Introduction

Since the impoundment of the Missouri River, there have been many changes to the habitats of Farm Island and, of course, to the entire Missouri River floodplain. Once a dynamic mosaic of cottonwood/willow forest, oxbow lakes, sand bars, silver sagebrush/grassland and late succession forest of oak, hackberry, elm and other trees, most of the Missouri River floodplain is now under water. Farm Island is one of the few forested areas left remaining. Unfortunately, the habitats on Farm Island are proceeding to succession under an unnatural regime of erratic winter flooding and invasion by monocultures of red cedar, Russian olive, cattails and other plants. Lake Sharpe, impounded by the Big Bend Dam, first flooded the lower portions of Farm Island in 1963. The Oahe Dam, impounding Lake Oahe in 1958 just a few miles upstream of Farm Island, has had profound effects on the island. As sediment from the Bad River built up in the upper portions of Lake Sharpe, releases from Oahe Dam began to back up to elevations higher than the lake level of Lake Sharpe, periodically flooding portions of the island. Bank erosion is gradually eliminating the highest portions of the island and will result in even more drastic changes. High releases in winter months, combined with ice jams, have resulted in flooding of portions of the upper island and many changes in vegetation, primarily invasion by cattails and reedgrass (Phragmites australis). In other areas where cottonwoods once dominated, the old cottonwoods are dying out and without the disturbance of natural spring flooding, no new cottonwoods are replacing them. A dense growth of eastern red cedar and an invasive exotic tree, the Russian olive, are replacing the diverse vegetation once present on the island.

The effects of these changes on the bird fauna of the island can be determined, thanks to the efforts of Nelda Holden, Gladys and Charles Rogge, and other members of the South Dakota Ornithologists’ Union, who banded birds on Farm Island in the 1960’s and into the 1980’s. The results of this banding can be compared to our banding data, collected since 1993 and hopefully continuing into the future.

In the spring of 2004 we opened a second banding station at Fisherman Point near Oahe Dam, Stanley County. Habitat at this banding station consists of a remnant cottonwood forest and does not have the flooding issues present at Farm Island.

Methods

Since 1993, we have banded each spring and fall on Farm Island, located about 3 miles east of Pierre, Hughes County, South Dakota. The banding site is located at the entrance to the hiking trail. The USGS Bird Banding Lab 10-minute block is 442-1001. Our banding period ranges from 24 April-June 3 in the spring and from 27 August-October 14 in the fall. A typical banding day is from 8 am to 12 noon, using ten 30 mm mesh, 12x2.6 m, 4 shelf mist nets. Nets are attended continuously and birds removed as quickly as possible. Spring banding is concentrated in May and fall banding in September. We have collected a large data set of tarsus length, exposed culmen, bill length, and tail length. We record wing chord, weight, and a visual score of subcutaneous fat deposits of all birds that are banded. When possible fall birds are aged by skulling. In the spring of 2004 we opened a second banding station at Fisherman Point near Oahe Dam, Stanley County.

Map of the Banding Sites

Results

As of the fall of 2007 we have banded 10,067 individual birds of ninety-eight species. See Table 1.
Table 3 lists local recaptures of our banded birds. Tables 4 and 5 list foreign band recoveries. We have logged 20,049 net hours of effort (one mist net in operation for one hour = one net hour).

Discussion

Comparison of the results is impaired without quantitative data of the net/hour effort of the early banders, but these data are not available.  Our recent banding effort has far exceeded the banding effort in the 1960’s to the 1980’s (see Table 2). Species that we have not captured or captured in low numbers relative to the early banders are probably in decline or may no longer occur in the remaining cottonwood forest habitat. We have captured a number of migrant warbler species not reported by the early banders, such as the Hooded Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Canada Warbler and Northern Parula.

Species that stand out as declining or missing are Wood Thrush, Great Crested Flycatcher, Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting, Bell’s Vireo, Gray Catbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, Orchard Oriole, Black-headed Grosbeak, and American Redstart. These are all neotropical migrant species that once nested or still nest in the floodplain forest of the Missouri River. Other neotropical migrant breeding species such as Yellow Warbler and Common Yellowthroat are present in high abundance. Common Yellowthroat are obviously responding to the increasing cattail habitats on Farm Island. Yellow Warblers are a generalist breeding species, nesting in many woodland habitat types, and are common statewide. Some non-breeding neotropical migrants occur in high abundance during migration, including Myrtle’s Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Swainson’s Thrush, Blackpoll Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. 
 

Banders and Assistants

Over the years many people have assisted and visited our banding stations. Listed below are the people who have contributed significant time. Doug Backlund and Eileen Dowd Stukel initiated the banding station at Farm Island in 1993. In 2004, we established the Fisherman Point station. Eileen stayed with the Farm Island station and Doug Backlund moved to the Fisherman Point station. Ricky Olson has volunteered hundreds of hours working at both stations.  Alyssa Kiesow, Carol Aron, Corey Huxoll, Jeff Shearer, Silka Kempema, Andy Burgess, and Erin Moehring, all from South Dakota Dept. of Game, Fish and Parks, have contributed many hours to the banding effort.   

Table 3. Some interesting recapture records of birds banded
and recaptured at our banding sites or recovered in Pierre

Table 4. Foreign Band Recoveries of our Banded Birds