The Leaflet, January - February 2003
- Off the Beaten Path by Bob Kissel
- First Year Report on Saw-whet Owl Banding by Ross Brittain
- Visteon Supports Environmental Education Programs
- SAS Calendar for January / February 2003
- Outings Reports
- Record Number of Participants Expected for Eagle Watch 2003
- In Search of an Asian Visitor by Jim Hengeveld
- Join the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 14-17
Off the Beaten Path
During this holiday season, my thoughts turn to time with family and friends, Christmas bird counts and the new year. Over the past several months your Sassafras board has been discussing where SAS should be headed in the next 5-10 years or more.
While certainly not new topics, SAS' board has thought about our present and future role in environmental education, recruiting new and younger members, local environmental stewardship, sponsorship of conservation projects, and financial and volunteer support for other environmental organizations. To that end, SAS' efforts in 2002 are noteworthy. We have been a member of the Bloomington Economic Development Committee (BEDC) since July and will make a presentation to the BEDC in April. We sponsored Audubon Adventure kits for 75 area classrooms this school year. Our monthly programs and regular field outings offered many educational opportunities for the community. Ross Brittain led a team of banders and volunteers in a successful "hatch year" Northern Sawwhet Owl migratory banding operation. SAS has lent its voice to the debate in issues such as I-69, logging in Morgan-Monroe and Yellowwood state forests, greenspace allocation in Bloomington city. The board voted to donate substantial money to assist Wild Care expand their wildlife rehab operation.
Despite what SAS accomplished in 2002, we still face complicated challenges to maintain our long-term viability and role in our local environmental and political community. Will SAS will remain the current friendly yet somewhat self-focused small environmental organization or do we grow to become far more active and visible environmental leaders and stewards? And who will do this important work? Both directions will require a predictable stream of SAS-generated income, especially as dues sharing with National Audubon Society drops radically in the next 2 years.
Regardless of the direction SAS takes, an endowment will play a critical role in facilitating what Sassafras can accomplish in promoting quality of life environmentally. New board member Carolyn Begley and I have started to develop SAS' endowment campaign philosophy, procedures, and materials. We hope to be well underway by this spring in soliciting contributions for Sassafras members as well as interested individuals and businesses from our community in this multi-year effort. In the interim, we would welcome your contributions as to where SAS should and can head in the future.
First Year Report on Saw-whet Owl Banding
Last spring SAS approved funding of Indiana's first Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) banding station. Jess Gwinn, Vicky Meretsky and myself volunteered to serve as co-leaders by acquiring the necessary state and federal permits for banding birds. Ron Weiss, the Executive Director for Chipper Woods Bird Observatory, also agreed to co-sponsor the banding station by serving as the Master Bander for our sub-permits.
Our banding station is part of Project Owlnet, a study of the migratory patterns and distribution of NSWO's and other migratory owl species. You can learn more about this continent-wide project online at www.projectowlnet.org. Project Owlnet is geared primarily to study the fall migration of NSWO's, although some stations also band in the spring.
All together we were out banding on 30 nights this fall for a minimum of 3 hours each night. Our first owls were banded on October 23rd and the last ones were captured on December 2nd. We captured 66 NSWO's this fall - 57 we banded, 2 were foreign recaptures and 7 were domestic recaptures of ones we had already banded. Jess, Vicky and I took turns leading the volunteers for one or two nights a week per leader, and had the nets open for a total of approximately 129 hours. Which means we captured .51 NSWO's per hour of open nets (including the recaptures of owls we had already banded, it was .46 NSWO's per hour if we take out the ones we had previously banded.) In layman's terms, that means we captured a NSWO in the net about every two hours, on average.
In October we made the necessary preparations and set up our mist nets at our chosen site in Yellowwood State Forest (YSF). (Much appreciation to Jim Allen, Property Manager at YSF, for granting us permission to place the banding station on YSF property.) Banding attempts began October 11th, but the first four outings were unsuccessful. On October 23rd, as the leaves earnestly began to change colors, we captured our first NSWO of the season, a male weighing 79.8 grams and hereby known as #1343-82903. That first night we banded 3 NSWO's; 2 females and one male.
Each
owl was hanging in the net after flying in to investigate the audiolure.
