The Prairie Owl Palouse Audubon Society

PALOUSE AUDUBON

President: Terry Gray, (208) 882-1585, clgtlg@moscow.com

Vice-President: Sarah de la Rue, sarah.delarue@vandals.uidaho.edu

Secretary: Vacant

Treasurer: Henry Willmes (208) 882-2649, hwillmes@verizon.net

Board Members: Becky Phillips, beccap@wsu.edu; Ron Force, ron-force@gmail.com

Education: Vacant

Field Trips: Terry Gray, (208) 882-1585, clgtlg@moscow.com

Membership: James Storms, (509) 635-1272, nbutte@pullman.com

Newsletter: Tina Deines, (785) 317-2427, tinadeines@gmail.com

Programs/Website: Tom Weber, tweber@roadrunner.com (509) 334-3817

Publicity: Diane Weber, (509) 334-3817, catbirdz@roadrunner.com

VOLUME 38 ISSUE 3

EVENT CALENDAR

FEBRUARY

13—Field Trip; Valley

17—Program—Natural New Zealand

27—Field Trip; Lowlands

MARCH

2—Board Meeting; 7:30pm, Fiske Room

13—Field Trip; Turnbull

24—Program—Idaho’s Greater Sage Grouse

27—Field Trip; Harrison

APRIL

6—Board Meeting; 7:30pm, Fiske Room

Red Crossbills inhabit the coniferous forest where they feed on the seeds they extract from pines and other conifers. They are social nomads, flocking together to range across the forest to areas with heavy cone crops. A hike in the moun-tains often turns up a flyover of birds uttering their sin-gle note flight call. In winter, we get better looks at these birds with t h e i r b i z a r r e crossed bills when they visit our back-yard feeders.

Red Crossbills have been the sub-ject of increasingly detailed studies over the last sev-eral decades. Sub-populations have evolved that are adapted to feeding on particular species of conifers. Ten of these sub-populations, known as “Types”, have been identified so far in North America. The differences in bill and body measure-ments that distinguish these Types are

subtle, and field identification depends upon discernible differences in the call notes. Discernible, that is, to the experi-enced ear.

Type 2, a relatively large bird that spe-cializes in ponderosa pine, is probably the

most common type in our area. To the east, in the wetter forest of the Coeur d’Alene River drainage, one of the smaller types, such as Type 1 or Type 4, is probably the most common. The keynote speaker at the

Western Field Ornithologist Conference held in Boise during September was Dr. Craig Benkman who has proposed that a population of Red Crossbills in the South Hills of southern Idaho are a separate spe-cies. The idea of reproductive isolation of a population is frequently cited as the ‘gold

THE SOUTH HILLS CROSSBILL—A NEW IDAHO SPECIES? Reprinted from The Fish Hawk Herald, Coeur d’Alene Audubon

February-March 2010

My wife Christine and I had the pleasure of attending the unveiling of the Palouse to Pines map, the sixth in a series of seven maps mak-ing up the Great Washington State Birding Trail. The presentation was at the State Capitol in Olympia. More than 130 people attended the event. State Senator Lisa Brown of Spokane spoke about the importance

FROM THE PREZ

Continued on page 3

Continued on page 4

and value of the Birding Trail Pro-gram. This map has been in the making for the past two years. David Woodall, Keith Carlson and I identified site locations and helped Christi Norman, Birding Trail Pro-gram Director. Palouse Audubon will be donating $300 each year for the next two years to the birding trail program to support the final Puget Sound Loop that is being de-

February 17—Natural New Zea-land—Ron Force, Retired Dean of Li-brary Services, University of Idaho

Ron’s presentation covers the evolu-tion of the unique birdlife of New Zea-land; the changes brought about by the Maori and European settlers to the flora and fauna of the islands; and the efforts of current New Zealanders to preserve and restore what remains, including the "Ecological Islands" movement.

