November 2006 Jayhawk Audubon Society Newsletter

8/9/2019 November 2006 Jayhawk Audubon Society Newsletter

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Volume 31, Issue 3 NOVEMBER, 2006

www.jayhawkaudubon.org

THE EAGLES DAY COMMITTEE meets next on Wednesday evening, November 8th. Contact Ed or Cynthia Shaw, 842-0475 or [email protected] for time, directions and info on the December committee meeting. There’s great food (Bunnie balls anyone?) and you’ll help produce JAS’ biggest gift to the Lawrence

community. Help is needed & all are welcome.

Monday, November 27

STAN HERD AN ARTIST’S JOURNEY

Join JAS the Monday after Thanksgiving and shake off your football/turkey-inducedlethargy. Lawrence artist Stan Herd, famous around the globe for his crop art, will speakon the evolution of his earthworks, his work in New York and Havana, Cuba & what he haslearned along the way about the dangers and rewards of using art in international politics.He will also discuss “the possibilities of a ‘new’ emerging art scene in Kansas around thesynergies between film, music and the arts.”

Stan Herd’s work includes portraits, still lives,pictorial landscapes and more permanent rockmosaics and large sculptures. He feels that over

time it has become “more relevant as a platformfor discussing mankind and agriculture’s evolvingdangerous relationship to the earth.” His bookCrop Art and Other Earth Works covers the workfrom 1976 to 1993. For commentary and picturesof past projects visit www.stanherdart.com.

Teller’s is the place and 6:00 p.m. is the timefor your chance to join Stan Herd for BYO dinner. His talk will be at 7:30 p.m. at TrinityLutheran Church, 1245 New Hampshire in Lawrence. (One block east of Mass on 13th St.)Parking east of the church. This program is not to be missed! Refreshments will be served.

Prairiehenge. Red Buffalo Ranch, Sedan. © Stan



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2006 LAWRENCE CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT by Galen L. Pittman, Lawrence CBC compiler

This year's Lawrence CBC is scheduled for Saturday, December 16th. Plan now to participate. Thiswill be the 63rd Audubon Christmas Bird Count held in Lawrence and my 25 th consecutive year as the Law-rence CBC compiler! It will be very hard to top 1999's record setting species total of 104. However, wehave topped the 90 species threshold the last three years ( including our third best of 97 species last year)and also six out of the last eight years. Regardless of the weather (within reason ) a day in the field doing theCBC is a highly anticipated event that has become a holiday season tradition for many local birders. See foryourself why so many Lawrence birders are “hooked” on doing the Christmas Bird Count year after year.

The Lawrence CBC is an official National Audubon Society (NAS) Christmas Bird Count. To cover the costs of editing and publishing the CBC results in North American Birds, a fee of $5.00 is charged by NAS to all field participants over the age of 18. The JAS board has again agreed to pay the participation fee

for all those taking part in the Lawrence count! Of course anyone able to make a tax-deductible contributionto JAS to help defray costs and support programs, such as the Lawrence CBC fee, is encouraged to do so.

Count participants are organized into a dozen or more parties, each with it’s own party leader and pre-assigned part of the 15 mile diameter count circle. The Lawrence count circle covers most of ClintonLake, all of the city of Lawrence including Baker Wetlands, the Fitch Natural History Reservation, the townsof Perry and Lecompton, and the Kansas River valley from just west of Lecompton to just east of Lawrence.These parties fan out and cover the circle during the day of the count. At the end of the day party leadersand any other interested participants (all are invited!), meet at a pre-arranged location to enjoy a chili supper and compilation of the day's results. This year’s compilation dinner will be at Prairie Nature Center.

All birders from experts to total beginners are welcome, and are assigned to one of the parties beforethe actual date of the count. Therefore, it is important to contact the compiler (Galen Pittman) before thecount so that all participants can be accommodated into a party and the count circle gets the best possiblecoverage. Feeder watchers are also needed. If you have a bird feeder (within the count circle) that you canwatch for some part of the day on 16 December, then you can also participate and have your birds includedin the grand total. All that is needed is a tally of individual bird species totals and the number of man-hoursthat the feeders were watched. Feeder watchers should also contact the compiler sometime before count day.

