Summer
Heat, Butterfly Fun
Chuck Gramling
Summer 2007 was a great summer for the butterfly bunch in our
group. In the summer it seems too hot to go count birds, but the
butterflies are too lovely to be ignored. We went to the Honey
Island Swamp and the Hattiesburg area in June, then in July up to the
Delta National Forest just up from Vicksburg. Amazing what folks
will endure the heat to see this beauty!
I really can’t report the science – but it is always fun. This
year as I watched the weather, I just knew it was going to be a “high
count year.” Well, it was low: only about 11,000 butterflies seen
that day. My brother says if we see less than 1,000 Indigo
Buntings in April inside the MS River Levee in a couple of hours time,
we just say we did not see any; same with only 11,000 butterflies in a
day on the Delta NF for those of us who have seen the huge amounts in a
day there. Still, it is a special thing to see all these
butterflies. They fly up to you and land on your sweaty clothing
as soon as soon you get out of the car.
Well, for my part, this low count 11,000 butterfly day was not so bad,
because almost every time we stopped, we saw butterflies of several
varieties. My favorite butterfly is the Checkered Skipper, a little guy
with a wing pattern that would outclass a painted bunting with details
and all that beauty. And such folks attended the
event: folks from Jackson, New Orleans, Rolling Fork, Greenville,
Indianola, and here in Hattiesburg traveled to see that special
place. Linda Auld from New Orleans and her buddies seem to be the
experts for sure; they know the butterflies, host plants, male and
females, larvae, and egg stages of all of them, not to mention the same
of most all insects out there.
The Delta NF is so special with the unique older forest, never
clear-cut, and the trees seem to speak out loud to you. And, if
you get tired of examining one type of winged beauty, there are the
constant indigo buntings, MS Kites and other birds that get your
attention. I went up a day early, and almost called our group to say,
don’t come, we don’t have enough this year. Looking back, it was
great. What beats a bologna sandwich on a hot summer day by the
dirty water of the Little Sunflower river, learning a few more things
from the group, and seeing all the butterflies? It reminds of what the
world must have been like centuries ago.
My second favorite trip was the Honey Island Wild Life Refuge just
across the LA state line off I-59. It was a neat area with birds
and butterflies, and easy roads to ride though we hiked ATV trails most
of the time on the butterfly count. We got a great view of a
Swallow Tailed Kite that flew within about low to the ground about 150
feet from us. We saw MS Kites there as well, and I got my best up
close view of this bird ever.
Well, summer time is butterfly-counting time -- hot fun in the summer
time. There are counts going on somewhere every other weekend
close by. I’d recommend these trips to anyone for
sure. I just like to see a butterfly, get a good look at
him, and remember what he looked like.
Fall (September & October) is a great time for butterflies, too!
Look around!
Bird Quiz
Larry Smith
I am going to buy a Duck Stamp today!
In case it has escaped your notice, birders are encouraged to buy the
stamp, most recently by Gene Knight on MOS listserve and Kenn Kaufmann
in the Jan./Feb. 2005 issue of Bird Watcher’s Digest. The case for our
participation is made abundantly clear in Paul Baicich’s article The
Stamp Debt in the Jul./Aug. 2007 issue of BWD. He recounts explaining
to fellow birders at the Santa Ana NWR in Texas that 95% of the refuge
had been purchased by funds from the Duck Stamp (more properly known as
the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp).
Further points made by Baicich:
• In the 75 years since its creation, the stamp has
raised nearly $700 million for the acquisition of more than 5 million
acres of wetland and grassland habitat.
• It’s not just for ducks! Many other waterbirds,
songbirds, and raptors benefit from habitat conserved by stamp proceeds.
• Numbers of waterfowl hunters have actually dropped
in recent years, and sales of the Duck Stamp have dropped below the
1980-81 peak of 2 million. Birders need to take up the slack and help
fund conservation efforts that we benefit from.
• Keep in mind that the $15 you plunk down for a Duck
Stamp will serve as a “pass” at any
National Wildlife Refuge that charges for entry.
The new stamp became available on July 1 and can be bought at the U.S.
Post Office. Get yours today!!!
All of this brings up the September 2007 Bird Quiz!
What waterfowl is likely to be the
earliest fall migrant in our area?
September Field
Trip: Camp Shelby & More!
Chuck Gramling
Have you ever been to the Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby?
Come join us on Saturday September 8th to see this special place of our
USA history in our own backyard! This will be a great trip to
bring kids and grandkids on just to see this special museum about the
freedom we have in the USA. The Museum has interpretive exhibits
covering the military from The War of 1812 through right now. We
will get a special introduction to the Museum when we arrive at 10:00
AM by the staff. The museum is a self-guided tour that takes
about 2 hours to complete. We will go over and eat lunch at the
Louisiana Sisters restaurant at the south gate of Camp Shelby. If
you have never been there, Louisiana Sisters offers authentic real New
Orleans food at very reasonable prices and a unique setting.
