3rd Quarter 2008 Barred Owl Newsletters Baton Rouge Audubon Society

8/9/2019 3rd Quarter 2008 Barred Owl Newsletters Baton Rouge Audubon Society

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B a t o n R o u g e A u d u b o n S o c i e t y

Newsletter of the Baton Rouge Audubon Society

V o l u m e X X X V , N u m b e r 3 3 r d Q u a r t e r , 2 0 0 8

The

Westdale Heights Academic Goes For The Birds

One of the projects of our Education Chair thispast quarter was to use a small grant receivedfrom National Audubon to create a BirdfeedingStation at a local school. The school is WestdaleHeights Academic Magnet and the teacher thatresponded to the opportunity was Cindy Coffman,3rd grade teacher at WHAM. Jane was able topurchase a sturdy feeder pole with a baffle, sev-eral feeders of different types, hummingbird feed-

ers for the classroom windows, several plantsand bird seed for the project. Ms. Coffman's classdecided where the pole with feeders should beplaced and several of the sturdiest studentshelped get the pole into the ground (as picturedbelow). All the students helped with the assem-bly, filling and hanging feeders, and digging andplanting the various plants. We discussed whichbirds might be attracted to which feeders and

noted several birds in vicinity thatwould be very likely to use thefeeders soon! It's almost too badthat the school year has ended...but it will be fun to follow up nextfall and see what the kids learnfrom their new Birdfeeding Station.

F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , c o n t a c t E m m a S c h n e i d e r a t 2 2 5 . 5 7 8 - 3 3 8 1

Sustainable Management of Deltaic Ecosystems:I n t e g r a t i o n o f T h e o r y a n d P r a c t i c e A u g u s t 2 5 - 2 6 t h , 2 0 0 8

h o s t e d b y L S U S c h o o l o f t h e C o a s t a n d E n v i r o n m e n t

a t t h e L S U E n e r g y , C o a s t , a n d E n v i r o n m e n t B l d g .

F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , c o n t a c t E m m a S c h n e i d e r a t 2 2 5 . 5 7 8 - 3 3 8 1

More photos of

BRAS Education In Action

on page 3

Education In Action:



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President’s Report - Baton Rouge AudubonOfficers

PresidentHarriett Pooler 225/291-0077

Vice-PresidentDave Cagnolatti 225/769-5222

Past PresidentChris Carlton 225/578-0452

TreasurerJay Guillory 225/927-2794

SecretaryDonna LaFleur 225/892-4492

Committee Chairs

ConservationPaul Kemp 225/772-1426

EducationJane Patterson 225/753-7615

Fieldtrips

Robert McLaughlin225/926-2223

SanctuaryDave Patton 337/232-8410

MembershipDorothy Prowell 225/387-0867

ProgramsLindsay Seely 225/744-3962

NewsletterSteve Mumford

[email protected]

At Large Members…

Eric Liffman 225/768-8775Cathy Coates 225/767-9074

LSU MNSRobb Brumfield 225/202-8892

IBA ProgramMelanie Driscoll 225/578-6901

LSU Bird ResourceRichard Gibbons

225/578-6901

The Barred Owlis published quarterly by the

Baton Rouge chapter of the NAS.Submissions should be emailed to

[email protected]

Changes of address and other offi-cial correspondence should be sent

to:

Baton RougeAudubon Society P.O. Box 67016

Baton Rouge, LA 70896

T hanks to our members, the annual meeting and spring program was asuccess. A special thank you goes to ConocoPhillips for sponsoring the

food and refreshments that evening. The event was catered by Matherne’sand it was delicious. The first annual Volunteer of the Year Award was pre-sented at the Annual meeting to Judith O’Neale. Our other award, the firstannual BRAS Volunteer of the Year Award for Lifetime Achievement went to

Dorothy Prowell. Both ladies were given a plaque and thanked for their out-standing achievements.

At the Annual meeting, I was voted in for a second term as President. Otherofficers elected that evening for 2008-09 are Dave Cagnolatti- Vice Presi-dent, Jay Guillory – Treasurer and Donna LaFleur –secretary. I want to per-sonally thank outgoing board member/Sanctuary Chair Victoria Bayless forher years of tireless work. Cameron and Peveto Woods was a really difficultsituation after Hurricane Rita but Victoria did a wonderful job rallying thetroops to clean it up and go forward. We will miss her. Dave Patton hasagreed to step in as Sanctuary Chair and we are delighted to have Dave onthe board. Thanks again to you both.

