The Leaflet, November - December 2003

In a reflection of what your Sassafras Audubon Society struggles with most as an all-volunteer organization, finding a president to lead SAS for the next two years proved a difficult and frustrating challenge. It wasn't until early September when Fred Churchill suggested approaching fellow board member Cathy Meyer as a candidate that I was able to ensure consistent leadership for the next two years. Sassafras' board voted unanimously and with enthusiasm to accept her nomination as your next President.

Cathy was elected to SAS' board in 2000 and will extend her time on the board until fall of 2005. She comes to lead SAS with rock solid credentials as a naturalist for the Monroe County Parks & Recreation Department, with a history of involvement in other environmental and conservation non-profits, and has been the catalyst for SAS' on-going strategic planning. And she's a pretty good birder to boot! Sassafras Audubon will be in quite capable hands for the next two years.

During my time on SAS' board as Vice President and President from 2000-03, I made the personal decision to involve myself in as many aspects of "the life of SAS" as possible. I saw this as an opportunity to "push the envelope" of what SAS does and might do as a local environmental group. I quickly came to the conclusion that SAS, being an all-volunteer organization with financial limits, was moving towards a juncture of making changes to survive or slowly fading out of importance and then existence. This seemed particularly salient given the changing relationship between National Audubon and local chapters such as ours, the aging of SAS' membership, and the emergence of many local environmental groups and services. Cathy's willingness to lead SAS' current strategic planning could not have been more timely.

In accepting Sassafras' office of President, Cathy requested continued help from current and former board as well as general members to run the various day-to-day affairs of SAS. Our current board of directors is strong and each member has taken responsibility for important specific SAS duties. We also rely on the efforts of many ex-board members and friends of Sassafras to help with the Leaflet, field trips and conservation initiatives, our BEDC involvement, as well as our cool web site. In my final year on the board, I will continue to assist Ang Jordan with the Leaflet and move forward with a Sassafras endowment program.

I have learned much and feel privileged for the opportunity SAS entrusted with me as President for the past two years. I would urge every Sassafras Audubon member to support wholeheartedly and to lend a hand or two to Cathy in her leadership of SAS. Sassafras Audubon continues to have much to offer our local community in environmental education and leadership.

The trails at Lake Griffy allow for enjoyment and study year round. In the winter you can see plants that remain green, like Christmas Fern and Golden Ragwort. There are evergreen trees and shrubs, native Red Cedar (actually a juniper), White Pine, Virginia Pine and holly. You may see the parallel-veined leaves of Puttyroot Orchid and various fungi on dead wood. Identification of broad-leafed, deciduous trees is possible by study of their bark. After a light snow, it is interesting to walk in the early morning and see the tracks of deer, squirrels, chipmunks, fox, and coyote, along with domestic cats and dogs. Large bird tracks are typically made by crows and wild turkey.

Ridge and Nature Trails

Park in the causeway lot and walk back to the N side of the driveway to a small bridge over a ditch. Take the left hand trail for both the Ridge and Nature trails, proceeding via switchbacks to the ridgetop. You will see highly decayed stumps of trees cut before 1924. In addition to oaks there are many Pawpaws and Greenbriar. At the crest of the ridge there is a wood bench titled Reflective Restway. The Nature trail extends E from the bench, turns S on a secondary ridge before joining the Ridge trail a short distance NE of the parking lot.

The Ridge trail extends N from the bench as an elongate loop trail, going to the N edge of the property. Along this trail you will see numerous May Apple colonies and at the N end, Rattlesnake Fern. The southern segment was once fields or pasture and there are many Dogwood, Sassafras, Redbud and Red Cedar tress, along with some Euonymus shrubs. As you begin your descent, you will see several large Shagbark Hickory trees before entering a small side valley. This side valley is exceptional for spring wildflowers such as Cut-leaf Toothwort, Spring Beauty, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Prairie Trillium, or Sweet Cicely. Near the gully adjacent to the ridge there is a large stand of wood (non-stinging) nettle and numerous Christmas Ferns.

