President’s Corner
Ed
Buchler
Because this is our last Newsletter until the fall, I
thought it would be appropriate to brief our members on the more important
activities and accomplishments of your Board of Directors since last September. I sincerely thank all of our board members –
and several other members - for their energy, ideas, achievements and
individual efforts. We are always
interested in considering members for service on the board. If you have the urge, please contact me to
talk about it.
- Derek
Antonelli and Valerie Zagar were unanimously approved as new board
members.
- The
recipient of the Susan Weller Memorial Fund Award of $500 will be decided
at our last board meeting on 12 May.
The decision was delayed so that we could gather more information
and consider more candidates.
- The
chapter wrote a proposal and won a grant for $600 from the National
Audubon Society’s Collaborative Funding to Idaho chapters. This was used to create and purchase
four informational signs, each addressing a specific species, to be
installed along Idaho Birding Trail sites in North Idaho. This was done with input and additional
funding from other stakeholders, primarily the WREN Foundation. Details relating to the signs have been
published in previous Newsletters.
- A
successful fundraiser was held during which Phyllis Stephens addressed the
public on making yards bird friendly.
- We
sent a letter to Idaho state congressmen endorsing an increase in hunting
and fishing license fees. A
significant amount of the funds is used to protect wetlands and wildlife
habitat.
- 138
classrooms in North Idaho agreed to participate in the “Audubon
Adventures” program and will receive the supplemental teaching
materials. As in previous years,
this was paid for entirely by the Margaret W. Reed Foundation. Scott Reed received a letter of
appreciation for his generous support.
- The
board approved renewal of our 2-year contract with the Idaho Dept. of
Transportation for continuing trash collection efforts along HW 95.
- Our Conservation
Committee members continue to keep a close watch on the Fernan Lake road
reconstruction project. The
primary concerns are lake and stream siltation.
- We
are making ourselves available to the local Boy Scouts of America troops
to assist them in completing their Bird Study merit badge.
- We
obtained 144 copies of the new book “Birds of the Inland Northwest and
Northern Rockies” for only shipping costs due to a minor printing
error. We have inserted CdA
Audubon Society donation bookplates and will be giving them to school
libraries and young people who attend Audubon meetings.
- The
chapter participated again in the Earth Day Fair at the Harding Family
center. The emphasis was on
informing the public about local birding sites.
- There
will be three local birding opportunities offered to the public during the
summer. They are particularly
directed at novice birders.
- We
are in excellent financial condition with approximately $3000 in checking
and $4500 in a CD.
- Our
membership stands at about 300. We
are always interested in gaining more!
On behalf of the board, we are also grateful to each of you
who helped in so many ways this past year including organizing and presenting
educational programs to many local groups, organizing and participating in the
Christmas Bird Counts, IBA monitoring, Mica Bay surveys, organizing and leading
our numerous field trips and conducting Breeding Bird Surveys.
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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 Great Blue
Heron sign is installed west of the docks at Fernan Lake.
The Great Blue Heron was Photographed Tom Michalaski
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HIGGENS POINT
Lynn Sheridan
On March 26th,
while I was walking on Higgens Point, I saw chickadees and nuthatches flying
back and forth to a flat stump. I watched awhile, then moved on and found
that someone had put a couple of handful of
sunflower seeds on the flat surface!
A little further along, another flat stump had sunflower seeds and cracked
corn, which a chipmunk was enjoying. Parks and Recreation manage the area, so I
called and spoke to Jim Richards, who's been charge since 1996. I asked
if they were putting out food for the critters? "No", he said.
I wonder who it is? I
complimented Jim on how clean the trails were, and he said all the users have
been very tidy over the years. Good job, nature lovers!
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TUNDRA
SWAN FESTIVAL
Field Trip Report March 21, 2009
Roland Craft
Our visit to the Tundra Swan Festival on March 21, in the area around Usk, Washington, had some
interesting developments. The previous week had thousands of swans on the Pend d'Oreille River but before we
arrived most had flown somewhere else, perhaps to the Coeur d'Alene River
drainage. However, enough remained that we had good sightings of many swans along
with other waterfowl.The Festival was hosted by the Kalispel Tribe of Indians
and the Pend d' Oreille River Tourism Alliance. We boarded buses and the
drivers took us to many places along the river to spot swans. Approaching noon,
we were driven back to the tribe's
Wellness Center for a free lunch. After lunch, presentations were given on wildlife and habitat protection and
restoration, birding in the area, and an excellent talk about Trumpeter Swans
by Martha Jordan with the Trumpeter Swan Society.
For a little history of the tribe, I'm quoting some
passages from the tribe's magazine. "The Pend d'Oreille or Kalispel people
occupied homelands that extended west from the south Flathead Lake/Clark
Fork area, down the Pend d'Oreille
River into Washington and southern British Columbia, to the Columbia River,
encompassing more than 3.5 million acres. There is no agreement on the
tribe's original name. The tribe's first contact with white men likely
was with explorers and fur traders from the Hudson Bay Company and it was not
much longer than this that white men started occupying portions of the Pend
d'Oreille/Kalispel aboriginal lands. As reservations were in the most part
forced on native Americans in the west,
the Kalispel Indians refused to give up its ancestral lands, but a reservation
was established by an executive order of President Woodrow Wilson in March
1914. This was a narrow, 4,600-acre parcel of mountainside and flood
plain along the Pend
d'Oreille River. In 1951, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians filed a petition
with the Indian Claims Commission, alleging that the United States took lands
belonging to the tribe without paying compensation. In 1958, the commission determined that the
tribe was entitled to recover fair market value for 2,373,000 acres, and in
1963 the tribe was awarded $3 million. This money was used for various
projects to help the Indian economy. In 1996, the federal government
proclaimed that 40 acres of trust land in Airway Heights, WA. be added to he
Kalispel Indian Reservation, which resulted in the building of the Northern
Quest Casino." Now the tribe is taking back some of the white man's
money!!!
