Friends of Goose Pond
First Quarter Newsletter
March 2015
Founding Friends
Margaret Harger-Allen
Grace Chapman
Tom & Nancy Ciskowski
Chuck Davidson
Susie Dewey
Brad Feaster
Marilyn Flanders
Tammy Galm
Dawn E. Hewitt
Paul D. Hoernig
Kip O. Hoffer
Joan Ten Hoor
Sandra S. Miles
Mac Moulden
William R. Powers, MD
Nyle Riegle
Deborah Shonk
LuAnne Kohler Shonk
Sherrell G. Shonk
Timothy Shonk
Barbara Simpson
George R. Sly
The Wabash Valley
Audubon Society
Barbara Steele
Don Steward
Lee Sterrenburg
Cam H. Trampke
Peggy Wolfe
Becky Yung
2015 Marsh Madness Sandhill Crane Festival
The 6th annual festival is now in the books. There was
widespread agreement that this year’s festival was the best
ever. Attendance at the various festival venues was
outstanding. A belated break in the fierce February weather
arrived just in time to entice people outside it seemed. The
March 6th Kickoff Banquet, at the Linton Elks, was a sellout.
Two hundred attendees enjoyed music by the popular acoustic
duo of Brent McPike (guitar) and Solly Burton (mandolin).
Guests were also treated to a delicious dinner, live & silent
auctions, and a most interesting keynote address by Joe Duff,
CEO of Operation Migration. This organization is involved in
the establishment of a migratory population of whooping
cranes in the eastern United States. Whooping Cranes, one of
the world’s rarest birds, are trained to follow ultralight aircraft
from Wisconsin to their future wintering grounds in Florida.
Many of these birds now use GPFWA as a stopover.
On Saturday, over 500 festival visitors enjoyed a
variety of activities. Guided bus tours of Goose Pond FWA
were so popular that an extra trip had to be added for late
afternoon on Saturday. The children’s bird house building
activity was so well attended that our supplies were eventually
exhausted. The three bird- related seminars offered in the Girl
Scout Cabin by Amy Kearns, George Sly, and Sharon
Sorenson attracted nearly 100 festival goers. In the Roy Clark
Building, the ever-popular raptor programs presented by the
DNR’s Leslie Grow drew almost 200 people. Additionally, a
constant stream of inquisitive attendees visited the Wabash
Valley Herpetological Society’s booth which housed a variety
of snakes, lizards, and turtles. Festival visitors also availed
themselves of products (ranging from bird houses to bird art to
wood carvings) made available by the presence of several
vendor booths.
For those who missed this year’s festival, we urge you
to make plans to attend next year. There will again be much for
both adults and children to enjoy. If you appreciate nature and
the outdoors, the Marsh Madness Sandhill Crane Festival is
sure to be a rewarding experience for you. And by the way, this
year’s festival not only familiarized visitors old and new to our
local wetlands treasure, the Goose Pond FWA, but generated
over $20 000 for the local economy as well.
________________________________________
Marsh Madness Festival sponsors: Michelle Franklin
CEO of Sullivan Co. Comm. Hospital and James Franklin
owner of Benefits 7, Inc. join Operation Migration CEO Joe
Duff at the Sponsor Wine & Cheese Reception.
Indiana
Wildlife
Federation
Executive
Director
Barbara
Simpson &
Linton Mayor
John Wilkes
share ideas
during the
Marsh
Madness
Kickoff
Banquet.
Marsh Madness Festival visitor Gracie Smith makes friends
with a Pine Snake courtesy of the Wabash Valley
Herpetological Society.
Linton Middle-school students Suzie Ronk and Emma Brinson
gave a presentation at the Kickoff Banquet concerning their
Monarch Butterfly habitat restoration project.
Founding Friend Lee Sterrenburg
Receives Prestigious Award
We’re sure that for most Friends members, Lee needs
no introduction. Not only was he one of the founders of our
organization, Lee long served as a board member of the
Friends of Goose Pond as well. As a volunteer bird monitor for
the Department of Natural Resources, no one has spent more
time in the field at Goose Pond FWA than has Lee. His work in
monitoring and recording the progression of birds which have
“discovered” our wetland restoration is unmatched. Lee’s is
quite simply THE expert on the birds of Goose Pond FWA.
In the image above, Robert Kissel presents Lee with a
Sagamore of the Wabash award during the Sassafras Audubon
Society’s spring banquet. This award represents Indiana’s
highest honor in recognition of service to the state. The Friends
of Goose Pond add our congratulations and a sincere thank you
to Lee for his exceptional volunteer work at Goose Pond FWA
Bird Notes from Goose Pond FWA
As many of you know, this is a good time of the year to
see American White Pelicans at GPFWA. Although the
number of these migrants has been down compared to last year,
an impressive total of 700 individuals were reported on the
property at the end of March.
On April 1st, Lee Sterrenburg reported that Blacknecked Stilts had made their return to GP. Also present were
American Golden Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser
Yellowlegs, and Pectoral Sandpipers. It appears the spring
influx of shorebirds is imminent.
American White Pelicans. ©
Photo by permission of FoGP member Jim Romine.
Goose Pond FWA
Property Manager’s Report
Property Manager Travis Stoelting reports that his staff
has already begun to slowly drain the wetland units. This is
done to create better habitat particularly in regards to the spring
migration of shorebirds. Additionally, Travis informs us, units
that have been full of water for several years need to be
periodically drawn down to improve habitat.