Creek Trail

Starting at the causeway parking lot and traveling along Griffy Creek, this trail extends to the E border of the city property. Between the parking lot and a small side valley, a ridge nose a few feet above the lake has clumps of Painted Sedge with their springtime flower spikes and later in the spring Two-Flowered Cynthia and Pussytoes. After crossing a small wooden bridge, you are on an old farm road surrounded by brambles, greenbriar, escaped privet, and barberry along with squirrel corn and Dutchman's Breeches. Continue on the left branch and climb a low hill to the moss-covered top for a good view of Griffy Creek. You may see a beaver swimming in the creek.

Go downhill past a small seep and outcrops of siltstone to the second side valley. There is a buckeye tree beside the trail that has large clusters of white flowers in the spring. The trail diverges from the creek and along this stretch are Common Giant Ragweed, Ironweeed, Stinging Nettles and farther along mint, Tall Bellflower, and Bellwort. Continue E along the creek floodplain until the trail leaves the creek, crosses the flood plain, and returns to the creek. Large Jack-in-the-Pulpit and Solomon's Seal occur on this stretch. After a large hollow tree in the water, cross a small gully and come to where the trail crosses the creek North to South. The ruins of a home site can be found a short distance off the trail in the side valley to the N. Farther along you will pass a large colony of Lycopodium and red cedar.

Continue to the third creek crossing where on the N side of the creek is a massive outcropping of Borden siltstone and many geodes in the creek bed. Along this final stretch the creek valley narrows, the trail curves back and forth to avoid downed trees and dense plant stands. You will eventually come to steep ravine flowing into the creek from the South. This is the original crossing point of Baugh Road through the creek decades ago. The road washed out and only traces remain. You are now 50 yards onto private property. You will see an old section of Baugh Road ascend a steep slope to the S. Turn around and retrace the path to the causeway parking lot.

North Shore Trail

This trail begins on the W side of Hinkle Road just N of the causeway. Cross a wooden bridge and continue along the lake's edge. In a short distance the trail divides to a left branch continuing along the lake and a right branch ascending the side of a steep ravine to the ridge top. At the crest, the trail turns W and continues along the ridge top. Michael Tansy, IU mycologist, called this ridge Amanita Ridge, after the mushroom genus that contains poisonous fungi like the Death Angel. At the western ridge nose, the trail descends to large slabs of siltstone outcrops, joining the lakeside segment. An unimproved and treacherous trail continues along the N side of the lake to the dam.

IU Nature Preserve Trails

Within the last few years IU established an outdoor teaching and research nature preserve on its property S/SE of Lake Griffy. There is a small parking lot opposite the IU golf course. The Loop, Ravine, and Huckleberry trails begin from the two far corners of the parking lot. All trails and trail segments have colored painted blazes on trees. The Loop trail makes a short loop through reverting pasture and field with small trees and a thick understory of shrubs, vines and trees. The Huckleberry trail has white painted blazes, crosses an old railroad right of way and extends NW along Huckleberry Ridge. After 1/4 mile, the trail reaches the crest of the ridge at the boundary of the IU and city properties. In open clearings along the crest, there are numerous small huckleberry bushes that are relatively rare in Monroe County. Return to the ridgetop and follow the end of an old farm road and you will pass over 90 circular holes or pits from 2-8 feet wide and 1-2 feet deep. These are from the 1940's when IU dug up many trees for planting the main campus. Many of the pits have abundant ferns around the margins.

Gary Lane is a retired IU Geologist and is known for his extensive memory of limericks.

Twenty-eight elementary teachers in Bartholomew, Greene, Lawrence, and Monroe County will soon be receiving their new Audubon Adventures environmental education kits. In addition to a generous grant from Visteon Automotive Systems, we would like to thank the following SAS members for their continuing support of Audubon Adventures through classroom sponsorships:

At 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 1, I was on our deck looking at waterfowl and other birds at the east end of Lake Lemon. Out of nowhere, an American White Pelican appeared amid the lotus. This was the second time in eight years that my wife, Susan, and I had seen a white pelican on the lake, the other time being on June 3, 2000. I called a couple of people to let them know about the pelican. At around 5:00, I noticed that there was a message on the answering machine and, in listening to the message, found out that Don Whitehead was watching a juvenile Sabine’s Gull at the other end of the lake.

