Waterfowl Festival Official Guide 2012

2012 Waterfowl Festival Highlights in Easton, Maryland

Waterfowl Festival Official Guide 2012 - click here

Stay at a waterfront bed and breakfast during Waterfowl Festival
Photo from Sandaway Waterfront Lodging
Oxford, Maryland

•The 42nd annual Waterfowl Festival will be held November 9-11, 2012, with Premiere Night on Thursday evening, November 8th in Easton, Maryland.

•The Waterfowl Festival takes place in the colonial town of Easton, Maryland. The historic buildings of Easton serve as venues for galleries and exhibits, while events and demonstrations are held at the surrounding ponds and scenic areas.

•Featured Artist Mark Eberhard - Waterfowl Festival 2012

•Masters Gallery Legends of the Shore Collection by John and Suzie Seerey-Lester. - Waterfowl Festival  2012

Waterfowl Festival History:

  The Waterfowl Festival was founded in 1971 by a group of Eastern Shore sportsmen and women looking to share the unique heritage of the area while raising funds to protect the wildlife and habitat what were integral to the region’s way of life. Starting with 50 exhibitors and 4,000 visitors, the first Festival turned a profit of $7,500, which was contributed to Ducks Unlimited.

Waterfowl Festival Purpose:

  Conservation The Waterfowl Festival contributes the proceeds of each annual event to Waterfowl Chesapeake – the Festival’s sister organization that focuses exclusively on supporting conservation work around the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Founded in 2011, Waterfowl Chesapeake builds on the conservation tradition of the Waterfowl Festival, which has granted more than $5 million to over fifty national and regional conservation organizations and their projects. Promotion of Wildlife Art The Festival provides an environment for artisans to gather, exhibit and sell their work. More than 300 nationally recognized artists are invited to participate, exhibiting paintings, sculpture, carvings, photography, decoys, crafts and folk art. The public is provided with the opportunity to view and purchase the finest wildlife art available in the world. A Showcase for the Eastern Shore of Maryland Autumn is the most spectacular time of year for the Eastern Shore and the Waterfowl Festival in historic Easton shows it off at its best. Thousands of geese fly overhead while thousands of visitors stroll the streets. Local hunting traditions and sportsmen's goods and gear are highlighted in addition to the wildlife art, with the World Championship Goose Calling Contest®, the Mason-Dixon Regional Duck Calling Contest and Delmarva Dock Dogs® Competition taking place as well as retriever demonstrations, wine tasting pavilion, kids activities and much more.

Who Attends Waterfowl Festival:

  18,000 to 20,000 visitors from throughout the U.S. and other countries attend each year. Art collectors looking for the best in wildlife art, hunting enthusiasts celebrating their traditions and skills, families looking for a weekend getaway, and shoppers seeking the perfect holiday gifts all find something to enjoy at the Waterfowl Festival. Who Makes It Happen: More than 1,500 volunteers offer their time and services to stage each year's Festival. More than 60 committees work year-round to organize the events at 12 exhibit locations throughout the town of Easton. A small staff and an eighteen-member volunteer Board of Directors coordinate these efforts.


Waterfowl Festival Information was sourced from:

http://www.waterfowlfestival.org/index.php/wf-media/facts-figures-images

Visit Talbot County, Maryland for Waterfowl Festival 2012

Learn About Bats - Most bats are harmless fruit or insect-eaters.

Bat Populations Still in Decline
VOA -  Jeff Swicord



Bats are an amazingly diverse group of flying mammals that can be found in virtually every corner of the world. Because they're mostly nocturnal and a few types feed on animal blood, bats have acquired a rather dark reputation, linked in legends to witchcraft and the occult.

But most bats are harmless fruit or insect-eaters, and in North America alone, they save the farm economy billions of dollars annually by controlling destructive pests and pollinating crops.

Still, bat populations have been declining rapidly for years, due to rampant disease and human encroachment on their habitats. Our reporter introduces us to one woman in the Washington area who is working to improve public understanding of bats, and doing what she can to help them survive.

As sunlight fades from the evening sky, Leslie Sturges checks on a colony of bats she has been monitoring.

The bats gather at the portals of their summer homes - these wooden bat boxes hung on a pole in a suburban park.

One by one, the small brown bats take flight into darkness, hunting for insects and small bugs.

But Sturges says she's concerned that her count reveals only half the number of bats as last year. She hopes some have made an early return to the cave where they hibernate in winter.

“You know my hope is that a lot of the colony already moved out," said Sturges. "But I can’t be that optimistic as far as bats are concerned in the Mid-Atlantic."

Sturges is director of a conservation group called Bat World NOVA. She cares for injured and orphaned bats here in her basement. Then she releases them back to the wild.

Bat populations are declining worldwide, mostly because of habitat destruction and overuse of pesticides. Sturges says common fears that bats will fly into your hair, or that all bats carry the deadly rabies virus also contribute to human intolerance of bat populations.

“A lot of people refer to bats as filthy," she said. "But they aren’t. They groom like cats and dogs do. They use these toes back here to actually comb their fur out.”

Sturges also teaches the importance of bats at nature centers and in schools. Her goal is to promote their protection and conservation by stressing the positive things bats contribute to the environment.

“One of the things they contribute, well around here in North America, is pest control for plant-eating insects," said Sturges. "So anyone who grows anything is getting an assist from bats.”

Contrary to popular belief, bats are not blind. Their eyesight is actually pretty good. But at night they navigate in flight using a system called echo-location . They use their sensitive ears to listen for objects and bugs - that reflect back their high-pitched chirps - which we can hear with this device.

“That’s his echo-location call coming through"

Sturges and her assistant, Sherry Keen, are caring for about thirty orphaned, injured, and sick bats this summer.

And these are all this year’s orphans.

When they start to feel well enough to fly, she moves them to this screened pen in her backyard so they can develop their flight skills.

She plans to release "Shaggy", a red bat, tonight.

“He came in as an older juvenile," she said. "And he has just been able to exhibit really good flight skills and…”

Sturges wants to make sure he has a good meal before his release.

Later, as the sun sets, it's time for the bat to return to the wild.

“Bye, Shags, be good out there," said Sturges.

But “Shags” doesn’t want to leave. He would rather sleep after a big meal.

“So I think what I am going to do is put him back in and let him nap for an hour and I am going to try and release him later on tonight" said Sturges. "Because he has to go. He can’t live here.”

Sturges says "Shaggy's" chances of survival are good. Red bats are common in the area. One last bat nap in captivity and then it’s off again into the wild.



VOA - August 17, 2011

Loggerhead Sea Turtles - Sick or injured sea turtles are getting help...

Trauma Center Treats Sea Turtles

Georgia hospital tries to improve chances for loggerhead sea turtles

VOA - Philip Graitcer | Jekyll Island, Georgia

Photo: VOA - P. Graitcer

Ziva, a female loggerhead turtle being treated by veterinarian Terry Norton, was injured after being hit by a boat.

 

This month, on beaches up and down the U.S. East Coast, tens of thousands of newly-hatched loggerhead sea turre emerging from the sand and crawling into the Atlantic. Very few of these baby turtles will survive, but a hospital in Georgia is trying to improve their chances.

Jekyll Island, Georgia, is best known as a summer vacation spot. But it’s also an important rehabilitation destination for hundreds of sick or injured sea turtles that wash up on Atlantic coast beaches each year.

“Twenty percent of the cases are boat strike-related injuries," says Terry Norton, a veterinarian who is director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. "We get fishing line and fishhook-related injuries. There’s a disease called fibropapilloma, caused by the herpes virus, that can cause tumors on the skin. We get some real debilitated turtles.”

