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Mary Woodney Named Environmentalist of the Year
The unanimous choice of the committee to name the Environmentalist of the Year was
Mary Woodney, which delighted President Gary Chastain who had nominated her.
Retiring from the Board of Directors after serving for four years (the by-laws maximum), Mary has busied
herself on many Chapter activities.
Several years ago she volunteered to serve as
our meeting arrangements chair, lugging the coffee maker and lemonade to each meeting and setting up the refreshment table
before the meeting. Often she had to hurry this job in order not to miss the meeting of the board of directors.
And quite often she brought cookies jut to make sure there would be plenty.
She has eagerly taken a role in our annual Birdathon
and loyally attended training sessions conducted by Sue Hagan and others in the field or indoors. At home she keeps
several kinds of feeders full of sunflower seed, suet and hummingbird nectar.
When Renee Jean of the Journal looked for some
organization to sponsor the annual "Grow Wild" promotion, Mary was quick to volunteer a leadership role. She organized
a committee of five to inspect properties around the county that had applied.
Mary will tell you that her "secret weapon" in
all these activities is named Niles Woodney.
November Program
Our November 19th program is a little different than our usual program type.
It is a kids-oriented workshop on feeding birds in the winter. Kids aged 7 and older will have the opportunity
to make any of a variety of bird feeding projects and learn which birds will be attracted to forage at their feeder.
Of course we welcome the young at heart to participate in crafting a feeder or volunteering to help with the activities.
For more information and to reserve your spot, please call Nina Chastain at
(573 637-2499. If you would like to help on the projects, please contact her.
Nina Chastain
Program Chair
| Charlie shows us how to fan fire |
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Fourteen Members Enjoy Pickle Springs Picnic
There was a great time to be had at the annual Pickle Springs picnic held at the home of Charlie and Faye
Sitzes on October 10th. Fourteen of our members were in attendance and all enjoyed the roast beef and cherry cobbler
that mom and pop Sitzes turned out.
Good conversation around a fire ring, smelling the wood smoke from the fire and anticipating the fine meal
were things to remember.
Because of the cool temperatures, Faye invited everyone to come indoors to better enjoy the meal.
Charlie along with Bob and Joyce Lewis chose the living room and the Cardinal baseball game but after a few innings they adjourned
back to the outdoor fire ring.
Others attending included President Gary Chastain, Vice President Jenny Gunn, Mick Sutton, Sue Hagan, Ron
and Shirley Mullikin, Nancy Steinmeyer, Franz Schneider and John and Gerrie Severson.
Christmas Bird Count Set For December 19th
Dr. Bill Eddleman of SEMO in Cape Girardeau has announced that the annual Christmas Bird Count at Mingo
National Wildlife Refuge will be held on December 19th.
Participants will meet at usual in Mel's Diner in Puxico at 6 a.m. for assignments and of course for breakfast.
Members of East Ozarks Audubon have taken part in this CBC every year since 1980 and have often served as
compilers. This count often leads the state with more than 100 bird species being counted.
There are about 2,000 of these counts held throughout North America.
The top 10 species recorded in the United States during the 2008 CBC were as follows:
Snow Goose 1,337,300
Canada Goose 971,776
American Robin 968,788
European Starling 549,309
American Crow 504,994
Common Grackle 499,616
Red-winged Blackbird 423,118
American Goldfinch 421,685
Dark-eyed Junco 285,120
Pine Siskin 279,469
Woodpeckers as Teachers
By Gary Chastain
When it all started it was pretty funny. Every morning about daybreak, a woodpecker would
perch itself on the corner of the house outside my parents' bedroom window and start drumming away on the gutter downspout.
For my parents, who often worked late into the night, the early morning racket could not have been any more irritating.
And thus began a minor territorial war.
Knowing I was a lover of all things natural my folks recruited me to aid them in their efforts
to reclaim their privacy. I complied with their wishes, but being a young teenager and somewhat humored by the situation,
I was secretly rooting for the woodpecker After several days of peaceful efforts on my part, my dad ended it all with
a few gunshots in the air. This riled the neighbors a bit but the woodpecker seemed to have gotten the message.
I remember this story because it is one of only a few memories I have of my parents and I having
a "bonding" experience over something in the natural world. We talked about the birds, the territoroy they need to live,
and how building subdivisions affect wildlife. For the first time in their married life my parents started feeding wild
birds.
Most people would probably agree that these days fewer and fewer people are having those kinds
of experiences with their kids. Work, school, extra-curriculars and the myriad of electronic distractions leave birdwatching
and naature activities way down on the list of things to do.
Audubon has a role to play here. As a way of trying something new, Nina Chastain would
like to have a program at the November meeting that brings adults and young people together creating projects that benefit
birds, teaches children and perhaps bring in some new members and their families.
