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March 2018 Volume 23(7)
Mecklenburg Audubon Society | P. O. Box 221093, Charlotte, NC 28222 | meckbirds.org
Audubon NewsWhat’s Inside?
Coming Events
Hummingbirds 1
Field Trips 2-3
Native Plant Sale 3
Audubon Photo Exhibit 3
Lights Out 4
Earth Hour 4
Natives vs. Nativars 5
Indian Pink 6
Hummingbird Facts 7
Birds aren’t the only ones 8
Meet the Board 9
New T-shirts 9
Birds of the Central Carolinas 9
2/24 McDowell NP
3/1 Monthly Meeting
3/3 Ribbon Walk NP
3/11 McAlpine Grnwy.
3/13 Clark’s Creek NP
3/21 McAlpine Floodplain
3/24 Beginner Bird Walk
3/27 Four-Mile Creek Grnwy.
3/31 Ocean Isle, NC
3/31 Six-mile Creek Grnwy.
4/5 Monthly Meeting
4/7 Congaree NP
4/13 Photo Exhibit Gala
Who’s New?
Carole Outwater
Tim & Robyn Turton
Mark & Debbie Whitehead
Few creatures capture our attention and admiration more than hummingbirds. These minia-ture jeweled treasures move at mind-boggling speeds but also have the power to shape and change our world. Join Patrick Mc-Millian as he explores the lives and biology of these creatures using high-tech technologies to uncover the secret lives of these little birds that live life in fast-forward.
Patrick McMillian is the current di-rector of the SC Botanical Garden (SCBG) which has a massive public education and outreach impact locally and state-wide. He also di-rects the Certificate in Native Plant Studies program at the SCBG
Patrick is also the Hilliard profes-sor of environmental sustainability, producer, host, writer, director and co-editor of the Emmy award-win-ning television program “Expedi-tions with Patrick McMillan” aired on PBS affiliates across the nation. He has worked as a professional naturalist/biologist throughout the southeastern United States and the Neotropics for the past 22 years. His work experience has primarily involved Botany but has also in-cluded work in the fields of Ichthy-ology, Herpetology, Ornithology, and Mammalogy.
Patrick is a much sought-after speaker. This is best seen by the multitude (over 400 since 2008) of invited presentations that he does annually. Society. In January of 2009, he was selected as the first Clemson University faculty member to deliver the prestigious Calhoun Lecture, which drew an atten-dance of over 700, making it the most attended lecture in the series history.
So zip on over to the Tyvola Senior Center (2225 Tyvola Rd.) on Thursday, March 1st. The program will start at 7:15 PM but coffee and refreshments will be available starting at 6:30 PM. We will also be selling native plants during this time (See page ) for more information.
Hummingbirds: Life in Fast Forward
Thursday, March 1st • 7:15 PM
Patrick McMillan
Field Trips
Physical Difficulty Key
Easy - Trails are level to slight grades usually paved; .5-3 miles walking
Moderate - Trails can be un-even with some hills; 2-4 miles walking.
Strenuous - Trails vary greatly; 4+ miles of walking.* Trails are handicapped accessible.
Saturday, February 24th: McDowell NP/Copperhead Island1/2 Day • Moderate • Contact: Ron Clark [[email protected]]
We will be looking for winter migrants including waterfowl at Copper-head Island. Brief directions: Turn right on Shopton Road off Hwy 49. In 0.7 miles, turn left on Four Horse Road. Follow it about 3/4 mile to the green gate on the right. We will meet at 8:30 AM.
Saturday, March 3rd: Ribbon Walk Nature Preserve1/2 Day • Moderate • Contact: Ron Clark [[email protected]] • MAP
We will be looking for early spring migrants. This area is mostly wooded, and includes three ponds and a large field. We’ll cover about 1 1/2 miles. Meet at 8:30 AM in the parking lot on Hoyt Hinson Rd.
Sunday, March 11th: McAlpine Creek Grnwy. (Monroe Rd.)1/2 Day • Easy • Contact: Judy Walker [[email protected]] • MAP
We haven’t birded this area for a while. With its varied habitat - ponds, fields, & woods, it can often hold some surprises. We’ll meet in the park-ing lot off Monroe Rd. at 8:30 AM.
