Date: 3/24/25 11:30 am From: Ken Wiggers <ken.wiggers...> Subject: Re: [ia-bird] Oak Grove and back half of Sandpiper Rec. Areas gate opening dates. Polk County.
Re: trash -- there's a lot of trash left by fishermen, I don't understand
that cultural mindset. The same is true along the roads.
Birds: the first Wood ducks showed up this morning, I live on an acreage 5
miles south of Ames, I have 5 WD nest boxes, two had closed-eyes baby
squirrels in them several weeks ago. The other boxes are "duck ready."
There is a creek running through my place. This morning two Canada geese
swooped by low right in front of the house, one landed about 25 feet up on
a cut off part of a Burr oak. A pair has been around probably daily.
Hopefully the other Canada goose was on a nest. In the spring Canada geese
frequently sit on top of several broken off trees. I've wondered if I made
a platform if they'd nest there.
Also had the first Turkey vulture swoop by, it probably helped that I took
a roadkill rabbit off the road and put it in the compost heap.
Deer: About a month ago I counted 25 deer going west on both sides of my
north line fence, I could see at least a dozen still coming out of the
woods heading in the same direction. Within a week, four were roadkills,
they looked like 2024 fawns. The coyotes were well fed. I wonder if the DNR
manages deer for hunters or for habitat. They are destructive, it is
difficult for a seedling to become a mature tree, the same for many bushes
and woodland flowers.
Beaver: I like/dislike having beaver in the neighborhood. I was aghast
several months ago when I found that they decimated the Red dogwood bushes
lining the creek and all hardwood trees less than 6 inches in diameter.
They'd started working on larger trees. They built a dam at the creek
entrance to the tunnel under the road, the County will likely remove the
dam with an excavator. Several years ago they took a peach tree. I trapped
a family of five, the adults are huge, 44 pounds and 42 inches long.
My birding:
Over my desk I have a close view of starlings taking over holes in a
Cottonwood tree and in a dead hickory tree. One time I saw a starling
holding a Red-bellied woodpecker being held by the leg by a E. starling in
a hole. I removed 25 starlings from the gene pool last year, only 3 so far
this year.
I've had Bluebird boxes up for more than a decade without much success.
House sparrows take over and will oust/kill Bluebirds. Several years ago I
trapped in excess of 250 HSP and for the first time no sparrow nests in the
Bluebird nest boxes. I was curious how much food by weight 250 HSP might
eat, I probably used a year as a time period. My calculations came up with
more than a ton of food. HSP are in competition with native species for a
limited amount of food -- we humans have decimated the insect population.
The paucity of insects is a serious environmental issue, most birders in
this group would remember splattered windshields and headlights and swarms
of insects around lights that are on at night -- no more. I have very few
insects on my native blooming bushes in the spring.
*Ken*
*"In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we
understand; and we will understand only what we have been taught" ---**Baba
Dioum*
On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 12:54 PM Clayton Will <willcfish...> wrote:
> I spoke with the Army Corps Ranger Supervisor for Saylorville Lake this
> morning and asked the opening dates for Sandpiper and Oak Grove RA Polk
> Co.. He said May 1st for Sandpiper back half. May 15 for Oak Grove. I
> explained there were Birders who would like access as the migration is
> starting. He was very helpful and said he could have Sandpiper open in a
> week. Oak Grove would still be Mid May as he wouldn't have hosts to open
> and close gates daily. That's unfortunate but I can remember when both
> beaches were open 24/7 there were nightly bonfires and parties leaving
> trash everywhere.
>
> Clayton Will
> Madrid
>
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