If there are young people in your life this might be a fun way of getting them interested in
nature and making some fun holiday gifts.
Conservation Matters
Sue and Mick*
Climate Change
Contraceptives: Slowing population growth in developing countries
by providing contraceptives could be an effective way to fight climate change, according to an editorial in the British journal
Lancet. The world population is projected to grow to 9 billion in the next forty years, and 90% of that will
be in developing countries where many women want but cannot afford contraceptives. Each $7 spent on family planning would
cut global carbon dioxide emission by more than 1 ton, a cost five times cheaper than other technologies used to fight climate
change.
New DNR Deputy
Director: Gov. Nixon has picked Bill Bryan to head the State Parks
division. Bryan is a lawyer who previously served as Nixon’s deputy chief counsel of environmental protection in the
Missouri Attorney General’s office, and he was the lead attorney in the state’s lawsuit against Ameren over the
collapse of the Taum Sauk reservoir.
Rare native ladybug
spotted by six-year old: Native ladybug species have drastically declined
in the last decade, perhaps because of the introduction of non-native species to control crop pests. A six year old girl in
Oregon and her mother reported to researchers a population of extremely rare nine-spotted ladybugs found in their rural backyard—and
a shipment of the beetles are now reproducing in a laboratory where it is hoped they will help determine the reasons for the
decline. Maybe, just maybe, some day science can repopulate native ladybugs in the wild: they
never crawled in ears as do the aliens.
TEA Party Taunts
Turtle Tunnels: The September rally of the TEA (Taxed Enough Already)
Party held outside the Farmington Courthouse protested the $3.4 million in federal stimulus money being spent on a tunnel
for turtles, alligators and 60 more species of wildlife to help the critters safely cross Highway 27 in Florida. Crowd leaders
called the expenditure ridiculous and a waste of taxpayer money. The Florida highway is said to have the highest turtle mortality
of any road in North America: one study showed that more than 2,000 turtles per mile try to cross the Florida highway
each year and their mortality is near one hundred per cent. In addition, 46 people were killed in a nine-year span when their
vehicles collided with wildlife on the highway. If Tea Party protestors like road kill so much they should get out their spoons
and eat it. We’d certainly have liked some turtle tunnels put in when Ameren reconstructed seven miles of our local
road leading to their Taum Sauk reconstruction activities: the tremendous increase in truck and vehicular traffic has been
devastating to box turtles, snakes and frogs.
Engler Challenges Church: We were very disappointed
to read State Senator Kevin Engler’s continued advocacy for a pumped storage hydroplant on top of beautiful Church Mountain,
the lower reservoir of which would inundate pristine Taum Sauk Creek. Engler also recommended that the electricity produced
by the Ameren operation on top of Proffit Mountain be classified as “green energy”! To repeat a well-worn mantra:
it takes more energy to pump the water up to the top reservoir than can be produced letting it run back down through the turbines.
The existing plant was not kept in reserve for peak power demands; it was operated round the clock for peak profits on an
open and unregulated market. Calling this type of electrical production “green” makes no more sense than calling
‘green’ the black smoke billowing out from the coal plants that make
the electricity needed to raise the water up the mountain.
Electricity from
landfills: Ameren UE and Fred Weber Inc will install electricity-generating
turbines that burn methane gas captured from a Maryland Heights landfill. The “methane to Megawatts” project
will be the largest landfill gas-electric facility in Missouri and one of the nation’s largest, capable of generating
enough electricity to meet the demands of about 10,000 homes. This is the kind of power production we can support!
Riverways Quarter: The Ozark National Scenic Riverways
will be featured on a U.S. quarter as part of the U.S. Mint’s America the Beautiful program that will feature 56 sites
in all 50 states. The ONSR quarter, however, won’t be appearing until 2017—who knows what the value of a quarter
of a dollar will be worth by then. But the rivers are of unfathomable value and majesty: only human activity can mar them,
and time can conquer even that.
*Opinions expressed herein are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect positions of EOAS
Birders Often Use Zany License Plates
A quick survey of birder members
of Audubon Society of Missouri showed that they often tag their car license plates with the names of birds – sometimes
almost in a code.
Here are some of them:
TOWHEE
James & Ellen Zellner
Blue Springs
BIRDER
Chris Hobbs Shawnee,
KS
CURLEW
Lloyd Moore Missouri
AVOCET
Mark Corder
Kansas
AVOCET
Jo Ann Garett Raymore,
MO
RDTLHK (Red-tailed Hawk) Lisa Francis
St. Louis
2BBRDG
Ruth Reeg
Missouri
TROGON
Susan Hazelwood Columbia
4DBRDZ
Jo Strange
Missouri
BIRD-1 Joyce Lewis (1976)
Farmington
BIRD-2 Bob Lewis (1976)
Farmington
IC-BIRD
Bob Lewis
Farmington
McKenzie Family Adds a Lot to Our
East Ozarks Audubon Membership
When Joan McKenzie wrote for instructions on how her family could join
East Ozarks chapter, we didn’t know what a nice effect the family would have on us.