VOA - P. Graitcer

This loggerhead turtle is missing a flipper due to a shark injury.

Many have survived encounters with predators like sharks that can bite off a turtle’s flipper or crack its shell.

The operating room at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center looks like one you’d see at a major medical center for humans.

 

There are bright surgical lights, stainless steel tables and an x-ray machine. The doctors and nurses wear blue surgical scrubs. This morning, Norton is treating Ziva, a 68-kilo female loggerhead turtle.

“This is a turtle with a boat strike injury to the head and to her shell," he says. "She actually had a little abscess in the skull. These little Velcro patches are for putting weights because she floats asymmetrically so that helps her dive a little better and get around a little better.”

Norton estimates that Ziva is 10-to-12 years old, which is young for a turtle. He says rehabilitating these injured or sick juveniles is vital to maintaining the worldwide sea turtle population.

“They become sexually mature at 35 years of age. That makes it really significant when there’s adult mortality. It took a lot of turtles to reach that point. It takes about 4,000 hatchlings and eggs to get to that one animal, so all these mature animals are very important to the population.”

Unfortunately, Ziva’s injuries are so extensive that she’ll never recover enough to be released back into the ocean. Instead, she’ll go to an aquarium to become a turtle ambassador as part of an educational exhibit.

VOA - P. Graitcer

Duval, a female loggerhead turtle, is measured by staff at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.

Since sea turtles are found worldwide, Norton’s staff works with conservation groups in India, Pakistan, Costa Rica and St. Kitts, teaching them how to protect and care for injured turtles.

Ten of thousands of the tourists who visit Jekyll Island each year come to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center to learn about the life cycle of turtles.

A highlight of their visit is the rehabilitation pavilion, where sea turtles, land turtles and even alligators can be seen recovering after their treatments.

“Out here they are all in quarantine areas…so since we are similar to a hospital setting, we try to keep as much under control as we can," says David Zailo, one of the center’s guides. "By separating the animals from one another, it’s easier to treat them. It’s easier to mark down what they feed and it's easier to mark down their progress as they’re healing.”

Visitors who really want to get close to turtles can join the center’s staff for an early morning turtle walk on a nearby protected stretch of beach.

 

Earlier this summer, dozens of female loggerheads - each about one meter in diameter - lumbered out of the ocean, dug nests in the sand and laid hundreds of eggs.

Now, those eggs are hatching and a lucky few visitors will get to see the baby loggerheads crawl across the beach and into the ocean, to begin their perilous journey to adulthood.

VOA - Auguts 12, 2011

How Sea Creatures Could Adapt To Changing Climate

Studies: How Whales, Fish Might Adapt To Warming Ocean
Gray whales might be adapting while fish populations are shifting

Tom Banse | Newport, Oregon - VOA - August 05, 2011

Two new science studies provide a glimpse of how some important Pacific Ocean sea creatures could adapt to a changing climate.

One study describes how gray whales successfully adapted to previous cycles of global warming and cooling. The second predicts a fish shift on the west coast of North America. The study suggests that some West Coast fishermen will need to pursue different prey if the Pacific Ocean warms as projected over the next 50 years.

Nick Pyenson is a paleobiologist who curates the marine fossil collection at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. The famous collection includes lots of creatures driven to extinction by environmental changes. It also includes some of the long fossil record for gray whales, a species that still lives in the Pacific Ocean today.

"Grey whales fit into this question about ongoing climate change," says Pyenson. He and his former doctoral advisor from UC Berkeley wondered how gray whales survived through previous cycles of global warming and cooling.

"In the past two million years, the Northern Hemisphere has undergone dramatic changes with ice sheets going all the way down to Chicago and Seattle," says Pyenson. "In doing so, that sucks up a lot of the water that would be otherwise be put in the ocean and drops sea level dramatically."

According to Pyenson, historic sea level changes periodically expanded and closed off vast feeding grounds. He theorizes gray whales hung on through bad times by either migrating less, switching food sources or both. Even today, there are small numbers of gray whales that stay in one place and eat fish and krill, while most of their species migrate long distances and bottom feed.

"What we think is telling is that those who don't migrate are telling us about the range in behavior and what these animals can do ecologically."

Pyenson says that adaptability bodes well for how the whales may respond to future climate changes. He adds one caveat though, saying the current cycle of human-induced global warming is developing faster and more powerfully than the historic episodes he examined.


Fish shift

In a separate study, a group of Canadian and American researchers examined how a warming ocean could affect fish common along the West Coast of North America.

The science team studied 28 fish species whose biology and distribution is well understood. Oceanographer Ric Brodeur of the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Oregon, says the list includes salmon, smelt, sharks, pollock and sardines. Brodeur says the researchers simulated what could happen if the North Pacific heats up due to global warming.

"Because these fish are so mobile, they can move up and down the coast or inshore or offshore to find the preferred temperature that they want."

The federal science agency, NOAA, predicts the ocean's surface waters off Oregon and Washington will warm about two degrees Celsius over the next 50 years. Brodeur says that's enough to cause significant moves. A forthcoming research paper models how much. If you combine the home ranges of all the fish that the team studied, there's an average shift northward of roughly 40 kilometers per decade. Over time, Brodeur predicts fishermen and seafood consumers will notice.

"A lot of the species that we consider very important - like hake - things that are commercially fished here might be gone and replaced by other species that may or may not be commercially important."

Across Yaquina Bay from Brodeur's office, charter fishing boats unload sun-burned anglers. Veteran captain Robert Waddell says he's already seen some evidence of warm water species shifting northward.

“I've noticed in the last 12-13 years, we've been starting to see some marlin off and on out there and we've hooked them a few times," says Waddell.

Blue fin tuna is another possible newcomer that could fill the vacancy if, say, salmon left for cooler waters off Canada. Waddell is optimistic the local fishing fleet can adapt.

"People will make adjustments," he says. "Fifty years from now, we might be the marlin capital of the world. You never know."


How Sea Creatures Could Adapt To Changing Climate
Article from VOA

Loss of species at the top of the food chain could have far-reaching effects on evironment -

Loss of Predators Impacts Food Chain

Sharp decline upsets balance of the world’s ecosystems

Rosanne Skirble | Washington, D.C. - July 19, 2011

A loss of species at the top of the food chain could have far-reaching effects on the environment, according to a study in the Journal Science.

Some of the world’s top predators - including lions, wolves and sharks - are in sharp decline. Human activities like pollution, habitat destruction, overfishing and hunting are largely to blame.

Jim Estes studies sea otters. The University of California, Santa Cruz professor of ecology and evolutionary biology says these furry marine mammals - once hunted to near extinction - are important to the health of coastal North Pacific ecosystems.

“We have discovered that sea otters have an important limiting effect on sea urchins and that allows the kelp forest to persist," he says. "And kelp forests, in turn, have all sorts of important functions.”

In the absence of sea otters, the ocean's kelp forest - which provides a habitat for fish and absorbs climate changing carbon emissions from the atmosphere - is left barren by sea urchins.

The kelp forests also provide habitat for fish and absorb climate changing carbon emissions from the atmosphere. Estes says this close connection between species health and the health of global ecosystems is a “ubiquitous phenomenon and that it occurs worldwide in all ecosystem types.”

Estes compiled the work of 24 scientists in six countries. He says the research shows the cascading ecological effects of a loss of top predators and large herbivores.

"It eventually reaches the plant populations at the base of the food web and in many instances results either in an increase in the abundance of plants or in most cases in terrestrial systems, a decrease in the abundance of plants, influencing things like fire frequency, carbon sequestration and disease and on and on and on.”

