THE FISH HAWK
HERALD
Coeur
d’Alene Chapter of the National Audubon Society
December 2006
Volume 16 Issue 4
The annual subscription fee for a hard copy of The Fish
Hawk Herald is $15 for one year, or
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COEUR
D'ALENE AUDUBON CHAPTER,
c/o
Membership
P.O.
Box 361
Coeur
d'Alene, ID 83816
SEARCH
CONTINUES FOR
IVORY-BILLED WOODPECker
Judy Waring
The
announcement in 2004 of a sighting in Arkansas of the thought-to-be extinct
Ivory-billed Woodpecker astounded the birding world and has caused the
collective crossing of fingers that the bird has somehow hung on to a
precarious existence. The last confirmed sighting of the “Lord God” bird (
referring to the reaction of people upon seeing one for the first time) was in
1944 in the Singer Tract in Louisiana. When the tract of old growth hardwood
forest was cleared to make sewing machine cabinets and to plant soy beans, the
habitat required by the huge woodpecker was destroyed. This bird, the largest
woodpecker north of Mexico, once ranged from eastern Texas to Florida and up
the coast to the Carolinas. In Richard Rhodes’s biography of John James
Audubon, Mr. Audubon mentioned seeing the Ivory-billed several times as he
traveled down the Mississippi River.
After Cornell
researchers announced in 2004 that recordings and sightings in the Cache River Wildlife
Management Area in eastern Arkansas indicated the presence of the bird,
organized searches began. While no new conclusive evidence has come forth, the faithful
are out there in kayaks and on foot, continuing to comb the swampy forests for proof
in the form of a clear 
photograph or video.
Excitement arose anew when scientists announced that the elusive Ivory-billed
was seen 14 times between May of 2005 and the fall of
2006
along the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida Panhandle. “The bird just flew
over my head; I was in my kayak and it was just above me, going away,” said
Geoffrey Hill of Auburn University. The team in Florida was comprised of
ornithologists and biologists and their search methods were impressive. Video
and audio equipment was installed using the latest technology. They have
gathered extensive recordings of the call and distinctive drill of the bird
that compare favorably with recordings from the mid- twentieth century. Still, there is no photograph that would
provide the final proof. Even NASA has been called in to help out by using
laser sensors from research aircraft to identify areas of the southeast typical
of habitats necessary to Ivory-billed nesting and feeding. Harvard University
is also in on the hunt. It has the world’s largest collection of Ivory-billed
history, including specimens, recordings and data taken in the 1930s. Using
tissue samples from one of the specimens, researchers analyzed the bird's DNA.
They now have a reference that can be used. “If we find a feather in a nest, we
will immediately know” said Scott Edwards, Professor of Zoology at Harvard..
Now comes the
exciting part. The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Audubon Arkansas are
seeking volunteers to help search for the bird between January 3, 2007 and April
21, 2007. In all, 18 sites across the southeast are slated for organized
searches including Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas.
Volunteers must commit to a two week minimum and will aid full-time field
biologists in active in-the-field searches, staffing observation stations,
scouting unexplored areas, and looking for 
cavities and foraging signs. Volunteers
will receive training and must be willing to use or learn to use digital
technology and computers. Lodging will be provided. Here is your chance to be
in on the hunt and possibly catch a glimpse of the bird yourself! To volunteer
online go to: www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory and click on the Current Search link.
Board Meeting
summary
Lynn
Sheridan
November 20, 2006
·
Two chapters submitted proposals for the
collaborative funding to National Audubon. A decision will be made soon. Janet Callen volunteered to be our
representative.
·
We voted to approve a motion to
re-imburse Kris and Ed Buchler for their expenses for the care of
injured raptors: up to $500.00 for this fiscal year.
·
Steve Johnson mentioned a possible
conservation project - to preseve 40
acres wildlife habitat on the Rathsrum Prairie. He will get more information.
·
Carrie Hugo is planning to put up
bluebird boxes on a trail near her
home.