After the indoor presentations, we decided to bird along the south side of the
Pend d'Oreille River, where we saw many Tundra Swan, Bald Eagle, Wild Turkey,
Belted Kingfisher, Killdeer, many
swallows and all sorts of waterfowl. I believe we all had an enjoyable
time.
Present on the field trip were Janet Callen, Jackie Beery,
Ed Buchler, Bill Gundlach, Jan and Herb
Severtson, Valerie Zagar, Roland Craft, and Ronn and Roberta Rich.
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Beginning
Birding Workshop "Awaken Your Senses"
Location:
Meadowood Lodge Bed & Breakfast in McCall, Idaho
Date:
June 12, Fri. at 5pm – June 14, Sun. at 2pm.
Cost:
$150-195 per person(Need-based
sliding scale) Includes:
2 nights lodging, 2 to-go breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 eve. programs, 2 all-morning
field trips.
Instructor:
Ashley Martens, M.S. Environmental Science
For
more information or to register, contact www.meadowoodlodge.com or ashmartens@yahoo.com or call, Ashley at
208-883-4998
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FEEDER AND NEST BOX
SPRING
CLEANING
Kris
Buchler
If you haven’t noticed, feeder activity has picked up and
many birds are picking out their nest boxes by now. Here are a few tips for preparing your feeders and bird boxes for
the spring and summer seasons.
Feeders: This is a good time to clean and disinfect your
feeders. Wash them well, removing any
seed debris. Soak in a solution of 1
part bleach to 9 parts water. This will
kill bacteria, mold spores and many of the diseases transmitted to feeding
birds. Also, space your feeders to
prevent crowding and stress.
A variety of feeder types and foods will appeal to a
greater variety of species using them.
For you who have European Starlings, try only small tube feeders with
short perches or feeders enclosed with a metal cage that will not allow
starling-sized birds to reach the seed.
If you feed suet, only offer small amounts in summer months and change
often.
Hummingbird feeders
should be filled with a solution of 1 part sugar (no artificial sweeteners or
honey) to 4 parts water. Boil the water
and add sugar. Refrigerate unused
portions. It is best to hang feeders in
shade and out of direct sun. Wash
feeders and change to fresh sugar water when the solution turns cloudy.
Nest boxes: Boxes should have been cleaned in the fall but
March is the target date for having them ready for new occupants. Many swallows
have already chosen their homes and chickadees are scrutinizing every
opening. Removing old nest material
lessens the chance of parasites over-wintering and the birds have a better
chance of surviving predators when the nest is built on a clean floor far from
the nest box hole. If squirrels have
enlarged the holes, a predator guard should be placed over the opening. These can be wood or metal ones are available
at our local bird store.
If
you have boxes that have been ignored, try a new location and change the
direction the opening faces. It is best
to have it facing away from the prevailing winds. Some birds prefer aged or natural materials over cutsie, bright-colored
houses. Also, sometimes it takes 1-2
years for the birds to decide to use a house.
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GREAT
BACKYARD BIRD
COUNT RESULTS
email
from: Janis Dickinson, Director of Citizen Science, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
and Rob Fergus, Senior Scientist, National Audubon Society
Thanks to you, 2009 was another record
year for the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)! Birders from across the United
States and Canada submitted more than 93,629 checklists during the
four-day event, a 9 percent increase in checklist submissions since last year.
Participants counted a record 11,550,200 individual birds representing 619
species and submitted thousands of photos of common and rare birds.
Data Highlights: New species show up each year during
the GBBC. This year we were excited by reports of the Sinaloa Wren, spotted
north of the Mexican border for the first time. Xantus’s Murrelet and
Pink-footed Shearwater were two new oceanic species spotted from California
this year. Black-billed Cuckoo, Blackpoll Warbler, and Baird’s Sandpiper also
made their GBBC debuts in 2009. For a more detailed summary of this
year’s results and to view the year’s 10 most-reported species, visit the GBBC
web site at www.birdcount.org. You can explore maps and photos and browse lists of
participants who won GBBC prizes.
GBBC
Photo Contest: Judging for the GBBC photo contest will take place in the months
ahead, and the winners will be announced in the fall. Although we always
receive many more photos than we can display in our gallery, we are thrilled
that so many of you shared your photos with us. Visit the photo gallery http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/gallery/2009-photo-gallery to see the 400+ photos that are posted.
These photos are a spectacular glimpse at birds across the continent during the
weekend of the count. Thanks to all of you who gave us a peek through your
camera lenses!
Staying
Involved - Introducing My Yard eBird!: Audubon and the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology are pleased to announce the launch of My Yard eBird, a new online
tool that allows you to keep track of the birds around your home all year
round. Visit http://ebird.org/content/myyard to find out more information. By
reporting the birds you see each day, week, or whenever you’d like, you can
help us track bird populations throughout the year. It's fun, free, and good
for the birds! Now that spring has officially arrived, consider getting
involved in the NestWatch project from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Participants monitor nests and nest
boxes to let scientists know when eggs are laid, when they hatch, and how many
chicks fledge. It’s an important way to measure the impact of climate change
and other factors on breeding birds.
To check it out, visit www.NestWatch.org
We'd like to thank Wild Birds Unlimited
for helping to sponsor the 2009 GBBC.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for
the next year's event: the 2010 Great Backyard Bird Count, February
12 – 15, 2010!
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