Ponds on Witter - activity is changing
After almost two weeks (out-of-town) I have made a couple of trips to the ponds to check water level and bird activity.. The hawks and Kestrels are gone. Two turkey vultures were gliding around. Most of the "ponds" are dry or "barely" there. Water levels in the two tanks close to the road are dropping.
Still, today there were three Great Egrets, 1 Great Blue Heron, 7 cormorants (a mixed bag, fishing and drying feathers), a few ducks and a half-dozen turtles in the turtle pond (I suppose we should call it the turtle tank). The egrets were busy moving across the tank and back and making some obvious catches of lunch.
If we don't get some serious rain soon, we will soon have little to watch here.
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Sorry to hear this. Are these historically ephemeral ponds or are they being severely affected by the drought?
We have only been watching them for a year so we have no historical data. The tanks are man-made and support the livestock. The others are likely old oxbow lakes caused by the movement of the nearby river. Some are likely wet-weather ponds only. We started monitoring after some serious rain in the area last winter and spring.
Thanks.
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