It is also the time of year when prescribed fires are used
as a habitat management tool. This year the staff hopes to burn
300 acres at Goose Pond FWA.
Work on the new DNR Southwest Regional Office and
Visitor’s Center is expected to begin as soon as the weather
gives contractors favorable conditions.
Critter Corner No. 10
the River Otter
by George Sly
Goose Pond FWA has
gained a welldeserved reputation as
a site for spotting rare
birds. Now we can
add a mammal to the
category of rarities.
On Dec. 17th, 2015,
during the GPFWA
Christmas Bird Count, Sandy and Jeff Belth of Bloomington
spotted a river otter on the property. CBC compiler Lee
Sterrenburg noted that this is not only a first for the property
but is likely the first river otter record for Greene County. The
IDNR’s distribution map
(http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-otter_distribution.pdf)
currently shows this species as absent from the county.
The river otter (Lontra canadensis) is a member of the
same Family of mammals (Mustelidae) which includes the
mink, long-tailed weasel, least weasel, and badger. In other
words, we could think of it as a big, aquatic weasel. River
otters were once abundant throughout the state of Indiana.
From pioneer times, the lure of their luxurious fur attracted
trappers. This combined with habitat loss and water pollution
worked against the river otter and by 1942 it had been
extirpated in the state. Between 1995 and 1999, 303 river otters
were released in northern and southern Indiana. The first 25,
brought in from Louisiana, were set free at Muscatatuck NWR.
The reintroduction has been extremely successful with river
otters now occurring in all but 12 counties in Indiana. The
species was removed from the state endangered list in 2005. In
fact, river otter populations have grown to such an extent that
the Natural Resources Commission recently proposed that a
limited trapping season be instituted.
Fish are the primary prey of river otters and thus it is no
surprise that they favor aquatic habitats such as lakes, rivers,
streams, and ponds. Sleek of build, with a flattened head for
lessened friction drag, otters are amazing swimmers. The feet
are webbed for swimming but, when moving through the water
at high speed, the whole body and tail undulate in the typical
aquatic mammal pattern. In addition to fish, river otters will
eat other aquatic prey such as crayfish, frogs, mussels, and
insects.
The reproductive behavior of river otters is interesting
in that they, like many other mustelids, exhibit delayed
implantation. Mating occurs most often in the spring (MarchApril) but the fertilized egg does not implant in the uterine wall
immediately. Implantation is delayed for several months. As a
result, although the actual gestation period averages about six
weeks, the young are born the following spring. Average litter
size is 2 to 4. Delayed implantation seems to be associated with
life in temperate climates and longer life spans. However, the
adaptive value of such a diapause seems to be poorly
understood. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15058730).
Otters den most often along the bank of their aquatic habitat.
They may use natural tunnels for their dens but have also been
known to eject the original builder, a beaver or muskrat for
example.
Otters in general are often described as curious and
playful. Personal observations have convinced me that they are.
My wife and I escaped to Florida this winter and in the canal
behind our house lived river otters. Occasionally they would
come by our boat dock for a visit. Coming to the shore, or
actually climbing up on the dock, they would linger and peer
up at us as inquisitively as we watched them. We would often
see them nudging a leaf or potential food item through the
water with their nose. Releasing it, they would dive in their
wonderfully graceful manner only to return for more play.
Many years ago, we visited Peace Corps colleagues in Thailand
who had two small-clawed otters living in their house. These
are small, Asian relatives of our river otter. The two bundles of
energy seemed to spend most of their day at play racing
through the house in a game of “catch me if you can”. One of
their favorite toys was a wooden box containing a ball. There
was a hole in the box through which the otters could reach and
thus grasp the ball. However, the hole was too small to allow
them to pull the ball out with their paw wrapped around it. As
we sat and chatted with our hosts, the otters would race into the
living room tumbling over one another. Suddenly, as if seized
by some maniacal obsession, one of them would run to the box
and insert a front paw. With a look of intense concentration, it
would manipulate the ball for a few seconds. After what
seemed to be a most pleasing bout of tactile stimulation, it
would withdraw its paw and shoot off into another room with
its partner in full chase. It did indeed look like loads of fun.
River otters do occasionally conflict with the interests
of humans. This most often occurs when otters choose a private
pond or fish hatchery as their larder. With the increase in river
otter numbers in the state has come a rise in the number of
damage grievances filed. In 2011 the DNR received 34 such
complaints. In 2012 the number rose to 69 and, in 2013, there
were 86 complaints. Fencing has been suggested as one
method for preventing such depredations. It should be noted
that river otters prey heavily upon slower moving, nongame
fish species (Whitaker, 2010). These include suckers, chubs,
dace, and darters. However, they do not eschew bluegills and
other sunfish. As adults, river otters have few enemies other
than humans. However, their young may be vulnerable to
predators such as coyotes and bobcats.
Possibly the recent arrival of the river otter at GPFWA
is a harbinger of more to come. Although some might begrudge
this fish-eating species as a competitor, it does represent the
return of an Indiana native. The presence of the river otter is
but one more example of the adage often applied to the Goose
Pond – “build it and they will come”. We have certainly seen
this to be true in regards to the avian visitors and residents of
Goose Pond. Perhaps we will now see the palette of
mammalian species inhabiting the GPFWA ecosystem become
more colorful as well.
Useful Resources
http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/7438.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_river_otter
http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/river_otters.html
Whitaker, Jr., John O. 2010. Mammals of Indiana. A Field
Guide. Indiana University Press. Bloomington.
*otter photo courtesy of Indiana Public Media