The Leaflet, July-August 2005

Birders everywhere were jubilant when the news quickly spread on April 28 that an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker had been sighted. Most birders had given up ever finding the Ivory Bill, which had not been sighted in the U.S. in 60 years. In fact, if you think you see one, don't bother to check your Sibley Guide. Sibley thought it was probably extinct so there was no more reason to include the Ivory Bill than the Passenger Pigeon. The news was exciting not only to birders but to the general public and was a front-page story in newspapers across the country.

As soon as the discovery was announced, calls began to come in from people who were sure they had seen an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. They reported seeing a large bird with a red crest that looked like the illustrations shown in the media. Of course, these were probably all Pileated Woodpeckers, but sometimes it is difficult to convince someone that the bird they have seen is actually fairly common and not what they think it is. Dawn Hewitt, SAS member and birding columnist for the Hoosier-Times received such a call, which she related on the Bloomington Bird List. The National Audubon Society must also be receiving similar reports. They have established a special Website (http://audubon.org/bird/ivory/challenges.php) describing the Ivory Bill and its rediscovery. A large part of the Website is devoted to comparing the Ivory-Billed and the Pileated Woodpeckers. It is great news that this magnificent bird is not extinct, but it is probably best for us to admire from afar this bird, which seems to do best in seclusion--far removed from human contact.

2.1 BILLION dollars. That is the amount of a funding shortfall the Indiana Department of Transportation says there is for highway projects. They are asking all of the state legislators to rank the highway projects within each county so that they can prioritize them with the limited funding.

Two points need to be made: The obvious one is that the new terrain I-69 being planned through southwest Indiana has a projected cost of about 2 billion dollars. Of course, this amount does not include the upgrades to I-465 around Indianapolis (or a new route through or around the city), nor does it include the link around Evansville south of I-64, nor does it include the new bridge over the Ohio River south of Evansville, easily 2 to 3 billion dollars more; however, regardless of where the highway is constructed, these extra links will have to be built. The cost at issue is the difference between a new terrain route and an upgrade of the I-70 to US 41 corridor. The estimated difference between these routes is around 1 billion dollars. That difference would go a long way towards filling that 2.1 billion dollar budget hole.

The second point is the survey being sent to state legislators. Or should I say surveys. There has been more than one version sent out, so it is difficult to determine which to use. 30% of the counties in Indiana have no projects listed while another 30% have only one. The entire US 31 corridor between Indianapolis and South Bend is not included. INDOT has a room full of designed projects waiting to be built, which now for some reason are left off the list of highway projects to prioritize; however, you better believe that I-69 is on the list. Greene County is crossed by ten state highways. Yet there are only two highway projects listed of which I-69 is one. Who do they think they are fooling? Hopefully, the state legislators will see through this blatant manipulation and let INDOT and the Daniels administration know how they feel about highway budgets.

You can help by letting your legislator know how you feel about your local highways and telling them to stop wasting money on the design of a new terrain I-69. If new terrain I-69 is built two things will happen: your TAXES WILL BE RAISED and your county highway projects will be cut.

A posting on the Indiana Bird List on June 5 by Don Gorney recounts a birding success story for the endangered Least Tern in Indiana. Only an estimated 7000 Interior Least Terns nationwide were counted in 1999. Since 1986 Least Terns have been nesting beside Lake Gibson, an artificial cooling lake at the Cinergy generating plant southwest of Princeton in Gibson County. With the exception of one year, this has been their only nesting site in Indiana since that time. In 2000 Cinergy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began cooperating to preserve the nesting site. Unfortunately, the terns kept changing their nesting site around the lake and surrounding area complicating site management. Predators were taking a high toll on the hatchlings. Chuck Mills, who has worked on the tern project since they were first sighted, published an article on the Least Terns at the Cinergy power plant in the fall 2004 issue of Indiana Audubon Society's Online Birding Guide.

Last fall a 50-acre wetland was created in the Cane Ridge Wildlife Area south of the power plant. An island was constructed in the center of the wetland. The island is ringed with an electric fence to keep out predators. This spring the terns were lured to the island with decoys and they built as many as 15 nests. A total of 40 terns were counted in early June. The plan succeeded on the first attempt!

The Cane Ridge Wildlife Area is closed to the public, but the terns can be viewed from the road next to the artificial wetland. In fact, the terns fly over the road between their nesting site and the power plant cooling lake where they fish. You can see Don Gorney's posting on the Indiana Bird List for details on how to find the site, which is a few miles south of Indiana Highway 64 on the east side of the Wabash River.

