SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

September 2004 - Volume 11, No. 7

"Adopt A Wetland" Cache Restoration Project Encore Presentation by Mark Guetersloh

Speaker Mark Guetersloh, Natural Heritage Biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), will discuss the "Adopt A Wetland"  restoration project on Friday, September 24th at 7:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of First United Methodist Church*, Carbondale.  "Adopt A Wetland" is a project Mark is coordinating in the Cache River Basin.  Mark's presentation will include a short history of the Cache River but will highlights efforts to restore valuable wetlands in the Cache River Watershed.  

Mark Guetersloh is a Wetland Ecologist, and "an old fashioned naturalist who loves wildlife and wild places."  He is a lifetime resident of southern Illinois where he attended Southern Illinois University, receiving a B.S. in wildlife management, and a M.S. in wetland ecology.   Mark has worked with the Cache River Joint Venture Partnership for 11 years, starting as a Biologist and Land Steward with The Nature Conservancy, and currently as a Natural Heritage Biologist with IDNR.

*The First United Methodist Church is located at 214 W. Main St., Carbondale.  A parking lot is located on the west side of the church.  The Fellowship Hall is in the Church basement.  Invite a friend!

In Memorial: Barbara Cordoni Kupiec

    Our dear friend Barb Cordoni Kupiec died on Sept. 4 at her Murphysboro home following major heart surgery at Barnes Hospital.
   As I write those words, I feel her joyful spirit lifting up for flight, soaring with the birds that she so loved to be around.
   Barb and her husband, Greg, were enthusiastic explorers of the natural world.  They met on a tour of Africa.  In the following 22 years, they visited most areas of the globe and then shared many of their adventures with us at SIAS meetings.
        Between trips, they turned their seven acres into a certified Urban Wildlife Sanctuary.  Walking with you over the grounds, she could point out where the American woodcock and green heron nested and note the tree where ospreys rested on their flight north each spring.
    For many years, their deck and yard were the site of our summer picnics, and they offered their home in winter for feeder watches.  Barb also served on the SIAS board and was president during the turbulent years of the early 1990s.
Barb was liberal in politics, environmental conservation, and governmental support of education, health care, and many other human and animal rights issues. She spoke her mind, armed with facts and persuasive arguments, yet she tempered these with her sunny disposition and optimism.
       Barb's professional accomplishments as a pioneer in the field of learning disabilities profoundly impacted thousands of college students.  We knew her best for her devotion to the things we all hold dear -- birds, wildlife, the environment, and what we can learn from the enjoyment of nature.
    When her mother, Grace Werner, moved to Murphysboro, Barb and Greg brought her to many of our meetings.  We send our deepest love and sympathy to Greg, Grace, Barb's three surviving children, and her beloved grandchildren.  We will miss you, Barb, and will remember the many ways you expressed your friendship toward us, as well as the dedication you brought to our Society.  - Laraine Wright

August Meeting Highlights

Fall seed sale to be held on Saturday, November 6

Birds Need Calcium

When winter comes, it will be hard for birds to find sources of natural calcium.  Help them out by saving your egg shells.  Rinse them out, bake at 250 for 30 minutes, put on a paper towel and crush.  Then put them in your feeder with the seed or spread them on the ground. 

What's In A Name?

This month's column is a review of a recent book about the origins of birds, with some names explained in order to justify its inclusion under the column title.  The book is Feathered Dinosaurs, written by Christopher Sloan and published by the National Geographical Society in 2000.  It is a marvelously clear and brief account of the origin of birds as revealed in the fossil record.  You can read it in less than an hour and have plenty of time left over to examine the profusion of fine illustrations.

Much of what is now known about the origin of birds has been discovered in the last few decades, and we can be almost certain that more will be revealed soon.  The current consensus is that birds are descended from dinosaurs and are, in fact, a kind of dinosaur that has survived into our time.  The oldest bird in the fossil record, the Archaeopteryx, (from archeo, ancient and pterux, bird or wing) is estimated to have lived 140 million years ago.  Humans, by contrast, have been on earth only about one hundred thousand years, a period 1400 times shorter than the career of birds.  Among currently living creatures related to dinosaurs, only crocodiles and their kin have been on earth longer than birds.

What first alerted scientists in the nineteenth century to the connection between birds and dinosaurs was the similar structure of their pelvises, which enabled both to walk on two legs.  Even the famous and large Tyrannosauros rex walked on its two hind legs.  The relatively small front legs of several kinds of dinosaurs gradually evolved into wings-and birds then took off.  Birds also have three-toed, reptilian feet-with a fourth hind toe that enables them to perch-and tails that are actually like shortened dinosaur tails.  Like the bones of dinosaurs, those in birds are thin walled and light. All this and much more you will learn from this modestly brief but exciting book.

*SEEING BIRDS*

Today (9/19) I noticed only a couple of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visiting my nectar feeders.  That signals it's time for me to prepare myself for six months without seeing the little sweeties.  In Southern Illinois Birds, An Annotated List Doug Robinson writes that adult males take off for southern climes first (in September).  Females and immature hummers (with plumages similar to females) lag behind the males.  Most hummingbirds have departed by the first of October.

It seems that by the end of October we all have switched from hanging out nectar feeders to hanging out seed feeders.  But now we are being encouraged to leave our nectar feeders out through November and into December.  Our nectar feeders could provide needed nourishment for a Rufous, Allen, or other western hummingbird species that for one reason or another heads east instead of south.

Last year a Rufous appeared in southern Illinois in late October and remained until January.  It first found sustenance at a residence in Carbondale where it found a patch of late blooming Pineapple Sage, a non-native mint with small brilliant red blooms and a    fragrance similar to pineapple.  Ironically, the homeowner was an acquaintance of Cathie Hutcheson.  Cathie suggested the homeowner hang out a hummer feeder which provided nourishment for the little bird until it disappeared in early January just before an inclement turn in the weather.

In a recent conversation Cathie reminded me to mention this in our newsletter.  Cathie encourages all to leave a hummingbird feeder out into winter.  Bring it in on evenings the temperature is to drop below freezing then place it back out the next morning.  If a late or unusually looking hummingbird is seen lingering at your feeder through October or November, phone  Cathie at 618.529.2022.   -Rhonda R.

..A Few Things FYI..

Cowbird Fooled By Stones

Have You Freecycled Today?

The Freecycle Network is a project of RISE, Inc., a  nonprofit organization whose mission includes reducing waste, generating employment training, and fostering cooperation between other nonprofit organizations and the public.   RISE started the Freecycle Network in May 2003 to promote waste reduction in Tucson's downtown and help save desert landscape from being taken over by landfills.  Freecycle provides individuals and non-profits an electronic forum to "recycle" unwanted items.  One person's trash can truly be another's treasure!

How does Freecycling work?  Whether it's something you have to offer or something you're looking for, check Freecycle Carbondale.  The one rule is that it everything posted is offered free of charge.      Or, maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself?  Everything from electronics, furniture, and clothes to building supplies.  Respond to the posting directly and you just might get it.  A friend recently drove from Carterville IL to Paducah KY to pick up a pile of used brick offered on Freecycle.  It was just what his family needed to finish off their patio.
       Recycle, renew, reuse!   -Rhonda R.

Tremendous Missouri Plant Site

Looking to identify a wildflower but can't find it in your fieldguide?  Check out MissouriPlants.com. It has over 900 plants listed, along with detailed photographs.

Southern Illinois Audubon Society P.O. Box 222, Carbondale, IL 62903-0222

Affiliate of the Illinois Environmental Council and the Illinois Audubon Society

(Written on a contantly reused computer! Are you using recycled paper?)

:-)