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Flyer Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society Chartered by the National Audubon Society since 1974
Serving southeastern Wyoming Audubon members
Officers and Committee Chairs
Barb Gorges, President—307-634-0463,
Dennis Saville, Vice president—307-632-
1602, [email protected]
Donna Kassel, Secretary—307-634-6481
Chuck Seniawski, Treasurer, 307-638-6519,
Jack Palma, Audubon Rockies liaison—
Pete Arnold, Audubon Rockies liaison
Greg Johnson, Bird Compiler—307-634-
1056, [email protected]
Conservation—Vacant
Belinda Moench, Education—638-8257
Field Trip—Vacant
Historian—Vacant
Mark Gorges, Newsletter, Habitat Hero
program—307-287-4953,
Art Anderson, Important Bird Areas—
307-638-1286
Wanda Manley, Member at Large
Membership—Vacant
Barb Gorges, Programs—307-634-0463,
Lorie Chesnut, Hospitality, Website
The CHPAS Flyer is published monthly as a bene-
fit of chapter membership. Submissions are wel-
come. The current issue is available online at
www.CheyenneAudubon.wordpress.com.
Please become a CHPAS member—Send $12 and your name and mailing address to the chapter. Include your e-mail address to get your newsletter digitally to save re-sources and see the photos in color. All chap-ter memberships expire Aug. 31.
Cheyenne-High Plains Audubon Soc.
P.O. Box 2502
Cheyenne, WY 82003-2502 www.CheyenneAudubon.wordpress.com
Wyobirds e-list - Subscribe, post and/or read interesting sightings: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?A0=WYOBIRDS.
January 2018
Jan. 26—Cheyenne Country Club Survey 8 a.m.
Contact Chuck Seniawski if you wish to take part or be on his email notice list: 638-
6519, [email protected]. You are welcome to join the group, but please register with
Chuck the week before the survey so that we can arrange golf carts for the survey.
Feb. 16-19—Great Backyard Bird Count, http://gbbc.birdcount.org/
Feb. 20—Program: 7 p.m., Cottonwood Room, Laramie County Public Library,
2200 Pioneer Ave., Cameron Nordell, University of Wyoming, “The effects of anthro-
pogenic and environmental stressors on nesting raptors - lessons for Wyoming.”
Feb. 24—Field Trip
Feb. 27—Board Meeting, 7 p.m., Windflower Room, Laramie County Public Li-
brary, 2200 Pioneer Ave.
Jan. 16—Program: Wyoming Toad Reintroduction Pro-
gress, 7 p.m., Cottonwood Room, Laramie County Public
Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave.
Jason Palmer and Heidi Meador are biologists with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Jason has managed the Wy-
oming Toad captive breeding project for 15 years. The talk
will focus on changing the release strategy over the last three
years to help them try to reach their recovery goals. This
change has included a expansion of the captive breeding fa-
cility at Saratoga Fish Hatchery.
Jan. 23—Board Meeting, 7 p.m., Windflower Room,
Laramie County Public Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave.
Jan. 27—Field Trip to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National
Wildlife Refuge: We will tour the visitors center and look
for bison, prairie dogs, bald eagles, other raptors and other
winter wildlife.
We leave from the Lions Park parking lot at the Chil-
dren's Village at 8 a.m. Carpooling may be available. We will
drive south on I-25 to the Arsenal. We should return by 1
p.m., but if you drive, you can leave whenever you need to.
Bring water and your lunch, if you like. Please contact
Mark for more information, 307-287-4953, and to be on the
list of participants to be notified of any change in plans due
to weather.
Dec. 29—Cheyenne Country Club survey results by Chuck Seniawski
Cheyenne Country Club, Laramie,
Wyo8:00 AM - 9:35 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments: 45 degrees, 40 mph winds,
gusting higher. Richard Gilbert, Mark
Gorges, Jerry Johnson, Chuck Seniawski.
9 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose 38
dabbling duck sp. 28 Flying at some
distance. Likely mallards.