Kim Novick, Great Lakes Organizer of the Alaska Coalition, gave a slide presentation concerning the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Tongass National Forest (TNF) in Alaska to a small group at the May 26 SAS meeting in the Monroe County Library. She showed many slides highlighting the beauty and solitude of the ANWR, which has been the subject of much controversy in recent years as action is underway to open a portion of the refuge to oil exploration. The refuge is home to some 130 bird species and the Porcupine caribou herd comprising some 130,000 individuals. Kim contrasted the current conditions in ANWR with the nearby Prudhoe Bay area where oil exploration and production has been underway for several decades. Approximately 95% of the Alaska North Slope is currently being developed for oil exploration and production. The remaining 5% in the ANWR is now in danger of being added to the total. The U.S. Senate recently passed the budget proposal including opening of the ANWR to oil exploration. But this is not the end of the story. The proposal must also be passed in the actual budget bill, which will come before Congress in September. Kim urged all those opposed to opening the ANWR to write their senators and congressmen asking them not to pass this portion of the budget bill.

The second part of Kim's presentation concerned the Tongass National Forest, which is also subject to environmental pressures. The Tongass is in southeastern Alaska and is part of the largest temperate rainforest on earth. Much of TNF has been opened to logging with about two thirds of the old growth forest already logged. The logging industry in the area has been declining in recent years, but the National Forest Service, following policy approved by Congress, continues to build logging roads in the forest at great expense. The road building is not economically sound, as the return produced by logging in these newly opened areas does not pay for the cost of the roads. Last year a coalition of environmentalists, fishing interests, and fiscal conservatives in the House passed a bill that would have ended road building in TNF. Unfortunately, it did not pass in the Senate. Kim urged us to write our senators and congressmen asking them to pass a bill to end this environmental and economically damaging policy of road building.

Aldo Leopold once wrote, "To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." Three years ago, a study began to determine what cogs were in the amphibian wheel in a portion of Stillwater Marsh. Now, more than half way through the five-year study, what have we found out about the species richness and evenness of this unique piece of Lake Monroe property? Not only are the results so far quite telling, but there is a big surprise as well. Writer-naturalist Jeff Riegel will present the preliminary findings in the August program to be held Wednesday, August 31, at 7 p.m. in Room 1B of the Monroe County Public Library.

This is just one of a surprising number of spotted salamanders captured in the 2005 field season of the Stillwater Marsh Amphibian Study. (photo by J Riegel)

We all have some idea about the identity of the man who gives his name to our organization. We probably all know that Audubon is famous for his beautiful drawings of birds, that he lived during the 19th century, and that there is a state park in Henderson, Kentucky, named for him. But if you are like me, you do not know much about his life and just how he became famous for those beautiful bird pictures. To fill this void in my knowledge, my wife and I recently read a biography Audubon, Life and Art in the American Wilderness by Shirley Streshinsky (U. Georgia Press). Since reading this book, we have discovered two more recent Audubon biographies: John James Audubon, the Making of an American by Richard Rhodes (Knopf) and Audubon's Elephant by Duff Hart-Davis (Henry Holt), both published in 2004.

John James Audubon was born in 1785 in Santa Domingo, the island that now includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He was the illegitimate son of a wealthy French planter and his French maid and had two half sisters, also illegitimate. He grew up in France in the home of his father where he showed an early interest in nature, especially birds, and in drawing. He was approaching the age for military service when Napoleon was Emperor of France. His father encouraged him to be a "draft dodger" by sending him to America to help oversee family property in New Jersey and to learn English. Audubon was not much of an overseer, being more interested in observing and drawing a whole new set of birds.

Audubon developed a different way of drawing birds from most of those who came before him. He depicted birds in action in their natural environment rather than as still life subjects. You may have heard that most of his drawings were based on specimens that he collected with a shotgun. In his day, few if any people were concerned about this practice as the supply of birds seemed endless.

Audubon married the daughter of a wealthy neighbor. Although his real interest was in drawing pictures of birds, Audubon moved with his new wife to Kentucky to attempt to make his fortune as a merchant, like several of his in-laws. He had some success in this endeavor, first in Louisville and then in Henderson. All the while he was working as a merchant he was taking frequent birding trips into the surrounding countryside (almost certainly even into southern Indiana) to collect specimens for his drawings. In Henderson, where he lived for several years (hence the state park), he became overly ambitious in his business activities and with partners built a large mill, which was a financial disaster.

