The
Pine
Warbler
October
2008
Volume
XXXIV, Issue 2
President's
Letter
John Wright
I’d like to thank
everyone for coming out to the last meeting. It was good to see several
familiar and a few new faces. We will continue to challenge all the
members to invite their friends and people they meet to the
meetings. At every meeting an award will be given out to the
member who brings the most visitors with them, so go out and find some
new faces to welcome into our organization.
Membership really is our foundation. It allows us to share knowledge
about local wildlife and plants. It allows for more talent and
ideas to promote the goals of the chapter and the national
office. This past year we opted to start the membership drive at
the beginning of the meeting year as to make it an easier reminder for
all our members. Our chapter dues are $20 and go to help fund
this newsletter, our speakers’ travel, Bird Fest, and other
activities. If you become a member of National Audubon, the
chapter gets a fraction of the national dues, a fraction that decreases
each year. This change in policy makes it more important that we
ask you join the chapter, too, even if you are a national member.
All Chapter Membership funds remain here and we are planning projects
that impact our community.
The Executive Board is also looking into a fundraising project this
year to generate an extra resources for future projects, locally or
statewide, that the membership may want to support. So membership
is key to coming up with ideas, implementing the fundraiser, and
electing where to dedicate the funding. The Executive Board thinks it
is important to let the members know what policies have changed, what
our resources are, and what we as an organization can do to keep the
same quality that we have enjoyed over the years. So we simply
ask that you invite others to enjoy our organization with you and
encourage all to become a member of our chapter.
I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting…and to meeting your
guests.<>
Membership
Diane
Lafferty & Larry Morgan
Please look at your
mailing label on this issue of your newsletter. If you see a date
below the city, that is the date your membership is set to expire (No
date? Don’t worry, you’re paid up!). We want and need your
support in our organization! Don’t let it lapse! You can
join the National Audubon Society, the Pine Woods Chapter only, or
both, but please, please continue to lend us your support! And
encourage a friend or two to follow your lead and join, too!
We’ve got a great “thank you” gift for first-time chapter members, but
you’ll have to pick it up at a meeting! Thank you.
Mail to:
PWAS Treasurer, 544 W. 4th Street,
Hattiesburg, MS 39401
$20/year for Chapter-only
Membership
October
Field Trip: Fun & Excitement on the Island
Chuck Gramling
It’s that time again
-- time to sharpen our skills on identifying those confusing fall
warblers, little brown jobs, and other migrating birds that don’t look
like the pictures in the books. You will find some with us on
Dauphin Island the weekend of October 3-4-5. Maybe it is no
surprise that our fall list total is typically a little shorter than
our spring totals there; in fall, species of migrant birds tend to look
less distinct than in spring mating plumage. Some Houdini warblers even
transform into confusing little brown or yellow birds, quite different
from their breeding colors. Gosh, the colors of birds can be as
confusing as it can be helpful! Dauphin Island has been a key
place for migrant birds for thousands of years, so come explore it with
us, and learn your “confusing fall warblers.” We will all sharpen our
skills and find good food and company there. If you have never made
this trip, make it -- one night or three, come join us.
Relevant phone numbers include Gulf Breeze Motel (800-286-0296),
Dauphin House (251-861-2514), and Island Campgrounds
(251-861-3607/2742). Come join us in the hunt for these wonderful birds
of fall on Dauphin Island. Contact: Chuck Gramling, DIAL Trip
Coordinator (601-268-3859/clgramling@comcast.net)
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September
Field Notes
Ronnie Blackwell
The morning after Ike
crashed through the Galveston seawall, six intrepid Pine Woods Audubon
birders trekked to the Chickasawhay Unit of the DeSoto National Forest.
We explored our favorite sites in the Tiger Creek drainage on a warm,
but breezy day. The wind kept the mosquitos at bay and provided a
dramatic soundtrack as it whistled through the pines above us. The
longleaf is showing great strides in recovering from the mugging that
Katrina gave the Chick, and there was ample sign of new colonies of
Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. Fall wildflowers were in good form, and we
saw some really nice butterflies along the way. What could be better?
Well, a few birds would have been nice! Not only did
the RCWs refuse to show themselves we saw NO woodpeckers in the richest
woodpecker habitat I know. And the same was true for most of the other
birds. Our short—really short—list included Brown-headed Nuthatch, Pine
Warbler, Northern Cardinal, Northern Bobwhite, and Mississippi Kite.
Still a day in the Chick with the wind singing in the pines is never a
bad thing.
Bird
Quiz
Larry Smith
What swallow on the MS checklist nests in a
cavity?
What's
in YOUR Shopping Basket?
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Though a consumer may not be able to tell the difference, the imported
fruits & vegetables found in our shopping carts in winter &
early spring are grown with types & amounts of pesticides that
would often be illegal in the US. The victims of these pesticides
are North American songbirds.