After extracting the owls out of their entanglements, each one was carefully
weighed and had a serially-numbered band placed on its right leg. Additionally,
we measured the length of the wing chord, tail and culmen (bill) to get a
gauge of the general health of the individual birds and to determine its
sex. We also took some more subjective measurements of the fat around the
keel, the amount of pink on the underwing lining, the color of the eyes and
the amount of white in the facial disk. The color-specific measurements are
taken because banders have noticed differences in the owls and want to determine
if they are statistically significant in determining the age, sex or general
health of the bird.
Over the next few weeks we captured 66 NSWO's and 2 Eastern Screech Owls in our nets. All owls were released unharmed! Fifty-seven of the NSWO's were banded by us this fall. Six of them were then later recaptured in the nets after spending a few days or weeks in the area. One NSWO even came back for a third visit, each time a week after the previous visit (coincidentally, Jess was the bander each time).
By far the most exciting news is that we also had 2 foreign recaptures. The first foreign recapture was on November 11th - a second-year female that was originally banded on 9/23/01 at Long Point Bird Observatory in Ontario (150 miles east of Detroit). The second foreign recapture was on November 24th - an after-second-year female that was originally banded on 10/2/00 at the Linwood Spring Research Station in Stevens Point, Wisconsin (70 miles west of Green Bay). Foreign recaptures are what banding is all about. Now we know the certain that wintering NSWO's in southern Indiana can come from either side of the Great Lakes region. Hopefully one of our banded owls will be recaptured some day.
Out of the 59 individual NSWO's we captured this fall, 30 came through on just three nights. The first big night was November 1st when we banded 10 NSWO's. Next came our biggest night of the season with 11 NSWO's on November 11th, and the last big night was on November 17th when we banded 9 NSWO's. The remaining 29 NSWO's trickled through at a pace of one or two a night, but we did have two nights with 4 NSWO's. Other banding stations across the country (there are more than 50) reported generally low numbers of migrating NSWO's this fall. This gives us great encouragement to have captured 59 NSWO's in a "slow" migration year. Next year we are hoping for 100!
All of our data will be sent to The Bird Banding Laboratory and Project Owlnet to help contribute to the body of knowledge on Northern Saw-whet Owls. Hopefully this data will lead to a greater understanding of their population numbers, migration patterns and habitat requirements; allowing for better management practices to preserve the species.
We noticed a general pattern of capturing owls between 9:00 and 11:30 p.m., especially on the second night after a front moved through. This seems to indicate they "rode" the front into the area the night before and were captured when they started moving again the next night. Light northerly winds were the best conditions for banding. Unfortunately, these conditions were rare this fall.
On behalf of Jess, Vicky and myself I would like to thank all of the volunteers who braved long, cold nights to help us gather this important data. Our project would not have been possible without their help. Hopefully they had as much fun as we did and learned a little about NSWO's. An especially deep sense of gratitude goes to Jeff Riegel and Jeff Hammond for their devotion to the project as volunteers. We look forward to having them get their banding permits for next year. Our thanks also goes to: Jeff and Sandy Belth, Cathy Meyer, Dan Leach, Mike Clarke, Michelle Creech, Ron McCullick, Bob Kissel, Jim Brown, Chris Welz, Staci Radford-Vincent, Kelly and Cassidy, Alicia Craig, Jonathan, and Michael Voyles for all of their volunteer hours. An extra debt of gratitude goes to the Evans family on Sewell Road who let us store our equipment in their barn so that the leaders didn't have to make a daily run to some out-of-the-way place. Thank you Harold, Beth and Jewel for letting us use your space and coming out a couple of nights yourselves.
The deepest gratitude of all goes to our families who let us go out at crazy hours of the night to band small owls. They gave the greatest sacrifice of all - family time. Thank you Jaime, Tierney and Maureen for your love and support over the last eight weeks...and always.
Visteon Supports Environmental Education Programs
Visteon Automotive Systems of Bedford, has provided funding for 12 Audubon Adventures classrooms. Through Visteon's generosity, approximately 330 elementary children in Lawrence and Greene Counties are participating in this popular environnmental education program.
Thanks, Visteon! We appreciate your support!
SAS Calendar for January / February 2003
All outings and programs are free and open to non-members.