·
At general meeting on Dec 11, we'll do
our annual cookie exchange, and learn about winter birds from
Kris. Also Wes Hanson will come and say a few words about
conservation easements on private land.
BROWN BAG BIRDING
November
21 - Lynn Sheridan
Shirley Sturts, Laura
Bayless and I met at the western end of Fernan Lake at noon, in a drizzle of
rain. Many Ring-billed Gull, Mallard and 5 identical pretty white and
brown "farm geese" were near and on the shore. A dozen Bufflehead bobbed up and down and
overhead we could hear Pygmy Nuthatch in the ponderosa pine. Driving along the lake a lone Wild Turkey
crossed the road, odd, as they're usually in flocks. Soon we stopped to
identify 6 Hooded Merganserand mixed in with a few Common Goldeneye.
Further along 8 female"hoodies" flew off in a hurry. Laura spotted a
row of larger birds, far off, with upturned yellowish heads and beaks: 8
Double Crested Cormorant, with 2 more soaring above. At the east end of the
lake, 10 Mallards were in the small pond,and many more Bufflehead were in the
marsh. We heard a Belted Kingfisher, and a squirrel --- rather
similar! Seemed like good fishing for
all.
GREEN TIP:
Green tip is
a monthly feature in our newsletter.
It is designed to give you ideas for taking personal conservation action
to improve the environmental health and habitat quality of our yards and neighborhoods. (Members are encouraged to send tips to
the editor for inclusion in future.
Holiday Gift
SUGGESTIONS FROM Lisa Hardy
We often spend somewhat more than we
intend over the holidays, so why not channel some of that spending into gifts that
support migratory birds and wildlife in general? Here are some ideas for your
gift-giving list.
1. Coffee and chocolate are beloved by
many, and make no-fuss gifts that will likely be appreciated, unlike, say, a
fruitcake. Audubon offers shade-grown coffee in 3 regular blends and 2 decaf
blends, from $8.99 to $9.49 per 12 ounce bag, plus shipping. See the webpage
for ordering: www.audubon.org/market/licensed/. While you are there, you can check out the other offerings at the
Audubon Marketplace, such as calendars and kids' books.
If you are too late for mail-ordering,
many stores in Coeur d'Alene offer shade-grown organic coffee, including
Safeway and Fred Meyer. Prices are typically in the $11/pound range.
Organic chocolates can be purchased at Fred
Meyer, the Flour Mill in Hayden, and at Pilgrim's Natural Foods on 4th Avenue.
The "Endangered Species" chocolates are organic, politically-correct
bars that come in fun animal motifs, such as sea turtle and grizzly bear.
2. Purchase of any organic item, whether
food, wine or cotton, supports the movement to reduce pesticide use on our
planet. Organic foods and beverages can be found at the grocery stores
mentioned above. Conventional cotton has one of the highest rates of pesticide
application of any crop. For organic cotton products, try the Gaiam mail-order
catalogue: www.gaiam.com.
3. Pure ecology plays a role in sponsoring a tree or a wild animal on behalf
of another. In our area, one possibility is Birds of Prey Northwest, a
non-profit run by local raptor rehabilitator Janie Fink Cantwell. You can
donate any amount to BPN on behalf of your gift recipient, who will receive an
acknowledgement card (ladyhawk@smgazette.com). Several of our chapter members
volunteer for BPN, and you can be assured that donations go directly to
rehabilitation of injured wild raptors and the maintenance of educational birds
that cannot be released to the wild.
4. Consider gifts that do not require
consumption of new materials. Possibilities are crafts using recycled materials,
or services. A one-hour massage certificate from Life Center Therapies on
Government Way will cost $50 (667-3813). Telephone calling cards are available
in $10 and up denominations at many retail outlets.
Priest
Lake Field Trip
Lisa Hardy
I drew up a short list of common species
not yet reported for the Bonner County Big Year list, as our field trip to
Priest Lake on November 11 would be within Bonner County. The list was:
Black-billed Magpie, Mountain Chickadee, American Dipper, and House Sparrow. Not too difficult a list, but I won't
prolong the suspense, and will say here at the outset that we were skunked on
every one.
