It was quality, not quantity, that turned out for the March 29^th birding course.  Pictured from left are Steve and Rita Henroid, Tom Mills, Sue Hasse, Ellen Marquart and Lynda Mills.

   Probably the best bird of the trip was the appearance of a Black Vulture, seldom seen this far north.

 “Congrats to Lynda for sniffing out both kinglet species and the sharpie, Rita Henroid for seeing the Fox Sparrows squirreled away deep in a cedar (I still don’t know how she spotted them, and Steve Henroid for picking up on the distinctive drumming of the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker...something I had never heard before,” Tom said.

   This was Ellen Marquart’s first activity with East Ozarks Audubon.  “Welcome aboard, Ellen.”

   The other birds as reported by Tom were:

Pine Warbler – 6, Carolina Wren – 2, American Robin – 7, Turkey Vulture – 6, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker – 4 Downy Woodpecker – 1,

Red-Bellied Woodpecker – 3, Carolina Chickadee – 5, White-Breasted Nuthatch – 4,

Pileated Woodpecker – 2, Hairy Woodpecker –1

Tufted Titmouse – 2, Eastern Phoebe – 1, Purple Finch – 5, Brown-headed Cowbird – 5,

Chipping Sparrow – 3, Dark-eyed Junco – 1,

American Crow – 3, American Goldfinch – 1,

Black Vulture – 1, Ruby-crowned Kinglet Northern Cardinal – 1, Field Sparrow – 4, Song Sparrow – 1– 1,

Fox Sparrow – 2, Golden-crowned Kinglet – 1,

CONSERVATION MATTERS!

Sue and Mick

Missouri Votes Conservation 2008 has set legislative priorities for the current legislative season. MVC consists of dedicated environmental groups (including Missouri Audubon) and committed individuals that establish legislative priorities and track progress on bills.  Last year proponents of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations had a major defeat—and it looks like no major pro-CAFO legislation is being introduced this year. But this smelly issue remains one to keep watch over, just in case of sneak efforts to put similar legislation in elsewhere. Sand and gravel mining in waterways is once again on the agenda: HB 1389 seeks to increase the amount of material that can be removed from streams, despite scientific evidence showing that such removal decreases the overall health of the stream.  In this time of high energy prices, it’s not surprising that quite a few bills pertain to Renewable Energy. There are proposals for tax deductions for purchase of hybrid vehicles, rebates for installing solar systems, a “tax free” day for purchasing green-star appliances, credits for recycling construction wastes, and a host of bills encouraging greener building of state and educational buildings. These are definitely all for the good—but we think even better are the Three R-s: Reduce/Reuse/Recycle.

Big Cats in Missouri: Cougars, or mountain lions if you prefer, need large expanses of undeveloped land, and a recent study by Illinois researchers suggests that Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest may provide the best mid-west habitat. There are occasional confirmed sightings in Missouri of big cats, presumed to be in transit from other states that have breeding populations (such as North Dakota).  Cougars once thrived in our state, and our woods, grass and streamways could allow their natural return: the question is whether non-native primates (humans, who arrived much later than big cats to the continent, but managed to coexist up until the early part of the 20^th century) can adapt to letting this native species be naturally restored.

Loaded Guns on the Riverways? At the Arch? Missouri’s National Forests are heavily used for hunting, as is Mingo National Wildlife Refuge—and we fully support the right to carry and use weapons on these national lands. But for 25 years National Parks have required guns (where permitted, which does not include the St. Louis Arch) be unloaded and stowed away. Now, at the request of certain gun-rights groups, the Interior Department is considering a reversal of these limited restrictions. We realize that the arguments pro and con are going to be heated, but our personal opinion is that when canoeing on the National Scenic Riverways we don’t want drunken canoeists ahead or behind taking pot-shots at turtles basking on the logs. Yes, we fully realize responsible gun owners don’t do that—but responsible gun owners don’t carry loaded weaponry amongst canoeing crowds or into public monuments. Why make regulation of the troublemakers even harder than it already is?

Southern Baptists Warming  to Climate Change Warnings: According to the Associated Press, a group of Southern Baptist leaders—including the current and two past presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention—are  becoming vocal advocates on climate change issues, urging members of their denomination to switch from being naysayers and skeptics to recognizing that overheating of the planet is a human-caused problem with potentially global catastrophic consequences.  This and similar statements from other fundamentalists of various denominations shows that activism on climate change issues is NOT just for liberal-leaning churches and individuals.

A Home-Grown Way to Fight Global Warming: It is said that 1/3 of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions result from agricultural and livestock production. But organic farming can have a major impact by eliminating agricultural chemicals, by reducing fossil fuel consumption, and by being “carbon sinks” for the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and fixing it in the soil. So the next time you ponder whether organic milk is worth the extra price, remember that it may not only be good for you—it’s good for the planet as well.

Every newsletter there’s a bunch of stuff about birds that I really want to write about…but then I get to thinking that nobody else really wants to know about that stuff.  But this time I’m going to give it a shot and see if maybe one or two other people want to know.

Golf Ball Kills Hawk

   How about this story?  Down in Florida in December a golfer got upset because a Red-tailed Hawk kept screaming at him while he was being videoed for a television program.

