The Birds of Lake Martin: The Last Quarter Of 2010

For the first time in almost 10 years, The Nature Conservancy did not pull the drain plug and lower the water in the rookery in September of 2009.

As a result, we started 2010 with higher water than I have seen in over ten years and almost as many birds nesting as we had 7 or 8 years ago..

Last year was a good year for the birds at Lake Martin.

And that being said;

I expected to publish this report in the middle of January when I first sighted a Great Egret building a nest, but that did not happen this year.

Perhaps the cause of delayed nesting this year is due to the severe freezes we had last year, and that combined with another intensely cold winter this year.

All of the above photos are copyrighted and courtesy of Claude Nall

And all things considered, 2010 has been a great year for the birds at Lake Martin.

The rainiest winter in 40 years and extremely cold,

made for high water and natural plant control in the winter of 2010.

Natural plant control? Who ever heard of that? Am I the only one who believes nature can control itself without our arrogant chemical activities?

Then in the spring of 2010, 2 natural surges seemed to coincide,

along with higher water levels, we are seeing more wading birds nesting in the rookery.

Now, on that note, because of higher water levels, a dramatic increase in the population of nesting birds, and very little plant control, I have been very quiet politically and taken a position of observation.

Wood Duck photo courtesy of Claude Nall

I want to wait and see where this goes. At this point, we have made progress toward protecting plants, the ecology, and water resources, and this is good. I certainly don't want to come off as a ranting and raving, constant discontent. I am very much delighted with the changes in plant and water management policies at Lake Martin. Compared to where we were for over a decade, 2010 was a great year for the birds.

Hawk photo courtesy of Claude Nall

Hopefully, we will in the near future have birds nesting in the cypress and tupelo trees along Rookery Road like they did until March 2006.

In the photo below taken in September 2010, you can see the intense heat of summer and below normal rainfall resulted in water levels were about 18 inches below where the water was in the winter time. This is a "natural" draw-down of the lake and swamp water levels.

In my opinion, the water in Lake Martin should be allowed to rise and hold as much as possible in the winter, at the beginning of the nesting season if we are to manage it the way it was being managed when the nesting bird population peaked.

A simple formula of trees growing in standing water year round is required for the birds to nest. The irony is that higher water levels benefit not only the birds, but everyone else who uses Lake Martin, including fishermen, hunters, birdwatchers, photographers, and swamp tour participants.

The only negative element in 2010 for me to report came at the end of summer,

in the last week of September when plant control came along the road and sprayed plants from the road.

Then a few days later, plant control came by boat and sprayed the rookery where I do my swamp tours.

With the blessings of the Nature Conservancy, the state is applying herbicide in the rookery and killing button bush and Cypress trees which are used by nesting birds. Worse than that is to completely destroy the floating mats of plants on three sides of the lake that supplies the food which feeds the nesting birds in the rookery on the south side.

The east, west, and north sides of Lake Martin were 15 years ago, some of the most wildlife intensive swamp I had ever visited because they were covered with thick floating mats of plants. The floating mats are gone, and so is the wildlife. In my opinion, it is now an aquatic desert, by comparison to what it was a decade and a half ago.

Now bear in mind these photos above were shot in the last weeks of September 2010(including the one below), when everything is lush, dense and green, except where plant control destroyed the natural beauty.