Saturday, January 25, 2003 "Lake Monroe Bald Eagles"
Lake Monroe in January may be the best place to find Bald Eagles in Indiana. Don Whitehead will lead us to the best spots on the lake for finding these large raptors. Last January, biologist John Castrale counted 24 Bald Eagles at Monroe on his yearly winter eagle survey of Indiana lakes. We'll meet in the north east corner of the K-Mart parking lot on East Third Street at 7:30 a.m. and will probably return by noon or so. Call Don if you have questions at 339-1782.
Wednesday, January 29, 2003, 7:00 p.m.
January Program: "Mixed Foraging
Flocks of the Monteverde Cloudforest Preserve in Costa Rica"
Gary Diller has been a naturalist guide for over 20 of the 30 years he has lived in Costa Rica. His interests include plants, insects and birds, especially the over 400 species of birds that are found in the Monteverde Cloudforest Preserve. Gary will share his knowledge of the mixed foraging flocks that move together through this beautiful, wet, green forest in search of food. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event, to be held in Room 1-C of the Monroe County Public Library. Refreshments will be served.
Friday, February 7 - Sunday, February 9, 2003 "Eagle Watch 2003"
This annual weekend event held at the Fourwinds Resort and Marina features birding experts and state naturalists leading a variety of programs and bird outings, all centering around Bald Eagles and other Indiana birds and wildlife. For more information, see the Eagle Watch information in this newsletter.
Saturday, February 15, 2003 "Universal Mines, Vermilliion County"
We'll travel to another of Indiana's varied habitats at the reclaimed strip-mine grasslands of the Universal Mines in Vermillion County, north of Terre Haute. Lee Sterrenburg will lead the group in search of Short-eared Owls, Rough-legged Hawks, waterfowl, and land birds. This area is also home to a number of Ring-necked Pheasant that are frequently spotted by birders. Join us for this opportunity to get as close to "prairie birding" as you can here in Indiana. We'll meet at 7:00 a.m. in the north-east corner of the K-Mart parking lot on East Third Street. We'll return some time in the mid to late afternoon. For additional info, call Lee at 333-6368 or e-mail him at sterren@indiana.edu.
Friday, February 14 - Monday, February 17, 2003 "Sixth Annual Great Backyard Bird Count"
Citizen scientists can help contribute to the body of knowledge on wintering bird populations by participating in this bird count. See story below for details, or go to http://www.birdsource.org to find out how to participate.
Wednesday, February 26, 2003, 7:00 p.m.
February Program: "Indiana's
First Northern Saw-whet Owl Banding Station: First Year Report"
The Sassafras Audubon Society is helping support Indiana's first Northern Saw-whet Owl banding station. The station, which is part of Project Owlnet, is collecting data to help determine NSWO migration patterns, population sizes, and distribution. Owls are caught in a mist net, examined, banded and released. Dedicated local researchers are adding their data that of other stations in the eastern U.S. to build a case for preserving northern Saw-Whet Owl habitat. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event, which will be held in Room 1-C of the Monroe County Public Library. Refreshments will be served.
Outings Reports
See what you've been missing thanks to these reviews compiled by field trip participants!
Jasper-Pulaski State Wildlife Area
Saturday, October 26 - Sunday, October
27
On 10/26, Don Whitehead led eight birders for a full day trip to Northern Indiana, visiting Willow Slough, Kankakee Sands, and Jasper-Pulaski State Wildlife Area (JP). Our first stop, Willow Slough, yielded close and extended views of American Bittern, Sora, Wilson's Snipe and Virginia Rail, marsh species typically secretive in their habits. We also saw huge flocks of blackbirds, including countless Rusty Blackbirds. The grassy entrance path to TNC's Kankakee Sands presented an interesting test of our sparrow ID skills. We saw Vesper, Field, Savannah, Swamp, American Tree, Song, White-throated and White-crowned, and a lengthy view of a late migrating Clay-colored Sparrow. Fall at JP means Sandhill Cranes and the cranes were everywhere, flying, foraging and calling. A Winter Wren greeted us on the back roads around JP as we searched for the elusive Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel.
Four of the group continued north for an overnight extension to Lake Michigan for a Sunday morning lakewatch. From Miller Beach we saw Common and Red throated Loon, Red-breasted Mergansers, Horned and a single Red-necked Grebe, all 3 Scoters, and several Bufflehead. The harbor at Michigan City yielded another Red-necked Grebe, 2 Bufflehead, and a solitary Sanderling. Don also lead this sub-group on tours of several fine eating establishments in Michigan City.
