the wildside! - oklahoma department of wildlife … wildside! april 2014 cover photo the brightly...
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5/1/2014 Enjoy Birds, Bats and More This Summer!
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The WildSide! APRIL 2014
Cover Photo
The brightly coloredpuccoon (Lithospermumincisum) is a springblooming tubular plantwith noticeably fringedpetals. Its native habitatincludes prairies with dryor sandy soils.
Upcoming Events Earth Day
Greetings Wildlife Enthusiasts! The Wildlife Department received some exciting news; Whoopingcranes (Grus americana) were spotted at Canton Lake earlier thismonth! This is only the third whooping crane sighting documentedaround Canton in 20 years! Astonishingly, only 15 whooping cranes remained in the wild in the1940s. They were federally listed as endangered in 1967, and in 2010,the total wild population was estimated at 383 individuals. Thanks totireless recovery efforts, whooping crane populations have been steadilyincreasing. Whooping cranes
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Photo: United States Department of Agriculture
April 22, 2014
Celebrate and honor ourEarth with fun andeducational activities forthe kids! Plant a butterflygarden, or bake an earthcake. Whatever you do,share a picture with usand you might see it in thenext Wildside! [email protected]
Salt Plains Birding &Crystal FestivalApril 26, 2014 In need of some familyfun? Visit the Salt PlainsNational Wildlife Refugefor the 2014 Birding &Crystal Festival. All ageswill enjoy guided birdwatching tours, crystaldigging, nature scavengerhunt and more! Fordirections and moreinformation click here.
Red Slough BirdingConventionMay 3-6, 2014 Don't be surprised if yousee more than 100 birdspecies during the RedSlough birding tour! Afteryou check several birds ofyour list, take a wildfloweror dragonfly tour. Guestspeakers include the
have long life spans.According to theU.S. Fish & WildlifeService, currentestimates suggestthey can live up to30 years in the wild.They occur only inNorth America andare the continent'stallest bird, withmales reachingnearly 5 feet whenstanding erect. These large, graceful cranes, are snowy white with long slender necksand long black legs. Whooping cranes fly with their necks stretched outstraight, unlike similar-looking herons and egrets that hold their necks inan "S" shape while in flight. Their black wingtips (primary feathers) canbe seen in flight and help distinguish them from sandhill cranes.Whooping cranes feed in marshes, shallow-water wetlands, wetmeadows and sometimes crop fields. Their diet includes a wide varietyof insects, crayfish, fish and seeds. Every spring, they migrate northand pass through Oklahoma. While here, they can be found in shallowwetlands, marshes, the margins of ponds and lakes, sandbars andshorelines of shallow rivers, wet prairies and crop fields near wetlands.Most Oklahoma sightings occur west of Interstate 35 and east ofGuymon. During the summer, they nest in northern Canada, thenmigrate south to winter along the Gulf Coast of Texas. The loss of shallow wetland habitat in both nesting and winteringranges is greatest cause of the whooping crane's decline. Although stilllisted as federally endangered, the whooping crane is the unofficialsymbol of wildlife conservation in North America.
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Wildlife Department'sown, Mark Howery.Participation is limited to60 people!
Zara Howerton, a local photographer, was able to capture severalphotos while the cranes rested and foraged for food. Pictured are 9whooping cranes on the right and a small group of pelicans on theleft.
Kelly AdamsOklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation
Let's Get Batty at the 19th Annual Bat Watch!2014 Bat Watch Registration Begins May 27 The 19th annual BatWatch is a rareopportunity to witness amillion Mexican free-tailed
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Mexican free-tailed bats fly overhead at the Selman Bat Caves.Photo: wildlifedepartment.com
bats (Tardaridabrasiliensis) pour intothe twilight sky. Imagine,as the sun sinks below thewestern horizon, the windsettles and the moonappears. A sinuouseruption of black poursfrom the gypsum caves ofthe Selman Bat Caves.Soon the twilit skyis flooded with blackstreams of bats. Thrill,curiosity, and amazementensue as millions ofMexican free-tailed batsfanatically feed above yourhead. Bats are incredible creatures that are often misunderstood. "This is a wonderful event tolearn about these amazing mammals that travel 1,400 miles to give birth each spring,"said Melynda Hickman, wildlife diversity biologist and Bat Watch coordinator for theWildlife Department. Bats are essential for a healthy ecosystem and consume insects,pollinate plants and scatter seeds. In fact, the Selman bat population consumes anestimated 22,000 pounds of mosquitoes, moths and beetles each night. Bat watches are limited to 75 people each evening, so don't wait to register! Childrenmust be 8 years or older to attend. For registration guidelines and more information, visitwildlifedepartment.com or contact Melynda Hickman [email protected].
How to Attract Hummingbirds with Four Easy Tips!
1. Feeder Placement- Early April is the best time to set up a hummingbird feeder.Keep in mind, hummingbirds are territorial, and feeders should be kept away from oneanother to prevent competition.
