Illinois Audubon Society Sanctuaries and Land Preservation/Restoration
Projects Marilyn Campbell, Executive Director of Illinois Audubon Society (IAS), will give a program on IAS's Sanctuaries and Land Preservation/Restoration Projects on May 23rd, starting at 7:30 p.m. Come join Marilyn Campbell on a "visit" to five Illinois Audubon Society (IAS) sanctuaries: Margery Adams Wildlife Sanctuary in Springfield, H & B Bremer Sanctuary in Hillsboro, War Bluff Valley Sanctuary in Pope County, Karcher's Post Oak Woods Nature Preserve, and the Robert Ridgway Grasslands Nature Preserve in Jasper County. Marilyn will also provide a look at some of IAS's other efforts at land preservation such as Black-crown Marsh and some wetland and grassland restoration projects in which IAS has recently been involved.
As a naturalist and educator, Marilyn spent 25 years with the Vermilion County Conservation District where she put together a county-wide "Outdoor School" conservation education program involving all county elementary schools. Marilyn has written many articles for Illinois Audubon magazine and various other publications, and enjoys nature photography which she says has been very useful in her work.
The program will be held in the Fellowship Hall of First United Methodist Church, 214 W. Main St., Carbondale. The public is invited to attend. A parking lot is located on the west side of the church and can be accessed from University Avenue or Main street. Enter from the right of the west side.
This year SIAS will be returning to Trail of Tears State Forest, in Union County, for our annual picnic. We will use Shelter #2, as last year. The Society will supply the main course, hot dogs and burgers cooked on a grill, and some beverages. Members are asked to bring a side dish or desert to share and their own, preferably non-disposable, tableware. The picnic will run from 1:00-4:00 p.m. with dinning at 1:30.
Trail of Tears State Forest is located on State Forest Road, 6 miles south of Alto Pass on IL Rt. 127. Watch for the Trail of Tears State Forest sign. Shelter #2 is located on the south side of Trail of Tears State Forest Road, across from main picnic site. The SIAS banner will mark the spot.
July - No meeting or newsletter!
Regional Natural Heritage Administrator for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), on IDNR Strategies o Assess the Management of Chinese Yam and Kudzu.
On The Continuing Adventures of Lucy and Ricky in Western Scotland and the Island of Islay.
Speaker to be announced.
Speaker to be announced.
We are truly lucky to have so many interesting people living in and around southern Illinois, all with a willingness to share their adventures. Dan Woolard, SIAS's April speaker was another such individual.
Dan, a Wildlife Biologist with the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, took us on an adventure to the Canada goose nesting grounds along Hudson Bay. We started with aerial shots of the area that Dan had aken on his flight in. Dan showed us what it was like living along the Bay where high fencing was used to keep the polar bears out of their camp. He introduced us to some of the other biologist that took part in the study. We got a feel for the habitat, it's inhabitants and their daily lives.
Dan shared some interesting facts on the history of Canada geese in southern Illinois. Evidently they used to roost on Mississippi River sandbars. But as time and the sandbar habitat changed, state and federal agencies interceded, opening Alexander County's Horseshoe Lake Conservation Area and the Union County Wildlife Refuge. These areas know provide perfect overwintering habitat for Canada geese.
Most Canadas migrate north to areas like that around Hudson Bay but some remain in southern Illinois through summer, nesting at refuges and golf courses. The wetlands and shorelines along Hudson Bay in Ontario provide remote sites at which Canada geese can more safely nest and raise their goslings. Dan explained how the biologists located goose nests. They gather information about Canada goose morphology and nesting habits, returning weeks later to band the young.
At the end of his program Dan inviting SIAS to take part in wood duck banding this fall. Outings Chair Trevor Hinckley will follow up on the offer!
SIAS would like to express our appreciation to Dan for sharing his program. SIAS thanks Chris Eckert for bringing the Hutcheson/Hendricks slide screen. The potluck was well attended. The food was great as was the company. It was another quality evening. -Rhonda R.
by William Cullen Bryant
MERRILY swinging on briar and weed, Near to the nest of his little dame, Over the mountain-side or mead, Robert of Lincoln is telling his name; Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, Spink, spank, spink; Snug and safe in that nest of ours, Hidden among the summer flowers. Chee, chee, chee. * * * * * * * * *
On Thursdays from 12 noon till l p.m., birders meet informally to eat lunch, watch birds, and chat at Carbondale water treatment plant off McLafferty Road.
Add a new twist to your birdwatching, go birding by bicycle! Birding by bicycle is a great way to view the birds and other natural wonders along the new Tunnel Hill Hiking/Biking Trail. Trevor Hinckley will lead this birding by bike trip. Starting at Vienna, going south to Karnak and back, approximately 23 miles round trip.