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 2
Black-billed Magpie 6
American Crow 10
Mountain Chickadee 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 3
Pygmy Nuthatch 7
European Starling 6
View this checklist online at http://
ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41449715
Chapter News
Dec. 17—Guernsey/Ft. Laramie Christmas Bird Count Report by Jane Dorn
Winter Moose Day Jan. 27: The University of Wyoming
Biodiversity Institute is surveying the moose of Pole Mountain
and the Snowy Range. Participants follow routes on foot looking
for moose and moose sign. Training provided. Contact Juliet
Slutzker, [email protected], 307-766-6240.
Habitat Hero workshop March 17: Date changed from
March 18 to Saturday, March 17.
1. Western Grebe – 6
2. Canada Goose – 2877
3. Goose, Cackling - 2
4. Mallard – 67
5. Tea, Green-winged – 45
6. Bufflehead – 1
7. Common Goldeneye – 2
8. Common Merganser – 285
9. Eagle, Bald, Adult- 4
Eagle, Bald, Immature – 2
10. Hawk, Sharp-shinned – 1
11. Hawk, Redtailed – 3
12. Eagle, Golden, Adult – 1
13. American Kestrel – 6
14. Falcon, Prairie – 1
15. Turkey, Wild – 11
16. Gull, Ring-billed – 7
17. Pigeon, Rock – 333
18. Dove, Eurasian Collared – 159
19. Owl, Eastern Screech – 1
20. Kingfisher, Belted – 4
21. Woodpecker, Downy – 7
22. Woodpecker, Hairy – 1
23. Flicker, Northern,
Yellow-shafted – 1
Red-shafted – 13
24. Shrike, Northern – 2
25. Jay, Blue – 1
26. Magpie, Black-billed – 3
27. Raven, Common – 2
28. Crow, American – 11
29. Lark, Horned – 12
30. Chickadee, Black-capped – 31
31. Chickadee, Mountain – 3
32. Nuthatch, Red-breasted – 7
33. Nuthatch, White-breasted – 2
34. Wren, Canyon – 1
35. Townsend’s Solitaire – 58
36. American Robin – 144
37. European Starling – 202
38. Waxwing, Cedar – 7
39. Sparrow, American Tree – 8
40. Sparrow, Song – 3
41. Junco, Dark-eyed (total) – 33
Slate-colored – 8
White-winged – 1
Oregon – 3
42. Finch, House – 27
43. Pine Siskin – 16
44. Goldfinch, American – 102
Seen count week: Northern Harrier, Kill-
deer, Brown Creeper, House Sparrow
Total species seen on count and during
count week = 48
In 2015 Noah
Strycker broke the world
record for number of bird
species seen in one year,
a truly “Big Year.” And
then he wrote an enter-
taining book about his
experience: “Birding
Without Borders, An
Obsession, A Quest, and
the Biggest Year in the World.”
Strycker, 32, is associate editor of Birding magazine,
the author of three well-regarded books about birds, and a regular
contributor of photography and articles to all major bird maga-
zines as well as other media; he blogs regularly for the American
Birding Association.
Birding Without Borders was released in October 2017.
His first book, Among Penguins, chronicles a field season work-
ing with Adélie Penguins in Antarctica (Oregon State University
Press, 2011) and his second, The Thing with Feathers, celebrates
the fascinating behaviors of birds and human parallels
(Riverhead Books, 2014).
Strycker has studied birds on six continents with field
seasons in Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Hawaii, Maine, Michi-
gan, Australia, Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands, and the Faral-
lon Islands. He also works as a naturalist guide on expedition
cruises to Antarctica and Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.
He is based in Oregon, where his backyard has hosted
more than 100 species of birds. Visit his website at:
www.noahstrycker.com
May 14—Author and birder Noah Strycker to talk here, “Birding without Borders”
Fifteen people in the field and
two feeder watchers tallied 37 species and
2696 individual birds during the
2017/2018 Cheyenne Christmas Bird
Count held December 30.
Field observers experienced like-
ly the strangest weather ever encountered
during a Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count.
The day started frigid, with a temperature
of 7 degrees first thing in the morning.
By early afternoon, however,
strong westerly winds ushered in a minor
heatwave, with the temperature reaching
56 degrees. What a contrast! The frontal
boundary was centered just east of Chey-
enne. At 1:30 p.m., while Cheyenne was
basking in 56 degree temperatures, it was
only 11 degrees in Carpenter!