It was in October of 2006 and they lived in Ste. Genevieve County at the time.
Lynne Winston (left) stands with Danny, Hayley and Nicole at the Birdathon awards part
of the September annual meeting.
Six-year-old Danny turned out
to be our youngest birder who counted birds for money. He got 18 species but
only counted the birds he liked. He also pushed a wheelbarrow at our recent workday.
Hayley is a hard worker, helping
out at all of our workdays at Crouch Nature Sanctuary. She also counts birds
for money.
Nicole joined our Board of Directors
as the first youth member in 2007. She counts big birds with her mom when they
volunteer at World Bird Sanctuary.
Birding Field Trip Set for October 17th
Fall is an exciting time to see migratory
waterfowl as they head South to winter quarters. Our Chapter is located in a
good area to connect with these birds.
Heading North, we have Riverlands
Migratory Bird Refuge along the Mississippi River across from Alton, Illinois. Nearby
is Columbia Bottom, a Missouri Department of Conservation area at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.
Going South we have Duck Creek Conservation
Area, Mingo National Wildlife Refuge and Otter Slough Conservation Area which are our traditional field trip destinations.
Bill Reeves has agreed to lead a
field trip for one or more of these destinations on October 17th. We
will meet at 7 a.m. at the west parking lot of the Farmington Methodist Church.
Bring a sack lunch and wear clothing suitable for a minimum amount of walking.
Bill is hoping to make arrangements
for the Chapter birders to enter duck hunting areas in the afternoon hours. These
spots are normally kept off limits for anyone but the duck hunters but duck hunting each day ends at noon.
We will car-pool where possible.
Bird Pictures from Bill Rudden in St. Louis
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| Peregrine Falcon carrying a sandpiper |
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| Great Blue Heron eating a gar |
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| Least Sandpiper |
State Audubon Meeting Addresses St. Francois Mountain
By Bill Reeves
During the last weekend of September, the
Audubon Society of Missouri (“ASM”) held its annual meeting at Lake of the Ozarks State Park. This State organization is a conglomerate of individual members and representatives of Audubon chapters
spread across the State. I had not been to a State meeting for about 15 years,
since I last served on its Board of Directors. Earlier this year I agreed to
serve on the Board once again, in part to represent the interests of the eastern Ozarks and our chapter on a broader State
level.
The State meeting highlights a variety
of outstanding meetings and events, and also serves as host of the annual meeting of its Board of Directors. On Friday evening members were treated to two different video presentations by Tim Barksdale, a professional
wildlife videographer whom some of you may recall was influential in
encouraging the initial formation of our
chapter back in 1980. He is currently working on
a video documentary about Missouri’s
population of Prairie Chickens, whose numbers are declining precipitously to near-extirpation levels. On Saturday we attended a workshop and later a program about Missouri’s woodpeckers, presented by
Steve Shunk.
Steve is nearing completion of a new Peterson
series book specializing on woodpeckers.
On Saturday, East Ozarks member Steve Dilks
was recruited to help lead a field trip to
Brumley Hollow, where there are two, unique
old iron-structure bridges still in service.
Other field trips were to Saline
Valley recreational area and other State Park campgrounds. In all, some 105 bird
species were recorded, including a diversity of fall warblers.
At the Board meeting on Saturday afternoon,
the Board of Directors approved donating funds to pay volunteer birders to conduct surveys in conjunction with the Prairie
State Park and St. Francois Mountain Glade Restoration Projects. Americorps will
be providing its own workers to clean up and restore several important glade areas, some of which sustained considerable damage
in last spring’s wind-storms. ASM had previously qualified for $5,000.00 in grant monies from the State, to be used
to fund bird-related conservation projects. A part of this money will be used
to pay $100.00 per day for a birder to survey and monitor bird populations both before and after the glade restoration project
is completed, over a period of two years. The bird surveyor/monitor will make
3-4 trips to designated areas in the St.
Francois Mountains in 2010, followed by 3-4 trips after completion of the restoration work in 2011. Species and numbers of individuals of birds found within those areas each year.
Selection of a bird surveyor for the St.
Francois Mountains project is done through ASM. Anyone interested in participating
should contact me at: (573) 756-2994 (home) or by E-mail at: wgr1953@yahoo.com. I will contact ASM’s project
coordinator, Edge Wade, to forward your inquiry or application.
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