Monday, April 29, 2019

April 12 - Salt Plains NWR Trek


I woke to the alarm on a 36º partly cloudy morning – and calm for a change.  The motel serves a pretty darned good breakfast.  Today, I joined a group of birders for a trip with the Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival to the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in north-central Oklahoma, about 1¾ hours east of Woodward.  At 10,000 acres the refuge includes the largest saline flat in the central lowlands of North America, with another 32,000 acres of open water, wetlands, prairies, woodlands and farm fields.  This diversity of habitat accounts for an abundance and variety of birds including American White Pelican, White-faced Ibis, American Avocet, Tricolored Heron, Franklin’s Gulls, Forster’s Tern, numerous plovers, sandpipers and waterbirds.

We were graced with the presence of author, conservationist, and artist Kenn Kaufman, who joined our group for the day’s birding.

We arrived at the Salt Plains NWR’s Eagle Roost Nature Trail, where the weather was sunny, 38-46° F, with a light northwest breeze, and walked out to the Eagle Roost Pond.  At the Sand Creek Bay observation deck, we scoped through the White Pelicans and other waterfowl and water birds.

Indeed, their beaks can hold more than their bellies can . . .

Then, one of the birders focused on a half-dozen large white birds on the far side of the pond, and we realized that we were looking at 6 Whooping Cranes!
Whoopers!

This species’ population was down to a low ebb of only 15 birds in the wild by 1941, and seemed destined for extinction.  Through conservation efforts, the population is slowly recovering.  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology reported that, for the first time since the late 1800s, there are more than 500 Whooping Cranes in the population that wintered in south Texas.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aerial surveys counted 505 cranes in and around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in 2018 as a part of their annual winter survey, a 17 percent increase from the previous year.  To see some of these birds on their northward migration is truly a blessing.
Not a great photo, but a great sighting!
We spent a couple of hours on this Refuge trail, watching birds and the other wildland denizens.
Terry Mitchell, leading the pack . . .
Lots and Lots of White Pelicans
Really Good Birding with Really Good People
Red-eared Slider - Trachemys scripta elegans
When we returned to the trailhead, a USFWS Refuge employee was there, who told us about the Selenite deposits.  Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge is the only known site in the world where unique selenite crystals with hourglass inclusions are found. Because these crystals form in wet soil, sand and clay, particles are included within the crystal.  Selenite is a crystallized form of gypsum.
Selenite Crystals
Chemically, it is a hydrous calcium sulfate.  Gypsum is a common mineral that takes on a variety of crystal forms and shapes.  Crystals take on the characteristics of their environment; the finer the soil, the clearer the crystals.  Iron oxide in the soil gives the crystals their chocolate brown color.  On the Salt Plains, the crystals are formed just below the salt encrusted surface. They are seldom found deeper than two feet below the surface.  The salt was formed by the repeated flooding of seawater millions of years ago.  The seawater was eventually cut off and evaporated, depositing thick layers of salt and subsequently covered by erosion from surrounding mountain ranges.  For millions of years, the groundwater has traveled through the salt-saturated sand.  The saturated water rises to the surface and evaporates, leaving a thin crust of salt.  It is this concentrated saline solution combining with the gypsum that promotes the selenite crystal growth in a portion of the salt flats.
The salt flats on Salt Plains NWR
For lunch, we went over to the Great Salt Plains State Park.

Scanning the banks of the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River below the dam, we were amazed to see a Great Blue Heron catch and subdue a large cyprinid fish, and walk downstream with it.  There was a lot of speculation as to whether the bird would be able to swallow a fish of that size!
Trophy catch . . .
The area below the dam also hosted a number of Avocets and Egrets.
Snowy Egret

We went up to the top of the dam to see what might be in the reservoir.  A Killdeer hunkered down on her nest.
After lunch, we returned to the Refuge at the Sandpiper Trail.  The afternoon was clouding over, and the wind had turned around, coming from the southeast, and it had warmed up to 54° F.

Our target here were shorebirds, especially the Snowy Plover, which were evident as soon as we started on the trail out to the observation deck,
The Plovers are the same colour as the salt flats . . .

giving the birders great views.


The egrets gave good views, as well . . .
 . . . and so did the Baird's Sandpipers
The salt flats had lots of shorebirds, but most were 'way out at the edge of the spotting-scope views.

We returned to the motel at 4 p.m., and left almost immediately for the Selman Living Lab for a Botany Walk led by Dr. Gloria Caddell from the University of Central Oklahoma at Edmond.  The Selman Living Lab is a field station for the UCO, because Mrs. Betty Selman wanted a cave system on her ranch preserved as an education and research site.
Dr. Gloria Caddell - Unabashed Botanist
Dr. Caddell had co-authored a Flora of the Laboratory, and she provided us with that plant list and a pictorial sheet as we were walked around the Lab to view the early spring wildflowers.
Pictures are really good . . .
Gloria getting close to the subjects at hand
The cactus aren't blooming, yet.  Pincushion Cactus - Escobaria missouriensis
Hedgehog Cactus - Echinocereus reichenbachii
The locoweed was blooming - Missouri milkvetch Astragalus missouriensis
The botany walk was followed by supper in the SLL classroom of BBQ beef brisket and all the fixings.  After supper, trip leader Josh Smith took us over to the Alabaster Caves State Park where we hoped to find some night birds as the sun set.
Josh Smith, trip leader
We first walked out to some gypsum outcroppings and listened for Poorwills, but heard none, although Spotted Towhees were fussing and Lark Sparrows were sounding their night notes.
Quiet at sunset.  Where are the Poorwills?

Then we walked over to the steps down to the mouth of the cave, which has been fenced-off from public use to protect the bats from people bringing in white nose disease.
The bats were flying, even though the temperature had dropped a bit, and we hoped that perhaps an owl might be present to prey on the little Fledermaus.  No owls were evident, but from the canyon lip, we heard two poorwills calling from across the chasm.

It was an enjoyable, though long, day and evening as we returned to Woodward.  I went pretty much straight to bed, as I was getting on the 4:30 bus tomorrow morning to watch the chickens dance.
Tree Cholla - Cylindropuntia imbricata
Salt Plains NWR – Eagle Roost Nature Trail eBird Checklist is Here
Great Salt Plains State Park eBird Checklist is Here
Salt Plains NWR – Sandpiper Trail eBird Checklist is Here
Alabaster Caverns State Park eBird Checklist is Here

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