Chesapeake Bay Rays and Sharks

Sharks and Rays

they're out there

Bay Journal - Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff

Eight exhausted teenagers doze in the shade on Jefferson Island, part of the Poplar Island chain. Working for the Youth Conservation Corps, their mission that day was to stabilize an eroding shoreline. Shovel by shovel, they unloaded a barge full of oyster shell onto the shore. Now they slept on the grass, wanting nothing more than to rest.

Suddenly, this lethargy was interrupted by the sound of churning water. Curiosity overwhelmed the group and they raced to the end of a pier, scanning the water's surface of Eastern Bay. There, about 20 feet away, the water frothed and a brown fin broke the surface then quickly disappeared. It was the summer of 1979 and I had encountered my first school of cownose rays.

Rays, as well as sharks and skates, belong to a group of primitive fishes, known as elasmobranchs, which do not have a bony skeleton. Instead, the bodies of these ancient creatures are made up of cartilage. Unlike most fishes, some species of elasmobranc hs are able to give birth live.

Cicadas - Crunchy insects have a shrimp-like taste

Cicada Emergence is Bug Eaters' Bonanza

Crunchy insects have a shrimp-like taste

VOA - Véronique LaCapra | St. Louis, Missouri

June 27, 2011

 

The emergence of the “Great Southern Brood” of 13-year cicadas has created a food windfall for bug-eating predators.

The noisy insects don’t have any toxins and they can’t bite or sting. Their only defense is in their numbers.

“Their strategy for surviving is to give the predators so much potential food that they can never finish them all off," says Chris Hartley, an entomologist of the Butterfly House in Chesterfield, Missouri. "That’s why they emerge all at once.”

Cicadas make a tasty meal for everything from birds to ants to lizards. Dogs love them. And, Hartley says, so do some people.

“Cicadas just like all insects are very close relatives of crustaceans. So there is essentially no difference between these guys and shrimp, or crabs, or anything like that.”

Hartley prepares to cook up some cicadas in a Butterfly House classroom. He begins with a bowl full of orangey-white blobs with bulging black eyes – cicadas he’s been storing in a freezer.

“The newly emerged adults, the ones that are still white," he explains. "And they were caught before they had a chance to really harden up, so they’re a lot like soft shelled crabs. They’re still very soft.”

Turning on a hot plate, Hartley adds some vegetable oil, a half-stick of butter and garlic. Eventually the cicadas follow.

While it is a new experience for this reporter, it is not for Hartley.

“Well, I’ve done many different kinds of entomophagy classes over the years,” he says. "That means insect eating in Greek. But really the cicadas and other insects can be treated in just about any way you would treat shrimp.”

Hartley says you can deep fry them, bake them, cook them with soy sauce in a stir fry or sauté them.

“And again we eat shrimp, crayfish, lobster, crab…whereas you know for people in other parts of the world, including Africa, Australia, South America, North America and throughout Asia, eating insects has always been part of just what you do.”

Once he adds the cicadas to the pan, they begin popping.

“The reason they’re popping like that is that we’re using the whole body here, and actually amazingly enough the things like the wings which are just thin little sheets of exoskeleton tend to swell up like balloons when they’re exposed to heat like that, and then you get the popping,” says Hartley.

After a few minutes, the cicadas complete their transformation from soft and squishy to brown and crunchy. He tops them off with a little fresh parsley and lemon juice and voila! Cicada scampi.

If one ignores all the little beady black eyes staring up from the plate, it actually looks, well, pretty tasty. Hartley take the first bite.

“Mm. Nice, crisp. Nice flavor of butter and garlic," he says. "They’re wonderful.”

This reporter gives it a try and finds it's actually really good.

The crunchy, shrimp-like cicadas will probably die off in the St. Louis area in the next couple weeks. Hartley hopes that in the meantime, people will at least try to enjoy them — on the dinner plate, or otherwise.

Cicada Emergence is Bug Eaters' Bonanza

Article from VOA

Cicadas Are Back - Noisy bugs emerge after 13 years underground...

Cicadas Swarm Wide Portions of US
Noisy bugs emerge after 13 years underground

VOA - Véronique LaCapra
St. Louis, Missouri
June 27, 2011



The cicadas are back.

Over the past few weeks, across a wide swath of the eastern United States, the notoriously noisy bugs have emerged by the billions from their long, underground adolescence.

On a muggy afternoon at the farmers’ market in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Missouri, the cicada invasion is in full force and local residents have mixed feelings about it.

“I just like holding them and putting them on the trees and stuff,” says Matt Covington, 10, who loves the insects. “They tickle when they crawl on you, it’s fun.”

Nineteen-year-old Lauren Pierce takes the opposite view.

“Oh my gosh, they look like little devils, and I don’t like it,” she says. “I think they’re stinking up my neighborhood. They’re rotting everywhere and they smell bad and they’re really loud in some places, and…it’s kind of a nuisance.”

They are definitely make a lot of noise. The males sing to attract mates. Chris Hartley, an entomologist at the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House in Chesterfield, says they make that sound by vibrating an organ on the side of their thorax called a tymbal. They actually use their wings to amplify and resonate the sound out, which adds to the racket.

But these periodical cicadas have spent the past 13 years not making any noise at all. They’ve been underground, feeding on the juices of tree roots, as small brown juveniles, or nymphs.

“The nymphs are these strange kind of alien-looking things that have no wings, very rudimentary legs that are only good for crawling and nothing else, and they kind of have these huge, claw-like front legs,” says Hartley.

When they’re ready to emerge, the nymphs tunnel their way to the soil surface in the middle of the night, leaving visible holes in the ground a little over a centimeter in diameter. They climb up the nearest bush or tree and molt for the last time, littering the foliage with their old brown casings.

When the adult cicadas first emerge in the darkness, they’re soft, pale white, and very vulnerable. It takes a couple of hours for their exoskeleton to darken, and their wings to unfold and dry to a translucent orange-gold.

The red-eyed adults are about three centimeters long and live for three to four weeks.

“A female will lay, throughout her lifespan, about 600 eggs,” says Glenn Frei, who helps care for the live insect collection at the Saint Louis Zoo. He says female cicadas use a sword-like organ, called an ovipositor, to slice into small tree branches and insert their eggs.

When the ant-sized nymphs hatch six to 10 weeks later, they drop to the ground, dig a burrow, and start the 13-year cycle all over again. The egg-bearing twigs often turn brown, droop, and die. But Frei says cicadas aren’t locusts – they don’t eat leaves or attack crops.

“They’re causing some minor damage, but overall, even with the massive numbers of them, they’re not going to do enough to kill a healthy full grown tree," says Frei. "Young saplings may get enough damage where it could kill them, just because they’re not old enough, but for the most part a healthy, older tree is going to do just fine.”

Frei says the number of adult periodical cicadas has already peaked in the area and he expects them to die off in the next couple of weeks.




Cicadas Swarm Wide Portions of US
Article from VOA

Chesapeake Bay - Tiny organisms determine if life in Bay sinks or swims

Tiny organisms determine if life in Bay sinks or swims
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal

Unseen by the naked eye, a community of predominantly microscopic organisms fuels the ecosystem we call the Chesapeake Bay. Plankton include free-floating microscopic plants (phytoplankton) and free-floating or weakly swimming animals (zooplankton) that range in size.

These tiny plants and animals drift in the water, largely at the mercy of the currents and tides. Some of the organisms move up and down in the water column to take advantage of light. Others will drop below the pycnocline, a layer where the increase in salinity is more pronounced, to avoid being washed out to the ocean.

