Among the beautiful extic birds of nature is the Roseate Spoonbill. In a little while, I'll tell you about a local one, byt in gweneral, the Roseate Spoonbill is characterized by long legs, a long neck, and a long, spatula-like bill.
Courtesy photo/Rich Adamovic
This Roseate Spoonbill was spotted at Golden Pond in Port Orange, as rare sighting around these parts.
Adults have a bare greenish head (called "golden buff" when breeding) and a white neck, back, and breast (with a tuft of pink feathers in the center when breeding), and are otherwise a deep pink. The bill is grey. Sexes are similar. Unlike herons, spoonbills fly with their necks outstretched. They alternate groups of stiff, shallow wingbeats with glides.
The most distinctive characteristic of the Roseate Spoonbill is its long spoon-shaped bill. It has a white head and chest and light pink wings with a darker pink fringe and very long pink legs.
The size of the roseate spoonbill is about 2 1/2 feet in length with a wingspan of about 4 1/2 feet. Both females and males have the same plumage and coloring. The male is slightly larger than the female and its bill is a little longer.
The Roseate Spoonbill can usually be found on the coasts of Louisiana, Texas, and southern Florida. It is also found in the tropics and in South and Central America. Roseate Spoonbills live in mangrove swamps, tidal ponds, saltwater lagoons and other areas with brackish water.
The Roseate SpoonbillIt spends most of its time in the shallow waters feeding. The bird sweeps its open bill from side to side in the water to sift up food like small fish, shrimp, mollusks, snails and insects. Roseate spoonbills have touch receptors in their bills that help them feel their prey. Like the flamingo, the roseate spoonbill's pink color comes from the food it eats; some of the crustaceans they eat feed on algae that give their feathers that rosy pink color.
The Roseate Spoonbill nests in colonies with males and females pairing off for the breeding season. Together they build large nests of sticks lined with grass and leaves. The nests are built in trees. The female spoonbill lays two to four eggs. The female as well as the male incubate the eggs. The chicks will hatch in about three weeks and fledge in around 35 to 42 days. Both the male and female feed the chicks until they get about 8 weeks old. Young roseate spoonbills have white feathers with a slight pink tinge on the wings and do not reach maturity until they are 3 years old.
Roseate Spoonbills are very social, living in large colonies with other spoonbills, ibises, storks, herons, cormorants and egrets. Roseate spoonbills generally fly in flocks in long diagonal lines with their legs and neck stretched out.
The Roseate Spoonbill population was once threatened by hunting. In the mid-to-late 1800s, its feathers were used in ladies hats and fans. The population was also threatened by loss of habitat due to drainage and pollution in its habitat. By the early 20th century, the population had shrunk to only a few dozen nesting pairs in the United States. Special protected areas were set aside for them and in the 1940s they were made a protected species. Over time the population recovered and today the Roseate Spoonbill is no longer a protected species.
The Roseate Spoonbill nests in colonies. Males and females pair off for the breeding season and build a nest together. They build large nests of sticks lined with grass and leaves. The nests are built in trees. The female spoonbill lays two to four eggs, which are whitish with brown markings. Both the female and the male incubate the eggs. The chicks hatch in about three weeks and fledge in around 35 to 42 days. Both the male and female feed the chicks until they are about 8 weeks old which are whitish with brown markings. Young roseate spoonbills have white feathers with a slight pink tinge on the wings. They don't reach maturity until they are 3years old. There is no information about predation on adults.
Nestlings are sometimes killed by turkey vultures (which can kill even healthy nestlings), American bald eagles, and raccoons. A 16-year-old, banded Roseate Spoonbill was discovered in 2006, making it the oldest known individual in the wild.
Courtesy photo/Rich Adamovic
There is always an exception to the rule. This roseate spoonbill, photographed by Rich Adamovic , does not live within a colony of roseate spoonbills; nor in mangrove swamps, tidal ponds, saltwater lagoons and other areas with brackish water. Nor does it live in the coasts of Louisiana, Texas, and southern Florida. Nor does this Roseate Spoonbill live in the tropics and in South and Central America. It lives on Golden Pond in Port Orange in Volusia County. Further, Golden Pond is a freshwater pond – not saltwater or brackish water. This bird, however, does socialize with the duck in the background as well as with an American bald eagle, not shown here, supposedly one of its enemies.