Meet under the sign at Murdale Shopping Ctr. in Carbondale at 8 a.m. for carpooling or on site at the new the Cache Visitors Center off IL Rt. 146 in Vienna at 9 a.m. and return home late-afternoon. Bring water and a sack lunch and don't forget your bike. Phone Trevor Hinckley at 549.0250 for more details.
The geology, nature and history of Giant City will be highlighted on this holiday weekend hike. Specially tailored for all ages. Meet at 10:00 a.m. at the Giant City State Park Visitor's Center, 235 Giant City Road. The hike will last until 11:30 a.m. Phone 457.4836 for more info.
Join Vern Kleen and other Illinois Audubon members on the annual rek to southern Illinois's Shawnee National Forest and nearby areas. Mississippi kite, yellow-crowned night-heron, blue grosbeaks, loggerhead shrike, prairie warbler, black vulture, and chuck-wills-widow are just a few of the birds to be seen on this trip. The itinerary includes Heron Pond Nature Preserve, Cypress Creek NWR , and Ft. Massac State Park.
For more details or to register for this trip, contact Vern at 217.787.3515 or email him at kleen@quixnet.net. This is a fund raising trip for the IAS Land Acquisition Fund. The tax-deductible fee of $50 for members and $65 for non-member does not include any travel, food, lodging or other expenses.
The cost of the program is $15.00 and will include a copy of the book, "Ten Commandments of Butterfly Gardening." Every attendee also receives a free Blazing Star. The program will be held at 9016 Robyn Road, in Crestwood, MO at 1:00 p.m. To reserve a spot, call 314.849.6114 or email: tom@tomterrific.com.
This year's annual Illinois Ornithological Society meeting is being held at Danville, IL, and will focus on breeding songbirds. This event will include field trips on Saturday and Sunday as will as Saturday afternoon bird identification workshops and a Saturday evening dinner and meeting. Keynote speaker will be Mr. Bob Russell, Midwest Shorebird Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Mr. Russell will address the importance of Illinois to migrating shorebirds and how the birding community may assist in the implementation of bird conservation plans.
For more details or to register for the event, contact Robert Montgomery at 847.695.8225 (evenings), or email: rmontey@aol.com. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Danville Day's Inn. For reservations phone the Inn at 217.443.6600 and ask for the Illinois Ornithological Society rooms.
The Illinois EcoWatch Network is looking for volunteers to help with a state forest monitoring project in southern Illinois. EcoWatch, a statewide network of citizen volunteers trained to collect scientifically valid data on Illinois ecosystems, is looking to expand its ForestWatch monitoring program in this region. A special training session has been scheduled for area volunteers at Giant City State Park in Makanda, June 7th from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The data collected by ForestWatch volunteers will provide vital information about the condition of our state's forest ecosystems. Participation does not require any prior experience. Training covers monitoring procedures, plant identification, safety, equipment and other aspects important to participation in the program.
EcoWatch is coordinated through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. To register for the special, free training session or for more information contact Pete Jackson at 7888.428.0362 or email at pjackson@dnrmail.state.il.us.
Join the Cache River State Natural Area folks for a program featuring the snakes of the Cache River Wetlands. Here's an opportunity to view closeup the different species of snakes found in southern Illinois and o learn tips that will help you become experienced in spotting and identifying these elusive reptiles. Meet at the cafeteria of Shawnee College, east of Ullin, at 10:00 a.m. Phone 634.2231 or 634.9678 for more info.
Bring your dad for a Giant City hike filled with nature, history, and geology. This hike will traverse through grand oak-hickory forests. Meet at 1:00 p.m. at the Giant City State Park Visitor's Center, 235 Giant City Road. The hike will last until 2:30 p.m. Phone 457.4836 for more info.
Here was my plan: start a life list for a new state, visit new birding sites, and stay close to home. On April 22-23, using West Kentucky's John James Audubon Birding Trail Map, I had an inexpensive mini adventure that included an overnight at the Spartan Wickliffe Motel ($29.95).
I chose the Ballard birding trail, which includes four conservation areas along the Ohio River west of Paducah. Most of these sites allow access to natural swamps freed from the depressing levee system common along the Mississippi.
The West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area has 500 acres of woodlands, hiking trails, and prairie remnants. Prothonotary and Kentucky warblers were plentiful, and I found an indigo bunting and blue grosbeak sharing the same large shrub along a field.
The Ballard County Wildlife Management Area was even more extensive, with habitat for numerous shorebirds. I found five of the seven vireos, as well, but not the Mississippi kite, which breeds there.