   Pro golfer Tripp Isenhour lost his temper when the bird kept up its screaming while he was trying to recite his lines.

   Although the bird was perched 30 feet up in a tree, the golfer began hitting golf balls at it.  On his 10^th attempt he hit the bird and it tumbled out of the tree.

   Expert golfers said the odds were one in several thousand of making that shot.

   Now the tables are turned as the golfer has charges filed against him for killing a migratory bird.  He could face up to a year in prison.

   Isenhour has publicly apologized to the Florida Center for Birds of Prey.

Birds, Cats & the Beach

CAPE MAY, N.J. –This seaside resort adopted a compromise plan to protect both its birds and its beach by keeping cats away.

   A year of conflict between cat lovers and bird lovers resulted in a plan that will keep feral (wild) cat colonies at least 1,000 feet from the beach.

   The move was necessary to protect endangered shorebirds such as Piping Plover and Least Tern that nest openly on the sand.

   Because these birds are listed as endangered species, federal officials had threatened to withhold funds for replenishing Cape May’s beach if they refused to protect the birds.

Florida Continues Efforts to Create Whooping Crane Site

   The original idea was to create an entirely new location for the endangered Whooping Cranes to spend their winters.

   So far, the only place these birds were successfully wintering was in south Texas along the coast near the town of Aransas.

   At one time the entire population of these birds had dropped to less than 20.  But efforts in the Midwest has brought the population back up into the low hundreds.

   The problem is that the entire population could be wiped out by one single hurricane/tornado at that spot on the Texas coast.

   So ornithologists developed the idea of starting a new wintering area for the birds in Florida.

   It hasn’t been easy.  Predators have been a big problem in Florida, actually wiping out one small group of pilgrim birds.

   Anyhow, a new population of these birds was raised by the Crane Foundation in Wisconsin.

Dr. Eric Hamburg, our former Chapter president, is a member of this group.

   The idea was to teach these Wisconsin birds to migrate to Florida, hopefully that they would remember the way to return north each spring.

   You may have heard about the efforts of leading the birds south via a small airplane that the birds had “imprinted” on.

   This project actually worked and the birds successfully made the trip to their new winter home. 

   But then what happened?

   A violent storm blew through Central Florida a year ago and wiped out the entire flock of Whooping Cranes and also killing 21 people.

   This time it will be different.  A new flock of birds will be led to an island in the Crystal River where they will be protected from predators by way of a fence.

Return Day is April 15

   As the April issue of Missouri Conservationist magazine points out, April 15 is not only the day for your tax return, it’s also the date when we should be seeing the return of our Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

   You can put your feeder up now and maybe catch an early arrival.  A mixture of 4 or 5 cups of water to one cup of sugar meets the needs of these little guys….no need to dye the nectar red since most feeders have red on them.

   Some believe the red dye is actually not good for the birds anyhow.

Local Goldfinch Kill Reminds Us to Clean Up Our Feeders

   When our member Joanne Deutman of Madison County said she saw at least 25 dead American Goldfinches on her property, we swung in to action.

   We called our state expert Brad Jacobs and asked him what we should do.

   He said it is probably caused by salmonella which is killing lots of goldfinches and other finches this spring.

   He said she needs to clean up all loose seeds on the ground and around the feeders and then wash the feeders with a 10% bleach solution.

   He said it would be good to stop feeding for 4 or 5 days and relocate the feeder positions.

   Mid April might be a great time for all of us to follow Brad’s advice and do some cleaning up.

Shhh! It’s time to play those warbler tapes for birding time

   This is it!  This is the beginning of the best time of year for birds and birders.

   If you have trees in the yard, just lean back and listen for the warbler calls as they search for insects in  all the fresh young buds.

   If you don’t have any trees, come on over and you can share mine!

Hibernating birds: National Wildlife reports on a study of black-capped chickadees which demonstrated that at night the birds actually reduce their body temperature about 12 to 15 degrees F below normal daytime body temperature (108 degrees). They conserve 25% of their hourly metabolic expenditure when the outside temperature is at freezing, and the lower the temperature the more energy is conserved. It’s not a full hibernation—they shiver all night, using up body fat, and they need to be fully active the next day in order to stuff themselves with enough food to quickly replace the depleted fat. But the body cooling allows chickadees to survive nighttime temperatures as low as 40 below zero, and helps explain why black-capped chickadees predominate in northern climes.

Taum Sauk Update: Current cost estimates are that Ameren UE’s rebuild of the collapsed upper reservoir will cost in excess of $450 million, an amount the company insists is covered by the insurance they had conveniently purchased prior to the accident. This is important for public relations purposes; they want to avoid the appearance that negligence (the causal factor of the collapse) will result in higher fees for consumers. They also are promoting their public image—as are state officials—by claiming the settlement agreement will adequately compensate for the horrendous damage done to Johnson Shut Ins. However, it is increasing apparent that the agreements for Ameren’s “gift” to extend the Katy Trail to Kansas City is bogus: Ameren’s ownership of the railbed is uncertain, and thus might not be something they can actually cede to the State: they are thus giving away something they don’t own instead of ceding rights to something they definitely own (Church Mountain, our favorite cause for preservation). Further, the $18 million Ameren would give to the state is estimated to be only a third of the amount needed to develop the 45 miles of trail.