of "better"
species, no interpretive material on-site or explanation given to the
Campground Host (in case he was asked why it was done). If somebody
knows a different story about how this all happened, I am open to
correction.
As stated, the paradigm amongst most CO natural resource agencies, be
they federal, state, county or city, is that Russian-olive is evil and
deserves eradication. This is a fairly new school of thought.
Following the Dust Bowl, R-o was planted widely promoted and planted
as a helpful remedy on the Great Plains. The federal Soil
Conservation Service (now the NRCS) was its biggest promoter. R-o
grows well in harsh places and we all know the world is getting
harsher by the minute. The Colorado State Forest Service I used to
work for has the last government tree nursery standing in CO and
grows/sells approximately 2 million seedlings of all types a year.
They only quit offering R-o in the 1990's, mostly because it was PC to
do so. We all know the tree is a mixed bag, and considering only the
issue of attracting birds, it is decidedly a positive. I have extolled
the positive aspects of this tree for birds for many years. These
efforts started out not so much as promotion of the tree but as an
effort to "stand up" for it a bit, and balance the rhetoric. The
knocks against it are: 1) it has potential to take over riparian areas
to the exclusion of native, better trees like willow and cottonwood,
and 2) it doesn't host very many insects, and, thus, doesn't support a
very robust set of nesting birds. The fear of riparian area take-over
has been erroneously extended to upland sites (which Crow Valley
essentially is since it rarely experiences creek bed flow any more).
I have only seen the total takeover and stagnation of riparian areas
in a limited number of places in CO, mostly along the Arkansas e of
Pueblo. In my mind, tamarisk (aka "salt-cedar") is way worse.
The primary insect R-o does have, an aphid (/Capitophorus
elaeagni/)/,/ is very attractive to birds. The fruits are very
attractive to many birds including warblers, woodpeckers, flycatchers,
thrushes, waxwings, mimic thrushes, finches, sparrows and many others
including even upland gamebirds and gulls. Wood ducks love them.
When discovered, the 1st or 2nd State Record Brown-crested Flycatcher,
Fork-tailed Flycatcher and Tropical Kingbird were in or near
Russian-olives, no doubt using fruits to sustain their wayward
adventures. Hey, Duane, any chance the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher was
doing the same? Thickets are used by certain marquis birds like
cardinals and cuckoos as nest sites. Owls like long-ears roost/nest
in R-o thickets, and I have even seen a pygmy-owl at low elevation in
winter in a R-o thicket.
I am not sure what birders should do but I think the approach SeEtta
mentions of at least injecting some balance into veg management
planning early-on is good. The resource managers, for the most
part, have not heard our point of view that the tree could be good,
and they need to hear it as something to weigh when considering the
final plan. My problems with _every_ R-o "eradication" project I've
witnessed are:
*
Major assault on peace and quiet
*
Never get them all, miss many small trees
*
Never enough $ to plant, establish and maintain "better" species
*
Never account for sprouting that will have the site right back
where it was in 10-20 years
*
Never account for recruitment by bird droppings and seeds floating
in on moving water
*
In net, just dumb these areas down as a bird habitat and rec
experience for 10 years minimum
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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