{"id":107673,"date":"2022-02-17T05:56:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=107673"},"modified":"2022-02-17T06:38:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T13:38:05","slug":"update-on-what-was-causing-ducks-to-be-disabled-on-the-antelope-island-causeway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/17\/update-on-what-was-causing-ducks-to-be-disabled-on-the-antelope-island-causeway\/","title":{"rendered":"Update On What Was Causing Ducks To Be Disabled On The Antelope Island Causeway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I had two goals when I made a trip to Antelope Island as a snowstorm was moving in from the north. One of them was to see if I could get lucky with some photos of birds or wildlife in falling snow. That kind of shot can be pretty interesting but a lot of things have to come together to make it happen and yesterday nothing did. So I struck out.<\/p>\n

I found almost no birds and only one coyote that crossed the road in front of me and disappeared in the snow. It was often very dark and foggy to boot.<\/p>\n

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The only photos I took with my big lens were of this Rough-legged Hawk hovering with its back to me. Yes, I got falling snow in the photo, but shooting conditions were so poor there’s not much else I like about the photo. Besides, it’s a butt shot.<\/p>\n

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So I turned my attention to my second goal.<\/p>\n

Readers will remember that recently I documented ducks, mostly Northern Shovelers, along the Antelope Island causeway that were somehow disabled<\/a><\/span><\/span> to the point that coyotes could, and did, walk right up to them on the beach without the duck making any attempt to escape. Over several days I documented coyotes picking up up three still-living ducks, beheading them and eating their heads, and then usually abandoning the rest of the carcass.<\/p>\n

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At the time there were hundreds of thousands of ducks near the shore (this is only a portion of them) and oftentimes there were many hundreds of ducks actually on the shore, usually sunning themselves when the sun was out.<\/p>\n

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A few, not many but a few, of those ducks were disabled but I didn’t know it until a coyote would saunter along and walk right up to one those ducks that could not escape, as if it was paralyzed.<\/p>\n

The big question of course was what was causing the ducks to be disabled? They had no apparent injuries before the coyote got to them and they were obviously still alive when the coyote beheaded them. In my previous post I speculated that it might be botulism. It was only a wild guess but the symptoms seemed to fit (apparent paralysis) and I knew that at certain times of year botulism is a common problem with birds along the lakeshore.<\/p>\n

So late last Friday afternoon I called Trish Ackley, Park Naturalist at Antelope Island State Park, and asked her if she know what could be disabling the ducks. At the time she was unaware of the problem but after seeing my photos (I sent her the links to my posts) she was absolutely intrigued, and curious, so she said she’d forward my post links to Steven Bates, Wildlife Biologist at Antelope Island State Park, to see what he thought.<\/p>\n

So yesterday my second goal was to pay Trish a visit to see what she may have found out.<\/p>\n

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Before we go any further, this is what the same stretch of beach looked like yesterday morning at the beginning of the snowstorm. There was only a couple of hundred ducks near the shore, with more of them much further out or dispersed to other areas of the lake. Using my big lens I scanned the shore carefully looking for disabled ducks but didn’t notice any. After I took this photo I visited with Trish. I was really curious about what Steve might have had to say.<\/p>\n

Trish had sent Steve the links to my posts and asked him if botulism could be the cause of the ducks being disabled. His response was short and to the point – “Tis the season. Botulism will be running rampant before long. Sounds like it has started<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Coming from Steve I take that as near-confirmation that Clostridium botulinum<\/em> is the culprit – botulism. I’m sad for the birds that it’s returned but glad to know the likely answer.<\/p>\n

Thank you Trish and Steve, for your dedication to the critters on the island and for your receptiveness to all of my possibly annoying questions.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I had two goals when I made a trip to Antelope Island as a snowstorm was moving in from the north.<\/p>\n

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