March 24—Idaho’s Greater Sage Grouse—Jeffrey

Gillan, Graduate student, University of Idaho Jeff will discuss political issues and conservation ef-

forts on sage grouse in Idaho. By March, we should know if sage-grouse will be listed as an endan-gered species by the USFWS. The results will be interesting either way. Jeff is a graduate student at the Uni-

PROGRAMS

PAGE 2 VOLUME 38 ISSUE 3

Treasurer’s Report— 2/4/10 Checking Balance 7/31/09 $13,618.12 Dues $675.00 Donations $115.00 Latah Wildlife Association $500.00 Insurance ($307.00) U/I Creative Services ($88.41) Post Office ($88.00) PCEI (NAS Grant) ($3,855.48) James Storm (membership) ($321.71) Checking Balance 11/3/09 $10,247.52 Certificate of Deposit $5,188.45 Tri-State Gift Card $192.56 Liabilities Norcross Grant ($1,471.74) Wetlands Grant ($88.88) National Audubon Grant ($3,644.52) Tri-State Gift Card ($192.56) Total Assets: $10,038.27

Membership Report—2/1/10 National & Palouse Audubon 280 Palouse Audubon (paid & pending) 60 National Audubon (only) 116 Total Membership 456 PAS Membership Year—Sep 1 to Aug 31

SECOND NOTICE FOR 2010 DUES HAVE BEEN SENT

February 13—Valley Backyard Bird Count Field Trip; Terry Gray. Meet at the north parking lot of Sports Authority in Lewiston at 8:00 a.m.

This field trip will be like all our other trips except while birding hotspots (such as Terminal 2), we will count all species as a separate Backyard Bird Count. We will visit as many of the valley hotspots as time allows. This will be an all day trip but can be half day for those who want to stop early. The Great Backyard Bird Count runs from February 12-15, 2010. Participants count birds (at any location) for 15 minutes and report them to http://www.birdcount.org/

February 27—Lowland Birding; Terry Gray. Meet at the north parking lot of Sports Authority in Lewiston at 8:00 a.m. Where we go will depend on the weather but we will try to visit places we did not cover on the Backyard Bird Count Field Trip on February 13th. This will be an all day trip but can be half day for those who want to stop early.

March 13—Turnbull National Wild-

FIELD TRIPS

versity of Idaho working for the Rangeland Ecology Department. He is part of a collabora-tive effort to create a sage grouse guide book targeted to landowners. He is also writing a thesis on man made structure impacts on sage grouse in west central Idaho. April 21—Antarctica: The White Conti-nent—Richard Naskali, Emeritus Arboretum Director and University of Idaho Professor In 2008, Richard made his first two cruises to Antarctica and Argentina. His photo show is his first gallery production effort. His photographs endeavor to reveal the stunning

textures and colors of natural objects (especially plants) and reveal developmental stages of the environment, with-out distracting objects and people. Photographs of people, reveal them in their professions and character.

The two cruises to Antarctica were the culmination of a 50-year old dream to see the world's greatest serene and massive wilderness.

May 19—Birds of the Scotchman Peaks Region of

Idaho-Montana—Jon Isacoff, Gonzaga University

Program meetings are held at the 1912 Building, FISKE ROOM, 3rd and Adams

St, Moscow ID, at 7:30 pm

life Refuge; Terry Gray. Turnbull NWR was established in 1937 to provide productive breeding and nesting grounds for migratory birds and other wildlife. The refuge en-compasses approximately 16,000 acres of scabland infused in a di-verse landscape of over 130 marshes, wetlands and lakes. The wetlands represent some of the last high quality breeding habitat avail-able in eastern Washington. Partici-pants should meet at 7:30 a.m. at Dissmore’s in Pullman. A full day trip.

March 27—Harrison and the Chain-of-Lakes; Terry Gray. Our trip will be in search of Tundra Swans, waterfowl, Bald Eagles, and early spring migrants. Participants should meet at 7:30 a.m. at Ro-sauer's on N. Main in Moscow.

