Redears on VERY SHALLOW Nests - 05/10/07 10:48 PM
I've got Redears on the beds, in about 15" of water. These two beds shown are at most 30" off shore. One of them had a male LMB guarding bass fry in it 2 days ago, at most.
The water was rather murky from silt being kicked up by all the nest cleaning and dirty dancing, but I managed a few shots that convey some detail.
Redear on Bed:
Redear cleaning the nest with tail sweeps:
Two adjacent nests with recently moved LMB lurking next to his old apartment. Redear on the left is nest cleaning:
Bob and Carol and Ted - no sign of Alice as yet:
Now my quandry: These two nest are in much shallower water than I have ever observed Lepomis in before. The only other time I have actually seen sunfish nests was the first year the spawned, and that was in water at least twice as deep and perhaps 4 times farther from shore. Every other year, the nests have been too deep and far way from shore to even see.
These particular Redear males are not terribly impressive specimens. Bob on the left was perhaps 8" and Ted on the right might have been 7". Carol, the female that was getting busy with Bob, was a little bigger but still not a huge fish.
QUESTION: Could there be notably MORE breeding age/size RES in the pond this year, forcing the marginally competitive males to utilize marginally usable nest sites this close to shore? (The population of sizable BG observed this year is more numerous than before; I speculate the large RES numbers may be doing better also.) (Either one of these boys will be extremely easy picking for a heron for several days now.) Or is there another explanation why this Spring they are nesting in water far shallower than either 1) literature or 2) pond history predicts?
FWIW, water temp at this depth has been 70 degrees F since May 1; up to about 75 degrees today.
The water was rather murky from silt being kicked up by all the nest cleaning and dirty dancing, but I managed a few shots that convey some detail.
Redear on Bed:
Redear cleaning the nest with tail sweeps:
Two adjacent nests with recently moved LMB lurking next to his old apartment. Redear on the left is nest cleaning:
Bob and Carol and Ted - no sign of Alice as yet:
Now my quandry: These two nest are in much shallower water than I have ever observed Lepomis in before. The only other time I have actually seen sunfish nests was the first year the spawned, and that was in water at least twice as deep and perhaps 4 times farther from shore. Every other year, the nests have been too deep and far way from shore to even see.
These particular Redear males are not terribly impressive specimens. Bob on the left was perhaps 8" and Ted on the right might have been 7". Carol, the female that was getting busy with Bob, was a little bigger but still not a huge fish.
QUESTION: Could there be notably MORE breeding age/size RES in the pond this year, forcing the marginally competitive males to utilize marginally usable nest sites this close to shore? (The population of sizable BG observed this year is more numerous than before; I speculate the large RES numbers may be doing better also.) (Either one of these boys will be extremely easy picking for a heron for several days now.) Or is there another explanation why this Spring they are nesting in water far shallower than either 1) literature or 2) pond history predicts?
FWIW, water temp at this depth has been 70 degrees F since May 1; up to about 75 degrees today.