I drove to the base of Shuffle Creek and, with Don, re-found the gull shortly, flying around actively over the main basin of the lake. It was a striking bird, as Sabine’s Gulls are in all plumages—black outer primaries and primary coverts, a white wedge made up of the inner primaries and secondaries, and a dark gray-brown back and inner wings (secondary coverts); the rump was white as was the tail, except for a black terminal band, thickest on the central tail feathers. The distinctive upper side of the bird, a study in contrasting triangles, was visible from a great distance. The gray-brown on the mantle continued up the back of the neck and onto the crown with a small extension of that same color leaking onto the sides of the upper breast. The forecrown was white and the bill blackish. The underparts were white, with the undersides of the wings having a vestige of the pattern seen above.

Over several decades, Don Whitehead has seen only four other Sabine’s Gulls in the Bloomington area (Lake Monroe and Lake Lemon). They are clearly an unusual visitor. Typically (throughout the interior of the U.S.), they are seen as fly-bys or, at most, as one-day visitors. The ten-day stay by this individual was certainly special as it permitted tens of Indiana birders to see it.

Sabine’s Gulls are about the same size as the Bonaparte’s Gulls that we see locally during spring and fall migrations. However, Sabine’s is not closely related to Bonaparte’s or to any of the other gulls of the area. Sabine’s Gull is in a different genus (Xema) than all of the other gulls commonly seen in Indiana, which belong to the genus Larus. The scientific specific epithet (sabini) and common name derive from the discoverer of the gull, Edward Sabine, who discovered it in Greenland in 1818.

Sabine’s Gulls breed on Arctic and subarctic tundra. They are often found nesting and sometimes feeding in association with Arctic Terns. Sabine’s Gulls feed most commonly on arthropods, especially aquatic insects (mosquitoes, midges, crane flies, caddis flies), but also on zooplankton, crustaceans, fish and fish waste. They feed most often by surface seizing (picking insects off of the surface of the water) and dipping (picking food items from just beneath the surface of the water). They feed in the same manner and often in the same places and conditions as phalaropes, both in the breeding season and during migration. The Lake Lemon Sabine’s Gull initially spent much of its time flying around and foraging by making shallow plunge-dives in a tern-like manner. Later in its stay, however, it spent more and more of its time swimming and sometimes spinning phalarope-style, actively picking insects off of the surface of the water. The shorebird-like and tern-like feeding and flight styles further emphasize the uniqueness of this small gull.

Where is it going? It’s impossible to say for sure. Sabine’s Gull populations have two wintering grounds, both of which are in tropical/subtropical areas of oceanic upwelling. One main wintering area is the western coast of South America (off of Peru and Ecuador) in the Humboldt Current; the other wintering ground is along the western coast of southern Africa (Agulhas Current) from Angola to South Africa. Birds from breeding areas in western Canada, Alaska and Russia are thought to winter off of the west coast of South America, while those from eastern Canada, Greenland and Spitsbergen are thought to head to the eastern Atlantic. The Canada and Greenland birds are thought to cross the Atlantic at high latitudes, heading to western and southwestern Europe and, from there, following the coastline south. If “our” bird were to head straight south, it would eventually wind up in the wintering grounds off of western South America. Obviously, in order to do this, it would have to cross over to the Pacific Ocean from either the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea. Presumably, it would do this at the isthmus just south of Veracruz, Mexico or in the Panama area. In any case, this would be a much shorter journey than a trans-Atlantic flight to the west coast of Africa. Let’s hope that it has eaten enough Lake Lemon insects to fuel at least the next leg of its journey.

The second year of SAS's Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) banding season will have begun by the time this Leaflet makes it to your mailbox. This station, the first of its kind in Indiana, is part of Project Owlnet and is designed to learn about the migratory patterns and overwintering habitat needs of NSWOs. By gathering data on these secretive birds we can better manage appropriate properties to accommodate their needs.

NSWOs are the smallest of Indiana's owls and are partial migrants. They rarely breed this far south, but they regularly migrate to this area for the winter. However, no one knew exactly how many migrated here or where they were coming from - other than north.

Last fall we banded 57 NSWOs at our station in Yellowwood State Forest. In addition, we had two other NSWOs that had been banded at other stations north of us, known as foreign recaptures. One owl had been banded in Central Wisconsin and the other was banded in the Thunder Bay area of Lake Superior. This means that both of the foreign recaptures arrived here via the western side of the Great Lakes. Given that the Lake Monroe Christmas Bird Count rarely has more than 10 NSWO's we were astounded by these results.