We made a valiant attempt at finding a
House Sparrow in the town of Priest River by driving by dumpsters and likely
spruce trees and juniper clumps, but to no avail. So we drove directly to
Coolin, where we glassed the south end of Priest Lake, finding a single Common
Loon, several Horned and Red-necked Grebes, and a group of Hooded Mergansers.
Next stop was Cavanaugh Bay, where Common Mergansers, Barrow's Goldeneyes and a
few more grebes had found shelter from the wind. A Bald Eagle was spotted on
the far shore.
At Lionhead, we scoped a Rough-legged
Hawk on the far shore, and a few more waterbirds. Overall, the trip was not
very birdy, and this is probably why we do not venture to Priest Lake very
often. Though, if the wind had not been so brisk and roughening the water
surface, we may have had better success scanning the lake for deep-water divers
such as loons, scoters and Long-tailed Ducks. Perhaps we will try again next
year...
Trip participants: Kris Buchler, Janet
Callen, Lisa Hardy, Jan Severtson, Shirley Sturts
Coeur d'Alene Christmas Bird Count
Lisa Hardy
Our first Coeur d'Alene Christmas Bird Count was held on
December 19, 1991, and for the last 15 years, we have been contributing to a massive
database that is currently fed by some 2000 counts throughout the Americas each
year. The CBC was not designed as a scientific study - it is essentially a
birding event whereby we test our skills and try to tote up as many species as
possible. The 50,000 observers who turn out each year are participating because
it is fun.
But because the amount of data collected over the last 106
years is so large, it turns out to be of scientific value, even though it was
not collected using standardized survey techniques. So, while we are having
fun, we can also enjoy a small glow of achievement, knowing that our
observations will be used in a worthwhile cause.
So, what kinds of information can we extract from our
15-year count history? Several chapter members have commented that Pygmy
Nuthatches seem to be much more common around town in the last few years, and
that seemed to be a good starting point for exploring the CBC database, using
the tools at www.audubon.org/birds/cbc.
Pygmy Nuthatches are tiny (10.5 gram) dynamos - I guess
they have to be to withstand the occasional sub-zero temperatures here as do
their even tinier brethren, the Golden-crowned Kinglets. Pygmies are closely
associated with ponderosa pine stands, and are in fact considered an indicator
species for the health of that forest type. For many years, the only reliable
place to find pygmies around Coeur d'Alene was the NIC campus, but in the last
few years, city-dwellers have reported that the little nuthatches are appearing
more frequently at feeders. They can also be found on dry south-facing
ponderosa pine-forested slopes along the Chain Lakes, but I have yet to see one
in Shoshone County, presumably because the higher rainfall yields a more mixed
forest, limiting the ponderosa pine stands to isolated small patches.
You will rarely see or hear just a single pygmy. They flock
together in family groups, and are one of the few passerine species in which
non-breeding relatives actively participate in raising the young of a breeding
pair. In winter, they typically form flocks of a dozen or more constantly
vocalizing birds, with groups of over 150 having been reported. The subspecies
here (Sitta pygmaea melanotis) is the same as occurs through the
Northwest and Rocky Mountains.
My first step in looking at the CBC data was to download
the Coeur d'Alene numbers into a spreadsheet, so I could graph it in various
ways to look for trends. I plotted Pygmy Nuthatches detected per party hour for
each of the Coeur d'Alene CBCs:
(The
CBC numbers are one off from the year in which they occur. For example, the 92nd
CBC was held in December 1991.) The number of nuthatches is erratic, and the
biggest counts are in 3 of the last 5 years. I was curious about the very low numbers reported in the 97th
through 101st counts. Could they be due to bad weather limiting
detection? Or were there fewer Pygmy Nuthatches those years? Unfortunately, the
weather data only goes back as far as
the 99th count, so instead I looked at some species that occur in
mixed flocks, and might be found with pygmies:
I excluded Black-capped Chickadees from this graph because their
numbers show very large erratic swings. What is interesting on the mixed flock graph
is that all the species show low numbers in the 97th and 98th
CBCs. But also there is a rough
correspondence overall. Note how all species increase from the 92nd
to 93rd CBCs, and all decrease from the 94th to the 95th.
