SAS Newsletter - The Leaflet
January / February 2012
(pdf version)
- Calendar - January/February
- Can You Name That Bird?
- A Note from the President -- by David Rupp
- Bill Zimmerman: A Remembrance - by Jeff Belth
- 12th Annual Eagle Watch Weekend Set to Soar -- by Jeff Riegel
- Volunteers Needed for Marsh Madness
- Spring Banquet date set for Sunday, March 25, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
- Great Backyard Bird Count, February 17-20, 201
- Call for Proposals, Sassafras Audubon Society Conservation Grants Program
- SAS Conservation Grants Updates
- Fall Feeder Cleaning
- 2012 Hog Island Audubon Camp
-
Birding Guide Still Available
You can probably guess you will not find this bird at your feeder. But you might find him in a wetlands area any time of the year when there is open water. Now wouldn’t it be fun to watch him swallow that frog? Photo by Bob Barber.
photo by Bob Barber - click to enlarge
A Note from the President: A Big Thank You to 2011 Volunteers
I recently submitted Sassafras Audubon Society’s annual report to the national office. In the report I recorded the number of volunteers who donated their time, energy and resources in order to further SAS’ mission in 2011, and the number of hours they contributed. Because I took office 3 months ago in October, in order to make an estimate that was as accurate as possible, I surveyed our committee chairs and reviewed activities in 2011. I estimate that 60 SAS volunteers contributed 1600 hours of time.
I want to thank every one of you who volunteered for your service. Not-for-profit organizations are only as effective as their volunteer support. I am not able to name all of you in this space, but I can give you a nice sample of the type of activities you have supported. The board of directors meets monthly to conduct the business of the chapter. Field trips and programs are continually being prepared and scheduled. Twice each year, Nancy Martin and Jim Mitchell organize the bird feeder cleanings at Bloomington Hardware. Lee Sterrenburg heads the SAS efforts at our adopted Important Bird Area: Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area. Susan Hengeveld updates our website. A banquet needs to be planned, Christmas Bird Counts organized, grants awarded, and newsletters written, edited, published, and delivered. I could go on.
A great many people are involved in helping SAS to function. Now entering its 30th year, SAS has relied on birders, conservationists, and nature lovers of all types, and with diverse interests and skills, to keep it going. As the board introduces new initiatives and activities in the coming year, please let us know what skills you have that you would like to contribute to bird conservation in South Central Indiana. We can put accountants, writers, and birders to work, and match teachers, lawyers, and gardeners with suitable projects. Mostly, we need people and their passion. We provide a community for conservation. Become a part of it. Write me at david_rupp@hotmail.com, and let me know how you would like to be involved.
Bill Zimmerman: A Remembrance - by Jeff Belth
Sassafras Audubon Society’s house has lost one of its pillars. On November 19, William H. “Bill” Zimmerman, passed away in Nashville, Indiana. He was 74. Bill was an unassuming, very modest man, but he was considered by his peers to be one of the nation’s premier bird artists. He wrote and illustrated numerous bird books, including two about his beloved waterfowl: Top Flight: Speed Index to Waterfowl of North America (1965), and his monumental masterpiece, Waterfowl of North America (1974). He is probably best known for the 165 portraits of nesting birds he painted for Russell E. Mumford and Charles E. Keller’s The Birds of Indiana (1984). The Birds of Ohio (1989), The Birds of Illinois (1989), The Birds of Kentucky (1994), and the woodpecker volume of a reissue of Arthur Cleveland Bent’s multi-volume Life Histories of North American Birds (1992), were also graced by the presence of his paintings.
I don’t remember when I first met Bill, but it was probably on the first Lake Monroe Christmas Bird Count, in December of 1976. I had only recently started birding, and had joined SAS the year before, at the ripe age of 13. Since I was also interested in art, I knew who he was before I met him. I had seen some of his wonderful bird prints, and dreamed of the day when I could afford to buy a few. The first thing I noticed about Bill was his amazing hearing. He was one of the first people I birded with who could identify birds solely by ear. As we walked down a trail he would point out invisible birds almost without breaking his stride.