For the remainder of his life, Audubon pursued his art. He had long dreamed of completing drawings of all of the birds of America and publishing them in a series of folios. Audubon had big thoughts--literally. He was not satisfied with normal book-sized sketches but wanted to reproduce his drawings at life size or larger in a series of "elephant folios." This required large sums of money, which only the wealthy could afford. Unfortunately, he had made enemies among the natural scientists of America, and also none of the domestic lithographers were up to the task of reproducing these large drawings in high quality. So he left his wife and two sons at home to fend for themselves while he went to England to sell his idea and folios and to find a lithographer capable of reproducing his magnificent drawings. Fortunately for the world, he was successful, but not without many trials and tribulations. The project would never have succeeded if Audubon had not had a personality that allowed him to make friends easily (and also quite a few enemies) and to convince dozens of wealthy Europeans that they should own a copy of "Birds of America." Audubon also had a large ego, and unfortunately was not inclined to give adequate credit to the several artists and writers who helped with the project. For example, much of the background art was actually completed by other artists, and he received extensive help in preparing the text.

After a struggle of many years, the elephant folio series finally became a reality. Audubon was reunited with his wife and family in the later stages of the project. The entire family was involved in managing the publication and sale of the large folio as well as the subsequent smaller, somewhat less expensive, edition. The family returned to the U.S. in the later years of Audubon's life. After several comfortable, happy years Audubon succumbed to dementia, which we would today call Alzheimer's disease, and died at age 65 at his home in New York state.

If you would like to see a copy of his famous elephant folio, one is on display at the Lilly Library on the IU campus. Periodically, the staff "turns the page," so if you came in often enough, you might see the whole series! But you would not see a single drawing had Audubon not had the persistence (obsession?) and personality to successfully complete the project.

The 15th annual Monroe County Birdathon was a big success, with 5 teams participating and lots of pledge money earned for SAS and other groups. The winning team, the Prothonotary Wanderers, found 140 species on May 7 within Monroe County. Team members Susan and Jim Hengeveld, Mike Clarke, Lee Sterrenburg, and Bob Kissel, received gift baskets from the Bloomington Wild Birds Unlimited store. The teams found a total of 157 species. The Fish and Wildlife Partners found 129, Sleep Deprived 123, Mudhens 119, and Weaver Birds 106. All received a t-shirt with David Sibley's 2005 International Migratory Bird Day design and enjoyed a potluck dinner hosted by Henry Wahl.

Highlights of the day included Least Bittern, Snowy Egret, Black-Crowned Night Heron, Ruffed Grouse, Dunlin, Black-Billed Cuckoo, Chuck-Will's-Widow, Gray-Cheeked Thrush, Swainson's Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Bay-Breasted Warbler, Vesper Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, Dark-Eyed Junco, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin.

In honor of SAS member Dr. Donald Whitehead, who has inspired many people in appreciating and watching birds, the award for the winning birdathon team will be named the Whitehead Award for Birding Excellence. Winning teams will receive certificates, and a plaque will be designed to record the winning team each year.

Contributions to SAS collected to date by teams participating in the May 8 Birdathon totaled almost $800. We expect some additional contributions. Contributors include Robert Davis, Rodney Schmidt, Robert Kissel, Daniel Borders, Jim and Susan Hengeveld, George and Mary Allan, Gerald Smith and Laura Hurley, Carolyn Begley, Andrew Durkin, John and Kathleen Clarke, Jeff Riegel, Jess Gwinn, Cathy Hiatt, Andrea Murray, and Michael Fulton

The 19th annual Owen County Big May Day bird count was held on May 14. After a steady rain all morning, Donald Hall and I finally started at 10:00 a.m. at Greens Bluff where it continued to rain for another hour or so during which time the birds were very quiet. We then covered several areas along the White River before ending the day at the recent southern acquisitions at Greens Bluff. Unfortunately, due to the recent heavy rains, the White River was very swollen, covering almost all of the potential shorebird habitat. Also, for the second weekend in a row, I was blanked on owl species; although, the morning owling was obviously washed out and the evening was too late for me. There were lots of other glaring holes especially among warblers for which we tallied only 20 species. We ended with 101 species for the day, which was good considering the weather. Other participants were Travis Deal, Mike Fisher, and David and Karen Weaver, all of whom counted birds only on their properties. With a few more participants covering more diverse habitats throughout the county we probably could have tallied over130 species.