To be part of this great tradition contact me at 843-8573 (work), 842-7105 (home), or PREFERA-BLY via e-mail: [email protected]. Also, come to the JAS Nov.27 meeting to learn more about the count.And if one day counting birds isn’t enough, a complete list of ALL of the Kansas counts (not all are official NAS counts) including several other local counts can be found at: http://ksbirds.org/2006CBC.htm

Kirsten Munson. American Coot taking off

This bird is rushing to the LawrenceCBC. Come and count it with us!

SOME GOOD NEWS: 200 local 4th graders went to Mike & CheryFlory’s farm this month to learn about soils,soil conservation, & effects of pollution onwatersheds & wildlife. This was the 6th FallSoil & Water Conservation field day held bythe Douglas Cty Conservation Board.Kudos to the Board for fostering stewardship

of the earth in the next generation.



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NOVEMBER<<CALENDAR>>DECEMBER

Nov. 10, Friday: Tracking the Wild. School’s Out Field Day at Prairie Park Nature Center.Ages 9-13. 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. $20.00. Call 832-7980 to register.

Nov. 11, Saturday: Sierra Club. Help maintain trails at Perry Lake. [email protected].

913-707-3296.

Nov.14, Tuesday: Topeka Audubon meeting. Trinidad & Tobago. Matt Gearhart. 7 p.m. Topeka & Shawn

County Library.

Nov. 18, Saturday: Grassland Heritage Groundhogs. Cutting red cedars. For directions and what to bringcontact Frank Norman at [email protected] or 785-877-6775.

Nov. 18, Saturday: Bird Squaw Creek NWR. Topeka Audubon. Dan Gish: [email protected] or 785-232-

Nov. 26, Sunday: Bird Wyandotte Cty. Lake. Burroughs Audubon . Elizabeth & Mike Stoakes, trip leaders.

contact them at [email protected]. or 816-554-1956.

NOV. 27, MONDAY: JAS MEETING, 7:30 p.m. Stan Herd on “An Artist’s Journey”:

story of how his earthworks have evolved and led to his involvement in international politics and a realizaof the danger to the earth from modern agricultural practices. Meeting is in the Fellowship Hall of

Trinity Lutheran Church, 1245 New Hampshire, Lawrence. BYO Dinner with Stan at Teller’s, 6 p

Dec. 2, Saturday: Bird John Redmond & Melvern Reservoirs. Topeka Audubon. Dan Gish, contact info a

DEC 9, SATURDAY: JAS BIRDSEED, BOOK & FEEDER SAWe’re back at the Lawrence Senior Center, 745 Vermont for this sale. Hours: 9 a.m. to Preorder using the form in this newsletter to guarantee availability. There will also be somwalk-in seed. Many wonderful books and feeders for holiday giving. SUPPORT JAS

EDUCATION AND CONSERVATION PROGRAMS WITH YOUR PURCHASES.CONSIDER A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO JAS.

DEC 16, SATURDAY: THE 63RD LAWRENCE CHRISTMAS

BIRD COUNT: For details on how the count works and how to participate, see Ga

Pittman’s article on Page 2. Contact him at [email protected] or 785-843-8573.

Last year only one Double-crested Cormorant was seen on

Count. Join in & you might be the person to find one this ye

Double-crested Cormorant. Daniel Kilby



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The Conservation ColumnBy Michael Fraley

How to save gas, money and the environment.Even though fuel prices are reasonably low now, one can be certain that prices will rise as soon as elections are over. But no mat-ter what the price of gasoline, it is always a good time to think about ways to conserve fuel. Not only will you save money, butmost importantly, you will reduce the harmful effects on our environment that go hand in hand with the use of fossil fuels.

Aggressive driving: Let me start with the great news. You can, without spending a dime, immediately save up to 37% in fuelexpenses . Aggressive driving such as Jackrabbit starts, unnecessary acceleration, and the resultant hard braking waste more fuelthan anything else you can do. Of course, if you are already an intelligent driver, you are saving money in this way right now.

Lowering your cruising speed: This can save you, on average, 12% of your fuel. Even just doing the actual speed limit versusthe “standard” 5-miles-over rule will save you a substantial amount of gasoline.

Use your cruise control: If your vehicle has cruise control, then you should use it any time you can. Maintaining a steady speed

versus slowing down and then accelerating back up to the speed limit will save you, on average, another 7% in fuel consumption.