Since the 1980s, pesticide use has increased fivefold in Latin America
as countries have expanded their production of crops to supply fresh
produce during winter in North America and Europe. Rice farmers in the
region use agricultural chemicals that are rated Class I toxins by the
World Health Organization, are highly toxic to birds, and are either
restricted or banned in the United States. In countries like Guatemala,
Honduras and Ecuador, researchers have found that farmers spray their
crops heavily and repeatedly with a chemical cocktail of dangerous
pesticides.
Migratory birds, modern-day canaries in the coal mine, reveal an
environmental problem hidden to consumers. Testing by the United States
Food and Drug Administration shows that fruits and vegetables imported
from Latin America are three times as likely to violate EPA standards
for pesticide residues as the same foods grown in the United States.
Some but not all pesticide residues can be removed by washing or
peeling produce, but tests by the Centers for Disease Control show that
most Americans carry traces of pesticides in their blood. American
consumers can discourage this poisoning by avoiding foods that are bad
for the environment, bad for farmers in Latin America and, in the worst
cases, bad for their own families.
What should you put on your bird-friendly grocery list? Organic coffee,
for one thing. Most mass-produced coffee is grown in open fields
heavily treated with fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and
insecticides. In contrast, traditional small coffee farmers grow their
beans under a canopy of tropical trees, which provide shade and
essential nitrogen and fertilize their soil naturally with leaf litter.
Their organic, fair-trade coffee is now available in many coffee shops
and supermarkets.
Organic bananas should also be on your list. Bananas are typically
grown with one of the highest pesticide loads of any tropical crop.
Although bananas present little risk of pesticide ingestion to the
consumer, the environment where they are grown is heavily contaminated.
Buy organic melons, green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers and
strawberries, taking care to ensure these foods are not imported from
Latin America. Buy local produce whenever possible to encourage local
growers, shorter travel to markets and fresher food. Buying local
means eating seasonally and keeping money in local economies and having
more control over the amount of chemicals you and your family ingest.
We take it for granted
that the birds’ cheerful songs will fill the air when our trees blossom
each spring, but each year, as we continue to demand out-of-season
fruits and vegetables, we ensure that fewer and fewer songbirds will
return. We are truly on the road to a “Silent Spring.”
--Bridget Stutchbury, a professor
of biology at York University in Toronto, is the author of
“Silence of the Songbirds.” This article is heavily abridged and
contains content added by the newsletter editor; it originally appeared
as an Opinion column in the New York Times on March 30, 2008, entitled
“Did Your Shopping List kill a Songbird?”
<>
October
Progam Preview
Chuck Gramling
Longleaf Pines are the backbone trees of our
natural ecosystems of the coastal plain south. Over the last
century or two, the natural longleaf woods have decreased to less than
five percent of its historical acreage in the south. Dr. Glenn
Hughes, MCES Extension Forestry Professor and PWAS member, will present
a program on Longleaf Pines and Cooperative work with landowners to
successfully establish and maintain these pines. Dr. Hughes
serves as an excellent resource via MCES to all who have trees and
varied forest types on their land. Dr. Hughes and others are
working successfully to bring back longleaf pines to our area.
Pine Woods Audubon welcomes all members and the public to attend these
free educational programs.
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Calendar
of Events
October 2, 2008 (Thursday): Pine Woods Audubon Society Board
Meeting,
6:15 p.m. in Hattiesburg Zoo Education Center. The
Public is invited to attend. Contact any
Board Member or officer for more information or
to add something to the Agenda.
October 2, 2008 (Thursday): Pine Woods Audubon Society
Chapter
Meeting, 7 p.m. in Hattiesburg Zoo Education Center.
PROGRAM: Longleaf Pines (Glen Hughes). Contact
Program Chair Chuck Gramling (601-606-3440) for information.
<>
October 3-4-5, 2008: Dauphin Island, AL Annual Fall Migration
Field Trip & Count. Contact
Birding Committee
Member Ronnie Blackwell (601-434-1143-Cell or 601-545-2437-Home) for
information.
October 7, 2008: Pine Woods Audubon Birding Committee
Meeting. 5:30 p.m. at Keg & Barrel Pub on hardy Street.
Contact Ronnie Blackwell (601-434-1143-Cell
or 601-545-2437-Home) for
information.
October 20, 2008 (Friday): Deadline for items for December Pine
Warbler to newsletter
editors by
email (lin.harper@usm.edu), by
phone
(601-545-2437), or by fax (Attn: Lin @ 601-266-6541).
It's
Time
for Audubon Adventures!
For More Information,
Contact Liz Wolfe or Sherry
Barton
(601-264-9545 or
601-584-6685)
2008-10
Officers:
President: John
Wright
(545-4576)
Vice-President:
Chuck
Gramling (268-3859)
Secretary: Grayson Rayborn (428-1228)
Treasurer: Lin Harper (545-2437)
Committees:
Newsletter: Lin Harper (545-2437)
Membership: Larry
Morgan
(268-3386)
Field Trips: Bird Committee
c/o R. Blackwell
(545-2437)
Education: Liz Wolfe (264-9545)
&
Sherry Barton (584-6685)
Hospitality: Emily
Nelson
(264-7030)
A Complete List of
Committees
and Chairs are listed in the Yearbook.