THE FISHING REPORT
* The sea surface temperature in Ponce Inlet has risen from the mid-60s to 70 degrees. Surf fishermen as well as those, who prefer to keep their feet dry and fish the piers report good catches of small bluefish and Spanish mackerel. bull whiting, black drum, and pompano. Most anglers used dead shrimp, fiddler crabs and clams to get the job done.
* In the inlet, my friend, Captain Fred Robert, reports that the bluefish are plentiful. He also stated that there were still large redfish by the jetties and that large sheepshead are also biting. There are a couple of schools of black drum south of the south Jetty.
* Cobia, however, are not close to shore yet but it should not be long before they are. Inside the inlet, there have been some redfish caught from near the Tomoka basin down to the Granada bridge. They are quite spooky and it seems to best way to catch them is to let them come to you rather than pole after them.
* Things are no different in the lagoon where the redfish are spooky and hesitant to bite. Night time shrimping has been fairly good.
Offshore, the dolphin run seems to be a little late. There is some dolphin, wahoo, and cobia action, but it is on the slower side. Those fishing the bottom are releasing American red snapper and grouper so that barracuda and sharks eat well -- thanks to the poor method of scientific measuring the status of those species in the South Atlantic by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
FISHING TOURNEYS ABOUND
* The local tournament series has started with Bill Zona’s Fishing Cove Offshore Shoot out. The first leg of the King of the Inlet tournament got postponed due to inclement weather.
* This past weekend The Halifax Sport Fishing Club’s Offshore Challenge was held. Next weekend is the Flagler County Sport Fishing club tournament as is the second leg of the second leg of the King of the Inlet tournament for dolphin, wahoo, and King Mackerel.
* The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office has announced the cancellation of the 2010 Battle of the Badges fishing tournament.
FWC ENFORCEMENT REPORTS
* The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) reported that FWC Officer Clay McDonough was traveling on U.S. Highway 1 in New Smyrna Beach when he observed a truck spinning its tires on the roadway causing a cloud of smoke across U.S. 1 and stopping traffic. Officer McDonough stopped the vehicle and found both the operator and passenger to be in possession of an open container.
The adult operator gave consent to search his vehicle. During the inspection, Officer McDonough found a bag of pills/controlled substance, which were identified as Hydrocodone and Alprazolam, sometimes manufactured under the name Xanax.
Both individuals admitted knowledge of the narcotic and could not produce prescriptions for the drugs. Both were charged with felony drug possession and an open container. The operator was also charged with careless operation.
* The FWC also reported that U.S.Coast Guard (USCG) Ponce Inlet personnel stopped a vessel with three people on board for a safety inspection. Further investigation led the USCG agent to believe the operator to be impaired.
FWC Officers Kelly Kazmierczak and McDonough were advised that the USCG was escorting the vessel back to Station Ponce.
Of the three adult men on board, all were under the age of 21. FWC Officer James Yetter arrived with a portable breath instrument. The operator’s BAC was measured as .041. He was issued a citation for operation of a vessel by an individual under 21 years of age with a BAC of above .02.
He was also issued a misdemeanor citation for possession of alcohol by a minor. One passenger was issued a misdemeanor citation for possession of cannabis under 20 grams.
MAGNUSON-STEVENS ACT DEFICIENCIES
CCA (Coastal Conservation Association ) recently announced that Passage of the 2006 Magnuson-Stevens Act, the overarching law that manages America’s marine fisheries, revealed crippling deficiencies within the agency charged with implementing the law. Recently, a coalition of marine angling and industry groups launched an effort to improve the National Marine Fisheries Service’s efforts to manage the nation’s marine resources and the 13 million saltwater anglers who depend on healthy fisheries.
“We have the most conservation-oriented law we have ever had governing our marine resources, and the agency does not have the data, assessments, science or, frankly, the attitude, to adequately implement it,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “The result is that the agency has been reduced to managing fisheries by closure which was not the intent of the law when it was passed by Congress.”
In addition to requiring an end to all overfishing by 2011, the Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has a determination on the overfished status of every species under management, and have annual catch limits and accountability measures in place for them by a time certain as well.