After lunch, if there are birdwatchers present, the bird folks in the
group can set the agenda. We can do road riding in the De Soto NF
and/or Paul B. Johnson State Park to check out birds and earlier
migrant species. So just make it a great easy trip as your
time permits (one hour or all day), and bring your family and friends
for the museum. September is typically a hot month, so this trip
is air-conditioned and the Museum admission is free.
We will depart from the Roses Parking lot (Hattiesburg, Hardy Street,
University Mall, just east of I-59) at 9:30 AM, or you can meet us at
the Museum at Camp Shelby’s South Gate on Hwy 49 south of Hattiesburg a
little before 10 AM. The museum is inside the secured gate
into the Camp Shelby facility with vehicle checks. Anyway, I need
to remind everyone not to have guns, knives, or things that could be
used as weapons in your vehicle that day (same as airport entry, use
common sense, remove any shovels, hatchets, etc, from your vehicle
prior to the trip). With that said, come join our bunch,
new-comers welcomed very much!! It’ll be fun, and everyone can
set their own time limits on this special and easy field trip!
Got questions, call or email me: 601-268-3859 /
clgramling@comcast.net
Book
Review: Songbird Journeys
Ronnie Blackwell
Author: Miyoko Chu
ISBN: 0802714684
Hardcover, 224pp
Pub. Date: March 2006
Publisher: Walker & Company
This book is a must read for all Dauphin Island junkies. How many times
have you wondered why the birds always seem to arrive and leave the day
before you do? Chu does a great job of synthesizing more than thirty
years of research on neo-tropical migrant songbirds, and she does it in
a way that even us birders can understand. You’ll recognize many of the
names she writes about including Sidney Gauthreau, Bob Sargent, and
Frank Moore. You’ll find out where the birds that winter with us come
from, where our summer birds go, and who they hang out with when they
get there. You’ll be amazed at the feats of endurance that these scraps
of feather perform just to survive and the lengths that the scientists
go to may be even more astonishing. It’s a great read. The Hattiesburg
Library has a copy.
Oh, I guess I lied. The book really doesn’t tell you why the birds
always get to the island a day earlier than you. For the answer to that
question you’ll have to ask one of those guys who always greets you
with, “You should have been here yesterday!”
Fall
Migration Count Up for Discussion
Larry Smith
Should we have a fall migration
count? As you may recall, this all started as an offshoot of
International Migratory Bird Day, which traditionally celebrates spring
migration. Someone along the way decided we should do the same for fall
migration, to be counted on the third Saturday in September. As far as
I know, there is no longer a state program to do either the spring or
fall counts, and I no longer receive forms for submitting data. If you
look up IMBD website, you can find a printable form for listing counts,
and the address for submitting data at ebird.org/IMBD. Of course there
is no reason you cannot do the same for fall, but this is not mentioned
on the website.The
spring count on the second Saturday in May is the big deal. A lot of
activities and festivals have been created to celebrate the occasion.
Probably the best known is the World Series of Birding held in New
Jersey. This is a 24 hour count, with rules essentially the same as a
Big Day. Counts may be individual or team, and may cover the entire
state or any local area.
Why don’t we concentrate on the spring IMBD? We could have a World
Series of Birding Forest County. Or we could do a Big Day Sit – count
at one location, like the Hattiesburg Sewage Lagoons. We could even
invite teams from outside, like The Sapsuckers, the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology team that won the 2007 New Jersey event with a record 230
species (entire state of NJ). I am sure they would just as soon count
here as in New Jersey.
This is a fund raiser for NJ Audubon, by the way, and it brings in
about half a million $ per year for bird conservation in NJ. So what if
we only record 83 species and bring in a lousy $5000? Every little bit
helps.
Of course, regardless of what we do in the spring, we can still do
whatever we want in the fall. I would suggest a toned-down activity,
like Group Count at Hattiesburg Lagoon. Think about it, and we can
discuss it at the September meeting.
Chapter
Calendar of Events
September 6, 2007 (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.
September
6, 2007
(Thursday): Pine Woods Audubon Society Chapter Meeting, 7
p.m. in Hattiesburg Zoo Education Center.
PROGRAM:
"Conserving Mississippi Wildlife" presented by MS Dept. of
Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks (unconfirmed & subject to change).
Contact Program Chair Josh
Hodge (601-606-3440) for information.
September 8, 2007 (Saturday): FIELD
TRIP: Camp Shelby.
Contact Field Trip Coordinator Chuck Gramling (601-408-0499)
for information.
September 11, 2007 (Tuesday):
Pine Woods Audubon Society Birding Committee
Meeting, 5:30 p.m. at the Keg & Barrel Restaurant.
Contact
Ron Blackwell (601-543-0091) for information.
September 12, 2007 (Wednesday):
Deadline for items for October Pine Warbler to newsletter editors by
email (lin.harper@usm.edu) or by phone (601-545-2437).