Lake Monroe
Saturday, November 16
Six enthusiastic birders braved the cold and wind on this field trip to several Lake Monroe spots. Many of the group were treated to the sight of their first Fox Sparrows of the winter. We also saw Field, Song and Swamp Sparrows. Several stops at the Lake Monroe boat ramps produced a good variety of ducks including American Black Duck, Ruddy, Mallard, Gadwall, American Wigeon, American Coot and Hooded Merganser. Many Common Loons were spotted on the water and a group of seventy flew overhead. The morning ended with several birders sampling persimmons at the Cutright boat ramp area.
Greene/Sullivan Counties
Saturday, December 7
A handful of birders made a morning trip to search for wintering grassland birds on the reclaimed mines of Greene and Sullivan counties. Probably the highlight of the day were the many beautiful Northern Harriers spotted actively hunting while gliding just a few feet off of the ground. The group was treated to good looks at several other raptors as well including Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks, American Kestrels and a statuesque Bald Eagle at the Dugger unit of the Greene-Sullivan State Forest. A great way to spend a winter day!
Record Number of Participants Expected for Eagle Watch 2003
Hundreds of attendees are expected to take part in this year’s Eagle Watch event, one of the state’s most popular annual programs. The event will be held at the Fourwinds Resort & Marina, located at 9301 Fairfax Road in Bloomington, Ind. Operated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Division of State Parks and Reservoirs, Eagle Watch 2003 will take place Feb. 7-9.
The weekend-long program will include seminars, eagle-viewing caravans, and lectures. Live bird demonstrations will feature a bald eagle, an owl, and C-52, Indiana’s favorite eagle. C-52 was brought from Alaska for reintroduction in Indiana, but a congenital defect has prevented his release, and he is now in the care of IDNR specialists at Patoka Reservoir.
“Eagle Watch has grown more in the past five years than anyone could have ever imagined,” said Jeff Riegel, a naturalist with the department and planner of the event. “It is now considered as a model of cooperation between individuals, businesses, and agencies, by naturalists around the state.”
To cater to the larger audience, the DNR said it will repeat some sections of previously held programs, including a vendor fair, at this year’s event. New programs that have been added include special activities for children and lectures about Indiana’s cats and other mammals.
Held annually since the late 1980s, Eagle Watch draws visitors from all of the surrounding states. Last year, more than 750 visitors attended the event.
Highlights of Eagle Watch 2003
This is a selection of Eagle Watch events at the Fourwinds Resort and Marina. For complete details, contact Monroe Reservoir at at (812) 837-9546.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7
Owl Prowl 8:00 p.m.
Many times the only evidence we have of owls in the wild is an occasional hoot in the background of a television show or movie. We'll start inside to hear tapes of different owl calls, then take a relaxing stroll with IDNR naturalists and hear about Indiana's "hunters of the night sky."
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8
The Basics of Birding - Inside or Out 8:00 a.m.
Take an easy stroll outdoors - or- enjoy the indoor comforts while hearing about the optics, field guides, etiquette, and ethics of today's birder.
Endangered Species - Indiana's Winged Wonders 10:00 a.m.
Catch updates in this very informative program with Indiana's raptor biologist.
Eagle Watch Caravans Noon - 5:00 p.m.
Buses from the Fourwinds will leave every hour on the hour to take you to eagle viewing hot spots on the lake.
Raptors of Indiana - Live and Up Close 7:00 p.m.
Owl, Hawk, and C-52 (Indiana's favorite Bald Eagle) will be featured in this program on the management needs of Indiana's raptors.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9
Birding - Beyond The Basics 8:00 a.m.
Take a two-hour stroll around the Fairfax area with three of Indiana's most knowledgeable birders. Jim and Susan Hengeveld have birded around the world, while Bill Zimmerman's wildlife artwork is shown around the country.
Indiana's Marvelous Mammals 10:15 a.m.
Catch an update on the endangered species work being done by IDNR biologists with river otters, Allegheny wood rats, and our fiercest predator, the bobcat.
The Cats Take Center Stage 11:00 a.m.
Hear about Indiana's cats from yesterday and today and get up close and personal with several cats, including a bobcat and mountain lion.
