Just after sunrise Nov.7, a couple of red-cockaded woodpeckers called to each other.
The two -- a male and a female -- were snuggled into handmade tree cavities on Fort Jackson after being relocated the night before from Poinsett Combat Range, 7 miles south of Shaw Air Force Base.
Four of the endangered birds were relocated Friday night -- two males and two females -- into two small areas called recruitment clusters, located on several of the 26,645 uniquely identified acres of the 52,000 that make up Fort Jackson.
"Red-cockaded woodpeckers are an endangered species," said Nicole Hawkins, the wildlife biologist in the Environmental Department, Wildlife Branch of Fort Jackson's Directorate of Public Works. "We (Fort Jackson) are directed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- because we're federal property - to recover that species."
Army guidelines also dictate what is to be done on Army properties. The latest guidance, issued in 2007, includes directives to recover endangered species.
During the past 10 years, as the result of programs like the one at Fort Jackson, populations of red-cockaded woodpeckers have increased nearly 30 percent, to about 6,000.
The birds -
The birds are about the size of a common cardinal - 7 inches -- and have a wingspan of about 15 inches. They have black and white horizontal stripes on their backs, black caps on their heads and black circling white cheek patches.
During certain times of the year, males can have small red streaks on the sides of their heads -- or the tops, for juveniles. The streaks are called "cockades," from the ribbons worn on hats in the 1800s.
Red-cockaded woodpeckers live in clusters -- on average, two adult breeding birds and four "helpers" in each cluster, requiring about 200 acres of old-pine forest for foraging and nesting.
In the spring, a female red-cockaded woodpecker will lay one egg a day until she has two to five eggs in her nest. She and the helpers will incubate the eggs for 10 to 11 days, until they hatch.
The hatchlings are fed insects until they are big enough to leave the nest.
The habitat -
"These RCWs were translocated to recruitment clusters within the area of Fort Jackson licensed to the South Carolina National Guard," Hawkins said. That area comprises McCrady Training Center.
That area is home to the longleaf pine, the tree in which red-cockaded woodpeckers build their nesting cavities. The decline of that tree as the result of harvesting and urban sprawl has affected the woodpecker population adversely.
"A restored longleaf pine ecosystem is one of the most diverse in the world," Hawkins said. "It rivals that of a tropical rain forest."
To survive, red-cockaded woodpeckers require not only the longleaf pine but an open, parklike area with a fire-return interval of about three years.
Fort Jackson's practice of burning off underbrush every three years promotes an abundance of diverse and dense herbaceous understory that supports bugs for the birds to eat, Hawkins said. The thin trees also allow sunlight to reach the ground.
The survival of the red-cockaded woodpecker depends wholly on keeping that ecosystem intact.
The relocation process -
A lot of work goes into both maintaining the ecosystem and relocating the woodpeckers.
It starts with the post's five-year management plan, prepared by the wildlife branch, which includes recruitment-cluster and bird-recovery plans. Post leadership reviews the plan in order to ensure a win-win situation -- meeting the needs of the birds without compromising the training mission.
"We coordinated the placement of these recruitment clusters and the movement of the RCWs very closely with the garrison commander of McCrady Training Center, Col. Todd Shealy, and range operations at McCrady," Hawkins said. "The command staff at McCrady has been very supportive of our RCW management and recovery activities within the area (of Fort Jackson) licensed to the South Carolina Army National Guard."
Fort Jackson's core team working with Hawkins on the relocation -- Keith Sutton, a game warden at Fort Jackson; Travis Dodson, a natural resource specialist with the wildlife branch; and Hutch Collins and Shawn Woodard, both contracted to the wildlife branch from Stell Environmental Enterprises -- put a lot of time and effort into the project.
Days before the latest relocation, the team found and marked eight longleaf pines suitable for the birds and drilled posts to make cavities.
Then, while 20 feet up in the air and supported by a special harnesses and tiny ladder, they ground off the outer layer of bark, cut sections out of the trees and placed the artificial cavities in them.
Once they had secured the cavities in place, they covered them with putty and paint to match the natural bark on the tree.
All of the materials, tools and ladders had to be transported to and from the sites, often on washed-out and muddy trails, using all-terrain vehicles.
The day before the release was extraordinarily busy. Hawkins spent most of the day riding a four-wheeler in the rain and drizzle -- through, sometimes, very deep muck -- out to the sites to put up tree ladders again.
At each tree, she climbed 20 feet and began banging on the side of a tree with a large rubber mallet to check the cavities, ensuring that no other animal had inhabited the spaces, before securing wire mesh screens over the cavity openings with push pins.
That afternoon, once cavities were ready to go, she and the rest of the team left Fort Jackson, taking with them extra cavity boxes with special cloth tubes attached, to Poinsett Combat Range to capture the four selected birds.
Julie Hovis, biologist for the Shaw Air Force Base, coordinated the effort to capture the birds. The whole relocation process and plan required the coordination among many entities -- Fort Jackson, the SCARNG at McCrady, the wing commander of Shaw, the natural resources office there, Poinsett Combat Range, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Once captured, the birds -- in their temporary homes, each marked with the occupying bird's sex, number and identifying band information -- rode to Fort Jackson in the cab of the duty truck, with windows down to keep the temperature constant.
At about 7 p.m., the team arrived on post with their catch. They loaded the birds, tools and scopes onto all-terrain vehicles, split into two teams and drove in separate directions through the dark woods to the now-ready recruitment clusters.
The teams stayed in contact by radio. Once on site, Hawkins climbed the ladder again, removed the screen, got a male bird out of his temporary box and ushered it gently into a tree cavity, immediately covering the opening with a screen.
She repeated the process with the female bird in a nearby tree.
After all four birds had been situated, the teams took down the ladders and waited quietly for a few minutes, watching and listening to make sure the screens held and the birds were calm.
When they had determined all was going well, they left.
Well before sunrise the next day, the team met again and headed back to the two sites where the birds had spent the night.
Relieved that the screens were in place, the teams quietly set up scopes and used binoculars to watch the cavity openings for signs of movement.
As it began to grow light out, Hawkins heard pecking and saw the male woodpecker pecking at the screen, trying to get out.
Shortly after that, the nearby female began pecking, as well. Several minutes later - at sunrise -- Hawkins and Collins -- in tandem -- pulled the strings attached to the screens, causing them to pop off and free the birds simultaneously.
Within seconds, the male flew to a nearby tree.
The female exited her cavity shortly after.
Then silence …
Waiting …
Suddenly, the male called out, and the female answered.
The other team, by radio, also reported success.
Hawkins let out a sigh of relief.
"That's the best possible outcome we could have had," she said. "We'll know more in the spring."
The future -
During April through July of next year, the team at the wildlife branch will monitor the woodpeckers' nesting activities.
When any hatchlings reach 5 to 10 days old, the team will band the birds for future tracking and report the additions to the bird population.
"We prefer to band on day seven or eight," Hawkins said. "Their eyes aren't open yet, but they're old enough to support the three bands we put on (their right legs), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service band and color band on the left leg."
Hawkins hopes to see a positive result this spring -- an increase in the population from its current 33 -- and looks forward to the next relocation of endangered woodpeckers to Fort Jackson.
Social Sharing