Avoid excessive idling: Excessive idling should be avoided especially if you drive a larger vehicle. As a rule of thumb, if youhave to stop for more than 1 minute, you should turn your engine off. Of course this is not always practical. I know I have waitedmore than 1 minute for traffic lights to turn green. It is not advisable to turn your car off at a traffic light. However, if you come toa railroad crossing and have to wait for a train, turn your vehicle off. In addition, if you frequent drive-through windows youcould save much fuel by parking your car and walking in the restaurant to order, especially if there are multiple cars in front of you. It is also best to limit your idling warm-up time on cold days. Today’s cars do not need to be warmed up before you drive.You will not damage a cold engine by starting it up and driving off as long as you do not perform a jackrabbit start.

Remove excess weight: This is especially true for smaller cars. Hauling an extra 100 lbs (two 50 lb bags of birdseed from theJayhawk birdseed sale!?) in the trunk of your car will lower your fuel economy. Also, try to avoid carrying things on your roof rack. If you can, you should remove your roof rack when not in use because a roof rack or any cargo on your car’s roof willincrease the wind resistance of your vehicle in turn increasing your fuel consumption.

Following these suggestions will give you the most significant savings. Here are some other suggestions that I would like tomention, even though there were some conflicting viewpoints online regarding this information.

Tire pressure: Half the sites online recommended checking tire pressure frequently to save gas, while the other half were of theopinion that tire pressure only has a negligible effect on fuel consumption. Nevertheless, you should still check them at least oncea month. A correctly inflated tire is safer to drive on and the treads will last much longer. Tires are not very environmentallyfriendly to make and worse in the landfill, so if you can avoid having to buy new tires you will help our environment.

A/C versus windows open: To my surprise, most sites actually recommend using your A/C on hot days versus opening the car windows, especially if you are driving 40 mph or faster. The reasoning is that a car with its windows open (especially if it also hasan open sunroof) has a much higher wind resistance, or “drag coefficient.” Higher wind resistance results in higher fuel use.

I hope you will be able to use some or all of the information I have provided, and as Click and Clack say on NPR:DON’T DRIVE LIKE MY WIFE! (Just kidding, she is the one that keeps me in line).

As always, if you have any questions or comments you can contact me at [email protected] Information for this article was obtained from my past experience as a trained and certified automechanic and from the following internet sites:

www.fueleconomy.govwww.epa.gov/OMS/consumer/17-tips.pdf http://www.nh.gov/oep/programs/energy/conservation_gas.htm http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/106842/article.html



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CALLING ALL CHOCOLATE EATERS!Did you eat Halloween chocolate? Did you know eating chocolate can help birds? Here’s why:

>>> MIGRATORY BIRDS are birds that spend winter in one place and summer somewhere else.

Often those places are hundreds or even thousands of miles apart. Many birds make nests and raise babies in Kansas in the summer. Some stay here all winter too. But migratory birds leave Kansasin autumn and fly south to Mexico, the Caribbean Islands or even South America. The long journeyis worth it because they can find the insects or fruits they need for food in tropical forests.

>>> MIGRATION is the name for this kind of seasonal traveling. Migration is

dangerous for birds because it is hard for them to find food and safe places tosleep along the way. They can’t just go to a motel or a friend’s house to stay if

there is a storm or they are tired.. There are no restaurants that serve worms or beetles for birds! Did you ride in a car or airplane on your last family trip? Just imagine if you were a baby bird who was born in June and you had to fly athousand miles south by yourself in September…bird migration is amazing !!

NOW what’s the chocolate connection??? Is Willy Wonka really a migratory bird?? No, that’s silly! The fact is chocolate grows on trees! It is made from seeds of the cacao

tree. Farmers in the tropics plant cacao trees in big gardens inside the rain forest. Thereare lots of insects for birds to eat in these gardens. Cacao gardens make good winter homes for birds. The

farmer needs chocolate eaters to buy the chocolate made from his cacao seeds so that he can keep his garden just like farmers here need people to buy their corn. That is why it can be good for migratory birds if you eat

the farmer’s chocolate.

SOME FUN THINGS TO DO:>Color the picture on the back of this page of a farmer and his child in their cacao garden in Costa Rica. The

seed pods are really big aren’t they. There are 30-40 seeds in a pod.

>The bird in the picture is an American Redstart . Check your family’s bird boofor a picture. Or find a bird book at the public library…or go to the NationalZoo/Smithsonian website www.nationalzoo.si.edu. Click on kids and thenmigratory birds coloring pages. You can find a photo of a beautiful Redstart.

>At the National Zoo website, play the Migration Game.

<<This is a map of North America, Central America and South America.

The lines stand for migration routes that millions of bird use. Find the USA onthe map. Find Kansas. ( Hint: Kansas is on the Central Flyway.) Can youfind Costa Rica? You may need an Atlas, which is a book of maps.

> Start a list of the birds you are seeing in your yard or neighborhood now . If you don’t know their names, find their pictures in a bird book. In the spring youcan add the birds that come back to Kansas from their winter homes to your list.

Susan Hickm

USA

Mexico

South America

United States Fish and Wildlife service



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Sora. Daniel Kilby

BIRDERS

& BIBLIOPHILES:

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

Richard Rucker, known to most local birders as Mobe, wasone of Kansas’ best birders--and the gatherer of an amazing collection of books about birds. His wife, Roseanne Smith, hasindicated that she will donate a portion of his book collection toJayhawk Audubon Society to be sold as a fund raiser. We expectto have the books in time for our December 9th seed sale -- anexcellent reason to come by early and browse through the booksand feeders.

You’ll also be able to check out Pete Dunne’s new book The Art of Pishing: How to Attract Birds by Mimicking Their Calls.The title alone makes one eager to peruse the text and listen tothe accompanying CD. According to the online promotion : “Inthis unique book and CD package, renowned birder Pete Dunne presents an illustrated workshop on how to attract birds bymaking precise and well-practiced hisses, whistles, chirps andsqueals (along with some kisses and thumps) that almost guaran-tee spectacular success in the field.” Book/CD retail for $17.95.

For the younger set, we’ve ordered books about birds, bumblebees, butter-flies, caterpillars, plants and a returningfavorite “Tallgrass Prairie Alphabet”.It’s never too early to set little feet onthe path to understanding and valuingthe natural world.

We’ll also have a great variety of birder-tested, high quality feeders (mostwith lifetime guarantees) on display atthe seed sale, so stop by to pick one outto surprise your favorite bird watcher atthe holidays. We can also advise you onthe best combination of seed and feedersif you want to attract particular birds.

- Joyce Wolf Steven D’Amato

Last year marked the first time ever

that a Sora was found on the LawrenceCBC. Come on the Count on Dec. 16and you might be the birder to add anew bird to the Count list. See page 2.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

PESTICIDE FREE PARKS

PROJECT takes the winter months

off starting 11/1/06. Coordinator Kelly

Barth reminds us that the work is not firsabout aesthetics but keeping poisons fromthe earth. She writes:“The amphibians,insects, birds, and mammals thank you.

The river thanks you. The pets thank youThe air thanks you. The soil thanks you”“babies picking up things off the groundand putting them in their mouths thank you.”

And a big thank you to JAS for bein part of the PFPP. More weeders will be

needed next year, so put the PFPP on yo“To Do” list for spring, 2007. The weedor if you prefer “plants out of place”, wilmost definitely be there; the PFPP hopesyou will be too. Contact Kelly at 843-85or [email protected].

Rosemary Gilbert Bell



Jayhawk Audubon SocietyP.O. Box 3741Lawrence, KS 66046Return Service Requested

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDLawrence, KS

Permit No. 201

Application for New Membership in both: National Audubon Society and Jayhawk Chapter ___$15 Student; ___$20 Introductory for NEW members; ____$15 Senior Citizen.(Make check payable to National Audubon Society.)

Application for Chapter-only Membership (Jayhawk Audubon Society). No Audubon magazine. ___$7.50 Chapter-only (Make check payable to Jayhawk Audubon Society.) Those with National Audubonmemberships are encouraged to support the chapter by voluntarily paying these dues. Chapter membershipexpires annually in July.

National Audubon Society members receive four issues per year of the Audubon magazine and are alsomembers of the Jayhawk Chapter. All members also receive 10 issues of this newsletter per year and areentitled to discounts on books and feeders that are sold to raise funds to support education and conservation projects. Please send this completed form and check to Membership Chairs at the following address:

Ruth & Chuck Herman; 20761 Loring Road, Linwood, KS 66052; e-mail contact:

[email protected] . {National Members Renewing: please use the billing form receivedfrom National and send it with payment to National Audubon Society in Boulder, CO}.

Name __________________________; Address ___________________________________________;

City ___________________________; State ______; ZIP Code (9) digit _______________;

Telephone (with Area Code) ___________________ J02: 7XCH

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Documents

November 2006 Jayhawk Audubon Society Newsletter