In Search of an Asian Visitor
They breed on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia, the Kuril Islands, the island of Sakhalin, and other coastal areas bordering the Sea of Okhotsk. Breeding pairs lay and care for a single egg on a mossy, lichen-covered platform in the sub-canopy of old-growth coniferous forests that consist primarily of western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and Douglas fir. After a four-week incubation period and a four to five-week nestling period, single chicks fly, unaccompanied, for as much as forty miles from their nests to the nearest coast. The population spends the winter off the coast of areas where they nest as well as further to the south off of Japan, South Korea, and northeastern coastal China. Periodically, some individuals head southeast instead of southwest during their fall migration and they wind up in Canada or the United States.
When one of these Long-billed Murrelets (Brachyramphus perdix) was reported approximately 100 miles from Bloomington, I decided to go looking for it as soon as I could. On Tuesday, October 29, David Roemer, a birder from Kentucky, reported seeing a Long-billed Murrelet on the Ohio River a bit east of the I-65 bridge. When I heard the news at about 2:45 pm, I made quick arrangements to head south. Unfortunately my wife, Susan, was not able to go but, by 3:15, Don Whitehead and I were on our way in search of this tiny alcid (murrelets belong to the family Alcidae, which also includes murres, auklets, guillemots, and puffins).
In November of 1996, I had looked for a Long-billed Murrelet that was being seen at a small reservoir in Ohio-I missed it by one day. On November 28,1981, a Long-billed Murrelet popped up on Lake Lemon but, unfortunately, was shot by a hunter. There are a total of approximately 50 records for Long-billed Murrelets in the U. S. and almost all of them are from late fall. The birds might stay for one or two days, or for as much as a week or more. For wandering birds such as this one, the rule of thumb is to go as soon as you can if you really want to see the bird.
I had gotten sketchy directions to the location from the posting to the Kentucky birding listserv and, luckily, Don and I were able to find the site by around 5:15. We had about a half an hour of light left. Within about 5 minutes, we had found the bird! It was resting about 100-150 yards away, slightly upriver, from our vantage point on the south side of the river. It was in basic (or "winter") plumage, displaying the classic alcid pattern of dark upperparts and white underparts. The white scapulars (or shoulder feathers) were easy to see, though the "prominent white eye-arcs" mentioned by Sibley in his guidebook were NOT very prominent (as has also been the case on several other basic plumaged birds seen in the U. S.). The solid black nape (no trace of a partial to complete white collar) and longer bill distinguished this bird from members of the very similar species, Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus). The Long-billed Murrelet was formerly considered to be a subspecies of Marbled Murrelet but, based on a report published in the journal Condor in 1996, the Long-billed Murrelet has been considered a distinct species by the AOU (American Ornithologist's Union) since 1997.
The Long-billed Murrelet was seen throughout the day by numerous birders on Wednesday, October 30. On the morning of 10/31, the first time that Susan was able to get away, we went back down to the Ohio River but, in several hours of looking, we were not able to find the bird (nor were any other birders). It was reported once more on the evening of the 31st so, around noon on Friday, November 1, Susan returned to the river and, once again, joined other birders in an unsuccessful search for the bird. There were no subsequent reports of this Long-billed Murrelet. For a picture of the Ohio River bird that was taken by Phil Kelly, see http://www.pjkelly.net/gallery/lbmu.htm
Susan and I will continue to look for this rare vagrant from our home on Lake Lemon and, eventually, hope to see another bird return to the lake (perhaps then we can even get in on our yard list!!).
Join the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 14-17
All across North America, our birds face survival challenges ranging from loss of habitat to introduced predators and diseases such as West Nile Virus. The Sixth Annual Great Backyard Bird Count promises to add important new information to our understanding of birds' movement and overall health by focusing our common birds as well as on birds of special concern.
A project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon, with sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited, the GBBC combines high-tech web tools with an army of citizen-scientist bird observers. The GBBC asks birders of every age and skill level, including families, individuals, classrooms, and community groups, to count the numbers and kinds of birds that visit their feeders, local parks, schoolyards, and other areas during any or all of the four count days. Participants enter their sightings at BirdSource, www.birdsource.org/gbbc. Instructions for participating can be found at www.birdsource.org. There's no fee or registration.