2006 YARDLIST CHALLENGE
Lisa Hardy
Eight
yard listers reported 120 species, including two species new to the seven year
history of the challenge, bringing our cumulative total to 171 species. We have
had 111 to 136 species reported in a given year, with the same 91 species reported every year from at least one
yard. This year, 11 species were seen by all eight yards, and 33 were seen by
only a single yard lister. See the website for the complete tabulation.
www.cdaaudubon.org\yardlist06.htm
Robert and Marcella
Hanson reported that a Western Flycatcher nested on the wall of their house,
and the first fledgling was observed on July 5. They also had Hairy Woodpecker,
American Robin and Gray Catbird nest in their yard. The woodpecker chicks were
heard on May 14. The Hansons note that the Steller's Jays love their bearded
American hazelnuts, and to a lesser extent, the walnuts, but so far have left
the filberts alone. They enjoyed watching Western Grebes courting on the Cave Lake,
and seeing Townsend's Solitaires which they had missed in 2005. They also saw a
Golden Eagle on October 25, a new species for the “Yardlist List”.
In town, Lynn
Sheridan managed to successfully rescue an immature American Robin from the
clutches of a cat. She was also successful in “rehabilitating” a stunned House
Finch; after a night inside in a ventilated box, it was able to fly away in the
morning.
The Buchlers saw the
only Common Loon and Northern Pygmy Owl for 2006. Doug Ward saw the only Lincoln's Sparrow of the year, and added
one new species to the all-time “Yardlist List”, a Caspian Tern flyover. The Severtsons had Black-capped Chickadees
and Violet-green Swallows nest in their yard, while a House Wren nest was built
and abandoned. Male House Wrens typically build multiple nests and then the female selects the nest it will use from among them.
I had a nest of
Red-naped Sapsuckers in a mountain ash snag. The young were quite vocal until
they left the nest in mid-June. I was surprised to have Savannah Sparrows this
spring; three of them were in the tops of the budding maples, catching flying
insects. This was such a departure from the habitat in which I usually see them
that I studied them from below for quite some time before I satisfied myself
that there was no other possible identification.
Thank you,
yardlisters, for sending in your observations!
idaho bird records committee
The purpose of the
Idaho Bird Records Committee (IBRC) is to evaluate reports of observations of
birds in Idaho so that records of the avifauna of the state can be reliably utilized
as an officially valid and accurate data source of the status of bird
distribution and patterns of avian vagrancy.
For information about IBRC go to
http://www.idahobirds.net/ibrc/ibrc.html
On this website you can:
§
Print out a copy of the Official
Idaho Birds Checklist.
§
Find a list of Review Birds,
birds for which a Rare Bird Report is requested by the IBRC.
§
By clicking on a Review Bird,
bring up all the reported records for that species.
§
Find out how to document rarities.
§
Use the online Rare Bird Report Form
to document sightings of species on the Idaho rare bird Review List.
§
Read about the IBRC actions for
2006. ( 47 species were voted on, 5 new species were added to the Official Idaho
Bird Checklist, 43 were accepted and 5 not accepted).
Conservation Committee
Roland Craft
The Coeur d'Alene Audubon Conservation
Committee met on February 13, 2007. A short discussion was held on activities
we either are involved in or perhaps should be. This includes looking at
the National Forest planning
process, Blackwell Island dredging, Coeur d'Alene River basin cleanup, Kootenai
County and Post Falls Comprehensive Plan updates, development, and water draw
on the Rathdrum Prairie. We welcome any comments or suggestions from the
public. Contact Roland Craft 457-8894
for information.
Board Meeting
doings
Lisa Hardy February 20, 2007
·
Education chair reported that 137
classrooms in our area received the Audubon Adventures kits this year.
·
We will replace missing signs that describe
the dangers to wildlife of discarded fishing line.
Limericks by lynn
Members are invited to join the fun. Send in a limerick, poem or quotation for
our next newsletter.
Lynn Sheridan
|
There once was a cat from Saint Maries
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There was a young maiden from Kingston
|
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Who wanted to catch some Canaries
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Who thought she saw spots on a Robin
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but her owner said "No"!
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A Robin with spots?
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Kept a latch on the door
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Into her notes she jots -
|
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So he never, never got hold of their
primaries!
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"Oh yes" , she was told, it’s a
young'un
|
GREEN TIP: PLASTICS RECYCLING
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.
Lisa Hardy
Recently, our chapter was asked to help
promote sales of a toothbrush made from recycled plastics. I went to the
internet to find out about plastics recycling in the United States.