Just north of Wickliffe are the Peal and Swan Lake wildlife management areas with similar habitat. But be forewarned: Westvaco operates a paper mill in the little river town, and the early-morning stench could ruin your appetite (but not mine!).
I came home with my new state list at 84 species and a renewed appreciation for river land swamp habitat. A swing through the Bootheel (Ten Mile Pond and Big Oak Tree State Park) brought my trip list to 109. Next up for Kentucky: an overnight in the height of spring migration following the Trace Trail of Land Between the Lakes.
To get a copy of the birding trail map, call the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resource at 1-800-858-1549.
-Laraine Wright
On 04/13, SIAS friend Brian Spear saw his first ruby-throated hummingbird of the season at his feeder (hooray!). And on 04/16 he saw a group of 8 black vultures soaring over Little Grassy Lake spillway.
In late April Mary Rendleman had rose-breasted grosbeaks visiting he feeders at her home on Country Club Road, Carbondale. Several males as well as one female were seen.
"Mother Nature had a major impact on this years Massac County 2003 Spring Bird Count (05/10). We've been pelted with rainstorm after rainstorm from April 25th through May 10th, dropping 18 inches of the wet stuff. The Ohio River rose 14 feet in just a couple days swallowing thousands of acres of southeastern Massac county habitat in the Black Bottoms of Unionville. Fort Massac State Park also lost approximately one hundred acres of habitat along the river. The Ohio River rising so fast causes the Cache River in turn to back up flooding the northwestern corner of Massac County, again swallowing hundreds of acres more at this location.
Last, but definitely not least, was the F4 class tornado that ripped through the county (Massac), destroying or damaging hundreds of homes. The tornado attacked from the southwest corner of the county leaving a path of total destruction a mile wide. At times the path narrows to about 1/2 mile, but for the most part the path is a mile wide.
Unfortunately the tornado crossed right through the middle of the Mermet Lake Conservation Area also, and did some major damage. This tornado was mowing giant woods in half, so when it battled the Illinois State Champion Willow Oak at Mermet Lake, the mighty oak lost, as did thousands of others. All the trees in these woods are splintered at about 30 feet in height. Quite eerie driving the road between the splintered giants. Even woods not directly in the path lost hundreds of trees, mainly uprooted due to the wet conditions. Mermet Lake Conservation Area will take years to recover. The tornado left the lake and continued northeast destroying more homes and damaging property across the county until in ran out of Massac and started on into Pope County.
The (Spring Bird) count produced a good diversity of species despite the setbacks of mother nature. The "birds of the day" for me were the three black-necked stilts... just behind the old Mermet Store in a flooded AG field. Unofficially the Massac County SBC species total is 156 for the day. I want to thank Lester Barger, Todd Bugg, Don Bennett, and David Garrett for their super help." -Frank Bennett
On 04/26 teams of birders went out "dark and early" to spend all day searching for birds throughout southernmost Illinois. The following morning they met to share species checklists, swap stories of their team's adventures, and find out who was to be proclaimed winners of the Second Annual Birding Blitz.
First place in the Open Category and the Overall Winner awards went o the SI Hotshots team comprised of Frank Bennett, Dan Kassebaum and Keith McMullen, with 146 total species. This was the second year in a row that the SI Hotshots took the Open Category win. Their competition and first time Birding Blitzers the Birding Buddies, Les Allen and Dale Birkenholz of Bloomington/Normal, ended their day with 95 species.
The 100 Or Bust team of Mike Brown, Trevor Hinckley and Joe Merkelbach won the Selected Site Category with 122 species. The Parasitized Cache Coffee Clutch team of Liz Jones, Jim Waycuilis, Susan Post and Michael Jefford, also competed in the Selected Site Category located a total of 75 species.
As only team competing in the Over 55 category, the "Old Coots", Connie Laughlin, Nelda Hinckley, and Dennis Hale, won before they started. None the less, they put in a long and competitive day, earning their win with a total of 87 species.
The muscle-powered category proved to be the closest competition with the Cocoa-billed Cuckoos beating the Harriers by a beak. The Cuckoos, comprised of Vicki Lang, Don Mullison and Rhonda Rothrock, had a total of 112 species for the day while the Harriers, comprised of Jeff Hoover, Andy Pyle, Joe Stevenson, and Mike Baltz finished their day with 111.
When team checklists were combined it was determine that a total of 176 bird species had been located during the Birding Blitz. Bobolinks seemed to be the "birds of the day" but a Bay-breasted Warbler, pairs of Northern Orioles and an Upland Sandpiper were also favorites.