The Spring Bird Feeder Cleaning on April 25 at Bloomington Hardware was a resounding success. Under the worst weather conditions in recent memory for a feeder cleaning, we cleaned 152 feeders for 64 people for a profit of $735. Thank you to all the brave souls who scrubbed, sprayed, and steamed--Kelly Rockhill, P.J. Pulliam, Mike Clarke, John Byers, Bob Dodd, Ginny Richey, Milt DuCharme (who stayed the entire day!), Nancy Martin, Fred Churchill, Laura Hammond, Kris Lindborg, David Daniels, and John Daniels.

A special thank you again to Vickie Temple Davison and the staff at Bloomington Hardware for their hospitality, advertising of the event, and enthusiastic help.

Thank you to all the folks who brought their feeders for us to clean. The proceeds are used for environmental education and conservation.

PS. Since we have changed equipment for the feeder cleaning, we will need more help for the fall cleaning. Please consider volunteering when you see the announcement in a future Leaflet. This is a great service to the community as well as a profitable day for SAS. Please join us for a couple of hours in the fall.

Susan and Jim Hengeveld helped the 40-plus people attending the SAS meeting on April 27 learn how to identify warblers by sight and sound. Jim began the program with a series of striking photographs (all taken by Indiana photographers) showing 36 warblers that we might encounter either as migrants or as summer residents in our area. He pointed out the distinctive markings that help to identify each species. He also gave information on habitats where each species might be found and listed potential localities in our area. Jim distributed a key based on visual features to help in identification.

Prothonotary Warbler (photo by S Hengeveld)

Susan handled the sound portion of the presentation. While photographs of each species were projected on the screen she played taped recordings of their calls, describing the distinctive features of each. Both Sue and Jim emphasized the importance of experience in learning to identify this fascinating group of birds. To help provide some of that experience, the Hengevelds led a birding trip the following Saturday to put into practice the information they presented at the talk.

On May 1 Jeff Riegel and Mike Clarke led a birding trip at the Paynetown Recreation Area in honor of Don Whitehead, who was in the hospital recovering from an operation. All of the participants signed a get-well card for Don, and photographs of the group were taken to send to Don.

Fifteen people joined Jeff and Mike on a cool but sunny morning to see how many birds they could spot for Don. The total was 62--not bad for a group including many of the best birders in the area. In addition to Jeff and Mike, the group included Sandy Belth, Bob Dodd, David Drutt, Jim and Susan Hengeveld, Greg Hess, Dawn Hewitt, Cathy Hiatt, Phil and Joann Kelly, Ann Maxwell, Cathy Meyer, Jim Mitchell, Frank Prosser, and Bill Zimmerman. Don is now out of the hospital and improving every day.

"Birding for Don" participants (photo by J Riegel)

Notes from other Audubon Society newsletters: The Bluebird, newsletter of the Evansville Audubon Society, reported that the society had approved spending $880 on projects connected with Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve. It also noted that Birder's World, a national birders' magazine, had named the feeding area of Wesselman Woods as one of ten spots in the country where visitors can enjoy top-notch feeder-bird activity. Both the Evansville and Wabash Valley (Terre Haute) societies had calls for volunteers for their May 14 bird counts. The Sassafras Audubon Society has a May bird count in Owen County, but should we have a larger count in Monroe County? Nature Notes & News, the newsletter of the Wabash Valley Audubon Society, reported a field trip last February to the Brazil sewage ponds.

The last Leaflet had a note about the Great Backyard Birdcount results. We should have mentioned that Nancy Martin's Jackson Creek Middle School science class aided the Bloomington total. Nancy asked her students to participate in the program as a class project--a great way to get the younger generation involved in Bloomington. Perhaps some of our other teacher-readers would like to try this next year.

Notes from the April 1971 Leaflet: SAS is planning an auto tour of the Lost River area and a hike at Porter Cave in Owen County. Rey Carlson was organizing field trips. Jim Jontz and Mrs. Pat DeVille were visiting classrooms to talk about birds. There was an article on historic preservation and land use. SAS installed landscaping at Eisner's food store (now O'Malia's). Other articles opposed damming Clifty Creek, urged protection of Lake Monroe, and supported development planning.