One thing BRAS is looking into for the fall is bird seed sales. Many Audubonchapters do this. It seems to serve two purposes: offering bird seed at a dis-counted price to chapter members and bringing in a few dollars as a fund-raiser. If you have any experience with this or would like to become involvedwith this project please don’t hesitate to call me.

Best wishes for a great summer,

Harriett Baton Rouge Audubon 2008-2009 Board and Committee Chairs

F r o n t r o w , l e f t t o r i g h t : J a n e P a t t e r s o n , C h r i s C a r l t o n , L i n d s a y S e e l e y , P a u l K e m p , H a r r i e t t

P o o l e r , a n d J a y G u i l l o r y .

B a c k r o w , l e f t t o r i g h t : R o b e r t M c L a u g h l i n , R o b b B r u n s o n , D o r o t h y P r o w e l l , D a v e C a g n o l a t t i ,

M e l a n i e D r i s c o l l , a n d D o n n a L a F l e u r

( n o t p i c t u r e d : R i c h a r d G i b b b o n s , D a v e P a t t o n , E r i c L i f f m a n )



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BRAS EDUCATION IN ACTION

BRAS President Harriett Poolerhelps with bird identification atBaton Rouge Earth Day. BRAS'booth featured bird ID games

for kids and adults alike

BRAS Education Chair Jane Pattersonconducts a class for local girl scouts

in St. Francisville in early May

Fledgling birders participate in bird identificationgame at Step Outside Day

BRAS wishes to acknowledgethe following for their support of our

2007-2008 Education Program

Downtown Kiwanis Club of Baton Rouge

Thank you so much!!!!



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by Karen Fay

W hen Harriett, our illustriouspresident, invited me to Trini-

dad & Tobago, I was a little hesitant.

After all, I had been there twice al-ready. But, Harriett's neighbor wasworking on Trinidad and had offeredus a free place to stay. And I hadmissed Yellow-legged Thrush bothtimes. So the only real question was:when did she want to go? After a littlehaggling and lots of internet work onHarriett's part, we opted for earlyMarch, as long as we got back by herson Matthew's birthday. So off wewent, though I really wasn't expectingto see much that was new. Au con-traire.

We arrived late on Friday, 29 Febru-ary, and got picked up at the airport byRon, Harriett's neighbor. His apart-ment was on the third floor of a newlyconstructed building, but they forgot to

put in an elevator. I felt bad as hehelped lug our heavy bags up thestairs - Harriett was loaded up withcare packages from Ron's wife andher bag was just under the 50 lb limit.I also had a large bag to accommo-date my tripod. But Ron was reallynice and never complained. He evengave up his bed and slept on a mat-tress on the floor so we wouldn't haveto. Then he introduced us to theplumbing, or should I say lack thereof.There was no hot water in either thekitchen or bathroom sinks (I can't

imagine doing dishes without hot wa-ter). The shower had an inline heater

that was easily overwhelmed by anyflow higher than a trickle. And the toi-let, well let's just say I never thought Iwould have to be specially trained toflush a toilet. It's all in the wrist. But

we were very glad to be there, gratefulto Ron for sharing his place and ex-cited to get started on our birding ad-venture….

Trinidad and Tobago Trip Report

Follow the adventuresof Karen and Harriett on-line at

www.braudubon.org/fieldtrips

The Feliciana Nature Societywill hold their annual

Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration

On Friday, July 25 andSaturday, July 26, 2008

in St. Francisville, Louisiana.

The festival will begin with a receptionon Friday evening, July 25, at Rose-down Plantation State Historic Site,12501 Hwy. 10, St. Francisville. Begin-ning at 6 p.m., visitors can enjoy wineand cheese and at 6:45 p.m., DonnaDittmann will present a program on theornithology collection of the LSU Mu-seum of Natural Science. Admission is$10.

The festival will continue on Saturday,July 26. From 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.,hummingbird biologists Linda Beall andNancy Newfield will capture and bandbirds at two private gardens in the St.Francisville area. The gardens includethe home of Carlisle Rogillio at 15736Tunica Trace (Hwy. 66) and MurrellButler at 9485 Oak Hill Road. Hum-mingbird-friendly plants as well as craftsand birding optics will also be availablefor sale. A $5 fee covers admission toboth gardens.

