News Release
GREAT
BACKYARD BIRD COUNT
Count for Fun, Count for the
Future
New
York, NY and Ithaca, NY—Bird and nature fans
throughout North America are invited to join tens of thousands of everyday bird
watchers for the 12th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), February 13-16, 2009.
A joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National
Audubon Society, this free event is an opportunity for families,
students, and people of all ages to discover the wonders of nature in
backyards, schoolyards, and local parks, and, at the same time, make an
important contribution to conservation. Participants count birds and report
their sightings online at www.birdcount.org.
“The Great Backyard Bird Count benefits both birds and people. It’s a great
example of citizen science: Anyone who can identify even a few species can 
contribute
to the body of knowledge that is used to inform conservation efforts to protect
birds and biodiversity,” said Audubon Education VP, Judy Braus. “Families,
teachers, children and all those who take part in GBBC get a chance to improve
their observation skills, enjoy nature, and have a great time counting for fun,
counting for the future.”
Anyone can take part, from novice bird watchers to experts, by counting birds
for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of
the event and reporting their sightings online at www.birdcount.org.
Participants can also explore what birds others are finding in their
backyards—whether in their own neighborhood or thousands of miles away.
Additional online resources include tips to help
identify birds, a photo
gallery, and special materials for educators.
The data these “citizen scientists” collect helps researchers understand bird population
trends, information that is critical for effective conservation. Their efforts
enable everyone to see what would otherwise be impossible: a comprehensive
picture of where birds are in late winter and how their numbers and
distribution compare with previous years. In 2008, participants submitted more
than 85,000 checklists.
“The GBBC has become a vital link in the arsenal of continent-wide
bird-monitoring projects,” said Cornell Lab of Ornithology director, John
Fitzpatrick. “With more than a decade of data now in hand, the GBBC has
documented the fine-grained details of late-winter bird distributions better
than any project in history, including some truly striking changes just over
the past decade.”
Each year, in addition to entering their tallies, participants submit thousands
of digital images for the GBBC photo contest. Many are featured in the popular
online gallery. Participants in the 2009 count are also invited to upload their
bird videos to YouTube; some will also be featured on the GBBC
web site. Visit www.birdcount.org
to learn more.
Businesses, schools, nature clubs, scout troops, and other community
organizations interested in the GBBC can contact the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
at (800) 843-2473 (outside the U.S., call (607) 254-2473), or Audubon at citizenscience@audubon.org
or (215) 355-9588, Ext 16.
The Great Backyard Bird Count is made possible, in part, by support from Wild Birds
Unlimited.
Top of Page
SPIRIT LAKE
CRISTMAS BIRD COUNT
Shirley Sturts
On
a snowy, cold January 2nd morning, Lisa and I drove to our meeting
place, Rustler's Roost, for breakfast at 6:00 a.m.. Because of the snow storms and bad roads, Lisa had driven over
from Kellogg the night before and had stayed at my house. When we arrived, we were pleased to see our fellow birders,with big smiles on their
faces and coffee cups in hand, ready to
tackle the cold, snow and icy roads for the 13th year of the Spirit
Lake CBC. There was one person missing,
Janet. She soon showed up, shovel
frozen to her hands. Just kidding.
Janet told us she had spent the last hour shoveling out of her
driveway. At 6:00 a.m.! I tell you, we have a dedicated group of
birders in our Audubon Chapter.
Lisa informed us
that, according to athe weather report, it would stop snowing. Guess what? At 10:00 a.m., it stopped
snowing and the sun came out. Also, the
snow plows were on the job and soon had the roads in tip top shape for 
winter travel.
We divided up into
four teams:
Kris Buchler, Peggy Albertson and Linda
Wright drove off to do the Bayview area.
They came up with 29 species.
Their best birds were 2 Gray Jay and 2 Townsend's Solitaire. True to its name the Townsend's Solitaire is
usually seen alone, so it was unusual to see 2 together.
The Kelso Lake Road,
which travels up the Hoo Doo Valley,
was the area covered by Bill Gundlach, Eula Hickam and Adela
Sussman. With a combination of 3-4 feet
of snow on the ground and snowing (until 10 - 11 a.m.), no open water and no
feeders to be found, the birds were
either hunkered down or had moved into town.
Our dedicated birders did manage to find 22 Common Raven and 3 Bald
Eagle, probably attracted to a deer
carcass or two. At noon, joining Kris and her team, they helped out by doing a section of her
area, adding a rafter of Wild
Turkey to their list.