In high school I began drawing birds. I spent hours studying the bird books and trying to draw what I had seen in the field. I found it a good way to learn field marks. My reliance on photographs and illustrations from books had its disadvantages, however. I think my drawings usually appeared "second-hand." Bill, who grew up in a family of sportsmen, preferred a more direct approach: hours of field experience with the birds, followed by constant reference to skins in the studio. The skins were often his own, prepared from birds he had collected himself or from road-kills; others were obtained from museums. This direct contact with the birds gave his work a level of accuracy rarely seen in bird art. It also gave him an encyclopedic knowledge of plumage and molting patterns. On several occasions I showed him feathers I had found and he was invariably able to tell me not only the species of bird, but also the location of the feather on the bird, and its sex and age.
After I had been drawing birds for a few years, I finally got up the nerve to ask Bill to critique one of my drawings. It was a pencil drawing of a Swallow-tailed Kite grabbing a snake from a dead stump. Since I had never seen a Swallow-tailed Kite, my inspiration for the drawing must have been Bill’s print of a pair of kites that my parents had bought for me. The kite in my drawing resembled Bill’s a little, but he didn’t comment on that. He was concerned that the leading edge of the kite’s wing was parallel to the edge of the stump. “It isn’t good for two lines meant to be at different depths of the composition to be parallel to each other. It can disrupt your attempt to create depth in the composition.” I had not noticed the problem, but when he mentioned it, the lines suddenly jumped out at me. To this day, when critiquing and editing my butterfly photographs, I look for parallel lines.
On another occasion I told Bill that I was having trouble drawing a perching bird on a branch. I had to redraw the feet several times. “Do you draw on vellum? I draw each component of a composition on separate pieces of vellum, then just slide the sheets of vellum around until I have the arrangement I like.” Vellum is a heavyweight tracing paper. This was such a simple solution, and I wished I had thought of it myself. A few days later I bought my first pad of vellum. Every piece of art I have created since then, regardless of medium, has started with sketches on vellum.
Bill and I went on numerous Lake Monroe Christmas Bird Counts together. The one I recall most vividly was one of the coldest ever—1981. It snowed about 8 inches on Thursday and then the temperature dropped and the wind rose. On Saturday the lake was totally frozen and covered with snow. The wind chill was about 60° below zero. Bill’s beard was encrusted with ice. We were covering the Pine Grove area and we gazed out over the lake hoping to see a stray bird flying by. Nothing. But Bill spotted a lone figure sitting out on the lake—an ice fisherman! Without a shelter of any kind, with the wind howling all around him, he was just sitting there on his stool, next to a hole in the ice. We contemplated calling out to him to suggest he was being foolish sitting out there in the cold, but then we realized our activities might seem a bit foolish to him, too. And, at least he had a chance to catch a fish for dinner, but we were out there in subzero temperatures and paying the National Audubon Society for the privilege of participating in the bird count!
In December of 2000, during one of our last Christmas Bird Counts together, while walking through a weedy field in the North Fork Waterfowl Refuge, Bill and I flushed a small brown bird into a short tree. As it flew up we noticed it had white outer tail feathers. While the bird remained perched in the tree for several minutes, we studied its subtle markings and finally decided it was a Vesper Sparrow. It was the only one seen on the count, and would be one of the last birds we identified together.
I was lucky enough to visit Bill’s Nashville home and studio twice. The first time was in the spring of 1979. The Indiana Audubon Society Big May Day Bird Count is held every year on the second Saturday in May. Each county is covered by a different team of birders, and Bill coordinated the Brown County team for several years. Unfortunately for birders, it often rains in May, and that year it poured. We birded for a few hours in the morning, then bird activity ceased as the rain showers intensified. We decided to scrub the count and went to Bills’ house to dry off. We ended up spending several hours looking at Bill’s magnum opus, Waterfowl of North America, a limited edition book published by Frame House Gallery in 1974. The book, which measures 22”x 28” (closed!) depicts every waterfowl species breeding in North America. John James Audubon’s double elephant folio, The Birds of America, was a big influence on Bill, and his waterfowl book was his nod to Audubon. Bill leafed through the book, telling us stories about where he found each bird, and the trials and tribulations of painting each one. Because Bill had crisscrossed the continent for five years to gain personal experience with all of her waterfowl species, there were many stories to tell! Interspersed with tales of traveling in the arctic with his native guide, John Rivers—to whom he dedicated the book—was a story about Bill’s young son Matthew. During a break from painting one of the birds, Matthew slipped into the studio and tried to help his Dad by drawing over the bird in crayon. Fortunately, the crayon was within the body of the bird, not on the white background, and Bill was able to paint over the crayon. No one, of course, could tell, when the painting was finished, that under the beautiful bird there was a layer of crayon! Bill had recently begun working in oils, and that day I saw in his studio a small in-progress oil painting of a family of Wood Duck chicks jumping out of their nest tree. To this day it is one of my favorite paintings of Bill’s.
My second visit to Bill’s house was in the autumn of 2010. Bill knew I was working on a field guide to Indiana’s butterflies, and wanted to see how the book was progressing. Because Bill had designed and illustrated several books himself, I was eager to have his opinions of my work. My draft showed the arrangement of the text, an abundance graph, and a range map depicting county records as dots within the map for each species. After he leafed through my draft, he told me was saddened by the lack of dots in his boyhood county of Dearborn. Bill grew up in Dillsboro, and he lamented that there probably weren’t many people there studying butterflies, hence the paucity of records. While talking to him about his hometown, I remembered that a portion of the “Oxbow,” a nature preserve on the Indiana/Ohio border that was purchased by a local non-profit group while I was living in Cincinnati in the late 1980s, was in Dearborn County. I also remembered that a birder friend of mine in Cincinnati, who also studied butterflies and flies, probably had some Oxbow butterfly records. I emailed him the next day and eventually received some records, 40 of which were new county records for Dearborn. So, because Bill shared his impressions with me, I was able to improve my book and make it more complete. I treasure the fact that one of my early mentors had a direct influence on my book. It is proof to me that if we remain receptive, we never stop learning from our mentors.
No matter how hard we try to be green, and conserve nature, we humans still generate a lot of destruction. Most of us take more from the earth than we are able to give back. A song by the Scottish folk group Silly Wizard advises, “draw strength from the earth, then repay her with beauty,” but very few of us have the talent—and the dedication required to perfect it—to bring beauty into the world. Bill, however, through his talent and dedication to his craft, brought more beauty into the world than anyone I’ve ever known. And, through his art and his willingness to share and pass on knowledge, Bill did even more: he showed countless people that the earth’s beauty is everywhere around them, waiting to be seen, and he taught them how to see it. Thank you, Bill for everything. You will be sorely missed.
12th Annual Eagle Watch Weekend Set to Soar -- by Jeff Riegel
On Jan. 27-29, 2012, Eagle Watch Weekend will return for its 12th anniversary celebration. Reserve the dates NOW for a very special, fun-filled, educational event, presented by BirdCountry.US, with sponsorship from Sassafras Audubon Society and Eagle Pointe Golf Resort. This year’s event is being dedicated to the memory of renowned artist and long-time Eagle Watcher Bill Zimmerman, who passed away in November. Many of you will remember Bill from other Eagle Watch events and a special tribute is scheduled in his honor.
The programs planned for this year’s event include something for birders of all ages and skill levels. The 8th annual Eagle Watch Weekend Bird Count will kick things off Friday morning, followed by a mini-workshop on the basics of birding, and an Owl Prowl in the evening. Saturday will feature another outing in the morning plus caravans to see eagles in the wild in the afternoon. Once we’ve all had looks at the signature bird for the weekend, Drs. Jim and Susan Hengeveld will present a program on the various breeding systems we find in the avian community. Saturday night will feature our tribute to Bill and a special showing of “Green Fire,” a new film on the life and land ethic of Aldo Leopold, the father of wildlife conservation. Sunday will feature yet another outing looking for more birds to add to our weekend list.
Plan on joining us at the Eagle Pointe Golf Resort at Lake Monroe. Eagle Watch Weekend STILL only costs $10.00 for adults and $4.00 for children under 13. One fee admits you to any and all events for the entire weekend! The complete schedule and pre-registration are available on-line now at www.eaglesatlakemonroe.com, along with a link to lodging at Eagle Pointe. See you there!
Volunteers Needed for Marsh Madness
Organizers of Marsh Madness would like to have volunteer birders at tour observation points, to help point out and identify birds and to answer questions. If you would like to spend two enjoyable hours at Goose Pond with fellow birders on Saturday, March 3 or Sunday, March 4, please contact Lee Sterrenburg at sterren@indiana.edu or Brad Feaster at BFeaster@dnr.IN.gov.
Spring Banquet date set for Sunday, March 25, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
Please join us for the annual SAS Spring Banquet. We will start with a social at 5:30 p.m. and then sit for dinner at 6 p.m. We will be presenting the Barbara Restle Lifetime Achievement Award and the Don Whitehead Conservationist of the Year Award. Location and guest speaker to be announced.
Great Backyard Bird Count, February 17-20, 2012
Backyard birders, be prepared. Friday, Feb. 17 to Monday Feb. 20 is the big weekend for the 2012 Great Backyard Bird Count. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society jointly lead the project with support from sponsors Wild Birds Unlimited, the National Conservation Resource Service, and Cornell Information Technologies. To participate, all you need to do is identify and count the birds in your yard. Back, front, or side will do. You can easily report your results online at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc. It takes less than five minutes to submit your list, unless you have a very large number of birds to report! The data collected from the thousands of lists submitted helps researchers track trends in bird numbers and migration. This is a great opportunity for you to make a valuable contribution to an important scientific project. Rob Fergus, senior scientist, of the National Audubon Society, says, “Each year the GBBC provides the most detailed snapshot of bird distribution across North America, and we see how birds are responding to changing weather patterns, available food sources, and other factors.”
If you would like to be more ambitious, you can expand your backyard to include local parks, lakes, or country roadsides. Those data expand the value of the survey beyond the urban or suburban setting and increase our local species totals. You may also submit photos of birds seen in your count: there are several categories. All participants in the photo contest will be entered in a drawing for prizes such as binoculars and bird feeders. Check out the GBBC website at http://www.birdcount.org/gbbc/photo-contest-rules to learn about the simple rules and directions.
Call for Proposals, Sassafras Audubon Society Conservation Grants Program
The Sassafras Audubon Society’s mission is to advocate public understanding of the value and need for conservation of wildlife, its habitat, our natural resources, and of the relation of intelligent treatment and wise use of these resources to human progress. We are pleased to announce a new call for proposals for our grant program to fund projects supporting this goal. Proposals may include research, education or conservation projects. We are most interested in projects that will serve the area covered by SAS and nearby areas in Indiana.
We anticipate awarding grants of approximately $500.00, although more funds may be granted to exceptional proposals. Proposals are due February 1, 2011, and may be submitted to Jonathan Bauer, jonbauer@indiana.edu, for review by members of the SAS board of directors.
Proposals may be up to three pages long, not including the budget, and must include the following:
Name of organization
Contact person or project leader
Address to which funds may be sent if the proposal is accepted
A summary of the project that is suitable for publication in SAS’s newsletter, The Leaflet
Total amount of funds requested
Detailed budget with justification for request amount
Please also answer the following questions:
What need does your project address and how will your project meet this need?
How will your project advance the mission of SAS?
What results do you anticipate, and how will these results be reported to SAS?
Why is your organization well positioned to complete this project?