For more information on field trips, contact Terry Gray at (208)

882-1585, clgtlg@moscow.com

PAGE 3 THE PRAIRIE OWL VOLUME 38 ISSUE 3

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION C9ZY050Z

NAME ____________________________________________ ADDRESS _________________________________________

CITY ____________________________________ State ____________________ Zip _________________________

PHONE _________________________________ EMAIL ___________________________________________________

Return this form with your check to: Palouse Audubon Society, PO Box 3606, Moscow, ID 83843-1914

NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY (New only) Palouse Audubon Society

Includes National Audubon Society and Palouse Audu-bon Society membership and subscriptions to AUDU-BON MAGAZINE and THE PRAIRIE OWL newsletter. Send check payable to National Audubon Society

Financially supports the programs and activities of the Palouse Audubon Society and includes an annual sub-scription to THE PRAIRIE OWL newsletter. Send your check payable to Palouse Audubon Society

Introductory Membership $20.00 Annual Membership $15.00

Student & Senior Citizen (62+) $15.00 For additional information call: (509) 635-1272

CROSSBILLS (continued from page 1)

standard’ for species differentiation. Benkman has assembled the evi-dence of reproductive isolation of the South Hills population in a recent paper published in Condor.

Benkman is a good lobbyist for the South Hills crossbills: modest and thoughtful, he somehow conveys his sense of delight in the natural world that has maintained his interest in assembling the crossbill story over the decades. In his talk, he showed how crossbill’s bills and palate are adapted to feeding on pine seeds, and why a given bill shape is more effi-cient at feeding on a particular spe-cies of pine. It was impressive of Benkman’s unwillingness to sacrifice birds for the purpose of examining the structure of their palates. Palate structure was an important piece of the puzzle in studying the specialized adaptations of the various Types. Benkman was happy to discover a dental procedure which allowed him to make impressions of the palates of living birds. Although his subjects were probably not happy to have their palates pressed into a block of dental goo, it led to a more favorable outcome for all concerned.

In 1997, Benkman recognized that the South Hills crossbills represented a new Type and became interested in studying them because of the region’s

absence of squirrels. The lodge pole forests of the South Hills are isolated from other squirrel-inhabited mountain ranges by large stretches of sagebrush desert. Squirrels are major consumers of conifer seeds and in their absence, crossbills became ‘the main selective agent on cone structure’. The result has been that the lodge pole cones have become larger and the scales of the cones have become thicker, causing ‘reciprocal selection’ for larger-billed crossbills. Benkman terms this a ‘co-evolutionary arms race’.

Benkman has proposed the scientific name Loxia sinesciuris for this poten-tial new species. The species name means ‘without squirrels’. The com-mon name would be South Hills Cross-bill. It would be the only species found only in Idaho, and would probably gen-erate a small cottage industry catering to rabid listers.

The ecology of the South Hills cross-bills is a result of a complex conver-gence of geology, climate and biology. The ecology appears to be on a converg-ing vanishing point however, as cli-mate change is expected to eliminate lodge pole pine from the South Hills in the next 100 years,

Additional information on the South Hills Crossbill may be found at: http://research.amnh.org/ornithology/ c r o s s b i l l s / a n d a t http://www.uwyo.edu/benkman/

HELP WANTED The Palouse Audubon So-

ciety is looking for someone willing to serve as Secre-tary. The main duties of the Secretary are to attend monthly board meetings and to keep minutes of these meetings. The secre-tary may also assist the President and the PAS Board with correspondence.

No prior experience is necessary; you don’t need to be a dedicated birder; and assistance will be available from other members of the Board. If you are interested in this opportunity to help guide the activities of Pa-louse Audubon Society, please contact Tom Weber at 334-3817 or twe-ber@roadrunner.com

Bird and nature fans throughout North America are invited to join tens of thousands of everyday bird watchers for the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), Feb-ruary 12-15, 2010. A joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, this free event is an opportunity for fami-lies, students, and people of all ages to discover the wonders of nature in back-yards, schoolyards, and local parks, and, at the same time, make an important contribution to con-servation. Partici-pants count birds and report their sightings online.

