Ducks, Geese, & Birds - Wildlife Management Pro

About the American Black Duck

The American black duck is also called “black mallard” or “red leg.” Plumage is a dark, mottled brown with white underwings and a violet-blue speculum. It’s length is 21-26 inches and its average weight is anywhere from 2.4-2.8 pounds. When visibility is good, the contrast between the light-brown head and the brown-black body is noticeable. This is our only puddle duck in which the plumages of both sexes are almost identical; the drake in nuptial plumage has a bright yellow bill, contrasting with the female’s olive-green bill. The voice of the hen is a loud quack; of the drake, a lower-pitched kwek-kwek.

Black ducks eat a variety of vegetable foods, including eelgrass, widgeon grass, and the seeds of sedges, bulrushes, wild rice, pondweeds, smartweeds and millets. On land they feed on acorns and waste corn, willingly flying up to 25 miles to a reliable source of the latter. Animal foods, more important in winter, include periwinkles, mussels, and snails. Continue reading About the American Black Duck

Waterfowl Hunting and Global Warming

The New York Times published an interesting article yesterday regarding the impacts of global warming on hunting, particularly duck hunting. The majority of the article addressed the challenges state and federal wildlife officials face in managing wildlife populations, wildlife habitat, and season dates as weather and waterfowl migration patterns change.

This should ring home with the many hunters this year that have been impacted by warm, dry seasons. White-tailed deer hunters have felt the impact of a warm fall and late rutting activity. And even along the coast, waterfowl hunters have adapted to changing migration times. Continue reading Waterfowl Hunting and Global Warming

Deferred Grazing and Songbird Management

Songbirds and other wildlife species thrive in a variety of habitats. Therefore, it is desirable to provide as many different types of habitat as possible though manipulation of the your current plant communities. Bulldozing, prescribed burning, mowing, disking, and hand cutting of woody vegetation to “set back” the successional stage will allow for a variety of diverse habitats for early to mid-successional species.

A well-managed diverse native habitat is the key to wildlife management. These habitat requirements should be accomplished through cedar clearing and half-cutting trees and shrubs. Increasing natural foods, such as native grass seed for seed eating birds or insects that live in those habitats for insect eating birds, will help increase songbird populations. Continue reading Deferred Grazing and Songbird Management

The Black-Capped Vireo in Central Texas

Environmental Defense, the Central Texas Cattlemen’s Association and the U.S. Army at Fort Hood share a common desire: They want to see the federally endangered black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla) recover within the next decade. And these unlikely partners aren’t just hoping the bird recovers: they’re working together on the ground to make it happen.

Recovery of an endangered species is fundamental to Environmental Defense’s mission, but why would a Cattlemen’s Association and the Army care about the well-being of a 4.5 inch-long songbird? The answer is that they expect that the vireo’s recovery will ease Endangered Species Act regulatory liability and land-use restrictions. As an additional bonus, restoration and maintenance of vireo habitat have proven compatible with livestock and military training activities. Continue reading The Black-Capped Vireo in Central Texas

Justin Hurst Wildlife Management Area

The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department site formerly known as Peach Point Wildlife Management area near Freeport, Texas, will be formally rededicated on Friday, October 12 as the “Justin Hurst Wildlife Management Area”, in recognition of the former game warden and wildlife biologist who was killed the line of duty earlier in 2007. A team of employees in the Wildlife and Law Enforcement Divisions, with support from several outside partner groups, is planning and organizing the dedication. Continue reading Justin Hurst Wildlife Management Area

Instructions for Basic Bluebird Nest Boxes

Bluebird

Bluebirds are insectivorous during the nesting season, feeding mainly on ground-dwelling insects. Ideal bluebird habitats are open and barren or short-cut/sparsely grassed areas (so they can see their food) with a few trees nearby (for perching).

Pesticide and herbicide-free cattle or horse pastures, cemeteries, acreages, abandoned orchards, hike-and-bike trails, prairie coulees, lightly traveled roadsides, abandoned railroad rights-of way, golf courses, open areas in parks, the edges of meadows, clear cuts adjacent to or within forested areas that have been recently burned, and sagebrush flats provide excellent bluebird habitat.

Bluebirds will also nest on the fringes of towns and cities, especially if they were nesting in those areas prior to development.

Lenker Blue Bird Box Instructions

Poor bluebird habitat includes areas that they naturally shun (i.e., city centers, densely wooded areas, or intensively farmed areas where there is a lack of natural habitat), areas where they are in competition with House Wrens or House Sparrows, or locations where the boxes are at risk of being subject to predation or vandalized.

Instructions for Building Bluebird Boxes:

Piping Plover Makes A Comeback

Here is some good news for birds and birders on the east coast. The tiny Atlantic piping plover, a federally protected bird, has given beachgoers headaches for decades. The species breeds on East Coast beaches during warm weather, which means entire stretches of shoreline can be put off limits just as people want to enjoy the coast. However, two decades after the plover was declared a threatened species, biologists are crediting the beach closures, twine barriers and other buffers between birds and humans for a 141 percent increase in the Atlantic piping plover population. Continue reading Piping Plover Makes A Comeback