Animal Kingdom Wins Kentucky Derby - Rosie Napravnik rode Pants on Fire to a sixth-place finish, the highest-finishing woman in Kentucky Derby history

Horse Racing News - Animal Kingdon Wins 2011 Kentucky Derby





Women Jockeys Keep Up with the Men

Deborah Block | Baltimore May 04, 2011

Photo: D. Block, VOA

Jockey Stephanie Korger

The premier horse race in the United States takes place Saturday in the southern U.S. state of Kentucky.  This year, there will be a woman jockey in the Kentucky Derby. She's only the sixth woman to ride in the annual race since it began in 1875.  Other women jockeys are hoping they will eventually make it to the Kentucky Derby. At the Pimlico racetrack in the eastern U.S. city of Baltimore, Maryland, women jockeys are showing they can win races in a male dominated sport.

It was the first of ten races at Pimlico Race Course recently, and 22 year-old Stephanie Korger and her horse took the lead early on, crossing the finish line first.

"She actually worked really good today. She did everything that I asked her to and very cooperative for the win," Korger said of the horse she rode.

Korger's horse was trained by Dane Kobiskie. "Stephanie, as a rider, to me is just a very smooth rider," Kobiske said.

Korger says there’s nothing she’d rather do than be a jockey. "It is an absolute exhilarating rush.  I mean there’s no feeling like it.  When those gates open, I mean there’s nothing else in the world that you can compare with," she said.

She's the top apprentice rider at Pimlico, where the prestigious Preakness race is held three weeks after the Kentucky Derby.  When her year- long apprenticeship is finished, she will become a professional rider or journeyman.

A man named Walt comes regularly to the track to bet on the horses. He says the women jockeys keep up with the men.  "Women riders have a different touch, generally, than male riders, in my opinion in that they tend to be more patient," Walt said.

Sarah Rook is also an apprentice rider and competed in her first professional race today.   She saw an opening between two horses and slipped through to cross the finish line first.

"She just went right through and kept going.  She was perfect," Rook said of her horse.

Korger says getting to the top isn’t easy. "There’s some trainers who won’t ride you specifically because you’re a girl, and the only thing you can really do is go out there and be determined and beat them in a race and prove to them that you’re just as good as any other guy out there," she said.

Jonathan Joyce has been a jockey for six years. He says the women have more to prove. "I think they just have to overcome a lot as far as trainers and competitiveness between the guys and trying to be accepted in a game that has been so much known as a man’s sport for so long," he said.

Korger says, like the men,  the women have to work their way up. "We race four days a week, Thursday through Sunday, and we get on the horses in the morning and we work them, make sure they’re fit and exercised.  We do that for free, and in exchange, we get to ride the horses in a race," she said.

Last July, Korger broke her shoulder when she fell off her horse after it stumbled during a race. "It’s a very physically demanding job.  Jockeys are some of the most fit athletes in the world and at the same time it’s a very dangerous sport," she said.

Twenty-six-year-old jockey Forest Boyce was one of the top apprentice riders in the United States last year.  Now a journeyman, she says winning is hit and miss. "Most of the time, when they’re supposed to win they don’t, and when they aren’t, they do," she said.

Gina Clay, a horseracing fan is impressed with Boyce. "I watched her race and I saw her and she kind of hung in there with all the big boys, you know, and I thought it was great," she said.

The only woman in this year’s Kentucky Derby is Rosie Napravnik, who began her career in Maryland in 2005.  Korger says Napravnik is a role model. "It’s really exciting.  It’s definitely going to open up a lot of doors for female riders, I think."

Like other women jockeys, Korger wants to be in the big races, including the Kentucky Derby.

Women Jockeys Keep Up with the Men

Article from VOA

International Coastal Cleanup Day - Trash from ocean beaches, rivers and other waterways threaten marine life.

Trashed Oceans Threaten Marine Life

Volunteers remove 3.5 million kilos of trash from ocean beaches, rivers and other waterways worldwide

VOA - Faiza Elmasry | Washington, D.C. April 04, 2011



 Last September, more than 600,000 volunteers from all over the world participated in International Coastal Cleanup Day. According to a report released recently, they removed more than 3.5 million kilos of trash from ocean beaches, rivers and other waterways worldwide, enough to cover 170 football fields. They collected enough tires to outfit almost 6,000 cars, and enough cigarette butts to fill nearly 95,000 packs.

Talking trash

The report is called "Tracking Trash: 25 Years of Action for the Ocean." It contains data and stories about the trash that volunteers collected during last year's International Coastal Cleanup Day.
The annual event is organized by the advocacy group, Ocean Conservancy. Plastic bottles, bags, cigarette butts and other trash are clogging the oceans and killing marine mammals and sea turtles every year, according to Vikki Spruill, the group's president.

"Earth, as we know it, is a water planet," says Spruill. "If you look from outer space, you see blue before you see the land. It’s all connected. The ocean is the system that actually provides the rain water that we all depend on in our life. Half of the oxygen in the next breath you’re going to take comes from the oceans." 

Luckily, she says, thousands of people from more than 120 countries and all 50 U.S. states care enough to volunteer every year for clean ups of the planet's waterways, beaches and ocean fronts.

"We have students, school kids, scout troops, stay-at-home mothers. We have military leaders, every imaginable walk of life, participating in these cleanups."

International effort

One of those volunteers is Oscar Oviedo, a banker from the Dominican Republic. "A couple of friends and myself, we practice scuba diving and we began to see the situation of the ocean from underneath and said we had to do something," he says. "So we established our own foundation, Vida Azul, which means Blue Life, four years ago. We gathered about 1,800 volunteers."

They've been cleaning waterways in the Santo Domingo area.

"What we’re doing is we organize speeches and reunions where we talk about the importance of water and try to get people involved, mostly children under 12," Oviedo says. "I think we’re pretty effective. A lot of people know about our efforts and they know the importance of not throwing trash in rivers and lakes and the ocean as well."

When Blue Life volunteers reach out to school children, he says, they raise other issues as well.

"For example, we ask them if they’ve seen their fathers while they shave. We say if you close the water every time you shave, then you open the tap again to wash the razor, you’re saving so much amount of water."

Spreading the word

Judy Bolin, an American from the east coast state of North Carolina is also concerned about the oceans. She runs NC Big Sweep, a group which conducts year-round education to cut down on littering.

"The great thing about people participating in the clean ups is that after they’re finished with their cleanup, we’ll hear them say, ‘I didn’t know there was so much litter out there. I’m never going to litter again,'" says Bolin. "It’s an eye-opening experience for everyone as it was for me. I remember one time we released a green heron from a fishing line out there in the river, and it was just wonderful to see it fly away and recover from what someone had done, [leaving] a fishing line in the river, which is not a good thing to do."

Now, Bolin says, volunteers from all over the world can communicate and exchange experiences.

"We’ve got social media. We’ve just started getting into Facebook and Twitter last year and a couple of our counties were successful recruiting volunteers this way. So we’ve got connections all over the world."

Judy Bolin and Oscar Oviedo say they hope more volunteers will join their effort to clean up the oceans. To those who cannot join, they say, please stop littering our waterways.

Trashed Oceans Threaten Marine Life

Article and video from VOA

Chesapeake Bay Spring - Chorus of spring peepers

Spring is in the air as peepers’ calls fill Chesapeake forests
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal

Spring comes a lot earlier than our calendars indicate. My first clue came March 2. Arriving home from the airport very late that night, I was greeted by a chorus of spring peepers, tiny frogs whose song sounds like sleigh bells.

Spring peepers live in the forest. Adhesive disks on their toes make them expert tree climbers. During their breeding period, from February to March, spring peepers leave the trees to mate in open water.

