WCA -
(April 22,
2008)
Rainfall:
Rain was limited across the system (see attached gif), where total rainfall
ranged from 0.08” to 0.26” with the following distribution:
WCA-1:
0.13”
WCA-3A: 0.09”
WCA-2A:
0.25”
WCA-3B: 0.02”
WCA-2B: 0.26”
ENP:
0.01”
All areas received much less rain than the mean 7 day
evapotranspiration for the region (1.81”; see srs pdf).
Water Conservation Areas:
Low rainfall, high evapotranspiration and water
management releases resulted in generally fair or good recession rates in
WCA-1, WCA 2-A and WCA 3-A, but depths in most areas remain well above the 1 ft
maximum threshold for wading bird foraging (see WCA_stages.xls). Stages in WCA-1 have declined and are now very close to
Regulation Schedule (see WCA_reg_schedule.doc),
WCA-2A marsh remains well above regulation, and WCA-3A stages have declined and
closely tracked regulation schedule.
In contrast to
recent weeks, ENP and FL Bay saw very little rainfall last week. In ENP,
water level declined by 4.3” over the 7 d period at
Salinity
in
Wildlife:
Water depths remain limiting to wading birds over much of
the system, but this week’s strong recession rates resulted in a resurgence of
foraging activity in some of the relatively shallow areas of the system. Last
Friday’s survey of the Refuge and WCA-2A revealed large numbers of foraging
White Ibis, spoonbills and Wood Storks along the western margin and extreme
north tip of the Refuge, but no activity elsewhere in WCA-1 or 2A. The traditional
nesting colonies in the Refuge remain devoid of White Ibis nests but continued
good recession rates may yet stimulate some nesting in this species.
Bear in mind that while current high stages may not be
conducive to successful nesting, they may be necessary for recovering the
populations of fish, crustacean and apple snail that were diminished by recent
drought conditions.
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