“For far too many species, there is not any science at all to do that and to develop it will take one to three years for every single species,” said Brewer. “With its startling lack of data, there is no way NMFS can catch up on decades of work and the agency will be crushed by its lack of science. The entire federal management system will be forced to ignore real conservation and management issues, and simply manage by closure. The coalition is seeking a way to fulfill the conservation tenets of the law without driving the entire process into a train wreck.”
Current efforts to revise the Magnuson-Stevens Act, including the so-called “flexibility” legislation (H.R.1584 and S.1171) do not address the shortcomings of NMFS that are negatively impacting anglers and, in fact, jeopardize a number of the true conservation gains in the Act.
“H.R.1584 and S.1171 do not provide for better data-gathering or prevent the imposition of in-season closures when NMFS believes there is a danger of overfishing, nor do they improve recreational data and the way it is used. It just delays rebuilding,” said Brewer. “That is not where the problem lies.”
Among other administrative and appropriations requests, the coalition is urging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to convene a blue ribbon panel to identify the long-term data, statistical, research and funding needs of the regional fishery science centers. The outcomes of this panel will help to inform the appropriation needs related to recreational fishing data and statistics for NMFS and coastal state fishery agencies.
“There is a great deal of frustration among recreational anglers, much of it attributable to an agency that doesn't have the ability to properly manage us,” said Pat Murray, president of CCA. “The shortcomings of NMFS have to be fixed, either administratively or by Congress. Recreational anglers deserve a meaningful law, and an agency capably of implementing it.” x
THE LAKE GRIFFIN EXPERIMENT
Throughout March, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) fisheries managers have been releasing more than 200,000 young Florida largemouth bass into Lake County's Lake Griffin. The scientists at the FWC's Florida Bass Conservation Center in Webster produced the juvenile bass, called fingerlings.
"This larger size should increase their ability to survive and ultimately increase the number of bass available for anglers to catch," said FBCC fisheries biologist Rick Stout.
The FWC Wildlife research announced that Lake Griffin, located in Leesburg, has long suffered from low survival rates of juvenile bass produced naturally within the lake.
This affected the overall bass population there. FWC researchers hope that the larger, hatchery-reared bass released in the lake will help increase the number of large bass sought by anglers. This project is unique in that this is the first time fisheries managers have stocked such a large number of bass so early in the spring (during the month of March).
This was accomplished as the result of coaxing the fish to reproduce in October, which is several months earlier than they would have spawned naturally. The young hatchery-raised bass were approximately 4 inches long when they were released while most of the native bass had not even hatched yet. That means that there is a significant head start for this crop of fish.
The FWC plan calls for stocking Lake Griffin for the next two years using the same number of fingerling bass each year. The fish stocked this year could reach 14 inches (the legal minimum size limit for anglers to keep) within two years.
What's different about these fish is that managers raised them using a special technique that produces young bass large enough to be past a critical and vulnerable life stage before their release. Hatchery personnel accomplished this by controlling water temperature and length of daylight in a series of tanks housing the brood bass.
After the small bass hatched, managers reared them on a special diet in indoor tanks called raceways. The result is that fishery managers may have another tool to help revive the bass fishery of a lake.
Genetics of the bass used in this process is another important component of this stocking project. Scientists genetically tested the hatchery brood fish to ensure that they were pure, Florida-strain largemouth bass.
“Genetic testing also allows us to identify these fish throughout their lives as originating from the hatchery by testing just a small clip from a fin. We no longer need to place a mark or tag on a fish to identify it. This simplifies testing how effective supplemental stocking is and is much less stressful to the fish than marking or tagging," said fishery biologist John Benton.
Scientists will be evaluating the success of this program through periodic samples and surveys of anglers fishing the lake.
Capt. Budd's P.S.
It has been written that “As civilization, cement pavements, office buildings, and communication have overwhelmed us, the need for regeneration has increased, fishing is a sound,, valid reason to go away from here to somewhere else.”
So whether you charter, ride a head boat, run your own vessel, stay in the river, surf, or fish from shore or a bridge, there are fish to be caught. Fishing is not a matter of life and death, it is so much more important than that.
Tight lines, Capt. Budd