For more information call1-800-488-6502 or visit

www.audubonbirdfest.com

Hilltop Arboretum

Livable Louisiana

August 14 and 15

The Center for Planning Excellence(CPEX) is pleased to announce that itwill hold its annual smart growth summitAugust 14 and 15, 2008 at the ManshipTheatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts,100 Lafayette Street, downtown BatonRouge.

Friends of Hilltop Arboretum, through agrant from the La. Department of Agri-culture & Forestry, will sponsor ses-sions on green building and sustainablelandscape design. This year’s event,entitled Livable Louisiana , will includetopics such as green construction, de-signing communities for aging in place,sustainable landscape design andtransportation/roadway connectivity.

The summit will target local elected offi-cials; appointed officials, such as plan-ning and zoning commissioners; plan-ning practitioners, such as developers,architects, engineers and planners; andcitizen groups – such as civic associa-tions and grassroots committees.

The summit is free of chargeand open to the public.

For more information log ontowww.lsu.edu/hilltop

What Our Friends Are Doing Thanks to our

Members!

April 1, 2008 - June 1, 2008

CERULEAN WARBLER($1000)

Kermit & Dorothy Cummings, Huntsville, TXJohn Erffmeyer, Baton Rouge, LA

PAINTED BUNTING($500)

Curtis C. & Helen Sorrells, Kenner, LAJohn Turner, Baton Rouge, LA

ROSEBREASTED GROSBEAK($100)

David Cagnolatti, Baton Rouge, LA

Cathy Coates, Baton Rouge, LAJ. W. Nixon, Baton Rouge, LA

Patrick Tandy, Baton Rouge, LA

WOOD THRUSH($50)

Mohamed & Joyce El-Mogazi,Lake Charles, LA

Judith O'Neale, Lafayetta, LADave Patton, Lafayette, LA

Anton Szabados, Barrington, IL

Baton Rouge Audubon is appreciative of one and all who make it possible for us to send you this publication, maintain our sanctuaries, and the other projects we undertake on behalf of conservation and birds. We can't do it without you!



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Come out to see the migratingWood Storks as well as many otherkinds of shorebirds. It will be warm!Come early and wear sunscreen.

Water will be provided.

Date: Saturday, July 19thTime: 7am – NoonPlace: South Farm - Sherburne

Wildlife Management Area

A valid Hunting/Fishing License orWild Louisiana Stamp is required,except for persons younger than 16or older than 60 years of age.

Licenses or stamps can be acquiredonline at www.wlf.louisiana.gov or bytelephone at 1-888-765-2602.

For more information contact:LDWF: 337-948-0255USACE: 337-585-0853

No registration or fee is requiredother than the licensing requirementlisted above.

To get to the South Farm take theRamah Exit off I-10 (Exit #135).Head North and follow the signs.

by Charles Fryling

T he Louisiana Audubon Coun-cil (LAC) held its quarterly

meeting on May 31 at the LouisianaWildlife and Fisheries Offices in Mon-roe. Keith Casio the head of the Lou-isiana Natural and Scenic Rivers Pro-gram hosted the meeting and gave apresentation on the Scenic RiversProgram. Keeping the state's scenicrivers natural is very important for theprotection of birds and wildlife in theLouisiana. Another guest to themeeting was Cheryl Slavant theOuachita Riverkeeper. Cheryl hasbeen active with LEAN (Louisiana

Environmental Action Network) andis now the third Riverkeeper in theState.

The Council has been working onseveral ongoing environmental is-sues including the following:

✍✍✍✍ Working with other Louisiana en-vironmental organization to prepareand distribute a Briefing Book for theLouisiana Legislature on environ-mental issues. The Council was oneof the sponsors of the project.

✍✍✍✍ The LAC recommended ChrisPiehlerof of the Louisiana Depart-ment of Environmental Quality(LDEQ) for the Louisiana Wildlife

Federation's awards in the categoryof professional environmentalist. Hewent to the top of this list and thenwas awarded the Governor's Award.

Chris works in wetland assimilationand surveillance. He is Chief of Sur-veillance for air qualityfor LDEQ.

✍✍✍✍ Coordinated and pushed for thepassage of Senate Bill 783 to add3,000 acres of federally owned landto Jean Lafitte National Park.

✍✍✍✍ Initiated opposition to the TwoLakes project just north of JacksonMississippi. If the project was to be

built it would impact the Pearl RiverBasin in Louisiana and Mississippi.