“The Great Back-yard Bird Count benefits both birds and people. It’s a great example of citi-zen science: Anyone who can identify even a few species can contribute to the body of knowl-edge that is used to inform conserva-tion efforts to protect birds and biodi-versity,” said Audubon Education VP, Judy Braus. “Families, teachers, children and all those who take part in GBBC get a chance to improve their observation skills, enjoy nature, and have a great time counting for fun, counting for the future.”

Anyone can take part, from novice bird watchers to experts, by counting

birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and reporting their sight-i n g s o n l i n e a t : h t t p : / /www.birdcount.org/.

Participants can also explore what birds others are finding in their back-yards—whether in their own neighborhood or thousands of miles

away. Additional online resources in-clude tips to help identify birds, a photo gallery, and special materials for educators. The data these “citizen scientists” collect helps researchers understand bird population trends, information that is critical for effec-tive conservation. Their efforts enable everyone to see what would otherwise be impossible: a comprehensive pic-ture of where birds are in late winter and how their numbers and distribu-tion compare with previous years. In

2008, participants submitted more than 85,000 checklists.

“The GBBC has become a vital link in the arsenal of continent-wide bird monitoring projects,” said Cornell Lab of Ornithology director, John Fitz-patrick. “With more than a decade of data now in hand, the GBBC has documented the fine-grained details

of late-winter bird dis-tributions better than any project in history, including some truly striking changes just over the past decade.” Each year, in addition to entering their tallies, participants submit thousands of digital images for the GBBC photo contest. Many are featured in the popular online gallery. Partici-pants in the 2010 count are also invited to up-load their bird videos to YouTube; some will also be featured on the

G B B C w e b s i t e . V i s i t www.birdcount.org to learn more. Businesses, schools, nature clubs, Scout troops, and other community organizations interested in the GBBC can contact the Cornell Lab of Orni-thology at (800) 843-2473 (outside the U.S., call (607) 254-2473), or Audubon at citizenscience@audubon.org or (215) 355-9588, Ext 16.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is made possible, in part, by support from Wild Birds Unlimited.

signed at this time. Washington Audubon’s main offices have been closed by National Audu-bon to conserve money; supporting the Washing-ton Birding Trail will keep Palouse Audubon connected to the other state Audubon groups. These maps are available at our monthly public meetings and at our field trips for.

Terry Gray

GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT

PREZ MESSAGE (continued from page 1)

PAGE 4 THE PRAIRIE OWL VOLUME 38 ISSUE 3

The Othello Sandhill Crane Festi-val began in 1998. The Festival has tours for crane viewing, as well as specialty tours. These tours have included Columbia National Wildlife Refuge/Potholes area wildlife tour, Missoula Floods and the Channeled Scablands geology tour, Lower Grand Coulee birding tour, Wahluke Slope/Shrub Steppe birding tour, and bur-rowing owl tours. Tour pre-registration is suggested, as some tours fill up quickly. The admission price to the Festival on Saturday includes free lectures which are re-peated throughout the day.

Lectures given in the past have included falconry, Missoula Floods and the Channeled Scablands, Wood-land Park Zoo, Grouse of Washing-

ton, Othello His-tory within the Drumhellar Chan-neled Scablands, S h r u b - S t e p p e Flora and Fauna, Owls of Eastern Washington and Spring Migration in the Columbia Basin.

Saturday's activi-ties conclude with a banquet and fea-tured speaker. Lectures, bus tour de-partures and other Festival activities take place at Othello High School. The Festival's website is being up-dated and 2010 Festival information should be available soon at:

www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org For further information call 509-

488-2802. We will also post details on the Palouse Audubon website.

RESEARCH GRANTS

13TH ANNUAL OTHELLO SANDHILL CRANE FESTIVAL MARCH 26—27—28

Palouse Audubon Society has established two grants in the amount of $500 each in support of re-search fulfilling the chapter’s mission statement. One grant is available for a graduate student at Washington State University; the other for a gradu-ate student at the University of Idaho.