Temporary ponds formed by the periodic spring flooding of forests are the main breeding sites. Although these ponds may last only a few days or weeks, they are critical to the life cycle of many amphibians, including spring peepers.

Spring peeper breeding actually follows the wood frog by a week or two. But its unmistakable mating call and large geographic range make the spring peeper one of the most familiar frogs in North America. Spring peepers can be found from Manitoba to the Maritime Provinces in Canada, south through central Florida and west to Texas.

Spring peepers, like all frogs, toads and salamanders, are amphibians. Most amphibians lay soft eggs in water. The eggs hatch into larvae, in this case tadpoles, which are aquatic organisms. Most amphibians also go through an aquatic larval stage that looks and acts quite different from the adult.

As open water appears in early spring, male peepers converge on moist breeding grounds. Because they sing to attract females, only males “peep.” This mating call can sometimes be heard up to a half a mile away.

Peeping reaches a crescendo on the warmest night and almost ceases if the temperature drops below 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Breeding areas are easily discovered, but finding these small frogs is difficult because they hide under aquatic vegetation.

When ready, females arrive and choose their mates. The male sits on the female’s back and fertilizes the 800-1,300 eggs she deposits. The eggs, only 1/200 of an inch long, are laid singly on underwater vegetation. Depositing the eggs can take about one day to accomplish. Once breeding is complete, peepers return to trees. The following spring, the cycle begins again.

Another key to spring’s arrival is the migration of fish. About a week after hearing my first peepers, I watched as dozens of fish tried to negotiate a small dam in Queen Anne’s County MD. Fish of all kinds were valiantly swimming against the current and artificial topography, trying to get upstream to spawn. Alewife, shad, perch and other fish filled the shallows until there seemed to be more fish than water.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed is like a highway system for fish. Many journey from the ocean to freshwater to spawn. These fish are known as anadromous, a word meaning “running uphill.” And these fish literally swim upriver against the flow of water.

The fish most famous for their spring runs are in the herring family: blueback herring, alewife, hickory shad and American shad. As adults, these fish inhabit offshore Atlantic waters. During the spring, they swim up the Chesapeake Bay to freshwater to spawn, usually returning to the same river in which they were born.

How they do this is a mystery. Many scientists believe this homing instinct may be due to an uncanny sense of smell and sensitivity to magnetic signals, polarized light and unique characteristics of the natal stream.

The onset of spawning is related to water temperature and length of day.

The spawning season for alewife generally runs from March through April. Blueback spawn from mid-April through late May. Shad spawn from March through June. Alewife favor slow-moving sections of streams while blueback herring prefer to spawn in swift water.

Upon reaching the spawning ground, males circle a lone female. As this mass of fish swirls around, the female releases her eggs and the males release their sperm. After spawning, the adults swim back downstream and return to the ocean.

Not to be overlooked at this time of year are the birds. I certainly could not overlook the flock of wild turkey that wandered into the woods of my backyard. Three males were vying for the attention of the 15 or so females milling about. When one male fanned out his tail feathers, puffed out his chest and strutted about in circles, the females quickly took notice and followed him as he flew to another wooded site.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed contains many different habitats that support this diverse collection of wildlife. However, it has been estimated that an acre of land is lost to development every six to 10 minutes. This translates into loss of food, cover and breeding areas for our wildlife.

Excessive sprawl and development also adds nutrients and other pollutants into our waterways.

To combat this trend, many federal and state agencies offer incentives to landowners to conserve or restore wetlands, forests and grasslands. Homeowners can help by creating small pockets of wildlife habitat in their backyards through BayScaping.

Every resident can also influence local land use decisions. Attend public hearings and meetings. Let elected officials know your views on conserving wildlife habitat.

Kathryn Reshetiloff is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Bay Field Office in Annapolis.




Spring is in the air as peepers’ calls fill Chesapeake forests
Article from Bay Journal - April 2000

Brookfield Zoo Seven Seas Exhibit - Chicago. More than two million people visit each year.

Zoo's Dolphin Habitat Celebrates 50th Anniversary

VOA - Kane Farabaugh | Chicago March 25, 2011

Photo: VOA

Melissa Zabojnik, a senior keeper at the Seven Seas exhibit, works with the Brookfield Zoo's youngest dolphin, March 2011

More than two million people each year visit the Brookfield Zoo’s Seven Seas exhibit in suburban Chicago. The exhibit, celebrating its 50th anniversary, is the oldest inland dolphin habitat in the United States. It focuses on the Chicago Zoological Society’s efforts to promote marine conservation.

Fifty years ago, the only way people in the US. Midwest could see dolphins up close was by visiting the coastline. The Chicago Zoological Society wanted to bring that experience closer to home.

"This was a very groundbreaking facility," said Rita Stacey, curator of the Seven Seas exhibit at Brookfield Zoo. She's worked with dolphins at the zoo for twenty years. "It was the first inland Dolphinarium. It was the first one to use artificial saltwater. We now create our own man-made saltwater here."

That technological advance allowed the zoo to create a permanent habitat for marine mammals far from the ocean. The exhibit, which Stacey said is as close to their natural environment as possible, attracts millions of visitors every year, even when temperatures are below freezing outside.

"This is actually our second building," said Stacey. "Our first building was operated for close to about 25 years. And in that 25 years, we had estimated about 11.5 million people had gone into that facility and saw the dolphins there."

Stacey said the Chicago Zoological Society, which runs the Brookfield Zoo, is one of the leading institutions promoting a better understanding of marine life. She said some research, including how dolphins breed and communicate, is a product of studying dolphins at the zoo.

"There is so much that we have learned in the last 50 years about caring for the dolphins, about the inner workings of their society and their relationships with each other, as well as about anatomy and about how dolphins actually work," said Stacey.

Melissa Zabojnik is a senior keeper at the Seven Seas exhibit. She has been working with dolphins for 10 years, and helps show the mammals to the public.

"We can use the dolphins as ambassadors to teach the public," said Zabojnik. "The zoo’s mission is to inspire conservation leadership, so that’s something that we try to portray in our dolphin shows as well."

The Zoo’s conservation efforts were tested during last year’s Gulf Oil spill. The Chicago Zoological Society’s Dolphin Research Center in Sarasota Florida, a sister facility, saw some changes in the dolphin population in the Gulf.

Zabojnik said their history with the mammals is helping them track the long term environmental effects of the disaster. "Because we’ve gotten to know these animals so well in the past, it helps us in the future by determining if the oil spill has any effect on the future of them….. where the animals spend their time, if they migrate for any reason, if there’s any difference of their health and population year after year because of the oil spill."

The Brookfield Zoo now works with six other U.S. facilities that also are away from coastlines. Together, they promote a better understanding of the world under the sea.

Zoo's Dolphin Habitat Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Article and video from VOA

Muskrat Trapping in Talbot County - Eastern Shore of Maryland

Muskrat Trapping - Video
Follow an experienced muskrat trapper through the salt marshes of Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Chesapeake Bay - Zooplankton are the most plentiful animals

Zooplankton
State of the Bay / By Karl Blankenship - Bay Journal

The term "zooplankton" describes the community of floating, often microscopic, animals that inhabit aquatic environments. Zooplankton are the most plentiful animals in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Being near the base of the food chain, they serve as food for larger animals, such as fish. One gallon of water can contain more than 500,000 zooplankton, ranging in size from tiny, single-celled protozoa to large jellyfish such as sea nettles. The most common zooplankton are the Crustacea, which include such animals as crab and barnacle larvae.

Because the zooplankton are a critical component of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, they are monitored monthly at 32 stations throughout the Bay and its tributaries. Using this information, it is possible to track changes in the habitat quality of the Bay over time, test for the presence of exotic organisms such as the zebra mussel, and develop environmental indices that reflect the relative "health" of different areas of the Bay.

