[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]
Posted by Mike Baranski on 08:51:37 05/24/11
In Reply to: Re: A New Bird for My Palm Beach County List posted by Brian Rapoza
I worked with the RCWs in Big Cypress for a year and cannot recall ever hearing a Bachman's there. Big Cypress does not have the most desirable prescribed fire intervals which Bachman's relies on. But that shouldn't be the only reason they are not present. There is usually enough high and dry ground during their breeding season to suffice. I will be going back to Big Cypress in the coming weeks to help assess the Jarhead fire and the impacts on the RCW population so I will see if I can find any sparrows.
Corbett's population of Bachman's is rather impressive. I can usually find 1-2 singing males in any of our 30+ RCW clusters. And that's not counting the other 15-20,000 acres of suitable habitat.
As far as Dupuis goes, the RCW reintroduction has been an extreme success. In only 5 years, they have gone from zero to ten breeding pairs. This is due to the success of the Southern Range Translocation Cooperative which has also kept Corbett's population in existence. We now have 18 breeding pairs. If you can't get to a cluster by dawn or dusk they usually come back in the late morning to work on new cavities or to keep up their old ones for about an hour or so. Other than that its a crap shoot as to where they might be. But not usually any farther than a half mile from their cluster.
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TAS BirdBoard ] [ FAQ ]