Applications must be received by April 15. Awards will be announced at the May Palouse Audubon Program Meeting. There are no restric-tions on how the grant money is to be used; how-ever, in order for Palouse Audubon to share in the activities supported by the grant and to let the stu-dents share some of their findings, we strongly en-courage that the recipient present a program on their research results at a future program meeting.

The grant application is available at: http://www.palouseaudubon.org/business.htm. Contact Tom Weber, 230 SE South St, Pullman WA 99163-2329, (509) 334-3817, tweber@roadrunner.com; or Terry Gray, 890 Stefany Lane, Moscow ID 83843, (208) 882-1585, clgtlg@moscow.com for additional information or questions.

PAGE 5 THE PRAIRIE OWL VOLUME 38 ISSUE 3

MEMBERSHIP

Palouse Audubon Society, PO Box 3606, Moscow ID 83843-1914, is a chapter of

the National Audubon Society. Our mission is to educate, conserve and re-store natural ecosystems, focusing on

birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the

earth’s biological diversity.

General membership meetings are held at the 1912 Building, FISKE ROOM,

3rd and Adams St, Moscow ID, at 7:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month, September through May. The

board of directors meet at the 1912 Cen-ter at 7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of

each month.

The Prairie Owl is published every other month, August through April.

Material for the Owl should be sent to the editor, Tom Weber, 230 SE South St, Pullman WA 99163, or email twe-

ber@roadrunner.com by the 20th of the month. Subscription problems should be

addressed to the membership chair, James Storms, PO Box 235, Garfield WA 99130, (509) 635-1272 or email

nbutte@pullman.com. Visit the Palouse Audubon Society website at

http://www.palouseaudubon.org/

Primary Business Address Your Address Line 2 Your Address Line 3 Your Address Line 4

PALOUSE AUDUBON SOCIETY

.

We’re on the Web (and in COLOR) at:

www.palouseaudubon.org

PALOUSE AUDUBON SOCIETY

Palouse Audubon Society PO Box 3606 Moscow ID 83843-1914

SOLO and his new family return to Turnbull Lewiston Tribune, 1/28/10

As he has for possibly more than four decades, the trumpeter swan nicknamed ‘Solo’ returned Monday to the year’s first big patch of ice-free water at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.

This time, however, he didn’t return alone. Solo was joined by the mate he found last year and three of the four cygnets they produced at the refuge last spring. Solo’s return ends speculation that the iconic old bird of Turnbull might have been the trumpeter shot December 28 on the Colville River.

Solo is somewhere be-tween 33 and 46 years old. A normal lifespan is 20—30 years. Solo’s brood of four cygnets hatched on Father’s Day—the first Trumpeter brood at Turnbull in 21 years. They fledged about the first week of October.

“In the fall, the female would take

the cygnets up and fly off; then about five minutes later, Solo would come by honking like crazy looking for them,” said Mike Rule, Turnbull Wildlife Biolo-

gist. “Later, the whole family would come back to Turnbull as though he’d rounded them up like a herd bull”.

One of the cygnets had disappeared and probably perished during a flight before Thanksgiving, when ice-up forced

them out of the refuge for winter. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staffers do not know where Solo winters, but each year he returns

to the refuge within a day or two after one of the headquarters-area ponds thaws just enough for a 30– pound trumpeter with an 8– foot wingspan to land and take off. Solo and his first mate raised Turnbull’s last brood in 1987. Solo lost his mate, apparently to a predator, on her Winslow Pool nesting island in 1988. Trumpeter swans pair for life, but if a mate is killed, they often will look for a

new companion. Solo has lured in several prospects over the years, but they did not produce young.

We are looking forward to seeing Solo and his new family during our field trip to Turnbull on March 13.

The mission of the Palouse Audubon Society is to educate, conserve and restore natural

ecosystems - focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats - for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity.