The Leaflet, July / August 2001

• Off the Beaten Path by Jess Gwinn
• Spring Education / Conservation Fund Drive Bulletin by Susan Hengeveld
• Audubon Adventures Sponsors Still Needed
• SAS Calendar for July / August 2001
• Prairie Chicken Trip a Booming Success by Jim Hengeveld
• Spring Feeder Cleaning Thanks

Off the Beaten Path by Jess Gwinn

When I first became a board member of Sassafras Audubon in 1995, one of the issues confronting us was the creation of a state office here in Indiana. At that point the Great Lakes Regional Office was located in Ohio. This regional office served all of the chapters in Indiana and several other states in the Midwest. Obviously this office could not effectively serve all of these chapters. About this time, National Audubon underwent a strategic planning process to evaluate the effectiveness of the organization and ways to improve it.

I would like to tell you about two findings from this process. One was that National Audubon would be most effective by working at the local level on local issues. While the chapters were already somewhat fulfilling this objective, they lacked an adequate support network to help them reach their potential. To augment the chapters' efforts, National Audubon decided that a goal would be to open an office in every state. The second finding was that one of Audubon's strengths is its commitment to education. While many people support Audubon’s environmental advocacy on the national, state and local level, most appreciation was for the hands-on educational programs offered by various Audubon entities through hikes, lectures, nature preserves, etc. To support this effort on behalf of environmental education, National Audubon has proposed a goal of creating 20 Audubon centers in every state by the year 2020 in an effort to reach 1 out of every 4 school children. The placement of these centers will be aimed at those communities underserved by existing environmental education facilities.

To date, half of the states have offices. The time is now upon us for the creation of a state office for Indiana. A position description for a state director has been prepared and a vision statement crafted for Audubon Indiana. National Audubon, with help from the state chapters, will advertise for a state director this summer and hopefully have someone hired within 3 to 12 months. Once a director is hired, a strategic plan can be created, a state board of directors established, and support staff hired. The upcoming year looks to be exciting for Audubon in Indiana as a long term goal becomes realized. We hope that you share in the excitement and reap some of the fruits of this process.

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Spring Education / Conservation Fund Drive Bulletin by Susan Hengeveld

Spring Fund Drive Raises Money for Endowment Fund

As stated in previous Leaflets, the goal of the fund drive was to generate enough capital to start an endowment that will be used to award annual grants for projects focusing on education, research or the conservation of wildlife, wildlife habitat, and natural resources. Over the past couple of months we had a raffle, fielded five teams in the Monroe County Parks & Recreation Birdathon, and held a silent auction. While we are still shy of the capital needed to start the endowment, we are off to a great start, having raised close to $2000!

Did you mean to donate but never got around to it? It isn't too late. Link to our printable form and mail it in with your check payable to Sassafras Audubon Society (note: using this form will open a new window in your browser).

We owe a debt of gratitude to all of you who pledged to one of the Birdathon teams, bought raffle tickets and / or participated in the silent auction. We would like to take this opportunity to recognize the following individuals and businesses that helped to make the fund drive a success:

Special Thank You to Major Donors:

• George and Betsy Allan
• James Allan
• Jess Gwinn
• Susan and Jim Hengeveld
• Craig Nelson
• Wild Birds Unlimited

Thank You to Birdathon Donors

• David and Ingrid Beery
• Jane Billyeald
• Karen and Alan Blackledge
• Bob Bolin
• Eleanore Dodge
• Steve Dunbar
• Andrew Durkin
• Rhonda Hine
• Bill and LuAnne Holladay
• Kristina Lindborg
• Jason Randolf
• Barbara Restle
• Heather Reynolds
• Martin Schilke
• Dee Terrell

Silent Auction

From May 12 - 19, Silent Auction items were displayed at Bloomingfoods. Final bidding took place at Karst Farm Park during EarthFest on June 19. Thanks to the generous contributions of some of our members and local businesses, we raised over $400 for the SAS Education / Conservation Drive.

Birdathon: A Day of Fun for a Good Cause

On May 5th the Sassafras Audubon Society fielded five teams in the 11th annual Monroe County Parks & Recreaction Birdathon to raise money for SAS' Education / Conservation Fund Drive. SAS teams combined to record 160 species for the day!!

Teams:

• Jerry Downs, Bill Holladay, Pat White, Nancy Hanger, Jamie Bratcher
• Jim Brown, Lee Sterrenburg, Jiri Dadock, Carolyn Begley
• Ross Brittain, Sandy Belth, Holly Graef, Jess Gwinn
• Don Whitehead, Bob Kissel, Donald Winslow, Tom Ford
• Susan and Jim Hengeveld, Rhonda Hine, Richard Wiesler

The teams were made up of birders of all levels, some doing the Birdathon for the 11th time, while others participated in their first Bird-a-thon this year. You don't have to be a crazy birder to do a Birdathon, just someone with a desire to help out and with a sense of adventure! Consider joining us next year!!! The more, the merrier--people with all levels of experience welcome! . The following are some excerpts from SAS team members about their experiences . . .

Jess Gwinn

The one bird that I remember (I have almost forgotten the entire day) is a Magnolia Warbler that we saw at Hardin Ridge. It was way up in the tree tops and we could only see it through a small opening through the understory. The bird was not moving much but was partially obscured the entire time. We were all crowded together so that we could see through the same hole. Fortunately we had a good height gradient among our group. We each got different glimpses of the bird and when we pieced all of the observations together we had a Magnolia Warbler!

Lee Sterrenburg

Our top rarity: on May 4, the day before the Monroe County Parks and Recreation Birdathon, Jim Brown and myself scouted in Sullivan County. We found a surprising 2 light morph Rough-legged Hawks, seen in the air together at Hawthorn Mine. Our team of Jim, Lee, Carolyn Begley, and Jiri Dadok refound one of the Rough-legged Hawks the next day on the Birdathon. By early May wintering Rough-legged Hawks have long since gone north. Teams that found one of these birds on May 5 recorded the first ever Rough-legged Hawks on the Parks and Rec Birdathon.

A candidate for our top aesthetic moment: scouting in Sullivan Co. on May 4, Jim and I ran across 34 Bobolinks in a field at Minnehaha FWA. Three or four appeared to be resident birds. Some thirty were showy males, presumably a migrating flock. The males were "T"d up in small trees next to the road practicing their bubbling Bobolink song in loud chorus. What a sound!

Susan Hengeveld

What a fantastic day! We got up early and birded until after dark, enjoying the great weather and lots of fantastic birding. A high point was seeing the expression of glee on Rhonda Hine's face when she had scope-filling views of a Sora! . . . a bird she had heard but had never seen before. Being with someone who is seeing a new species for the first time is a very special treat. Birding has become a fundamental part of Jim's and of my life and seeing it bring joy to others, like it did to Rhonda seeing the Sora, create the memories that I cherish from Birdathons.

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Audubon Adventures Sponsors Still Needed

We still need more sponsors for next year's Audubon Adventures classrooms. Without your support, we can't provide this excellent environmental education program to all the teachers who are requesting it for the 2001-2001 school year. Each classroom kit costs $41. To be a sponsor, please call or e-mail Kristina Lindborg at 323-8233 or klindbor@indiana.edu. Thanks to all of you who have already contributed toward this great program!

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SAS Calendar for July / August 2001

All outings and programs are free and open to non-members.

Wednesday, June 27, 2001, 7:00 p.m.
"June Program: Conservative Environmentalism"

Gordon Durnil is the author of The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist, published in 1995 by Indiana University Press. The book received rave international reviews and The New York Times said Durnil advanced "one of the single boldest environmental policy ideas of the 1990's." Durnil's experience includes serving as a lawyer, mediator, manager, diplomat, politician, speaker, and problem solver; he has also written several other books. Room 1-C of the Monroe County Public Library at 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 30, 2001 "Bloomington Parks Birds and Butterflies"

Join Ross Brittain on a morning hike to identify the various birds and butterflies that make their home at Griffy Lake and other Parks & Rec. properties. Meet at 9:00 a.m. at the Griffy Lake boat house. Call Ross at 333-2121 if you have questions.

Saturday, July 14, 2001 "The Monroe County Butterfly Count"

The North American Butterfly Association's "Fourth of July" Butterfly Counts are organized and conducted in the same fashion as the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Counts. Several teams of counters spend the day within a section of a 15 mile diameter circle, counting butterflies. Our count circle includes portions of the Hoosier National Forest, Yellowwood Lake, and Brown County State Park. Our count is one of the top counts in the Midwest. Come join us for all or part of the day and help us improve on last year's tally of 51 species. Experience is not necessary; the more spotters the better! This is a great way to learn about butterflies. For more information or to be placed on a team, call Sandy or Jeff Belth at (812) 825-8353, or e-mail us at belthbirds@aol.com.

Saturday, July 22, 2001 "Tecumseh Trail Hike"

Join Cathy Meyer for a 5-6 mile hike on the new Tecumseh Trail. Bring water and dress appropriately. Meet at the K-Mart East parking lot at 1:00 p.m. Call Cathy Meyer at 339-8184 if you have questions.

Wednesday, July 25, 2001, 7:00 p.m.
“July Program”

To be announced. Room 1C of the Monroe County Public Library. Contact Steve Cotter for more information at 349-3736.

Wednesday, August 29, 2001, 7:00 p.m.
“August Program: Summer and Fall Mushrooms of Indiana”

Biologist Marti Crouch will discuss seasonal mushrooms of Indiana. Room 1-C of the Monroe County Public Library at 7:00 p.m. Contact Steve Cotter for more information at 349-3736.

Saturday, September 1, 2001 “Half-Day Fall Migrant Trip”

Join Don Whitehead for a trip to Lake Monroe and Lake Lemon to look for herons, egrets, landbird migrants and early waterfowl migrants. Meet at the west side of the Bloomingfoods parking lot on East Third Street at 7:00 a.m. Call Don Whitehead at 339-1782 if you have any questions.