Have you pursued other forms of support for this project? If support is needed beyond this grant, how do you anticipate completing your project?
How will SAS be recognized?
Projects that are funded will be required to submit a completion report describing the results and details of how the funds were spent. If appropriate, we also encourage grant recipients to share the results of their work through a presentation at a SAS program, an article in The Leaflet, or another appropriate venue.
SAS Conservation Grants Updates
Early in 2011 the SAS board of directors approved a new small grants program to support conservation, education and research projects consistent with SAS’s mission. In the spring we released a call for proposals, and voted to fund two projects, both related to monitoring birds of conservation concern, and this winter we look forward to reviewing another round of proposals.
One of our first two grants went to Jess Gwinn and Maureen Forest to support the establishment of a MAPS (monitoring avian productivity and survivorship) station in Greene County. MAPS stations use mist nets to catch and band birds for long term monitoring, and this station has been set up specifically to monitor Neotropical migrant birds in a mixed landscape of fields, farms and forests. Many Neotropical migrants are in decline because of changes in habitat, especially fragmentation of forests, and this station will help us better understand bird populations in these areas. This project is already up and running. Birds of conservation concern, including Hooded Warblers, Worm Eating Warblers and Wood Thrushes, have been banded. Jess and Maureen will be operating this station for at least five years, and we look forward to hearing more about their findings as they band new birds and recapture birds returning from their winter ranges.
The other grant went to Ross Brittain and the Indiana Important Bird Areas program, a global effort to identify areas that are most important for maintaining bird populations, and then focus conservation efforts on protecting these sites. Ross used SAS’s grant to train an intern at Goose Pond to monitor birds of conservation concern.
Last October 22nd, SAS sponsored our semi-annual fall feeder cleaning day. During the course of the day, volunteers raised over $800.00, which will be used to support SAS programs and local conservation. This project not only raised needed funds but also made many feeders healthier for the birds. Co-chairpersons Nancy Martin and Jim Mitchell wish to thank all who volunteered to spend part of their day power-washing and scrubbing feeders. Participants included Don Allen, Jonathan Bauer, Joni Beatrice, Christina Corrigan, Julie Ferguson, Nancy Martin, Cathy Meyer, Jim Mitchell, David Parkhurst, Tom Platt, Jen Richardson, David Rupp, Julia Slaymaker, and Martha Wailes.
Registration is open for the legendary 6-day residential birding and environmental education programs at the historic Audubon Camp in Maine on Hog Island. Programs are for adult birders, teens, families, educators, and Audubon Chapter leaders. Pete Dunne, Scott Weidensaul, Steve Kress, Lang Elliott, Don Kroodsma, Bill Thompson III and many more expert ornithologists, naturalists, educators and authors will be in residence during the 2012 sessions. All summer programs include field trips to nearby Eastern Egg Rock, where Dr. Steve Kress and his team of biologists have successfully restored an island colony of Atlantic Puffins, and Roseate, Arctic and Common Terns. Roger Tory Peterson was the camp’s first bird instructor in 1936 and many of America’s finest naturalists, including Rachel Carson, have spent time on the 330-acre wildlife sanctuary, located in mid-coast Maine, on Muscongus Bay. Participants live in restored wooden buildings dating back to the early 1900’s and are treated to three fabulous meals each day, prepared by chef extraordinaire Janii Laberge.
For more information on the programs, visit maineaudubon.org/explore/camp/hi_overview.shtml. For questions, contact the Hog Island registrar, Erica Marx (VanEtten), at evanetten@audubon.org or (607) 257-7308 ext 14.
The Birding Guide to South-Central Indiana provides detailed information on where to find birds in our part of Indiana, including helpful hints such as GPS coordinates and what species one might expect to see during different seasons.
Proceeds from sale of the guide go to projects at Goose Pond FWA, SAS’s adopted Important Bird Area. Booklets cost $10, $8 for members. To purchase copies, contact SAS at: Sassafras Audubon Society
Answer to Name that Bird: Great Blue Heron