The most abundant birds ob-
served during the count were Canada
goose (1259), rock pigeon (414), Europe-
an starling (300), American crow (158)
and house sparrow (132).
Raptors were especially well rep-
resented this year, with 10 species ob-
served! The most abundant was rough-
legged hawk, with 13 counted. One of the
more unusual raptors was the merlin, with
2 individuals counted.
Three lingering red-winged
blackbirds were visiting a feeder at the
Wyoming Hereford Ranch. Otherwise, no
unexpected or rare species were observed.
Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count
Dec. 30, 2017
2696 individuals, 37 species
Canada Goose 1259
Mallard 76
Common Goldeneye 1
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 5
Red-tailed Hawk 6
Ferruginous Hawk 1
Rough-legged Hawk 13
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper’s Hawk 1
American Kestrel 2
Merlin 2
Prairie Falcon 1
Rock Pigeon 414
Eurasian Collared-Dove 77
Great Horned Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 4
Blue Jay 2
Black-billed Magpie 41
American Crow 158
Common Raven 32
Horned Lark 31
Mountain Chickadee 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 7
Pygmy Nuthatch 1
Townsend's Solitaire 5
American Robin 5
European Starling 300
Unidentified waxwing 35
Dark-eyed Junco 24
Unidentified blackbird 7
Red-winged Blackbird 3
House Finch 32
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow 132
Dec. 30—Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count Report by Greg Johnson, count compiler
Winter/spring gardening classes, lectures, conferences offered in Cheyenne
LCCC Life Enrichment classes
Catherine Wissner, Laramie
County Extension horticulturist, $10 and 2
hours each. Sign up for one or more: 307-
778-1236, lccc.wy.edu/workforce/
LifeEnrichment.
Jan. 20 - Organic or All Natural: What
Does that Mean?
Feb. 10 – Extending the Growing Season
Feb. 17 – Gardening for Butterflies, Bees
and Birds
Feb. 24 – Garden Success in Laramie
County .
Laramie County Seed Library, Winter
Sowing – Jan. 20
2-4 p.m., Storytime Room (2nd
floor), Laramie County Library. Start
plants, especially perennials, outside pro-
tected from weather and hungry birds. Free
Maggie McKenzie, 307-632-8410.
High Plains Gardening Lecture Series
Cheyenne Botanic Gardens’
Grand Conservatory, 710 S. Lions Park
Dr., 1 p.m., $15 each, or $40 all, available
at CBG’s Tilted Tulip gift shop, Wed.-
Sun., 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., or call 307-637-
6458.
Jan. 20 – Hummingbird Gardening from
Agastache to Zauchneria, Shawn Huddle-
ston.
Feb. 24 – Ruthless Gardening: Tough
Love for Better Gardens, Shane Smith,
CBG director.
March 24 – Crevice Gardens, Kenton Seth.
High Plains Organic Farming Confer-
ence – Feb. 27-28
Laramie County Community Col-
lege, $50 includes lunches,
www.highplainsorganic.org, Jay Norton
Habitat Hero – Bee Bird Friendly –
Mar. 17
In conjunction with the Wyoming
Bee College conference (See
https://2018wybeeuniversitybeecollege.eve
ntbrite.com or contact Catherine Wissner,
[email protected]) at Laramie County
Community College.
Separate registration for the Mar.
17 Habitat Hero track includes the Wyo-
ming Bee College keynote speakers at 8
a.m. and 6:45 p.m. and:
--Jane Dorn—native perennials,
--Barb Gorges—backyards for
birds and Habitat Hero application,
--Dena Egenhoff —Board of Pub-
lic Utilities’ Habitat Hero garden,
--Jessica Goldstrohm of The Bees
Waggle on native bees,
--Wanda Manley—how to man-
age your piece of prairie.
Registration is $20, includes
lunch but not dinner, https://
www.HabitatHero2018.brownpapertickets.
com. Contact Mark Gorges, 307-287-4953,
Gardening for Success Conference 2018
– April 14-15
30 classes for gardeners of all
levels, Laramie County Community Col-
lege, $125 registration fee, https://
gardeningforsuccess2018.eventbrite.com,
Catherine Wissner [email protected].
Laramie County Master Gardeners
Plant Sale May12
Laramie County Archer Complex,
includes free series of short gardening lec-
tures.
Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society
P.O. Box 2502
Cheyenne, WY 82003
Published Dec. 10, 2017, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle By Barb Gorges
Over the eons, the greater sage-grouse figured out how to prosper in the sagebrush.
It’s not an easy life. Some years are too wet and the chicks die. Others are too dry with few leaves, buds, flowers or insects and the chicks starve. Some years there are too many hungry coyotes, badgers and ravens.
Every spring the sage grouse go to the meet-up at the lek, the sage grouse version of a bar [To find where to see sage grouse in Wyoming go to https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Habitat/
Sage grouse-Management/Sage grouse-Lek-Viewing-Guide]. The males puff out their chests vying for the right to take the most fe-males, then love them and leave them to raise the chicks on their own.
Experienced hens look for the best cover for their nests. They teach the young how to find food and avoid predators. In fall, every sage grouse migrates to winter habitat, 4-18 miles away.
In the past hundred years, obstacles were thrown in the path of sage grouse, including in their Wyoming stronghold where sage-brush habitat can be found across the whole state except in the south-east and northwest corners.
The low-flying birds collide with fences, vehicles, utility lines. The noise from oil and gas operations pushes them away. Sagebrush disappears with development.
Each state is responsible for all wildlife within its borders. But if a species heads for extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-vice steps in. Since 1985, the sage grouse population declined 30 percent across the West. It looked like the species might be listed as either threatened or endangered, curtailing oil and gas drilling and other development.
Last month I explained how Wyoming conservationists, sportsmen, the oil and gas industry, agricultural interests and state and local government collaborated on a state plan to conserve sage grouse. However, the current federal administration wants all the state plans to be examined to see if sage grouse habitat can be more densely developed. Wyoming’s collaborators strongly disagree with the attempt. Public comments were solicited by the Bureau of Land Management through the end of November and the Forest Service is taking com-ments through January 5 [https://www.federalregister.gov. In the search area type: Ask Forest Service to Amend Greater Sage-Grouse Land Use Plan.].
Meanwhile, a Wyoming man is hoping to change the dy-
namics of the sage grouse issue by increasing their population through captive breeding.
Diemer True, of the True Companies (oil and gas drilling, support, pipelines, and seven ranches), and former president of the Wyoming Senate, bought Karl Baer’s game bird farm in Powell.
True convinced the Wyoming Legislature to pass legisla-tion during the 2017 session to allow him and Baer to apply for a permit allowing them to take up to 250 sage grouse eggs from the wild per year and experiment for five years with captive breeding. The idea is that birds can be released, bring up the numbers and may-be allow higher density of development in protected areas.
But no one has been very successful captive breeding sage grouse. No one has successfully released them to procreate in the wild and, if True is successful, he wants his techniques to be proprie-tary—he won’t share them. He wants to profit from wildlife rather than take the more typical route of supporting academic research.
Gov. Matt Mead signed the captive breeding legislation into law this fall. The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission wrote very specific regulations about it, which you can read at https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Regulations/Regulation-PDFs/REGULATIONS_CH60.
Five permits are allowed, for a total withdrawal of 1,250 eggs per year, but it is doubtful that anyone besides True and Baer will qualify. Consensus among wildlife biologists I spoke to is that True will have trouble finding 250 wild eggs for his permit.
The facility requirements mean True is building new pens separated from the bird farm’s other operations. Despite these best management practices, there’s still a chance captive-bred birds could infect wild birds when they are released.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department monitors sage grouse leks every spring to see how successful the previous year’s breeding was. Numbers naturally vary widely year to year. The ef-fects of captive breeding on these surveys will be included when setting hunting limits.
No one who knows sage grouse well believes they can be bred in captivity successfully. Young sage grouse learn about surviv-al from their mothers. By contrast, the non-native pheasant captive-bred here is acknowledged to be a “put-and-take” hunting target. It hardly ever survives to breed on its own [in Wyoming].
We can only hope that this sage grouse experiment will go well. If captive-bred chicks don’t thrive in the wild, there will be some well-fed coyotes, badgers and ravens.
Sage grouse captive breeding success doubtful