Zooplankton are proving to be good indicators of water quality conditions, habitat quality for living resources, and the effects of toxic contamination in the Bay.

An example of one zooplankton environmental index that is still under development is an index of the food available for larval striped bass. Several studies have indicated that sufficient numbers of zooplankton during the critical life stages of larval striped bass are vitally important to their growth and survival. Although larval striped bass are able to survive several days without food, low densities of zooplankton diminish the likelihood of larval survival in a hostile environment where more than 90 percent of larvae perish. While other factors are also important, larval striped bass are not likely to survive and produce a strong year class without sufficient amounts of food.

To develop the index, four distinct feeding categories were established, based on the density of zooplankton per liter of water. These categories, "optimal," "minimum," "below minimum," and "poor" indicate the status of food availability during critical larval periods of striped bass. To apply the index, the spring (April to June) density of zooplankton was calculated for monitoring stations located in striped bass nursery areas.

Measures such as the food availability index demonstrate the use of zooplankton data in providing important information about the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. This index also illustrates how zooplankton act as a critical link between water quality and living resources. Additional zooplankton environmental indicators are currently under development for use in assessing the health of the Bay.

State-of-the-Bay is excerpted from the soon-to-be published Bay Program report, "The State of the Chesapeake Bay," edited by the Maryland Department of the Environment, Chesapeake Bay and Watershed Management Administration.




Karl is the Editor of the Bay Journal.





Zooplankton
Article from Bay Journal - March 1995

Amphibians of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Serenades from the woods
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Journal

There is an explosion of activity happening in tiny wetlands throughout the watershed. Species are gathering to attract their mates and breed. Most of us won't notice the event because of the players and their stage. The breeders are amphibians. Their places of pleasure are the tiny, often temporary, wetlands of our forests. Moist depressions, small ponds, and puddles, seeps, and small streams provide the essential element, water, which most amphibians need to breed.

The class of animals known as amphibians include salamanders, frogs, toads, and caecilians, worm-like animals with backbones. Amphibian comes from the Greek word “amphibios,” which means living a double life. The majority of amphibians are terrestrial as adults, but their larvae are aquatic. Most amphibians lay soft eggs in water. The eggs hatch to reveal a larval form. In the case of frogs and toads, the larvae are tadpoles, which depend on aquatic environments for survival. As the larvae grow, they experience radical physiological changes, a process known as metamorphosis, that transforms them into adults.

Forested wetlands are the main breeding sites. Because many forested wetlands are subject to periodic flooding from high ground water levels and heavy rains, temporary ponds form. These ponds may last from a few weeks to a few months and are critical to the life cycle of many amphibians. Forested wetlands contain a rich food supply of microscopic algae and a variety of invertebrates that contribute to the survival of amphibian larvae. Wetlands that are temporarily flooded often do not support predatory fish. These areas are safer for the development of eggs and larvae than permanently flooded areas or wetlands connected to waterways.

One of the most familiar amphibians in this region, yet the most difficult to actually see, is the spring peeper. On a warm night, wander near most forests and you will be serenaded by a chorus of these tiny frogs. The song, which sounds like the jingle of sleigh bells, signals an end to winter and the arrival of spring.

Most of the year, spring peepers live in the forest. Well-developed adhesive disks on their toes make peepers expert tree climbers. Peepers are brown, gray or olive. A dark cross, in the shape of an X, adorns their backs. These small frogs, often less than an inch long, can jump up to 28 inches, more than 20 times their body length!

From February to March, male peepers converge on their breeding grounds, singing to attract females. The mating call, a high-pitched ascending whistle, can often be heard up to a half a mile away. Males will often sing in duets, trios, or quartets.

Frogs and toads produce their peeps, clicks and croaks by moving air back and forth over their vocal cords. Like many frogs and toads, the spring peeper has a vocal sac on the throat that resonates the call. The male inflates its vocal sacs and as it calls, the inflated sacs resonate the sound. Peeping reaches a crescendo on the warmest night but ceases if temperature drops below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. When ready to mate, females arrive and choose their mates.

Often, males are so preoccupied with breeding that they will accidentally grab another male. A release call tells the offending suitor that he has the wrong partner. Frogs also vibrate their bodies to shake off mistaken males.

Mating occurs in shallow pools. The male sits on the female's back and fertilizes the 800-1,300 eggs as she deposits them. The eggs, only a fraction of an inch long, are laid singly on underwater vegetation. Depositing eggs can take up to one day to complete. Once breeding is finished, peepers return to the trees.

After two or three weeks, eggs hatch and tadpoles, less than 1/5 of an inch in length, emerge. They spend most of their time eating and growing. Tadpoles are herbivores. They feed by inhaling water and filtering blue-green algae.

After five months, tadpoles metamorphose into adults. Gills are replaced with lungs, legs grow, and tails are absorbed into the body. Since adult frogs are carnivores, a tadpole's intestines shrink and the mouth becomes larger to adapt to eating and digesting animal material. The new, tiny frogs leave the water for their new woodland home, continuing to grow and mature. Spring peepers reach sexual maturity in 3 to 4 years.

Late winter and early spring rains and thawing snow contribute to the creation of open water areas that are breeding grounds for amphibians like the spotted salamander, wood frog, and American toad. Since the water in these areas is not permanent, the breeding season for these species may only last a few weeks. The larvae must develop quickly. Permanent water sources provide habitat for bullfrogs and carpenter frogs. Small, shallow streams serve as breeding grounds for the carpenter frog and a variety of salamanders. The marbled salamander, however, takes a different approach to breeding. During late summer the female lays her eggs at the bottom of dry ponds or in low depressions. The eggs will not hatch until rain covers them.

All across the country, there has been a drastic decline in amphibian populations. Scientists believe that degradation or loss of critical forested wetland habitat to be the main cause. Many amphibians breed in the same ponds and wetlands in which they were born. If these natal areas are disturbed or lost, those individuals may not breed. Deforestation results in a loss of upland forest habitat used by adults and dispersing juveniles. Fragmentation of habitat is also a problem. As wooded tracts shrink in size, the remaining amphibians become isolated and inbreeding may occur, weakening the species.

Protecting upland and wetland forests, particularly those adjacent to each other, is the first step toward preserving amphibian populations. Vegetated buffer strips along waterways are equally important to the survival of amphibian populations. Rivers and their flood plains provide excellent corridors that connect isolated or fragmented woodlands. These corridors are especially important in highly developed areas like the mid-Atlantic states. They allow amphibians to move between small pockets of existing forests and wetlands, helping to ensure healthy and diverse populations.

Amphibians are not the only ones to benefit from preserving woodlands and forested wetlands. These same areas are also habitat for a multitude of invertebrates, fish, birds, and mammals. By preserving woodlands, wetlands, and river corridors, we also reduce the amount of nutrient and sediment runoff entering rivers and the Bay. In addition to the ecological values provided by forests and their associated wetlands, these areas have important commercial, social and aesthetic values. These are excellent areas for hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and birdwatching. In this increasingly developed landscape, we often need a place to which we can retreat. Forests and their wetlands offer us an alternative to our concrete world, a place where we can be serenaded by a chorus of frogs.



Kathryn Reshetiloff is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Bay Field Office in Annapolis.





Serenades from the woods
Article from Bay Journal - March 1994

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge - near Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Eagle-eyed birders will find plenty to see at Blackwater
Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network / By Lara Lutz - Bay Journal

It’s an Osprey Cam—no, wait, it’s an Eagle Cam. But in a short few months, it will be an Osprey Cam again.