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Prairie Chicken Trip a Booming Success by Jim Hengeveld

On Saturday, March 31 and Sunday, April 1, Susan and I led a group of birders from Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan to see a population of Greater Prairie-Chickens located about 25 miles south of Effingham, Jasper County, Illinois. With an “underwhelming” response from the SAS membership, Susan and I advertised the trip on the Indiana state-wide listserve. We received responses from folks in the Indianapolis area, a group from the South Bend area, a couple from Michigan, and one fellow from Ohio.

BACKGROUND: The population of prairie-chickens that we visited has been monitored and well studied for almost 40 years. Numbers of chickens at this plus a nearby Marion County population bottomed out at a total of 46 birds in 1994. By contrast, the total number of prairie-chickens in southern Illinois populations was over 2000 in 1962 and probably well over a million in the 1800’s. The bottleneck in this isolated population of Greater Prairie-Chickens in the 90’s resulted in reduced genetic diversity in the population, in a loss of fertility, and in lower hatching rates of eggs. Studies of birds prior to and during the bottleneck have provided evidence for the oft-touted theoretical relationship between population size, genetic variation and fitness (the latter two declining as population size decreases). It represents one of very few natural populations for which this relationship has been demonstrated.

The response by the Illinois DNR (IDNR) to decreasing population levels of chickens was threefold. Together with The Nature Conservancy, the IDNR became actively involved in purchasing land in the areas surrounding the prairie-chicken leks (the arenas where male prairie-chickens display and where females come to mate with a male). Acquired land was converted to prairie habitat through the planting of native prairie grasses. A second strategy was to reduce and control population levels of Ring-necked Pheasants. Pheasant numbers had increased in the grasslands where the chickens were nesting and female pheasants were opportunistically laying eggs in the nests of prairie-chickens. This parasitism by pheasants likely resulted in decreased reproductive success by the chickens. A third strategy involved transplanting into Illinois birds from healthy populations of prairie-chickens in Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. These transplants, which were carried out between 1992 and 1998, have increased the genetic diversity and have resulted in a healthier, more robust population of chickens in southern Illinois.

For our field trip, the goal was to observe prairie-chickens in this isolated population as well as to see other grassland species in the area. We arranged a meeting of participants at the Howard Johnson’s in Effingham at 3:00 pm on Saturday afternoon, March 31. We piled into as few cars as we could and caravanned down to the area of the leks, located several miles directly south of Newton. We made several stops along the quiet, country dirt roads where we saw numerous Horned Larks, Eastern Meadowlarks, Northern Harriers, a Rough-legged Hawk, and small flocks of Pectoral Sandpipers and American Golden-Plovers. At the far edge of a field adjacent to a small woodlot, we spotted a couple of distant Greater Prairie-Chickens and everyone eventually had views of these birds through one of the many spotting scopes that had been set up. For nearly all of the participants, it was their first view ever of a wild prairie-chicken.

The following morning, we had arranged a 5:00 a.m. pre-dawn meeting (again at HoJos) since we wanted to be at the lek before sunrise to observe male chickens as they first started their booming. We managed to find the lek site in the dark and soon heard male chickens making the eerie booming noises using their inflated, colorful air sacs. We would eventually see about a dozen males at this lek, dancing, squaring off against one another, and occasionally tussling with one another. Peak visitation times by females were still a week or two away but we did see several seemingly uninterested females casually stroll through the lek while the males showed off. We also had an opportunity to watch Short-eared Owls hunting over a field directly adjacent to the one in which the chickens had gathered.

After sating ourselves with observations of prairie-chicken behavior, we hustled to our cars to warm up and to head into Newton. We had finished Saturday night in Newton looking for a small population of Eurasian Collared-Doves that was known to be present. We were rained out on Saturday night but were successful on Sunday morning, seeing and hearing multiple doves throughout the town.

We gathered one more time at the motel in Effingham, said our good-byes, and headed our separate ways. We had seen what we had come to see and had a very enjoyable time with a pleasant group of birders. Susan and I would like to thank the participants, all of whom made the trip a success: Bob Kissell, Bill Murphy, PJ and Lori Pulliam, Tom Heine, Liz Day, Jeff and Ricky Curtis, Frank and Brenda Prosser, Dan Stoltzfus, Ruth Mallory, Dee Detweiler, Lisa Paine, Carol and Mark Ames, Ron McCullick, and John from Ohio. If there is interest, Susan and I would be happy to organize another trip next year to visit the Greater Prairie-Chicken lek.

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Spring Feeder Cleaning Thanks . . .

. . . go to Steve Patterson for once again generously donating the use of his pressure washer. This speeds up the cleaning time and helps save on expenses. If you have equipment or items you would like to donate or loan to us for such events, call Jess Gwinn at 876-8623.

Thanks also to everyone who donated their time and effort helping prevent the spread of avian disease, and to all the community members who brought their feeders in for a power wash and steam cleaning! If you missed it this time, be sure to bring your feeders to our next cleaning to prepare for those hungry fall migrants.

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