Tuesday, March 13th: Clark’s Creek Nature Preserve1/2 Day • Moderate • Contact: Judy Walker [[email protected]] • MAP
This preserve in northeast part of the county, has a little bit of every-thing. Nice open fields should have lots of sparrows and the wooded areas along the creek could hold a few surprises. Meet in the parking lot on Hucks Rd. at 8:30 AM.
Wednesday, March 21st: McAlpine Creek Floodplain1/2 Day • Moderate • Contact: Matt Janson [[email protected]]
Meet in the McAlpine Creek Greenway parking lot at Sardis Rd. and Old Bell Rd. at 8:30 AM. We will head west through field and woodland habitat alongside McAlpine Creek. We’ll hope for sparrows and early migrants such as gnatcatchers and parulas along the undeveloped trail. Conditions may be muddy depending on rainfall.
Saturday, March 24th: Beginner Bird Walk1/2 Day • Moderate • Contact: Marcia Howden [[email protected]] • MAP
Latta Plantation is a great place to begin learning about birds and birding. Although folks of all levels are welcome, we will concentrate on helping folk new to birding learn ther basics of using binoculars, spotting a bird, and identification. This will be a two-mile walk on dirt and gravel roads. We’ll have power line right-of-way, woods and prairie/field. Fall migration could produce a variety of migrants. We’ll start at 8:30 AM in the parking lot to the right just inside the gate of Latta Nature Preserve.
Tuesday, March 27th: Four-mile Creek Greenway1/2 Day • Easy • Contact: Judy Walker [[email protected]] • MAP
Hopefully we will find early migrant treats on this greenway, which has a variety of habitats that always provide good birds regardless of season. Meet at the Johnson Rd. parking lot at 8:30 AM.
Audubon News Page 2
All Mecklenburg Audubon Field Trips are free and open to the public. Directions for all trips can be found on the Mecklenburg Audubon website - meckbirds.org/trips/trips.html. Please remember to contact the trip leaders several days before the trip. If you don’t, you may not receive information about last minute changes or cancellations. Also, if they don’t know you are coming, they might leave without you!!
Eastern Bluebird © Brad Kuntz
Brown Thrasher ©Jim Guyton
Audubon News Page 3
Saturday, March 31st: Six-mile Creek Greenway1/2 Day • Easy • Contact: Ron Clark [[email protected]]• MAP
This greenway may be short (1 mile in length), but it has produced some interesting birds over the years. It has some interesting habitat that attracts migrating birds. We will also take a look at the large wet-land across Marvin Rd. Meet in the parking lot at 8:30 AM.
Saturday, March 31st: Ocean Isle, NC AreaFull Day • Moderate • Contact: Taylor Piephoff [[email protected]] • MAP
For those who would like to get away for this long week, Taylor is offer-ing to show us the great birding around Ocean Isle and Sunset, NC. Migrants should be moving through so he will be targeting waterfowl, shorebirds and marsh sparrows. Meet him at the Ferry Landing Park on the east end of Ocean Island Beach at 8 AM. Since this is Easter week-end you should probably make reservations ASAP. Please let Taylor know by March 26th if you plan to participate.
Saturday, April 7th: Congaree National Park (Columbia, SC)Full Day • Moderate • Contact: Ron Clark [[email protected]] • Map
Did you know we have a great National Park only 100 miles to our south? If you didn’t, then you are in for a treat. Congaree National Park preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the United States and is located just outside of Columbia, SC. We will be primarily looking for warblers such as the Hooded and Protho-notary who breed in the park. But there should be a good number of others migrating through.
We will meet at 6:30 AM in the Food Lion parking in Ft. Mill, SC (1046 Regent Pkwy., Fort Mill, SC 29715). Bring snacks, water, and lunch. It can get buggy so bring spray as well. The trail is an elevated boardwalk through the swamp. We will be walking about 3 miles.