We anticipate the first NSWOs of the season to arrive around October 20th and our last owl of the season was on December 2nd last year. The peak movement last year was in the first 2.5 weeks of November. The banding station is run each night as long as the weather allows (no rain, snow or high winds). One of the team co-leaders is present at all times and volunteers are not only welcome, but encouraged to aid our efforts to learn about these fascinating nocturnal creatures. Whenever possible we try to let each volunteer get an opportunity to release one of the owls, but the safety of the birds is our highest priority so not everyone gets the chance.
If you would like to help us learn about the Saw-whet Owls of Southern Indiana please contact Ross Brittain, at rabritta@indiana.edu or call 334-1653. Since our banding attempts are so weather dependent we frequently have to change plans at the last minute, but we try to schedule each week as much as possible for everyone's convenience.

The Southern Indiana Northern Saw-whet Owl Banding Station is sponsored by Sassafras Aububon Society and Chipperwoods Bird Observatory. Team Co-leaders are Ross Brittain, Jess Gwinn, Vicky Meretsky, Jeff Riegel and Jeff Hammond. Co-leaders have subpermits to band NSWOs from the Bird Banding Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Ron Weiss, Master Bird Bander, from Chipperwoods Bird Observatory.

Happy Owling, Ross Brittain

Sassafras Audubon’s annual Lake Monroe Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is scheduled for Saturday, December 20, 2003. This will be the 28th consecutive year for this prestigious CBC. As always, the success of the bird count depends on the number of eyes, ears, minds and bodies in the field on that day. The more observers we have, the more completely we can cover our designated count circle and the more thoroughly we cover each team’s territory within the circle. We need all of you! Give me a ring or an e-mail and sign up now (812-339-1782; whitehea@indiana.edu).

As most of you know, the Christmas Bird Count is part of long-term monitoring program established by National Audubon to provide basic data on the status (and trends) of wintering populations of birds in North America and elsewhere. The program has been in existence for over a century and now involves over 1800 counts. Last year 55,994 observers participated in 1981 CBC’s and tallied 73,137,928 birds! 38 Counts were run in Indiana involving 669 participants tallying 435,174 birds.

The count is carried out in a designated circle with a radius of 7.5 miles. The goal on count day is to cover all of the area (and habitats) within the circle as thoroughly as possible and to record both species and the number of individuals of each species. Our circle is centered on the intersection of Route 446 and Tower Ridge Road south of Lake Monroe. As a result, the circle includes all of the lake and its associated wetlands and refuges, a large area of Hoosier National Forest, and much agricultural land south of the lake. In short, our circle has wonderful habitat diversity and thus has the potential for recording a very large number of species.

Over the years we have built this count into one of the best in the state - almost every year the Lake Monroe tallies the highest species count of any Indiana CBC. In fact, we have surpassed 100 species a number of times in recent years - the only Indiana CBC to do so. Over the 25 years of the count we have recorded 141 species! Last year we tallied 90 species and, once again, had the highest species count of any Indiana CBC.

The Christmas Bird Count is great fun - a time to spend an entire day in the field in interesting habitats trying to determine what is around - and trying to see how many interesting and unusual birds can be found. We usually have between 50-70 observers in the field every year working in 10-14 different teams. There is always a sense of friendly competition between teams - trying to see who will record the greatest number of species and the most unusual bird. This competition then extends to a larger arena - with our count trying to outdo the other counts in the state.

Most teams have two meeting times - one before first light for those wishing to work on owls, and one at sunrise for those more interested in day birds. Individuals can work all day or a portion of the day, depending on preferences and time available.

The important thing is that we have the best counts when we have the greatest number of teams and observers in the field. The count is for beginners as well as more advanced birders. In short, we need everyone we can get - more people beating the bush or watching the sky or the lake generate more birds. Anyone interested should call or e-mail me to be assigned to a team or to obtain more information (relevant numbers above).

The CBC always ends with a wonderful pot-luck dinner hosted by Henry Wahl in the party room of Woodcrest Court (2602 E 2nd Street). The food is always great, and the final tally for the count is lots of fun. Bragging rights for the year are established there.

Hope to see you all for our 28th Christmas Bird Count.