The Pine Warbler

December 2006 (Online Text Version)

President’s Message

John Wright, President

This the season of Thanks and Giving and with that in mind, we continue the year doing just that. The Gulf Coast chapter along with Mark LaSalle and representatives from our chapter spent Saturday, Nov. 18th, handing out new trees. We were able to distribute about 1,500 tree saplings to the area residents.

The tree distribution allows the replanting of the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. We gave out native hardwoods to thankful people. It was important to stress that many of the trees planted today were really a gift to the future. Seeing parents and grandparents using the opportunity to share replenishing of natural resources with their children and grandchildren gave hope that the coast and nature will recover.

This simple act of planting one tree to make a difference in the future will continue as many of the trees were going to be planted one at a time and by many people. Our efforts for conservation start just that way, too: we plant one effort at a time and wait to see the benefits in the future.

During this season let us remember to give thanks for those before us who have taken the single steps for conservation. Their efforts encourage us to make just one more effort to make the future better for those who will thank us.

Wishing you all the best for the holidays. See you at the December meeting.

November Program Highlights

Josh Hodge, Vice-President & Program Chair

For those of you who didn’t make it to our November meeting, Jeff Long, Forest Planner for the National Forest of Mississippi, gave a presentation on the current forest plan revisions underway in Mississippi. The main objective of the new plan is to describe the “Desired Future Conditions” for the National Forests. The public is encouraged to make suggestions. After a draft of the new plan is completed, there will be a 90 day comment period.

Christmas Bird Count 2006

Larry Smith, Bird Count Coordinator

The Hattiesburg Christmas Bird Count will be Saturday, December 30, 2006. For those new at this, the game is for organized parties to search for any and all traces of birds in a circle 15 miles in diameter having its center near the new PCS High School on Tatum Road. Count any time in a 24 hour period beginning at 12:001 a.m. on December 30, and report numbers of individual birds as well as species. Field parties will search pre-arranged areas covering as much of the count circle as possible. We will meet at Shoney’s at 11:33 a.m. for lunch and preliminary compilation. Then we will scatter out to find missing species. Yard and feeder counts are encouraged. Any bird that can be reliably identified by sight or sound within the circle can be counted. Any unusual or not previously reported species identified during the period December 27 through January 2 but not on count day should be reported, and will be listed separately as “count week” birds. The compilation party will be at Linda and Larry’s house at 3207 Arlington Loop beginning at 6:30 p.m.

We need all the help we can get. The more folks we have, the greater the area we can cover. Sign up with a team at the December 7 meeting or at the Birdy Committee meeting the following Tuesday. If all else fails, call Larry Smith at 601-264-8364.

It has not escaped the notice of the rest of the country that the year 2005 was historic in terms of weather: 27 named storms, Alpha through Zeta for the first time in history, including five that reached Category V level. The destruction of both human and natural habitats was catastrophic. Such storms always create anomalies – birds out-of-range and/or out-of-season. Pelagic birds were seen all the way up to Tennessee. An astounding number of Gray Catbirds were counted in eastern CBCs.

The Christmas Bird Count is held in the U.S. (most), Canada, and the Caribbean. Overall, the 106^th was again a record in terms of numbers of counts (2060) and participants (57,156). There were 43 new counts, plus the resurrection of the Corinth, MS count, which had not been held since 1932. Overall, cumulative and individual species tallies were good in spite of the weather: 61,679,355 birds on all counts. In the U.S. 652 accepted species were tallied, including two never counted before: Baikal Teal (CA) and Redwing (RI).

As a little sidebar, there were two counts, one in Alaska and one in Canada, where no birds were counted at all! Low or zero counts are still valuable, of course, and are entered into the database. Among other notables, a large movement of Snowy Owls was recorded, and an anticipated “winter finch” irruption did not happen.

You may have noticed that the irruptive cycle of Pine Siskins has changed over the past few years. In 2006 a strong southward movement occurred in the East, but not in the West. (There was similar east-west divide with Snow Buntings and Common Redpolls.) Interestingly, Hattiesburg produced the only record of Pine Siskin (1) on count day.

Book Review

Pete Dunne’s Essential Field Guide Companion

Ronnie Blackwell, Co-editor PW

Beautifully bound and printed, this new bible of the growing GISS (General Impression of Size & Shape) bird-ing movement has both heft and scope of a holy tome. Also known as gestalt birding, holistic birding, and the Cape May School of birding, GISS refers to the fact that the act identifying birds is more than simply running through a checklist of fieldmarks. When we meet an old friend on the street we don’t need to recite a list of features to recognize him; we immediately know that he’s Joe. When the season’s first redstart flutters high in the pecans we don’t run for the field guide. We know this old friend, too. Dunne’s book is an important step toward enlarging our circle of friends in the bird world.