National Audubon Photography at ImaginOn
If you have ever oohed and aa-hed over any of the photographs in the Audubon magazine or other bird related publications, here is an opportunity for you to see them up-close-and-personal. The 2017 National Audubon Photography Award winners are coming to Char-lotte. The will be showcased at ImaginOn in Uptown Charlotte April 13th through May 1st. There will be an opening reception on Friday, April 13th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Look for complete details in the April newsletter and the Meckbirds discussion list. (Note: You can make it a family night-out affair, since the musical Madagascar will be play-ing that night in the building at 7:30 PM.)
For more information about the award and how to enter the 2018 contest go to https://goo.gl/fhsxfq
Field Trips
Native PlaNt Sale
To support this month’s YOB we will be hosting a Native Plant sale at the March meeting prior during refreshments. The plants are being supplied by Lisa Tomkins from Heritage Nursey. We will start refreshments a bit earlier (6:30 PM) to make sure you have time to shop and chat. So, come early and bring your check books to get a head start on your Spring planting.
March Year of the Bird Pledge
Plant more Native Plants
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher ©Steve Coggin
Prothonotary Warbler ©Will Stuart
Audubon News Page 4
Every year, billions of birds migrate north in the spring and south in the fall. Most fly at night. As they pass over big cities on their way, they can become disoriented by bright lights, especially those on build-ings and other structures that reach high into the sky directly in their path. Millions die.
Some are casualties of nighttime collisions with windows. Others circle in confusion until they be-come exhausted; when they land they fall prey to other urban threats. Dozens of species are affected, including such priority species—those we’ve identi-fied as most in need of and most likely to benefit from our help—as the Allen’s Hummingbird, Varied Thrush, Golden-winged Warbler, and Seaside Sparrow.
Lights Out is a national effort to reduce this problem. The strategy is simple: By convincing building owners and managers to turn off excess lighting during the months migrating birds are flying overhead, we help to provide them safe passage between their nesting and wintering grounds. Mecklenburg Audubon Soci-ety will be doing a short migration Lights Out project this spring from April 20, 2018 through May 20, 2018. Our last monitoring was the fall of 2014.
Ligths Out Charlotte
Volunteers NeededApril 20 - May 20, 2018
Volunteers NeededMecklenburg Audubon is seeking volunteers for
Lights Out Charlotte. Volunteers are needed to survey a designated route in Uptown Charlotte for dead and injured birds that have seen their fate by striking lighted buildings the prior night. Surveying will need to be in the early AM, as early as 5:00-5:30 AM to prevent the birds from being swept up by janitorial staff. All col-lected specimens will be sent to the Raleigh Science Museum. Data will be collected locally and sent on to a national data base on bird collisions.
Surveying will be done daily from April 20 through May 20. A designated route to follow has been es-tablished. You will be instructed on how to find birds around the fronts and sides of buildings in Uptown. The distance of the route is 1.3 miles for one side of the street, 2.6 miles for both sides. If you walk with a buddy, you can split up and cover both sides in about an hour. Start times are pre-dawn.
We would like to have 10-15 volunteers, so the bur-den does not fall on a small number of volunteers. You can volunteer as many days as you’d like and set your schedule. If you work Uptown you may want to survey prior to starting your workday. It’s a great opportunity to get some exercise, make new friends and most importantly see how lighting affects migrating birds.
Volunteer training will be planned as we draw closer to the start date. At that time instructions and materi-als will be given out to volunteers. Surveying is quicker and more fun with teams of two. You can cover both sides of the street quicker and have someone to talk with while you survey.
If you are unable to make the training, you may still volunteer. We can pair you with a seasoned volunteer or offer one on one training for you.
For more information on Lights Out Charlotte please check the website – www.meckbirds.org. If you have specific questions, please email me at [email protected].
