Habitat birding at the refuge
Northern and Louisiana Waterthrushes are similar-looking, ground-dwelling warblers with brown backs, streaked breasts and prominent superciliums. Waterthrushes breed from Georgia to Alaska and pass through St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge on migration to and from their wintering grounds in the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela. They have distinctive tail-wagging walks and are found along the edges of streams and ponds, searching for insects and larvae.
Many years ago, I was birding with my friend John Hintermister when we saw a waterthrush bobbing along the edge of a wetland depression on the Tower Pond Trail at the refuge. For years afterward, whenever we were looking for warblers during migration and passed that depression, John would stop to look for waterthrushes explaining that, “They like that spot. You always see them there.” Twenty years later, we finally saw a waterthrush in the depression again and John exclaimed, “See! I told you they liked that spot.”
Now, waterthrushes can live for about 10 years, but most don’t last that long. The waterthrush that we saw after a 20-year hiatus was likely the great-great grandson of the waterthrush in the earlier sighting. It wasn’t there because it liked that spot. That spot was good habitat for waterthrushes and the kind of place that waterthrushes seek out for foraging.
John’s strategy of looking where he had seen a species before and expecting to see it again is how most of us bird. It’s sometimes called habitat birding.
Birds are most likely found in their preferred habitat. You go to the Helispot with its low wet grassland to find LeConte’s and Henslow’s Sparrows. Common Goldeneye are in the mouth of the St. Marks River, diving for shellfish. Dunlin are on the mudflats of Tower Pond at high tide and Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are in the pine woods.
Once you know a species habitat, it is easier to find it.
Going beyond habitat and knowing a bird’s microhabitat can even help in identification. Least Sandpipers like to forage on mud or sand, while Western Sandpipers like to keep their feet wet and are usually found in shallow water.
On the short-term, habitat birding is a good strategy, but habitats evolve over time. St. Marks refuge staff manage the water levels on Stony Bayou and Tower Pond in order to maintain them as habitat for breeding and wintering shorebirds. Without mowing at the Helispot, encroachment by shrubs and trees would render it useless as sparrow habitat and controlled burns are necessary to maintain the health of the refuge’s pine forests.
Some things are beyond the refuge’s control. A slowly warming climate has led to Canada Geese short-stopping, shortening their migration path and wintering further North. Although, occasionally sighted at the refuge in winter, they used to occur here in the thousands. The habitat is still there, but the birds are gone. A slow progression towards lower duck numbers at St. Marks may indicate that other waterfowl species are also beginning to short-stop.
The winter duck season is drawing to a close at St. Marks and it will soon be time for Spring migration birding. Louisiana Waterthrush, the more Southerly nesting of the two waterthrush species, is an early migrant and I look for it at the refuge in early March.
My friend John is gone now. Cancer took him a few years ago, but I’ll remember him when I walk past that wetland depression and I’ll stop to scan its edge to see if I can find a waterthrush.
They like that spot. You always see them there.
Don Morrow can be reached at donaldcmorrow@gmail.com.