Bird Watching, Bird Viewing, Nature, Wildlife Observation at His Place Resort, on the White River in Cotter, Arkansas

Double Crested Cormorant, Eastern Form

These birds are fairly numerous, and widespread - found both near fresh and salt water. The double crested cormorants are loosely divided into two "forms" the Eastern and the Western. The difference is that the Western birds have white tufts on their head and some white plumes on their necks in early summer. The tufts on the Easterns are dark, and pretty inconspicuous. They are web-footed birds that actually swim underwater in search of their prey, and fly with their necks kinked, as you can see in this picture. Steve took this from the observation deck as it flew by.

Gray Squirrel

Yeah, I know - not a bird, but he has earned a place on the Bird Page... Why??? Because he thinks he's a bird. After all, he keeps trying to get on all the bird feeders we put up. We got him good, though. Steve bought the ultimate "Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder". No kidding, this is the best bird feeder you've ever seen. It has a motor in the bottom, where the birds sit. If something as heavy as a squirrel gets on it, the motor comes on and the platform starts to spin! It actually sends the squirrel flying. They try to hang on at first, then this thing builds up enough speed to FLING the little darlings right off onto the ground... OK, so it sounds a little mean - Steve mounted it low to the ground so the squirrels don't fall very far... You can enjoy this comedy sitting under the covered pavilion between Units 4 & 5.

Great Blue Heron

We have a great blue heron rookery just across from the Wildlife Observation Deck. The herons love to fish here. Steve took this picture around sunset. There has been a lot of concern in this area about the herons and the amount of trout they consume. AGFC recently had a study performed on the Blue Herons to see just what effect they are having on the resource. It wasn't really as bad as they had previously guessed. Also, now that AGFC has gone to stocking larger trout, this percentage calculated during the study, which was 4.7%, may even be a little high. The following is an excerpt from the AGFC commissioned Study

AN EVALUATION OF TROUT PREDATION BY GREAT BLUE HERONS ON THE BULL SHOALS AND NORFORK TAILWATERS

Lynn S. Hodgens and James C. Bednarz, Department of Biological Sciences, Arkansas State University, P.O. Box 599, State University, AR 72467-0599.

Steve Blumenshine, Department of Biology, California State University – Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740

"Our primary objective is to assess the number of stocked trout (primarily rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss) consumed by great blue herons (Ardea herodias) on the Bull Shoals and Norfork tailwaters. Between November 2000 and December 2001, we conducted surveys of great blue herons along 500 river km on the White River between the Bull Shoals Dam and Guion, and along the tailwaters of the Norfork Dam. The number of herons in or along the river ranged from 0.21 to 4.03/km per survey, with the highest mean number located near the Bull Shoals Dam (0 = 2.59 herons/km). We recorded 467 prey captures by herons during 202 observation hours. Live trout represented only 48 of 436 identifiable prey items (11%). The length of captured live trout ranged from 3 to 39 cm and most prey (81.9%) were smaller than 13 cm long. To test for trout size selection by herons, we conducted 12 feeding trials using in situ fish enclosures. When offered a choice between large (0 = 30.3 cm) and small rainbow trout (0 = 18.9 cm), great blue herons selected both sizes equally (t = 0.11; P = 0.917). In terms of biomass, trout comprised an estimated 63.3% of heron diets on the tailwaters. We developed a bioenergetics model of heron energy demand during the breeding and non-breeding seasons. The rate of trout consumption by herons was modeled using established energetic values for the breeding and non-breeding seasons. Our model indicated that trout contributed an estimated 65.6% of the daily energy demand of great blue herons in the Bull Shoals and Norfork tailwater system. Heron daily energy demand peaks during the breeding season (March-May). Based on a population estimate of 285 great blue herons that require 175 million kJ of energy per year, we calculated that herons consumed approximately 90,000 stocked trout annually. This loss to great blue herons represents 4.7% of the approximately 2,000,000 trout stocked in the Bull Shoals and Norfork tailwaters."