Over $3,000 in pledges was collected for bird habitat conservation. An award was presented to the Birding Buddies for highest pledge total. All teams agreed that the pledge money would be donated to the new "Adopt a Swamp" project. This program, spearheaded by Mark Guetersloh of Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge, will help preserve and restore wetlands along the Cache River Watershed by plugging ditches that might otherwise cause wetlands to drain.
All-in-all the Birding Blitz was a success. Plans are already underway for next year's event which will be part of the newer and bigger Birding Fest of Southernmost Illinois. -Rhonda R.
For more information on "Adopt a Swamp" contact Cypress Creek Refuge at 634.223l.
A breeding bird of the boreal forest from eastern Canada and northern New England to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, the Cape May warbler is dependent on the health of spruce stands. Its primary food is the spruce budworm, a tree pest, and in seasons of major outbreaks of this pest, Cape Mays are prolific. Therefore, the number of birds of this species seen in migration may vary considerable. Their winter range is quite restricted, primarily to the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles.
-The National Audubon Society
Although we share a written language with the British, we speak hat language in a different way. We also apply a different set of names o many of the birds we share with the British. These are the so-called common names in contrast to the Latinate scientific names, which are rigorously kept the same throughout the world. Each country is free to decide the common names of birds, and this freedom leads to the differences. As pointed out in an earlier column, however, we recently adopted the British name moorhen for our common gallinule even though we have no moors.
British bird names tend to be shorter than ours, usually in those cases where they have but one of a kind while we have several that must be differentiated. They have but one wren so they call it "wren," a bird we call the winter wren since we have others. Our black-billed magpie is simply magpie to them since they have no yellow-billed variety.
Among the more interesting British names are great northern diver for our common loon (their other loons are also named divers, such as red-necked diver), goosander for common merganser, and shore lark for our horned lark. Our bank swallow becomes sand martin in their field guides and our goatsuckers (night hawk, etc.) become nightjars. Two of our grebes, the horned and eared, are named Slavonian and blacked-necked grebes by the British. Many others might be listed.
Two natives of Britain which have become pests in America are the starling (they omit the word European in its name) and the house sparrow. They are evidently viewed with more affection there than here since I found both on a British greeting card that contained many of their commonest, and presumably most loved, birds. In a similar way, they have found our ruddy duck to be an unwelcome intruder since they are interbreeding with the rare white-headed duck on their breeding grounds in Europe and hence threatening heir existence as a separate species. The British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is defending a plan to slaughter all of the estimated 6,000 ruddy ducks in Britain. Different countries, different attitudes -- in addition to different names. -David Kvernes
The American Ruddy Duck has been flying around Britain for 50 years but now it's under attack from Britains who say that it is a major threat to one of Europe's rarest birds, the white-headed duck. It seems that the ruddy duck is mating with the white-headed duck at its breeding grounds in Spain. The resulting offspring are a hybrid, diluting the purity of the fragile white-headed duck population.
The Spanish government and international bird-conservation groups have succeeded in convincing the British government to begin a ruddy duck eradication plan. Opponents are fighting the plan and believe nature should be allowed to take its course. Some believe and suggest that the robust ruddy might be the only means of survival for the more fragile white-headed duck.
The number of feral cats in the U.S. is estimated to be between 40 - 60 million. Another 40 million domestic cats nationwide also roam outside, hunting and killing small animals. Four to six million unwanted animals - mostly cats - are put to sleep each year in the U.S. As an alternative to euthanasia, many cat advocates believe in rap-neuter-release, programs, in which feral cats are spayed or neutered and returned to "cat colonies" where caretakers look after them.
But a University of Florida study, commissioned by the USFWS, found hat feral, or free-roaming, untamed cats pose a serious threat to endangered species nation-wide. "The domestic cat species is not indigenous to Florida or anywhere else in North America. They impact native wildlife in three primary ways: predation, disease, and competition," said Pamela Hatley, a law student at UF's Levin College of Law who conducted the study. For more details visit: http://conservation.law.ufl.edu/spotlight.html
Caretakers at the Beartooth Nature Center Wild Animal Refuge in Red Lodge, Montana, have many animals in their charge including a wily coyote named Wilhelmenia. Caretakers for Willie as she is called, say that Willie loves the attention of her keepers and enjoys howling along when sung too but is very picky when it comes to food. It seems Willie will only eat chicken. She will openly express her disdain for any other meal, going as far as urinating on the meal to get her point across. Her caretakers say a simple "no thank you" would suffice.
For more info on Wily Willie or Beartooth Nature Center, visit their website at www.beartoothnaturecenter.org.
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?)
:-)