Jill Palmer, Coordinator Lights Out Charlotte
Earth Hour (https://www.earthhour.org) is a worldwide move-ment sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) in which 120 million people all around the world to take part to show their support for climate change. The event is held annually encouraging individuals, communities, and business-es to turn off non-essential electric lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 pm on a specific day towards the end of March, as a symbol of commitment to the planet. It was started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. Since then, it has grown to engage more than 7,000 cities and towns across 187 countries and territories. Earth Hour 2018 will be on March 24, from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Conserve Energy Future (https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/?p=2157) has more detailed information about the event.
of non-native species crossed to enhance a favor-able character-istic, like brighter color. While many plants are cultivat-ed to encourage an aesthetic qual-ity that is more desirable to land-scape designers and horticulturists, some are created to build resistance to diseases, pests, and changing weather.
Nativars are som etimes found as chance seedlings at breeding nurseries when plants cross-pollinate and reproduce on their own, but the plants you typically come across for sale are far more likely to have been intentionally bred by horticulturalists to enhance a desirable trait. Frequent favorable characteristics cul-tivated in nativars include, but are not limited to; size of flowers, height of plant, color (flower, leaves, stems etc.), growing habitat, disease resistance, and fruit/nut size.
Some wildlife gardeners are asking themselves, If I want to create habitat to support wildlife, but I am using nativars, am I still providing the same ecological function in my yard and community? The answer to this, based on the research available is, it depends.
There is a lot we don’t know about the impact of nativar use in our landscapes, as the research is new, limited, and cultivar-variety specific.
For example, those concerned about hum-mingbird health, research found decreased amounts of nectar and sugar available in the cultivar varieties Lobelia x speciosa, hybrids of the native cardinal flower (Lobelia cardina-lis). These cultivars may look pretty and attract hummingbirds with the same bright tubular red flowers of their wild-type, but they deliver 20% less nectar. It is recommended nativars such as these be avoided as insufficient replacements for their wild-type.
The folks at Cornell Lab’s Habitat Network have explored what research is available and have compiled a few insights and suggestions. Here is a summary of their findings.
• Proceed cautiously with using naivars if you are seeking to maximize your native habitat.
• Feel confident wild-type native plants pro-vide valuable ecological function in a garden.
Audubon News Page 5
Many of us are wildlife gardeners. We take pride in the sometimes arduous effort of seeking out native plants to add to our habitat-rich gardens. We do this because we believe in the power of biodiversity because we want to feed the birds, bees, butterflies, and billions of other lives that we share our yards and communities with. The effort can be herculean, the payoff noble.
When searching specifically for native plants to add to your gardens, it is helpful to be aware of the grow-ing use of nativars, or cultivars derived from native plants. What are they? Why do we use them? What is their ecological impact? And, what should consum-ers take into consideration before choosing nativars, especially for those of us who are wildlife gardeners?
On your next visit to your local nursery, try asking the staff to show you their nativars. You may be stared at with questioning eyes, or you may be shuffled to a corner where you’ll see an array of somewhat familiar native plants. Something, however, may be different about these nativars since they are native plants that have been selected from the wild OR hybridized to genetically differentiate them from their native wild-type.
Use of nativars is growing. In fact, the vast majority of native plants available in the nursery industry are na-tive cultivars. Some are clones of a particularly delight-ful specimen found in the wild. These plants, however, only represent a fraction of the genetic diversity found in wild populations. Some cultivars may also be hybrids
Natives vs. NativarsAdapted from Habitat Network (http://content.yardmap.org/learn/nativars-native-cultivars/)
How to spot a cultivarIt is easy to spot a cultivar. As with the cultivar plant tags in the
image above, they usually have plain language names associated with them that describe what is special about this particular cultivar. The breeders who create cultivars usually name them in order to keep track of varieties and help with marketing the plant.
Audubon News Page 6
The red and yellow flowers of Spigelia marilandica are stunning, and a delightful way to introduce garden visitors to the extensive and varied na-tive plant palate. Happily, Indian Pink has become more widely available in the nursery trade and easier for home gardeners to find.
Claudia West and Thomas Rainer in their book, Planting in a Post Wild World, suggest using Indian Pink as a dynamic filler plant that can provide accents for a plant community. In this way the seeds will self-sow through-out a bed or woodland garden. Mature plants are about two feet tall. Group several together in a mass for greatest impact.