Janet Callen, our
intrepid snow shoveler, and Roland Craft spent a lot of their day in Athol and the
area southwest of Athol, as far as Spirit Lake. They had a great day, partly due to bird feeders (something Bill,
Eula and Adela didn't have). They
counted 19 species including a Red-tailed Hawk, a Northern Pygmy-Owl and 10
Pine Grosbeak. Pine Grosbeak have been
seen only 4 times out of the 
13 counts. Since then, Pine Grosbeak have been showing up in sizable numbers
all over North Idaho and Eastern Washington.
Well, that leaves
Lisa Hardy and myself. We were birding
roads until 10:00 a.m. at which time we parked on the main Farragut State Park
Road and snowshoed into the boat Launch.
Snowshoeing, we discovered, is
not the quietest way to bird; it was a crunch with every step. We stopped to rest and listen often. In this way, we added the only Brown Creeper to the list.
We were disappointed
when we got to the water to find only a Pied-billed Grebe and a Bufflehead
(female) in our binoculars. At this
point we decided to continue along the Shoreline Trail. The deer had been using the trail so it was
relatively easy walking. We were encouraged to keep going when two
swan flew by, one with a neck collar.
They called as they went by so we were able to identify them as
Tundra. The sun was out and we were
warm and full of energy so we kept going, and going, and going, all the way to
Buttonhook Bay, where we expected to
see large flocks of waterfowl. Wrong! For all this effort we only found 30
Horned Grebe, 3 Common Goldeneye, 4 Mallard, 1 Red-necked Grebe and 1 Common
Merganser.
It was at this point
that we realized we made a big
mistake. It was getting late and our
energy level was not what it was when we started out. We could have walked straight out to the main road but that would
be uphill in deep snow. Instead, we
chose to retrace our steps.
The Shoreline (deer)
Trail was hard-packed, so we experimented with taking off our snowshoes and
found we were able walk back to the boat launch before putting them on
again. By the time we got there, it was 4:30 p.m. and we were missing out on
the after-count pizza party at Janet's.
Fortunately, we had a cell phone with us and were able to let the others
know we would be late. Our estimated
time of 1/2 hour turned into an 1 1/2 hours,
partly due to our running out of energy. However, we had taken some
extra food which gave us the boost we needed to get back. As Lisa said when we got back, "never
again".
Although we didn't
have the pleasure of swapping birding events of the day with our fellow bird
counters, they had kindly left us lots of pizza. Janet heated up a few
slices for us which we devoured hungrily along with hot coffee for Shirley and wine
for Lisa. While food was reviving our bodies and spirit, Janet filled us in on
her and Roland's adventures and a little of what the other teams had
found.
Our total count for
the day came to 51 species and 886 individuals. This is our 2nd
lowest count out of 13. The year 2004
was our lowest with only 36 species and 606 individual birds. Our highest species count was in 2002, a
total of 57 and our highest individual count is 1686 in 1998. You can see the total list on our website:
http://cdaaudubon.org/SpiritLakeCBC.htm#SPIRIT%20LAKE%20CBC
Thank you, Janet, for
your hospitality and thank you, team members and feeder watchers, for the time and effort you put into
participating in the CBC.
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QUIZ
Collective nouns can be very descriptive, like a
murder of crows, for instance. Venery - which is the old name for collective
nouns - dates back to the Middle ages. See how many you know.
1. A
bunch of Owls is a
a. congregation
b. A parliament
c. An assembly
d. A. court
2. A collective
term for Skylarks
a. Exaltation
b. Choir
c. Pride
d. Symphony
3. A collective term
for Turkeys
a. Rafters
b. Congregation
c. Fellowship
d. Revolution
4. A whole flock of
geese
a.Gooses
b. Gaggle
c. Riot
d. Covey
5. Three
or more apes
a. Shrewdness
b
Riot
c. Filibuster
d. Nuisance
6. A
group of peacocks
a.
Flirtation
b.
Muster
c.
Covey
d.
Display
7. When
you flush pheasants you have a
a. Flight
b. Flurry
c. c.
Ascension
d. d.
Bouquet
8. A
bunch of bears is called a
a. Growl
b. Hunger
c. Sloth
d. Prowl
9. Wild
Geese in flight is a
a. Vector
b. Skein
c. Wing
d. Formation
10. Whales
in groups are called
a. An
Army
b. a
School
c. A
shoal
d. A
gam
11. One
would refer to a group of swan as
a. A
line
b. A
bevy
c. An
Elegance
d. A
Beauty
12. A
collective noun for rabbits is a
a. Troop
b. Pack
c. Burrow
d. Warren
e.