What I found was that in 2005, the
United States discarded about 28.9 million tons of plastics, about 40% of which
is containers and packaging. Plastic containers have a stamped number code that
designates the material they are made from. At present, only #1, or PET
(Polyethylene terephthalate - e.g. soda bottles), and #2, HDPE (High-density
polyethylene - e.g. milk jugs), are recycled in significant quantities. About
22% of PET containers are recycled, and 26% of HDPE containers. When these
plastics are recycled, they are ground up and pressed into small pellets that
are used to make other products. Here is how most of your recycled plastic ends
up:
PET: Textiles, including clothing and
carpet; film, food, and beverage containers; luggage.
HDPE: Nonfood containers, including
laundry detergent, shampoo, conditioner, and motor oil bottles; plastic lumber,
pipe, buckets, crates, flower pots, film, recycling bins, floor tiles.
My local recycler in Smelterville
accepts only #1 and uncolored #2 plastics. Other plastics go to the landfill. I
started checking bottles in the house. I found #1 (PET, or PETE) plastic
containing my vitamins, seltzer, and mayonnaise. All of my liquid laundry
detergent bottles, tofu tubs, vegetable oil bottles, and some dishwashing
liquid bottles are #2 (HDPE). But other items, such as dental floss and yogurt
containers, and microwaveable soup bowls, are made from essentially
non-recyclable #5 plastic.
On average, each of us puts some 100
pounds of plastic waste into our household garbage each year. Using a few
recycled toothbrushes each year is more a symbolic than substantive effort to
promote recycling. I remember there was a suggestion some years ago that
2-liter soda bottles could be "recycled" by turning them into bird
feeders. This would work fine if each of us consumed only one or two bottles of
pop each year.
Your efforts will have more impact if
you direct them at reducing the amount of plastic you consume in the first
place, or at selecting products that come in containers that you are able to
introduce into the recycle stream. You can also purchase recycled products in
place of virgin products; if you choose to use recycled plastic lumber to build
a deck on your house, you will be sponsoring more recycling of plastic than you
could accomplish in a lifetime of using recycled plastic toothbrushes. Still,
it can be satisfying to make the symbolic gesture. The recycled toothbrushes
are sold at Target under the name "Preserve Toothbrush".
beginning birders field trip
Roland Craft
The February 3 field trip was an
interesting trip for the middle of
winter. We first went to Higgens Point but were disappointed in the number
of waterfowl due ice on the lake. We did see a Bald Eagle and
Golden-crown Kinglets. We moved to the NIC beach area and were amply
rewarded with numerous species: Canada Goose, Common Merganser, Bufflehead,
Mallard, Double-crested Cormorant, Ring-billed Gull, California Gull (1), Great
Blue Heron (4), Bald Eagle (4), and at least 100 American Coot. Participants
were Jonathan Brennecke, Jake Phillips, Dick Cripe, Roland Craft, Kris Buchler
and Lynn Sheridan.
BROWN BAG BIRDING
-
The February Brown Bag outing planned for
Blackwell Island was cancelled due to rain.
It is rescheduled
for Tuesday March 20th. See
Field Trips for details
Lynn
Sheridan leads our one hour Brown Bag
Birding Trips. They are scheduled every 3rd Tuesday of every month
September through May. They are designed
for anyone who wants to share their interest in nature with others. Bird watchers of all ages and levels of experience are welcome. Come join the fun, families are
welcome.
a night of owling
Roland Craft
A group of 9 birders
had a great field trip to look for owls north of Spokane on Saturday,
February 17th. Ron Dexter, who lives on the Forker Road north of Spokane,
agreed to guide our group to various sites where owls might be found. He
is an expert on owls and most likely on all birds. His "wish
list" included Barn Owl and
Short-eared Owl during daylight, and Barred
Owl, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl and Western Screech Owl during darkness.
While still light we
went to the Peone wetlands looking for Short-eared Owls but did not see
any. However, this tremendous wetlands produced thousands of Canada
Geese, Mallards, one Snow Goose and many other species of waterfowl. This would
make a great field trip all by itself.
We then stood outside
of a barn while Ron walked into the interior. All of a sudden, two Barn
Owls swooped out of the rafters at about 5 feet above our heads. Great
view.
After dark, we
traveled to Mt. Spokane State Park and tried calling in Pygmy and Saw-whet owls
but had no luck. Ron then took us to an area where he had boxes for
Western Screech Owls. Shining a flashlight, he spotted one nestled on a
branch and everybody got a good look. Jonathan took some very nice
pictures with his digital camera. During daylight we also spotted two
Red-tailed Hawks, one very dark Harlan.