Growth and cultureTypically found in a woodland cove, Indian Pink can adapt to a variety
of soil types and performs best in dappled shade. Consider planting it close to a door, window, or walkway where you can see these magnifi-cent blooms. This is a good plant for the edges between sun and shade.
The plants are dormant in winter, and late to emerge. The red and yellow tubular flowers bloom April-June and can often re-bloom in fall. As you might guess with the bright red flowers and tubular shape, Spigelia marilandica is a hummingbird favorite and relies on hummingbirds for pollination. The seeds form in pairs on the stalk and are explosively dehis-cent - meaning as the seed ripens the capsules explode, distributing the seed far away from the parent plant and making seed collection tricky for native plant propagators. Note the clever “seed catchers” designed by Lisa Tompkins in the above photo.
Beware the bunnies... Indian Pink is a favorite bunny food. Try enclosing your patch inside a wire cage until the plants are established. Or plant in patio pots that are out of reach. On the plus side the leaves are not as tasty to insects.
Native uses and history Another common name for Spigelia marilandica is Worm Grass, be-
cause it was historically used by Native Americans to expel worms. It was typically mixed with other herbs that acted as a laxative because the plant alone could be fatal in a large dose.
For more Eco and Bird Friendly pages visit: ncwildflower.org and ncnps-southernpiedmont.wordpress.com
©2017 North Carolina Native Plant Society
Native Plant of the Month
Indian Pink
Plant a showstopper in your garden
Photos by Will Stuart and Lisa Tompkins
• Experiment with woody na-tivars such as Princeton Elm (Ul-mus americana ‘Princeton’) and back-crossed American Chestnuts (Castanea dentata)
• Avoid woody nativars that change the leaf color of the plant.
• Consider trying open-pollinated flowering nativars that are similar in color and shape to their native wild-type, only IF you are unable to locate the wild-type.
• Some flowering open-pollinat-ed nativars to consider are: Phlox ‘Jeana’ and ‘Lavelle’, Veronicas-trum virginicum ‘Lavendelturm’, Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’, and Monarda fistulosa ‘Claire Grace’
• Do be cautious and ask your local nursery, “Is this a native wild-type or a nativar?”
• Expect some nativars to not support as diverse of an insect population–both insect herbivores and pollinators.
• Support nurseries that carry wild, open-pollinated natives.
• Reach out to wildlife gardeners around you to try to find sources of native wild-type seeds or plants.
For more detailed information about this issue read Habitat Network’s article Nativars (Native Cultivars): What We Know & Rec-ommend by Becca Rodomsky-Bish (February 15, 2018) at (http://content.yardmap.org/learn/nati-vars-native-cultivars/)
Continued from page 5
Natives vs. Nativars
Pigweed flea beetle ©Lisa Brown
Audubon News Page 7
Natural HiStory
•More than 330 species of hummingbirds live in North and South America.
•Only 5% of hummingbird species live primarily north of Mexico, the remaining 95% live primarily south of the United States.
FligHt
•The number of times a hummingbird’s wings beat is different from one species to another, and ranges from 720 to 5400 times per minute when hovering.
•Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly back-wards.
•Some hummingbirds fly at speeds greater than 33 miles per hour.
•A hummingbird’s wing beats take up so much energy, they spend the majority of their time resting on branches and twigs.
•Hummingbirds got their name from the humming noise their wings make in flight.
•Approximately 25-30% of a hummingbird’s body-weight is flight muscle, as opposed to other birds, which average 15%.
•Hummingbirds can fly in the rain and, like dogs, shake their heads to dispel drops of water. Unlike dogs, however, a hummingbird shakes its head violently, 132 times per second, and rotating 202 degrees—all while flying and maintaining direction!
MetaboliSM
•Hummingbirds can enter a state of physical inactiv-ity called torpor, in which the birds reduce their body temperature to conserve energy.
•They are “adept at burning both glucose and fruc-tose, which are the individual components of sugar - a unique trait other vertebrates cannot achieve.”
•A hummingbird’s metabolism is about 100 times faster than an elephant’s!
Hummingbird FactsFrom UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine (https://goo.gl/xseYno)
biology
•A hummingbird has only a few taste buds and sali-vary glands in its mouth.