So stay tuned. Use that lunch break to log onto http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/ and see what happens to one popular osprey nest while the owners have flown south for the winter. You’ll see current, close-up images of the nest, with a gallery of archived photos showing creatures that stop by to visit—including squirrels, blue jays and, yes, bald eagles.

The nest itself is perched high on a stand at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, a member of the Chesapeake Gateways Network near Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The Blackwater refuge is a mecca for bird watchers, showcasing impressive populations of geese, ducks and other birds that vary in number and species throughout the year.

Blackwater also supports the largest density of nesting bald eagles on the Atlantic coast north of Florida. More than 75 eagles have a permanent residence here. In the winter, migrating eagles boost this number to 150 and beyond.

While eagles are arguably the star attraction at Blackwater, they are by far not the only show on the playbill. With 27,000 acres of waterways, fields, forest and marshes, the refuge is a sprawling oasis of habitat for a wide range of wildlife. The refuge is also a prime destination along the Atlantic Flyway—so winter is the ideal time to make your visit, when the gathering of migratory species reaches its peak.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge came into being as the first federal wildlife refuge in the northeast region. It was formed in 1933, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture purchased 8,200 acres of land along the Blackwater River to establish a wildlife sanctuary for migratory birds. Prior to the purchase, the land was owned by the Delmarvia Fur Farm, which bought the property from multiple local owners in 1927 and used it to harvest muskrats. In 1956, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assumed management of the refuge.

Since then, both the mission and the size of the refuge have expanded. Passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 ensured that Blackwater would be recognized for its invaluable habitat for the bald eagle and Delmarva fox squirrel. Over the years, the refuge has more than tripled the amount of its original holdings. Today, it stands at 27,000 acres divided approximately in thirds between forest, marshland and open water.

Approximately 400 acres are managed as farmland for the benefit of birds, deer and waterfowl. Usually, the refuge staff plants the fields themselves. On occasion, though, the refuge partners with local farmers who labor in the fields for free and leave one-quarter of their crops for wildlife.

This diverse and largely contiguous landscape at Blackwater provides a haven for Canada geese, snow geese, and tundra (or whistling) swans.

In the fall and winter, great clouds of geese rise from the fields with squawks and rumblings at a volume rarely heard elsewhere. Blackwater also harbors more than 20 species of ducks, including mallards, black ducks, wood ducks, blue-winged teals, green-winged teals, wigeons and pintails. Prothonotary warblers, bluebirds, flickers, sparrow hawks, orioles, bobwhites and owls are among the 85 species of birds that live at the refuge or make a seasonal visit. Shoreline sightings of osprey, herons and egrets are common.

The landscape of Blackwater also nurtures mammals such as otters, raccoons, red fox, muskrats, white tailed deer, sika deer, and the Delmarva fox squirrel.

Sika deer are an Asian species of elk introduced to the area in 1916. The nocturnal sika coexist peaceably with the native white-tails, feeding on marsh grass while the white-tailed deer graze the forest for leaves, buds and twigs. Both enjoy the culinary options of a good farm field.

The Delmarva fox squirrel remains on the endangered species list but has regained a noticeable population in Maryland, with Blackwater boasting the largest protected population within the species’ range.

The nutria, a small muskrat-like animal native to South America, has also made an impact on life at the Blackwater refuge. The good news is this: Blackwater is now a model success story for eradicating this tenacious animal, which has destroyed untold acres of wetlands nationwide.

Nutria have an insatiable appetite for marsh plants—roots and all. After its initial appearance in 1943, the nutria population at Blackwater exploded. Blackwater has lost more than 7,000 acres of wetlands through the years, and nutria are largely to blame. Their feeding habits clear marsh vegetation and leave expansive mud flats in their wake. In time, the mud wears away and is replaced by open water.

In 1999, the Blackwater refuge and 26 project organizations launched an aggressive counterattack. The first few strategies faltered. Then the plan became rather simple, but enormous in scope. Full-time trappers began making year-round sweeps of the area, working west to east, hunting and trapping approximately 8,300 nutria. Just recently, Blackwater and its surroundings—nearly 37,000 acres—were declared essentially nutria-free. Small remnant populations still require attention, but the rebuilding of damaged wetlands is already under way.

Supported in part by grants from the Chesapeake Gateways Network, the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge offers plenty of ways to experience the abundant wildlife and learn about the ecosystem that supports it.

Wildlife Drive is a 6.5 mile loop of all-weather road that hugs the shoreline of Blackwater River. Freshwater ponds, woods, fields and marshes grace the landscape on either side of the road.

Visitors can hike, bike or drive the route, enjoying two trails and numerous spots for birding along the way. One fun spot is the photo blind, a wood hut with small camouflaged openings for viewing waterfowl on all sides and levels.

Be sure to stop at the Visitors Center in advance to ask for maps and brochures that interpret the sights that you encounter. Staff at the Visitors Center can also help to extend touring options by mapping routes along county roads adjacent to refuge lands.

Two hiking trails branch off directly from Wildlife Drive. The Marsh Edge Trail is a wheelchair accessible, stroller-friendly path that winds one-third of a mile through, well, just that: the marsh’s edge. You can watch birds and waterfowl from a shoreline bench or from a boardwalk that extends 80 feet into the marsh.

The Woods Trail, half a mile in length, travels through pine and mixed hardwoods, prime habitat for the Delmarva fox squirrel. Two additional woodland trails will open within the coming year.

Canoe and kayak trails provide nearly 25 miles for paddling and have proved extremely popular with refuge visitors. The trails are open April through October. Rentals are available from nearby outfitters, some of whom will deliver directly to the refuge launch site. Fishing, hunting and crabbing are also permitted in accordance with refuge regulations. Keep in mind, too, that the summer months are accompanied by large numbers of flies and mosquitoes in the marsh and woods.

Contact the Visitors Center for information, or visit http://blackwater.fws.gov.

The Visitors Center is in a temporary location while the main building undergoes construction to improve its exhibits, meeting space and library. Plenty of good resources lie ahead when the new center opens its doors in 2005.

In the meantime, start planning a winter visit to Blackwater or, at the very least, visit at the Eagle Cam web page. When a great image comes on screen, join in the fun: a few clicks of your mouse will send the image to a permanent online photo gallery where others visitors can share in a day in the life of an eagle…or osprey.


Wildlife Calendar

Events may vary by one or two weeks, depending on weather conditions.

January: Geese, swans and ducks dwell in the marsh, as well as hawks, great blue herons and shorebirds. Great horned owls incubate eggs. Bald eagles rebuild their nests in loblolly pines.

February: North-bound migrants appear late in February—killdeer, robins and bluebirds. Eagles also lay eggs late in the month. Wintering waterfowl prepare for the long flight north through intense foraging.

March: Most migratory waterfowl depart for points north. Masses of red-winged blackbirds pass through; some remain to nest. Ospreys return from southern wintering grounds and begin constructing nests.

April: Resident ducks and geese incubate eggs. The majority of migrant marsh birds return by mid-April. Blue-winged and green-winged teal pass through. Delmarva fox squirrels are born. Young bald eagles begin hatching. Osprey, wild turkey and northern bobwhite begin to nest. Late April and early May heralds peak shorebird migrations.

May: Migratory songbirds peak in late April and early May with warblers being most conspicuous and abundant. White-tail fawns begin to appear. Eaglets start to fledge. The first broods of waterfowl appear.

June: Ospreys begin to hatch. Eaglets fledge. Songbirds begin to nest.

July: Local goslings start to fly. Large quantities of insects are consumed by swallows, kingbirds and flycatchers. Marsh hibiscus (mallow) begins to bloom along marsh edges at the end of the month. Osprey young leave the nest.

