Hi All, FYI in case you haven't seen this. Pete Saracino Please see Linda's note below about water management for shorebirds from now until fall waterfowl migration. Very helpful info as people will soon be coming to look for shorebirds and others will wonder (as they do) "where's the water?"!
Andrea VanBeusichem Visitor Services Manager Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge 3395 U.S. Route 20 East Seneca Falls, New York 13148 315/568-5987, extension 228 Hi Andrea, I thought it might help the VC volunteers to let them know what's happening with shorebird habitat on the Refuge. Please forward this email to them. We strive to provide habitat for shorebirds for the entire duration of both their northbound and southbound migrations, generally from April to November. Good shorebird habitat generally consists of shallow water wetlands (less than 4 inches deep) and mudflats with sparse vegetation (less than 15 percent cover). As soil is exposed in order to provide mudflats, seeds germinate and vegetation begin to grow, thus decreasing the quality of the habitat for shorebirds. This means that we can only maintain shorebird habitat at each location for a limited amount of time. (Usually the plants that grow provide good habitat for fall migrating waterfowl.) From April through November, we rotate the impoundments that are drawn down for shorebirds so we can provide habitat through these months. This summer has been very dry. Knox-Marsellus and Puddler Marshes have good shorebird habitat right now, but it won't last. We do not have the ability to add water to these impoundments without more rain than we've been getting so there's nothing we can do there at this time. Eaton Marsh has good shorebird habitat right now and should continue to have good habitat. The soil there is different so the relatively open habitat can be maintained through the season. We mowed and disked the dense perennial vegetation in Benning Marsh and are in the process of adding water. It should provide habitat for shorebirds once it is shallowly flooded. We are waiting to mow, disk, and shallowly flood the Visitor Center Wetland until later in the season when Knox and Puddler are no longer providing as much habitat. We will very shallowly flood both Larue's Lagoon and the new impoundment north of Larue's Lagoon (Seneca Flats) when we are done with invasive plant control work in those impoundments. I hope this helps. Linda Chorba Ziemba Wildlife Biologist Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge 3395 US Route 20 East Seneca Falls, NY 13148-9423 Phone: 315-568-5987 ext. 225 Fax: 315-568-8835 No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com> Version: 2016.0.7640 / Virus Database: 4627/12605 - Release Date: 07/12/16 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