The title is accurate: This not a field guide, but a comprehensive GISS field study of very nearly every North American bird species. Each entry starts with three names, a scientific name, the currently accepted common name and a descriptive name created by Dunne. These names range from the pedestrian, Tiny Backyard Woodpecker for Downy Woodpecker, to the poetic, Twig Fairy for Blue-gray Gnatcatcher; but I always find them entertaining and helpful. These names are followed by several other sections; a description of species status, range, an interesting section called cohabitants which describes what birds this species might hang out with, behavior, description of flight, vocalizations, and sometimes a catch-all section called pertinent particulars.

The GISS has been called “lazy” birding by some and “just wrong” by others, but it doesn’t take long with this book to realize Dunne is neither lazy nor wrong. Every entry is packed with painstaking details about how a bird sits, how often it may call, how nimble or lazy it may seem while foraging. Here are few warbler snippets:

• To sort fall immature Magnolia Warblers from Prairie Warblers “…take the shortcut: Prairie Warbler habitually wags its tail; Magnolia does not. (p. 538). The Pine Warbler, “A confusing fall warbler (even in the spring). …Plumage is roughed out and shabby–a watercolor field sketch that the artist never returned to (p. 551).
• About immature female Cape May Warblers, which Dunne calls the Tiger of the Treetops –“however drab, the birds always look neat, crisp, and well groomed. By comparison, the immature Yellow-rumped Warbler has an end-of-the-workday look” (p. 539).

In 1988 when Dunne co-authored the first GISS-style book, Hawks in Flight with Clay Sutton and a kid named David Sibley, Roger Tory Peterson called it a landmark, the beginning of a revolution in bird identification. Viva la revolución!

2006, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 710 pages.

Bird Quiz

Larry Smith, Quiz-Master

The answer to November’s bird quiz: A "Bull bat" is a colloquial name for Common Nighthawk; a "Yellow Hammer" is a Yellow-shafted Flicker, and a "Rain Crow" is a cuckoo, probably Yellow-billed.

The winner was: Tom Price. While we forgot to give the audience the bird quiz, Tom correctly named the birds in a “secret closed session” in the kitchen prior to the meeting.

December Quiz
There are 38 ducks, swans, and geese (family Anatidae), including rarities and accidentals, on the 2004 MS checklist. For the BIG PRIZE, name just FOUR of the eight species from this group with documented nesting records in the state of Mississippi. You get extra points if you can name the one nester that has been added since the 2001checklist.

Editor’s Note: On counting our blessings….

What a privilege it has been so far to be able to contribute to the chapter by editing this newsletter! We appreciate your support of us through your submission of articles and news items, and we continue to reap the blessings of our previous newsletter leadership (Larry Smith) through his support, continued writing, and physical help & assistance. Thank you all. Lin & Ron

December Program Announcement

Josh Hodge, Vice-President & Program Chair

Melanie Driscoll, IBA Coordinator for Louisiana, will give a presentation at the December meeting on Louisiana’s IBA Program. The IBA Program identifies the most essential areas for birds in the state, monitors those sites for changes to birds and habitat, and conserves these areas for long-term protection of biodiversity. Our neighbor to the west is very rich in avian diversity and encompasses four Bird Conservation Regions designated by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. Also, Driscoll is one of the searchers that have sighted the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Arkansas. She can tell us about her experience participating in the search and sighting that magnificent bird.

The meeting will be in the Hattiesburg Zoo Education Center at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, December 7, 2006.

The BIG YEAR

Larry Morgan, Membership Chair

I hope everyone is participating in the Pine Woods’ Big Year birding event. Of course, the Biggest Year to record was 1998, a still-standing 745 species. Just think, one of our Pine Woodies could possibly do that well. We've got people going to Florida, Alaska, Oregon, Texas, in search of our elusive fine-feathered friends. I've even heard one member is close to finding the shadowy figure of the resurrected Ivory-billed woodpecker. But we Pine Woods birders don't need much of an excuse to search far and wide to find new birds or new restaurants. Birding sure makes a person hungry!

Just a reminder -- there are no rules to the Big Year: any bird, anywhere, anytime. And we’ll do our tallies at the January meeting. Oops, I gotta go. I thought I heard the nasal honk of a Red-Breasted Nuthatch outside.

Pine Woods Audubon Calendar of Events

December 7: PWAS Board Meeting, 6:15 p.m., Hattiesburg Zoo Education Center.

All are welcome to attend.

December 7: PWAS Chapter Meeting & Program, 7:00 p.m.

Melanie Driscoll will report on IBAs in Louisiana.

December 30: Field Trip -- Christmas Bird Count.

Contact Larry Smith for more information.