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The Great Swamp supports 39 animals, plants, and natural communities listed as rare in New York State, including the Bog Turtle. Animals found in the Great Swamp include deer, turkey, otter, beaver, muskrat, wood duck, and pheasant. Wild Brook Trout, Brown Trout and others are found in the East Branch Croton River and the Swamp River. Over 90 species of birds can be found in the Great Swamp including Great Blue Heron, Red Tailed Hawk, Marsh Wren, Osprey, Wood Duck, Thrushes, Vireos, Warblers, and Scarlet Tanager.
The Great Swamp serves as a major migration stopover for a variety of birds. Migrating birds are one of the valued components of our biodiversity but many are declining in numbers. Since migration is a very demanding behavior, acquisition of high-energy food over short periods of time at stopover sites enroute is a major requirement for migrating species.
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Blue Heron
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The Elena Hill Preserve (Putnam County Land Trust) along Route 22 in Patterson, and areas adjoining it to the south, and the wider section to the west and to the north are high quality red maple hardwood swamp and flood plain wetlands. These high-quality wetlands provide excellent sources of food for warblers, tanagers, wood thrushes, sand pipers and other migrating species.
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One hundred eighty-five species of birds have been identified in the Swamp. Ninety species are known to nest in the Swamp, the other ninety-five are migrants. (Utter and Wallace 1998). Twenty-eight species of warblers were counted during migration periods in the Swamp. Seventeen of these species have suffered population declines. Yellow rumped warblers and Blackpoll warblers have been noted in large numbers and are the most common migrants. Black-throated Green, Magnolia and Black-throated Blue are also fairly common migrants. Other migrating bird species include nighthawks, Saw-whet Owls, Green-Winged Teal, vireos and gnatcatchers. Ninety species of birds are known to breed in the Swamp. Many of the songbirds that breed here also have been declining throughout the Region as more and more lands are developed. Many of these species need wide areas of woodland to nest successfully. Among the Swamp's breeding species are Scarlet Tanagers, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, Veerys and among the warblers, the Common Yellowthroat.
Wet meadows are among the rarest of wetland habitats. In the Great Swamp the wet meadow habitat is found in a few scattered areas. These meadows provide homes for many species that are not to be found in other areas of the Swamp, adding to its biodiversity. During the winter and early spring, these meadow habitats are frequently covered with water. Some sections along the East Branch Croton River flood annually during the spring snow melt. The waters recede in late May and the grasses reappear. The soils remain saturated just below the surface.
Upon closer examination the "grasses" are not really grasses at all but sedges mixed with rushes and, often, sensitive ferns. Grasses have hollow stems. Sedges have "edges". That is the stems of sedges are triangular. When feeling the stem of a sedge, one can recognize their triangular rather than circular shape. Sedges, rushes and other wetland plants found in a wet meadow have adapted to the cycle of flood and dryer seasons. Some sedge grows on top of the hummock of last years growth and from large tussoks in areas where it is especially wet.
Many ground foraging birds find sedge meadows as safe feeding and nesting areas. The Virginia Rail hides in the deep recesses of matted reeds, rushes, and sedges. Grouse also hide in the cover of the sedge, as does the Swamp Sparrow. Insects drawn to these plants attract other birds such as the Common Snipe and swallows. Snipe and rails are rarely found anywhere else in theSwamp.
Wildflowers, that are also adapted to the cycle of wet and dry, like the swamp milkweed, marsh bellflower, golden ragwort, blueflag, among others, attract butterflies, as these insects need both sun and flowers in their habitat. Leopard Frogs hibernate in the deeper recesses of pools created by the river in winter. They emerge and dwell beneath the tussock sedge in summer. Small voles and mice hide in the sedges and travel between them through tunnels they have carved in the vegetation. Red Tailed Hawks keep a sharp eye out for a vole that is not carefullv hidden.
Wood Ducks choose the Red Maple Forest and adjacent Flood Plain Forest to nest because of the abundance of trees with suitable nesting cavities and because they prefer areas with water that is less than 18 inches deep.
The Wood Duck is the most colorful of all waterfowl. Male Wood Ducks have iridescent plumage and distinct markings. The female is a less colorful brownish grey but still has the crest and the distinctive eye markings.
Because of its great beauty and tasty flash, the Wood Duck was hunted almost to extinction. In addition, logging of the large cavity trees that they needed to nest further reduced nesting site Hunting Wood Ducks was banned between 1918 and 1941. Many conservation groups such as Ducks Unlimited and local sportsman's groups set out nest boxes in wetiand areas to increase nesting success. The habitat of the Swamp is ideal for them. There are rough estimates of 30 to 50 nesting pairs in the Great Swamp.
Wood Ducks nest in large old trees with interior cavities. They prefer cavities that are at least 20 to 30 feet above the water and 2 to 3 feet deep inside. The large older red maples found in the Great Swamp are ideal.
Young Wood Ducks begin their adventures within a few days of hatching. The hen calls them out of the nest after she has disappeared to the water below. The two-day old baby woodducks must climb up to the level of the nest opening, often as high as three feet above their nest level. The chicks have small sharp claws on their feet as well as a hooked nail at the tip of their bill to help them climb out of the nest up to the cavity opening. Then mother calls them to jump! The chicks leap and float down to the water below.
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| wood duck | black duck | mallard |
When the first cool winds blow through the Swamp from the north, the Wood Ducks and Mallards depart for warmer climates. The Swamp becomes a temporary home for Black Ducks and other migrants.
Dwindling Black Duck numbers have been a concern to wildlife refuge managers in the North Atlantic Flyway for years. Breeding grounds in Canada and wintering areas in Virginia and North Carolina are relatively secure but the essential resting and stop over wetlands in the Middle Atlantic States are not. Rapid and encroaching growth has reduced the number and quality of freshwater marsh areas. These are more important on the return trips south as many young ducks are making their first long flights and need more time to rest and quality marshes for refueling. The "Heart of the Great Swamp" and its many fingers from the North Flow to Ice Pond have become among the last remaining refueling stops north of Maryland. Migrating ducks are hard to count as some stay a few days, others, weeks. Wildfowl observers are seeing more and more ducks in the Swamp during these key migration weeks.
We think of Mallards as the familiar green-headed ducks of city park ponds. Few realize that Mallards in the wild have declined greatly in the last dozen years and are now a species of concern. Mallards are surface feeding ducks. They feed by dabbling for plant stems and roots in shallow water marshes, preferably with good cover of reeds or grasses. Mallards can be found in the wooded Swamp too but prefer the adjacent shrub swamp and marsh areas around the Muddy Brook drainage, Haviland Hollow Brook, the swampy area north of Ice Pond and in the North Flow. Protecting this habitat is key to the Mallards continued success here.