Lake Rousseau - A Haven For Wading Birds Rainbow and Withlacoochee River – Marion, Citrus and Levy Counties Western end of Lake Rousseau

Lake Rousseau opening up toward the gulf

• Max. length 12 miles (19 km) • Max. width 1 mile (2 km) • Surface area c. 3,700 acres Inglis Dam, Inglis Island and the Cross Florida Barge Canal

Inglis Dam and Boat Ramp

Photo from Gene Gresens home, taken 2009 Why Lake Rousseau is such a magnet for wading birds

• Water level is kept fairly even • Shallow water for easy feeding • Diversity of habitats, including underwater nurseries resulting in high numbers of fish, crustaceans, insects, turtles, small gators • Many islands with good nesting shrubs, provide safety from racoons • Alligators keep prey at bay • Great number of submerged cypress stumps minimize boat traffic around the feeding and nesting areas.

Backwaters by Goldendale

Goldendale Boat Ramp

Sandhill Cranes caught outside/inside the fence Florida Sandhill Cranes

Bald Eagle on nest Eagle chick begging for food Osprey use both natural and man made nests on Lake Rousseau

About 40 birds in the islands near Goldendale

2010 nesting egrets, herons, ibis, anhingas, cormorants and 3 osprey nests Anhinga on nest

Anhinga youngsters

East of Goldendale Boat Ramp

Glossy ibis, Great egrets, Tricolored herons, White ibis, Snowy egrets, Cattle egrets, Green herons, anhingas

Little Blue Heron breeding plumage Little Blue Heron on nest

Glossy Ibis breeding plumage Glossy Ibis nesting

Snowy Egret breeding plumage

Snowy Egret with chick Great Egret with long aigrettes (plumes), lime green lores, bill turns yellow/orange

Great Egret deep in the nesting site Hunting for food is hard work Tricolored Heron breeding plumage

Tricolored Heron preening Tricolored Heron with catch

Hungry White Ibis chicks

Cattle Egret Cattle Egret chicks Black-crowned Night Heron White Ibis tree with 26 juveniles Our count of wading birds in the Lake Rousseau rookeries continues and seven kayakers went out to Rookery number 2 on the morning of April 15th. Wading birds were very active, bringing nesting material into the shrubs and flying to and from the rookery. Many birds were already on their nests and hard if not impossible to see deep into the dense shrubs. Three of the kaykers set up positions on the western side to count the number of birds they saw while the remaining four did the same from the eastern side, which is a main channel. Hand counting clickers were used.

The counts were: 1,489 birds during a one hour period from 8:30 - 9:30 am. On another occasion, using hand held counting clickers, a retired army Colonial counted 5,122 birds flying into and out of the major nesting site near Goldendale. This was only on one side of the island and did not take into effect all the young birds that were heard calling for food from their nests that could not be seen.

One person counted individual birds from the channel side only with the totals as follows: 325 cattle egrets, 79 white ibis, 31 anhingas, 16 tricolored herons, 11 great egrets, 10 glossy ibis, 9 little blue herons, 3 great blue herons ( 1 on nest), 3 snowy egrets, 2 sandhill cranes and 2 limpkin.

On the morning of April 15th, 2011 wading birds were very active, bringing nesting material into the shrubs and flying to and from this rookery. Many birds were already on their nests and hard if not impossible to see deep into the dense shrubs. Kaykers set up positions on the western and eastern side of the islands to count the number of birds they saw with hand held counting clickers. The count was: 1,489 birds during a one hour period from 8:30 - 9:30 am.

Later in May a retired army Colonial counted 5,122 birds flying into and out of this site. This was only on one side of the island and did not take into effect all the young birds that were heard calling for food from their nests that could not be seen.

In 2010 Lake Rousseau was identified as an area of major significance for wading nesting birds in Florida.

Statistics from Florida Fish and Wildlife’s surveys of 1,600 lakes over the entire state of Florida during January - June 1999 to locate wading bird nesting colonies (herons, egrets ibises, spoonbills, storks, anhingas, cormorants, pelicans, etc) found only 371 lakes with such colonies. Of these, only 13% had five or more species of wading birds. Fewer colonies were found in 1999 compared to previous statewide surveys and most species continued a trend of nesting in smaller numbers and in fewer colonies during 1999 compared to previous surveys.

Eleven wading and water bird nesting areas were identified on Lake Rousseau in 2010 and in 2011. These areas included 15 nesting wading bird species: great egrets, snowy egrets and cattle egrets; great blue herons, tricolored herons, little blue herons, green herons and black-crowned night herons; white ibis and glossy ibis; least bitterns; limpkin; anhingas and double-crested cormorants; and Florida sandhill cranes.

One new site found in 2011 had nesting double-crested cormorants, anhingas and great blue herons, with green herons, least bitterns, and other egrets and herons feeding along the edges. A second smaller site was located with Florida sandhill cranes and limpkins nesting, and a third, included three islands of reeds between two major island rookeries where least bittern were located. Closer view of Peaceful Acres Boat Ramp

Glossy Ibis chicks begging for food Trio of Limpkins Islands west of Peaceful Acres Boat Ramp Birds nesting on an island in the eastern end of Lake Rousseau Little Blue Heron Juvenile Snowy Egret with parent Juvenile Green Heron Island of reeds and grasses Least Bittern, male

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19 Least Bitterns were counted one morning in June of 2011 Juvenile Wood Storks

Least Tern Brown Pelican

FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION

FLORIDA’S ENDANGERED AND THREATENED SPECIES

Updated October 2011

Common Name Scientific Name Status

Florida sandhill crane Grus canadensis pratensis ST Limpkin Aramus guarauna SSC Little blue heron Egretta caerulea SSC Snowy egret Egretta thula SSC Tricolored heron Egretta tricolor SSC White ibis Eudocimus albus SSC Least tern Sterna antillarum ST Brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis SSC Wood stork Mycteria Americana FE