•Hummingbirds are some of the smallest birds in the world, and the bee hummingbird is by far the smallest at just one inch in length, weighing two grams.
•Hummingbirds have no sense of smell.
•Hummingbirds have more neck vertebra (14 or 15) than most mammals (7).
•A hummingbird’s heart is relatively the largest of all animals at 2.5% of its body weight.
•Hummingbirds’ legs and feet are small and weak, so they are used only for perching, not walking,
•A hummingbird weighs less than a nickel, on aver-age.
•The iridescence of hummingbird feathers is a result of prism-like microstructures that fragment light into components of the spectrum, by a process of absorp-tion and angle of light.
•A hummingbird tongue is flat and split at the tip, bifurcated like a forked tongue. Each of the bifur-cated flaps is edged with fringe, which makes the tip of tongue look like a feather. At rest, the flaps are rolled up in tubular shape and stuck together. When a hummingbird feeds, it picks fluid up by protracting the tongue, spreading the bifurcated tip, which opens out flat, gets covered with fluid, then brought back into the mouth.
MigratioN
•When hummingbirds migrate to the United States in the springtime, they cover 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico, flying for 20 hours without stopping.
•In preparation for migration, a hummingbird will store half its body weight worth of fat.
•Hummingbirds migrate alone and not in flocks. Very commonly the males migrate first followed by the females.
Food CoNSuMPtioN
•On an average day, a hummingbird will consume double its body weight.
Continued on page 8
Calliope Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird © Brad Kuntz
Audubon News Page 8
Spring means migration time for birds and birders. But birds aren’t the only animal with wings that migrate. Monarch butterflies are famous for traveling long distances each year, but they’re not the only insects that migrate. Many butter-flies, moths, and dragonflies take to the air for seasonal migrations, and–although they’re pretty quiet about it–some travel hundreds or thousands of miles. The success of their journey largely depends on the habitat they encounter along the way. Here, we look at some of these six-legged critters and discuss how even the smallest garden can add fuel to their journey.
People were once skeptical that insects could migrate long distanc-es. Historically, scientists assumed an organism so small and short-lived couldn’t move more than a few miles. As we now know, they can. Bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) in Australia can migrate over 1000
km every spring. Danaid butterflies (cousins of monarchs) in Taiwan migrate over 300 km in the fall. Wandering glider dragonflies (Pan-tala flavescens) cross the Indian Ocean (the image above depicts a beach in India where migrating dragonflies are coming ashore). The brown planthopper (Nilaparva-ta lugens), a tiny insect only 4 milli-meters long, migrates over 200 km in China. These are just a few of the hundreds of insect species around the world that make incredible journeys.
By the mid-1900’s scientists finally recognized that insects could move long distances; but still, they assumed insects were being haphazardly blown by the winds, unable to control their direction. In recent years migrating insects like the Silver Y moth (Autographa gamma) provided evidence to contradict that theory, showing, instead, that insects selectively
choose directional winds to maxi-mize their speed, allowing some to fly up to 650 km a night.
Many insect populations have adapted to make round-trip mi-grations over the course of a year, with the help of multiple genera-tions. Painted lady butterflies, for instance, fly north out of Mexico in the spring to travel to the north-ern U.S. and Canada; later, their grandchildren or great-grandchil-dren return south in the fall. Mon-archs behave similarly. A handful of insect species engage in sin-gle-generation migrations, where the same individual moves during one season and returns a few months later.
In eastern North America there are over 30 insect species that migrate north in the spring and south in the fall. They include the Common buckeyes (Junonia coenia), American lady (Vanes-sa virginiensis), Cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae), Question mark (Polygonia interrogationis), Mourn-ing cloak (Nymphalis antiopa), Red admiral (Vanessa atalanta), Com-mon green darner (Anax junius), and the Wandering glider (Pantala flavescens). To learn more about these amazing migrants check out the Habitat Network’s (http://con-tent.yardmap.org) article Garden-ing to Support Seasonal Migrations of Insects (http://content.yardmap.org/learn/migrating-insects/)
•A hummingbird drinks nectar by protracting and contracting its tongue around 13 times per second.