Participants were Dick Cripe, Russ Hersrud, Roland Craft, Shirley and
Keith Sturts, Jan Severtson, Bill Gundlach, Gary and son Jonathan Brennecke.
From the
Journal of…
From the Journal of Robert Hanson of Medimont
(In his Backyard Bird Checklist)…
Robert noted that "the Steller's Jay has
added the Bald Eagle to his repertoire of imitations."
From the Journal of Lisa Hardy…
"On Saturday when I was with Earl Chapin and his family on the bike trail
near Enaville, I heard a long series of whistles, cackles, trills, etc. coming
from high up in a conifer. I finally decided it was a European Starling. Then I
heard a Steller's Jay rendition of the Red-tailed Hawk. So maybe it was a jay
up there - they do many imitations, some quite song-like. Or was it a Red-tail?
No, a Red-tail was too bulky to be concealed in that tree. I finally concluded
I was hearing a starling imitating the jay's imitation of a hawk. Phew! This
birding-by-ear is getting way too complicated! A short while later, I did
indeed see a starling in the immediate vicinity."
Steller's Jay - Photographed by Bill Linn
GREAT
BACKYARD BIRD COUNT RESULTS
Lisa Hardy
The 2007 Great Backyard Bird Count was a
great success with over 74,000 checklists submitted, a record number. As of
February 24, Idaho had reported 154 species, Montana 111, and Washington 208.
Though the count is over, checklists can be submitted until the end of the
month. Idaho had 28 species that were reported
only once on a single checklist, including Eurasian Wigeon, Sandhill
Crane and Blue Jay. Whether you submitted a checklist or not, it is fun to
cruise through the results. Go to http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ and click on
"Explore the Results".
I went to the State Tallies, and
selected Idaho. I had seen and reported Northern Pintail in
large numbers during the count weekend, and I was curious to see
how pintail sightings were
distributed around the state. On the
Idaho state list, I saw that a total of 788 Northern Pintail had been reported
from 15 checklists, and I clicked on the species name to see the
breakdown by location. I then
sorted the list by "Number of Birds":
|
TOWN
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NUMBER OF NORTHERN PINTAIL
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CHECKLISTS REPORTING NORTHERN PINTAIL
|
|
Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai County
|
400
|
2
|
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Medimont, Kootenai County
|
211
|
1
|
|
Harrison, Kootenai County
|
76
|
1
|
|
Murtaigh, Twin Falls County
|
30
|
1
|
|
Island Park, Fremont County
|
24
|
1
|
|
Shelley, Bingham County
|
22
|
1
|
|
Challis, Custer, County
|
8
|
3
|
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Parma, Canyon County
|
7
|
1
|
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Priest River, Bonner County
|
4
|
1
|
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Deer Flat NWR, Owyhee County
|
3
|
1
|
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Lewiston, Nez Perce County
|
2
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1
|
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Bruneau, Owyhee County
|
1
|
1
|
|
TOTAL
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788
|
15
|
I reported 300 pintail on a Coeur
d'Alene checklist, and 211 from the Schlepp ranch near Medimont, and had been
surprised at the large nmbers. The other Coeur d'Alene checklist was from Doug
Ward; he counted birds on Cougar Bay, and I had counted possibly different
birds (an astonishing 300) on a marsh at the start of Cougar Gulch Road. I
believe that when the numbers are "crunched", they will use just the
largest reported number from a zip code (i.e., the 300 pintails from 83814),
rather than their sum (400).
But
all these big numbers (say, greater than 50) were from North Idaho locations.
Interesting. The largest species counts statewide were for Mallard (11,434), American
Wigeon (3,351) and Common Goldeneye (2,032). Southern Idaho had the largest
numbers of these, so the disparately northern distribution of pintails in the
state is probably real, and not just an artifact of coverage. These birds may
be moving in from the coast, rather than up from the south. I remember we had
only a single Northern Pintail for "count week" for the Coeur d'Alene
CBC, and if I wanted to find out where the pintails were over Christmas, I
would go to the CBC database.
The reverse distribution was seen for
Lesser Scaup. A total of 1,201 individuals were reported, with the majority
from southern Idaho.
These relative distributions are exactly
the type of information the GBBC is attempting to 
capture.
Coming as it does between the CBCs and the Breeding Bird Surveys, the GBBC
yields a valuable snapshot of migration. Here in Idaho, that is the very
leading edge of migration. If you did not participate in the GBBC this year,
you may want to put it on your calendar for 2008.
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