Boone, J. 1988. Birds of the Bodie Island Lighthouse Pond and the Roadside Ponds and Marshes, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina. Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, CPSU Technical Report No. 46, 23 pp.

Birds of the Bodie Island Lighthouse Pond and the Roadside Ponds and Marshes, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina.

James L. Boone
School of Forest Resources, U.S. National Park Service, Cooperative Park Studies Unit, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602

ABSTRACT

Birds were censused in the Bodie Island Lighthouse Pond and the ponds in the Bodie Marsh, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina, between March and September, 1987 to provide baseline data for Park Service management. Bird numbers varied seasonally and with water levels in a predictable manner. Ducks tended to use ponds with deeper water (>0.5 m), but a significant exception was pond #9, a very shallow pond (< 0.3 m), where a large part of the duck breeding activity was observed (nine broods). Wading and shorebirds used shallower ponds, but moved into the formerly deeper ponds as the water levels declined during the summer. If the water was deeper than the shorebird's legs, then they did not use the pond, as many of these man-made ponds had steep sides or were bordered with tall emergent vegetation.

In the Lighthouse pond, a maximum of seven American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) broods containing 45 ducklings, and five Gadwall (Anas strepera) broods containing 31 ducklings were observed at any one time. No breeding was observed in the Bodie Marsh Pond. In the Roadside Ponds and Marshes, a maximum of 10 American Black Duck broods, two Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors) broods, and seven Gadwall broods were observed.

Several rare or unexpected birds were observed and included one Wood Stork (Mycteria americana), one Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus), two Curlew Sandpipers (Calidris ferruginea), one Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis), and one Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus).

These data show a correlation between water level and bird use, and management recommendations concerning manipulations of water levels to enhance bird use are made for the Lighthouse Pond.