In 5 of the 14 possible consecutive year pairings, all the mixed flock species
increased or decreased together. The correspondence between just the Mountain
and Chestnut-backed Chickadees is even stronger - they vary in tandem in 13 of
the 14 years. Pygmies correlate with the chickadees half the time, with
Golden-crowned Kinglets in 9 out of 14, and with Red-breasted Nuthatches in 11
out of 14 years.
So it appears that the Pygmy Nuthatches are responding to factors
that influence other winter residents as well, though we don't know if those
factors are affecting our ability to detect the birds or actually causing
population changes.
It seemed to be time to put our local count into the bigger
picture, so I looked at PYNU tallies from across the Pacific Northwest (Idaho,
Montana, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon combined). Here is the Coeur
d'Alene tally compared with the region:
The data is normalized to facilitate comparison. Our local data shows
much more abrupt up- and downswings, but still reflects the regional trend. Our
numbers contribute from 0.3 to 4% of the total PYNU recorded each year in the
region.
Conclusions? It looks as though Pygmy Nuthatches may have suffered a downturn
in our area for several years centered on the winter of '97-'98, and then
rebounded to a high in '01-'02, with a decrease since then. It seems likely
that the '97-'98 nadir reflects a decrease in population, and not just the
weather conditions affecting detectability, because the decrease is mirrored in
the regional data. There are many other ways to examine the data, such as
pulling out data for counts
immediately surrounding Coeur d'Alene. The Spokane count routinely tallies big
numbers of pygmies, and had
the largest total (777
individuals) of any count circle in the 104th CBC.
.
So, how many Pygmy Nuthatches will we tally this year? Will the
numbers rebound? Come out and join the fun on Thursday, December 14. Contact Shirley Sturts to sign up
(664-5318).
RAPTOR REHAB UPDATE
Kris Buchler
Four Audubon members
traveled to Jane Cantwell’s home one morning to provide technical support in
various projects. Lisa Hardy, Jan Severtson, Shirley Sturts and Kris Buchler
spent a few hours helping with materials for future imping of raptors. In the process, we learned how to tell the
relative age of many juvenile raptors by the shape of the feather edges. We also learned that most have 12 retrices,
or tail feathers, and that the middle two have a different pigment pattern than
the others. Despite a power outage
caused by high winds the night before, we prepared enough materials for imping
at least 8 birds of prey.
Snowy and Great
Horned Owl
After Lisa Hardy and
I had completed our November IBA count at Wolf Lodge Bay, I returned home to
several phone messages concerning two
owls that needed medical care. Kate Rau, who works for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe
in Plummer had an injured Great Horned Owl.
Larry Rohloff, who does raptor transport for Birds of Prey Northwest,
was at his Rotary meeting and had picked up an owl in Post Falls that he said
looked like a Snowy Owl. It had been
chasing a duck. He was right! It was a
beautiful first year bird.
Shirley Sturts came up and
helped hold the owls while I weighed them and gave them a general
physical. The 
Great
Horned had an injured left wing, two torn eyelids and blood on one foot. The Snowy showed no apparent physical damage
but both birds were vastly under weight.
That evening Ed and I started triage, a treatment of injected fluids,
shots of vitamins and iron, and tube feeding. After 5 days of treatment (3
feedings per day), then surgery for the Great Horned, I took both owls down to
Jane Cantwell’s property where they were put into aviaries. Both owls are eating well and slowly gaining
weight.
The last report on
the Snowy – she ate 20 mice on Nov. 29th!!
We will soon post
pictures on the webpage.
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