•A hummingbird drinks nectar from hundreds of flowers and eats thou-sands of tiny insects each day.
•The edges of a hummingbird’s tongue are rolled inward to assist in bringing nectar and insects into the bird’s mouth.
breediNg aNd reProduCtioN
•Only female hummingbirds build nests.
•Female hummingbirds lay only two eggs.
•The male hummingbird is not involved in raising young and will often find another mate after the young are hatched.
•Hummingbirds tend to return to the area where they were hatched.
•After hatching, baby hummingbirds will stay in the nest for approxi-mately three weeks.
Birds aren’t the Only Ones
Continued from page 7
Hummingbirds
Hummingbird nest © John Hanna
Audubon News Page 9
Meet the MAS Board!!Bill Blakesley is our Treasurer
for MAS. Bill grew up in Ely, MN, which is north of Duluth. He saw a few local birds growing up, but they didn’t peak his interest until later. He graduated with a degree in Business Administra-tion from Bemidji State Univer-sity located on the shores of Lake Bemidji in Northern MN. Bill and his wife, Laura, knew each other when they worked at the same company in Ari-zona. During that time, they took notice of a few birds such as Roadrunner and Gambel’s Quail. When Bill downsized to NC, he got back in touch with Laura. They started dating and married in 2001. They took a trip to Yellowstone in 2006 where they saw Osprey, Eagles, Clark’s Nutcracker, to name a few, and peaked their interest in birds. In the spring of 2007, Bill and Laura went on a Nature Bird Hike at Chimney Rock with Simon Thompson and got hooked. That November, they went on their first Mecklenburg Bird Walk to Francis Beatty and have enjoyed bird walks ever since. Bill and Laura enjoy birding in Four Mile and Six Mile Creek, as well as Pee Dee Wildlife Refuge. They love traveling and doing bird related trips. Bill considers it a great walk if he sees a few favorite birds which are woodpeckers and owls. Bill and Laura lead some of MAS Beginner Bird Walks and really enjoy helping people learn about birds.
Coming soon to a Bookshelf Near YOU!
Birds of the Central Carolinas
Mecklenburg Audubon is excited to announce this labor of love by local birders, photographers and illustrators will go on sale at the April meeting. The book is a first of its kind, an authoritative, comprehensive summary of the status, distribution, and historical context of all the birds regularly occurring in the Piedmont of both Carolinas. It includes original historical research never before compiled and published in on sources; full accounts of 312 species with additional partial accounts of another 60 species; over 400 color photographs taken in the central Carolinas; and the complete results of the Mecklenburg County Breeding Bird Atlas. (Cost: $45)
Time toSpruce Up Your Wardrobe for Spring Birding
At the April meeting we will be un-veiling our new MAS T-shirt with this design done by a local artist.
Audubon News Page 10
It’s that time of the year again. We are looking for a few good members who would like to serve on the MAS for three years. The board works as a team to plan meetings, projects and other assorted activities. If you would like to know more about the responsibilities of a board member please contact a current board board member. They will fill you in on the details. Being on the board is a great way to get to know folks and develop lasting friendships.
MAS NEEDS YOU!!!MAS Executive Board
President: Jim Guyton [[email protected]]
Vice President: Rich McCracken [[email protected]]
Treasurer: Jack Meckler [[email protected]]
Secretary: Bill Blakesley [[email protected]]
Field Trips: Matt Janson [m.janson.geolover@gmail.
com]Education:
Patty Masten [[email protected]]Communications:
Drew Skinner [[email protected]]Membership:
Noreen George [[email protected]]Conservation:
Jim Pugh [[email protected]]Hospitality:
Marcia Howden [[email protected]]Newsletter/Web:
Judy Walker [[email protected]]
Audubon News is published monthly from September through May by the Mecklenburg Audubon Society, a chapter of National Audu-bon. Local members receive the newsletter via postal mail and/or electronic mail. It is also posted on the Mecklenburg Audubon website - meckbirds.org.