13. A
collective none for boar and swine is
a. Sounder
b. Grunt
c. Souse
d. Root
14. A
group of Jays would be called
a. Squabble
b. Dispute
c. Scold
d.
Screech
15. A
group of mice a. Nest b. Nibble c. Hole d. Company
See answers at the
end of the newsletter
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SUCCESS AT ANY AGE
Lynn Sheridan
Gail Bolin was born in 1952 of farming parents
in Urbana, Missouri. They milked about 20 cows, grew their own hay, grain and
food. Father and mother took care of the land, naturally, in a
"green" way, without pesticides, even as those around were beginning
to. "If chemicals kill the bugs, what will it do to us", they said.
After graduation,
Gail decided she wanted to see more of the world. She took courses at a
business college in Springfield, trained as a travel agent, and stayed in the
travel business for more than 30 years.
After marriage, children, divorce and re- marriage, she now lives in
Sagle, ID. When the travel agency in Sandpoint closed in 2002, she decided to
go to college and study environmental science. All her life, she had continued to love gardening and the outdoors. She first attended North Idaho College, then transferred to
University of Idaho in CDA, receiving her BS on Dec. 19, 2008.
Continuing her
studies for a Master's degree, she works part time at University of Idaho in
Sandpoint, and will be doing an internship with Bonner CountySoil and Water
Conservation.
She loves plants,
belongs to the Native Plant Society and has taught classes in herbal
cultivation and usage, both culinary and medicinal.
Gail was the first
recipient of the Susan Weller Memorial Scholarship of $500 that our Chapter
established in 2004. I met her at the reception at NIC, and have kept in
touch ever since. She wasn't able to go to Moscow to receive her diploma
in December, but will be part of the graduation ceremony in May at NIC. I
plan to attend and congratulate her in person!
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Idaho birding trail signs
See the article in our
October/November issue about the Idaho Birding Trail Signs by Kris
Buchler. In the October/November issue we
featured the Red-naped Sapsucker sign that is now up in Mica Bay. The Northern
Harrier sign has been placed at the Boundary Creek WMA.
:
The
photographs on the sign were taken by Raymond Parsons
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AUDUBON ADVENTURES
Eula Hickam
Thanks
to a generous grant from the Margaret W. Reed Foundation, students in 138
classrooms in Spirit Lake, Athol, Rathdrum, Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene, Worley,
Plummer, St. Maries, Kellogg, Pinehurst, Cataldo, Mullan and Osborn will be
receiving Audubon Adventures in 2009.
What an exciting opportunity for so many children and teachers!
Audubon
Adventures is inquiry-based and fun for teachers and students alike and is
correlated to national and state learning standards. It helps students form
positive attitudes toward the natural world in the local community. Teachers
use Audubon Adventures to enrich
their science and language arts lessons.
This year’s topic “Feats of Nature” includes lessons on Migration,
Animal Builders, Animal Defenses and Plants.
Each teacher receives a teaching manual and other materials to enhance
the activities.
Audubon Adventures
has been sponsored by the Coeur d’Alene Audubon Society for several years –
many thanks to the grant administrators for providing financial support!
Top of Page
Book Review: Shirley
Sturts
I recently received a
complimentary copy of Lee Jackson's first published Children's Book, Swifty's
Big Flight. The book is nicely
illustrated with wonderful, imaginative
black and white drawings by Ryan Alexander-Tanner.
This is a sweet story
of a young Vaux's Swift's first big flight as it heads south from its home
in the Pacific Northwest to Central
America. As the fictional story
unfolds, interesting facts about how swifts travel, eat, drink, roost, and avoid predators are woven into the
story. There is a list of facts about
Vaux's Swift listed in the back of the book.
I would highly recommend this book for children of all ages including
those of us over 60+ J.
Swifty’s Big Flight
(ISBN: 978-0-9820274-0-0, soft cover, 32 pages, $7.95) by Tiger RM LLC Portland, Ore., author Lee
Jackson, Illustrator Ryan Alexander-Tanner
Proceeds from Swifty’s Big Flight
(www.flyingswift.blogspot.com) benefit the Audubon Society of Portland’s Swift
Watch program. An ornithologist at the Audubon Society of Portland reviewed the
text and illustrations in Swifty’s Big Flight and the society is now
selling the book in its Nature Store. (The book is also selling at Powell’s and
about a dozen other local Portland
bookstores).
You can order a copy online at the above
Website or if the interest is there, I'll put in a group order (let me know). I will be bringing a
copy to our February meeting.