✍✍✍✍ Preparing comments on habitatdesignation for the Louisiana BlackBear. Many potential acres of habitathave been left out of the plan listed inthe May 6 Federal Register. Theoriginal plan call for 3 million acresand now just looks at 1 million acres.

After the meeting the Council wenton a field trip looking at the Monroe

Gas Field. Much of this area has be-come a part of suburban Monroe andmany of the residents there do notrecognize the Mercury problems inthe area.

Louisiana Audubon Council

Quarterly Meeting

Sherburne South Farm Woodstorks and More!

Book Review:

Stalking the Ghost Bird

While attending Louisiana TechUniversity ten years ago, I did aninternship on Tensas River NationalWildlife Refuge as part of my under-

graduate curriculum requirements. Ihad numerous duties in the positionas the Assistant Educational Direc-tor, not only including counting ga-tors at night in a canoe and kickingsnakes off the trail on our nighthikes but also taking phone callsand explaining to people that thereare no Ivory-billed Woodpeckers onthis land anymore.

But after reading Steinberg's book,Stalking the Ghost Bird , I wouldventure to say that yes, there isdefinitely a possibility that there areIBWs in the Tensas Basin. Thisbook provides a very detailed ac-count of various sightings through-out the state as well as support toback up these sightings. Each localstory brings you deep into the bot-tomland forests of Louisiana mak-ing you feel that you were thereseeing the Lord God Bird yourself.

Steinberg has done a fabulous jobnot only in his research but also in

his ability to get the point acrossthat Ivory-bills may still be lurkingaround here. I would call myselfone of those "cautiously optimistic"people. If you have not read thisbook yet, I would definitely recom-mend it!

Lindsay Seely Programs Chair

Note on the BRAS Fall Program:

We are currently in theprocess of working on our fallprogram, which will be held inOctober and will focus on thestate birding trails program.

More details to come!



www.braudubon.org B a t o n R o u g e C h a p t e r o f t h e N a t i o n a l A u d u b o n S o c i e t y


P . O . B o x 6 7 0 1 6

B a t o n R o u g e , L o u i s i a n a 7 0 8 9 6

“ A d d r e s s S e r v i c e R e q u e s t e d ”

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDBaton Rouge, LA

Permit No. 29

Patches Extra sanctuary patches or patches for NAS members are $10

each and can be ordered by mailing the form below. If you are joining BRASand want a free patch, you must put "1" in the blank.

BRAS and NationalAudubon Membership

You may join NAS by going to theirwebsite (audubon.org) and you auto-

matically become a member of bothNAS and BRAS. You will receive thequarterly award-winning Audubon magazine as well as the quarterlyBRAS newsletter, The Barred Owl.

BRAS Only Membership

If you want all of your dues to sup-port local conservation and educa-tion, join BRAS only. You will NOTreceive the Audubon magazine. YouWILL receive The Barred Owl and afree sanctuary patch. You may joinon-line at any level by visiting ourwebsite www.braudubon.org, orsend this form with your check to:BRAS, P.O. Box 67016, BR LA70896.

Baton Rouge Audubon Society (BRAS)

Please enroll me as a member of BRAS! Enclosed is my check for:

$25 Individual Membership

$30 Family Membership

$50 Wood Thrush Membership

$100 Rose-breasted Grosbeak Membership

$250 Louisiana Waterthrush Membership

$500 Painted Bunting Membership

$1000 Cerulean Warbler Membership

$ Additional Contribution

# of patches (indicate 1 which is free with BRAS membership;

additional patches $10 each; NAS member patches @ $10 each; no patch will besent if there is no indication.)

Name: Ph:

Address:

City: State: Zip:

E-mail:

MAIL COMPLETE FORM TO:Baton Rouge Audubon Society; PO Box 67016; Baton Rouge, LA 70896

Keep Your Membership Current!

If your membership expires, you will no longer receive The Barred Owl ! Well, eventually we take your name offthe list. It is expensive to produce and membership dues help to cover that cost. Please see the expirationcode on the first line of the label above your name. BRAS-only subscriptions will identify the month and year inwhich your membership expires (e.g. BRAS Dec. 2006). We are working on updating NAS memberships toshow the same (e.g. NAS Dec. 2006).

Keeping your membership current is important!

Documents

3rd Quarter 2008 Barred Owl Newsletters Baton Rouge Audubon Society