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Trumpet creeper (Campis radicans) is a popular plant amonghummingbirds. This woody vine produces brightly colored flowersbut it grows quickly and can crowd other plants. Photo by Jena
2. Nutrition- A one-to-four ratio of sugar to water closely mimics the high-energynectar hummingbirds find in nature. Dissolve the sugar by boiling the solution for 1-2minutes, or until it becomes clear. Increasing the amount of sugar isn't beneficial tothese birds; if too much sugar is used, the solution may not easily travel up the groovesin the tongue, and the hummingbirds may begin to feed elsewhere. Never use honey orsugar substitutes. Honey ferments easily, and sugar substitutes have no nutritionalvalue. The red base of the feeder is enough to attract the birds to your backyard, sodon't add food coloring to the sugar water. 3. Feeder Maintenance- Keeping feeders clean is very important. If not cleanedregularly, the feeder may become a host for a deadly fungus. Clean the feeders withhot water and vinegar every 7 to 10 days. Change the sugar water about every 7 daysin the spring and fall. During the heat of the summer, the sugar water should bechanged every 2-3 days. To discourage unwanted insects like bees and wasps, removethe yellow flowers that often come from the manufacturer. 4. Offer Other FoodSources- Adding a feeder isa simple way to attracthummingbirds, but it isimportant to offer other foodsources. Hummingbirds alsofeed on insects and exploitnative and importedflowering plants. They areattracted to small, tubularflowers like jewelweed,fireweeds, larkspur and fouro'clock bushes. Whilefeeders are an importantsupplemental food source,turning your property into awildscape will benefit severalother species of wildlife.
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Donnell
Photo by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The Arkansas River Shiner The Arkansas River shiner has disappeared from more than 80 percent of its historicrange. This small, silvery-white minnow was once abundant in the sandy-bottom riversand streams of the Arkansas River Basin in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas andKansas. Today, it can only be found within about 500 miles of scattered reaches of theCanadian River in Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.
In 1926, the ArkansasRiver shiner was firstdiscovered nearKenton, Oklahoma, inthe Cimarron River,where it is no longerfound. Small, robustand about the size ofyour thumb, theArkansas River shinerrequires at least 80miles of river tocomplete its life cycle.Unfortunately there isa growing threatamong pelagicbroadcast spawningspecies, like theArkansas River shiner,
due to widespread alteration of streams and rivers. Pelagic broadcast spawning fishrelease their eggs and sperm into the water, and as the fertilized eggs drift, theydevelop. Arkansas River shiner produce non-adhesive, semi-buoyant eggs, so theydepend not only on river flow to disperse their eggs, but they also need flow to keep theeggs suspended. Lack of stream flow causes the eggs to settle on the river bottom,where they become smothered by silt, killing the embryos. The fertilized eggs need
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Biologists, including ODWC's Buck Ray, seine sections of the CanadianRiver looking for the Arkansas River shiner and other species. Photo by
Kelly Adams
not just river current tosurvive, but they alsoneed long stretches of it.Spawning occursbetween May andSeptember after heavyrains and peaks duringmoderate to high waterflow. Depending on watertemperature, it takes 24-48 hours for the eggs tohatch. Biologists believe,depending on river flow,eggs travel 45-89 milesdownstream beforehatching. Once the eggshatch, developing larvaerequire water current tohelp them staysuspended until they are capable of swimming. It is speculated that the Arkansas Rivershiners require at least 135 miles of uninterrupted river flow for successful reproduction.To put that into perspective, that is the distance between Oklahoma City and Gainsville,Texas. Reproduction is so strongly correlated with stream flow that loss of river habitat causedby reservoir construction, water depletion, and water diversion has drastically affectedArkansas River shiner populations. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,reservoir construction has caused the most widespread habitat loss. In Oklahoma,irrigation and drought have also severely impacted Arkansas River shiner populations byaltering river flow patterns and removing water from the watershed. Due to competitionwith the accidentally introduced red river shiner (Notropis bairdi), Arkansas River shinerpopulations are completely absent from the Cimarron River.
Just 72 years afterbeing discovered, theArkansas River shinerwas federally listed asthreatened in 1998 by
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Although it may not appear to host many species, prairie rivers like theCanadian River in northwest Oklahoma are home to a variety of species.Photo by Kelly Adams
the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service. InOctober 2005, criticalhabitat was designatedon parts of theCanadian andCimarron Rivers. AldoLeopold once said, "Athing is right when ittends to preserve theintegrity, stability andbeauty of the bioticcommunity. It iswrong when it tendsotherwise." Howeversmall the ArkansasRiver shiner is, it is animportant componentto the biodiversity of
its habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with multiple state agencies,municipalities, academic institutions, and other conservation organizations to develop andexecute a recovery plan for the Arkansas River shiner. The Oklahoma Department ofWildlife Conservation participates in annual species surveys and contributes to thespecies management and recovery planning. Unfortunately, Arkansas River shiners are not alone. Widespread alteration of streamsand rivers throughout the Great Plains of North America has caused extensive changesin the fish communities of these river systems. Alteration and depletion of stream flowalong with water quality degradation continues to threaten the Arkansas River shiner andother species.
New Certified Wildscapes!#463- Ms. Linda Record, Enid#464- Ms. Patricia Pippin, Newcastle
Congratulations to the Linda and Patricia! They dedicated themselves to helping Oklahoma's wildlife
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and received their wildscape certification. If you are interested in wildscaping, visit the Department'swebsite!
The WildSide e-newsletter is a project of the Oklahoma Department ofWildlife Conservation's Wildlife Diversity Program. The Wildlife DiversityProgram is dedicated to all species in Oklahoma that are not hunted or fished.It is primarily funded by the sales of Wildlife Department license plates,publication sales and private donors. Visit wildlifedepartment.com for morewildlife diversity information and events. For questions or comments, pleaseemail [email protected].
This program operates free from discrimination on the basis of political or religious opinion or affiliation, race, creed,color, gender, age, ancestry, marital status or disability. A person who feels he or she may have been discriminatedagainst or would like further information should write: Director, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, P.O.Box 53465, Oklahoma City, OK 73152, or Office of Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of Interior, Washington, D.C.20240.
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Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation | PO BOX 53465 | Oklahoma City | OK | 73152