August: Wading bird numbers increase. Blue-winged teal begin to arrive from the north on their southward migration. Some bald eagles disperse north after the breeding season.

September: Ospreys migrate to South and Central America. Waterfowl numbers gradually increase. Egrets and herons accumulate until cold weather pushes them south. Tickseed sunflowers bloom. Cattails go to seed. Songbird migration peaks in late September and early October. Toads are abundant.

October–December: Blackbirds peak in October and November. The abundance of ducks and geese gradually increases, and peaks occur in late October or November. Tundra swans from Northwest Canada usually arrive in early November. Several hundred remain throughout the winter. White-tailed and sika deer breed. Bald eagle numbers increase. Golden eagles are occasionally seen during winter. Waterfowl numbers decrease. Some remain all winter.


Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge


Hours: Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge’s Visitor Center is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. It is closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Wildlife Drive and trails are open dawn to dusk every day.

Cost: Visitors are welcome to explore the Visitor Center free of charge. A daily permit is required for all visitors on the Wildlife Drive and trails, unless they possess an annual pass or lifetime passport.

The fees are $3 for private vehicles; $1 for pedestrians or bicyclists; $15 for a commercial van or bus, with up to 20 passengers; $25 for a commercial van or bus with 21 or more passengers.

Getting There: The refuge is located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, approximately 12 miles south of Cambridge.

From Route 50 in Cambridge, turn onto Route 16 West (Church Creek Road). A traffic light marks the intersection, with Wal-Mart on one side and the Hyatt Regency on the other. Follow Route 16 through a traffic light at Snow’s Turn, passing the South Dorchester High School. At the first road past the traffic light, turn left onto Egypt Road. Follow Egypt road for approximately 7 miles until it dead ends at Key Wallace Drive. Signs will direct you to the Wildlife Drive, the Visitor Center and the Refuge Office.

For information: Contact Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge at 2145 Key Wallace Drive, Cambridge, MD 21613; 410-228-2677 or TDD/800-735-2258;

To learn about other sites in the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, visit: http://www.baygateways.net/

Learn more:




Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge




Lara Lutz is a writer and editor who lives on the South River in Mayo, MD
 
 
Eagle-eyed birders will find plenty to see at Blackwater
Article from Bay Journal - Jan, Feb 2005

Red Fox - Catlike Canine

Red fox’s adaptability to humans helps to make it more widespread
Bay Naturalist / By Kathy Reshetiloff - Bay Jouranl

If you’re like most Americans, you probably think you must travel a substantial distance from your home to see wildlife. It’s true that as that as we develop more land, converting farmland into suburbs and forests into shopping malls, many of the birds, mammals and other wildlife are pushed farther away.

But some wildlife species are able to adjust and adapt to manmade surroundings. One such case is the red fox.

Red foxes are fairly common, found in most of North America, except parts of Canada and the southwestern United States.

But they are not native to some of the Eastern states. In the mid-18th century, red foxes were imported from England and released in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia by landowners who enjoyed hunting them with hounds. Our red fox populations are hybrids from the interbreeding of imported foxes with native races.

Red foxes inhabit a variety of habitats, including woodlands, farmland, pastures and brush. Because they adapt to so many different environments, red foxes survive quite well in urban and suburban areas. Essentially, they have become urbanized, although they are still wary of people.

They are active both day and night, although one is most likely to see them at dusk or dawn.

Red foxes are small, doglike animals with a sharp, pointed nose, erect ears and a bushy tail. The body of an average red fox is about 25 inches with the tail adding another 12 to 18 inches.

Noted for their red color above, a red fox is white underneath. The backs of the ears, lower legs and feet are black.

The long, bushy tail always sports a white tip. The name red fox is kind of a misnomer as there are several color phases besides red, including silver and cross. The silver phase is almost completely black with silver tipped hairs. The cross phase is reddish brown with a dark cross on its shoulders. All color phases of the red fox have a white-tipped tail. Most fox pups show the white tail tip at birth.

The gray fox, the only other fox in the Chesapeake area, is smaller (8–12 lbs.), gray and has a black-tipped tail.

Red foxes are omnivorous: They eat both plants and animals. Their varied diet includes insects, birds, mice, snakes, rabbits, nuts, berries and fruits.

Like several other small predators, the red fox’s diet changes with the seasons and locality. One study found that animals made up the bulk of their winter diet while insects and fruits were the summer preference. They also eat carrion.

Noted as sly and cunning, the red fox is actually just extremely cautious. Their hearing differs from many other mammals in that it is most sensitive to low-frequency sounds. The fox listens, for example, for the underground digging, gnawing and rustling of small mammals. When it hears such sounds, it frantically digs into the soil or snow to capture the animal.

The red fox is catlike in stalking its prey. It hunts larger quarry, such as rabbits, by moving in as close as possible, then attempting to run the prey down when it bolts. The red fox can run up to 30 miles per hour and is able to jump over barriers that are 6 feet high. They continue to hunt even when full, stashing excess food under snow, leaves or soft dirt.

An adult fox rarely retires to a den in winter. Instead, it curls into a ball and wraps its bushy tail about its nose and foot pads. At times, it may be completely blanketed with snow.

Adults are solitary until the mating season, which begins in late January or February.

Foxes often smell like they have been in a fight with a skunk, but the smell emanates from a scent gland located beneath their tail. This skunklike smell is associated with the courtship when males and females establish territories by “scent marking.” Mating usually occurs from January through early March.

One litter of 1-10 kits is born between March and May in a maternity den. The maternity den is commonly an enlarged groundhog den, usually in sparse ground cover on a slight rise, with a view of surrounding area. It may also be in a streambank, slope, rock pile or in a hollow tree or log. The den will be well-marked with excavated earth, cache mounds where food is buried, holes where food has been dug up, and scraps of bones and feathers.

Food is given to the first pup that begs. Some young may die in years when food is scarce. At first, the mother predigests and regurgitates meat, but soon she brings live prey, enabling the kits to practice killing. At about one month, the young play above the ground. Later, the young begin to hunt with the parents.

The kits disperse at about seven months, with males traveling up to 150 miles away and females remaining closer. Adults also disperse, remaining solitary until the next breeding season.

The adult red fox has few enemies other than people and automobiles, although rabies, mange and distemper are problems. For years, unregulated trapping and bounty payments took a heavy toll on red foxes, but they rebounded after the collapse of the fur industry and the abolishment of most bounty payments.

Because they are generalists — able to survive on many different foods and live in different habitats — don’t be surprised to find a fox in your neighborhood.

Foxes are not dangerous unless they are being handled or rabid (which is very rare).

A fox in a backyard is often just cutting through. Of course, foxes, like other urban wildlife, are attracted to food. To reduce the likelihood of foxes frequenting your yard, ensure that all trash cans have tight-fitting lids, never put meat scraps into a compost pile and never leave pet food outside.

When people and wildlife share space, problems can sometimes occur. Usually, there are simple solutions to deterring “nuisance” animals. County animal control officers or extension agents can suggest deterrents or humanely remove problem wildlife.

In this increasingly developed environment, urban wildlife like foxes, raccoons, squirrels, bats and birds enrich our lives. Seeing wildlife in the backyard is often a child’s first experience with the outdoor world, providing a connection to nature.

With patience and common sense, people and wildlife can coexist. So stay alert and keep your eyes peeled. You never know what fascinating animal may be living next door.



Kathryn Reshetiloff is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Bay Field Office in Annapolis.




Red fox’s adaptability to humans helps to make it more widespread
Article: Bay Journal
Jan, Feb 2002