Listed by the State of Florida as Federally-designated Endangered (FE), Federally-designated Threatened (FT), Federally-designated Threatened because of similarity of appearance [FT(S/A)], Federal non-essential experimental population (FXN), State-designated Threatened (ST), or State Species of Special Concern (SSC). Purple Gallinule Solitary nesters, like the Least Bittern, and the Common and Purple Gallinules also need protection from nest disturbance Known water bird rookery sites (R) in 2010 plus Bald eagle (E) and Osprey nests (O) in use during that season. The first map indicates the rookeries accessed from the Goldendale Public Boat Ramp while the second map shows the rookeries reached from the Peaceful Acres or Inglis Dam Public Boat ramps. Because of the size of the lake and inability to kayak into many of the marsh areas, we do not know if there are more rookeries that have yet to be identified. , NESTING TIME FOR WADING BIRDS:

The breeding season of the nesting wading birds can be synchronous or spread out. They begin to gather in late February and the bulk of their egg laying is from February through July. As a general rule, incubation usually takes from 26 – 30 days with the first flight about six weeks after hatching. The juveniles gradually leave the nest to perch on nearby branches and may return to the nest at night during this period.

During our surveys of the nesting birds on the lake, we found white ibis with various ages of chicks at the same time, indicating their egg laying was also not synchronous, making it harder to predict when the young would become fully independent of the nesting rookeries. If weather or other factors such as scarcity of food delay the nesting season, the rookeries will still be vulnerable from disturbances well into July.

155 species of birds have been located on Lake Rousseau, from Bird surveys conducted by CCAS in 2000 on and around Inglis Island, Florida, and from birds sighted while kayaking on the lake from 2007 to 2011.

. Wood Duck Royal Tern Golden-winged Warbler Blue-winged Teal Rock Pigeon Tennessee Warbler Green-winged Teal Common Ground Dove Orange-crowned Warbler Ring-necked Duck Eurasian Collared-Dove Nashville Warbler Ruddy Duck Mourning Dove Northern Parula Wild Turkey Yellow-billed Cuckoo Yellow Warbler Northern Bobwhite Eastern Screech-Owl Chestnut-sided Warbler Common Loon Great Horned Owl Magnolia Warbler Pied-billed Grebe Barred Owl Yellow-rumped Warbler Wood Stork Common Nighthawk Yellow-throated Warbler Northern Gannet Chuck-will's-widow Pine Warbler Double-crested Cormorant Chimney Swift Prairie Warbler Anhinga Ruby-throated Hummingbird Palm Warbler American White Pelican Belted Kingfisher Bay-breasted Warbler Brown Pelican Red-headed Woodpecker Black-and-white Warbler American Bittern Red-bellied Woodpecker American Redstart Least Bittern Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Prothonotary Warbler Great Blue Heron Downy Woodpecker Worm-eating Warbler Great Egret Northern Flicker Ovenbird Snowy Egret Pileated Woodpecker Kentucky Warbler Little Blue Heron Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Common Yellowthroat Tricolored Heron Acadian Flycatcher Hooded Warbler Cattle Egret Least Flycatcher Yellow-breasted Chat Green Heron Eastern Phoebe Summer Tanager Black-crowned Night-Heron Great Crested Flycatcher Scarlet Tanager Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Loggerhead Shrike Eastern Towhee White Ibis White-eyed Vireo Chipping Sparrow Glossy Ibis Yellow-throated Vireo Vesper Sparrow Wood Stork Blue-headed Vireo Savannah Sparrow Black Vulture Red-eyed Vireo Grasshopper Sparrow Turkey Vulture Blue Jay Song Sparrow Osprey American Crow Swamp Sparrow Swallow-tailed Kite Fish Crow White-throated Sparrow Bald Eagle Purple Martin White-crowned Sparrow Northern Harrier Tree Swallow Northern Cardinal Am. Kestrel Northern Rough –winged Swallow Rose-breasted Grosbeak Sharp-shinned Hawk Barn Swallow Blue Grosbeak Cooper's Hawk Carolina Chickadee Indigo Bunting Red-shouldered Hawk Tufted Titmouse Red-winged Blackbird Red-tailed Hawk Carolina Wren Eastern Meadowlark Purple Gallinule House Wren Common Grackle Common Moorhen Marsh Wren Boat-tailed Grackle American Coot Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Brown-headed Cowbird Limpkin Ruby-crowned Kinglet House Finch Sandhill Crane Golden-crowned Kinglet American Goldfinch Killdeer Eastern Bluebird Least Sandpiper Black-necked Stilt Veery Lesser Yellowlegs Spotted Sandpiper Swainson's Thrush Sora Rail Greater Yellowlegs Hermit Thrush Laughing Gull American Robin Ring-billed Gull Gray Catbird Least Tern Northern Mockingbird Common Tern Brown Thrasher Forster's Tern Cedar Waxwing

If drought conditions continue in Florida, the stable level of the lake’s water increases the importance of this lake for nesting wading birds. Often water birds do not nest during droughts as the colony site dries up and the birds go elsewhere to breed or skip the year until the weather conditions change.

Nesting sites should not be disturbed during the nesting season. Please keep at least 300 yards from nesting birds and notify Florida Fish and Wildlife if you see that birds are being harassed.

Please pick up trash if you see it on the lake. Birds and turtles may ingest plastic or other pieces of man made materials and suffer harm or death as a result.

Most of all, enjoy all the wonderful diversity of bird life that exists on Lake Rousseau, the great fishing the lake provides and the wonderful vistas found in almost every direction.