No. 231 BATON ROUGE, LA

newsletter of the

President - Ed Wallace340 Audubon Blvd.New Orleans, LA 70125504-343-1433mottledduck@hotmail.com Vice President - Marty Floyd2044 Bayou RoadCheneyville, LA 71325337-459-0445progne99@aol.com

Secretary - Joelle J. Finley 6654 Argonne Blvd.New Orleans, LA 70124504-488-3996joellefinley@bellsouth.net Treasurer - Judith O’Neale 504 Whitebark Drive Lafayette LA 70508-6362 337-981-1011 jloneale@aol.com Past President - Linda Stewart-Knight604 Chevelle Court, Suite CBaton Rouge, LA 70806225-769-0549stewknig@bellsouth.net Board Member - Jay V. Huner428 Hickory Hills DriveBoyce, LA 71409 318-793-5529jvh0660@louisiana.edu

Board Member - Christine Kooi1965 Cherokee AvenueBaton Rouge LA 70806225-381-3108ckooi1@lsu.edu

Board Member - Larry Raymond6675 North Park CircleShreveport, LA 71107-9539318-929-3117lrraymond@aol.com

LOS News Editor - Kimberly Lanka1732 Silliman DriveBaton Rouge, LA 70808225-936-7941KimberlyLanka@gmail.com

Submission DeadlineSpring LOS NewsFebruary 1, 2014

Journal of Louisiana Ornithology Jennifer O. Coulson64340 Fogg LanePearl River, LA 70452Jacoulson@aol.com

LOS OFFICERS ANDBOARD MEMBERS

www.losbird.org

Winter 2014

2014 LOS WINTER MEETING Friday thru Sunday, January 24 – 26, 2014

Lafayette, LouisianaA WEEKEND OF CAJUN COUNTRY

AND TROPICAL BIRDING

LOS 2014 Meeting, Continued on page 2

The rice country and Cajun country are great winter birding locales. We will have several field trips to see lots of geese, ducks, egrets, ibis and wintering shorebirds. We will also visit winter hummingbird yards.

Our Friday night meeting will be held at the ULL Billeaud Hall (Biology Building) 300 E. St. Mary Blvd. Lafayette 70503 Room 117. Parking is on the south side of the building. Registration will start at 6 p.m. and the evening program will start at 7 p.m. (see maps at end of article)

Friday night presentation: Landon Jones is a 5th year PhD student in the Environmental and Evolutionary Biology program at the University of Louisiana Lafayette, advised by Dr. Paul Leberg. He received his BS and MS degrees in Wildlife Conservation at Brigham Young University in Utah, where he got hooked on birds and studied Ring-necked Pheasants. Landon conducted his PhD fieldwork in Costa Rica, where he trapped and tracked two species of toucans to estimate their contribution to seed dispersal in fragmented habitats. Landon enjoys birding and traveling, and has studied and observed birds in North and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

On Saturday, Dave Patton has arranged for some great field trips. Full day and half day trips will be available. Sign-up sheets will be available at the Friday night meeting. Meeting place for field trip will be at the Comfort Suites 114 Rue Fernand. You

can enter and exit at the light by Outback Steakhouse on Pinhook Rd. (see maps at end of article)

Saturday night we will be meeting at the Alumni House, the beautiful former home of the Heymann family. The address is 600 E. St. Mary Blvd. Lafayette LA 70503. Parking is on the front of the building and also a large parking lot off of the one-way street behind the building. (See maps) Registration will start at 6 p.m. and the buffet will be served at 6:30 p.m. with meeting following at 7:30. There will be snacks and wine available and you can BYOB. The buffet will Home-style Baked Chicken, Stuffed Pork Roast with a choice of garden or pasta salad, steamed rice and gravy, green beans Almandine, medley of fresh vegetables and pecan pie, bottled soda or bottled water.

The buffet will be followed by our evening program: Birding in Peru: Lima, Pacific Coast, Cuzco, the Andes, and Machu Picchu” by Larry Raymond and Mac Hardy.

In May 2013, Dr. Laurence Hardy and Larry Raymond joined Dr. Gary Graham for a seventeen day birding trip to Peru. Dr. Graham, an expert on bats, has been to Peru several times and did some of his research in the country. His efforts were instrumental in the discovery of several new species of birds for Peru. Gary served as leader of the excursion and made all of the arrangements

Winter 2014Page 2LOS 2014 Meeting, Continued from page 1for visiting as many hotspots as possible while in the country. Dr. Hardy and Larry stayed a couple of extra days to visit Machu Picchu and add a few more species to their list. Besides being exposed to more than 400 species of birds, the trio saw or heard more than 20 mammals, including jaguar, and added more than a dozen amphibians and reptiles to their life lists. In this program, Mac and Larry will relive their journey to Lima, the Pacific Coast, Cuzco, the Andes, Manu tropical forest and rivers, and Machu Picchu.

There will be a short business meeting after the program.

FIELD TRIPS:Saturday and Sunday half-day: Lafayette Hummingbirds and ULL Farm: Area Hummingbird Gardens and ULL Farm in Cade. Sparrows, Crawfish Farm, and Hummingbirds.

Crowley Treatment Facility and area rice fields: Thousands of ducks winter on the treatment ponds and offer good looks at many species, dabbling and divers. The surrounding woods and grass levees offer other good possibilities. The area rice fields are excellent for shorebirds, sparrows, and hawks.Full day trips Saturday:

Cheneyville/Alexander State Rec Area: The open fields of Cheneyville are excellent for Sandhill Cranes, hawks, and field birds. Alexander State Recreation Area offers a good chance at piney woods species including Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and Brown-headed Nuthatches.

Lacassine/Thornwell/Cameron Prairie: Some of the best winter birding in the state with huge numbers of geese, ducks, shorebirds, hawks, and sparrows.

Palmetto Island State Park: Bird banding with Erik Johnson, and nature trail birding within the park. Also excellent shorebirds and hawks in the surrounding rice country. There is also a cracklin cooking demonstration in the park that day.

HOTELS: There are many hotel/motels in Lafayette but here are several near the University:

Comfort Suites Oil Center 114 Rue Fernand 70508 337-456-8390 Mention LOS $89.00 breakfast 6 a.m.

Fairfield Inn and Suites South 1601 West Pinhook Rd 337-233-5558 Mention LOS $89.00 breakfast 6 a.m.

Hilton Garden Inn 2350 W. Congress St 70506 337 291-1977 ask for UL Friends and Family rate $109

Homewood Suites by Hilton Lafayette Airport, 201 Kaliste Saloom Road, Lafayette, LA 70508www.lafayetteairport.homewoodsuites.com 337-264-6044 or 337-706-8492 LOS $115/one bedroom suite

Fairfield Inn

Holmwood Suites

Comfort Suites

Billeaud Hall

Alumni Center

Winter 2014Page 3

Her subsequent movements probably indicate the severity of the struggle she faced mid-Gulf and over water, for she did not immediately resume her northbound migration. Instead, she spent time wandering around Mexico, probably recuperating. Finally, on April 6, she resumed her journey northward. Normally Slidell takes the trans-Gulf route in her race to the breeding grounds. This time her route was entirely overland: she took the western circum-Gulf route.

Slidell usually returns to the breeding grounds early. Had she not encountered that unseasonably strong cold front, she would have arrived in the Pearl River Basin by mid-March, possibly as early as March 12th. Instead she returned to her breeding territory on April 11, 2013, about a month later than usual. Her late arrival appears to have had its consequences: another female was incubating eggs on her 2012 nest when she arrived. (If Slidell had not been tagged, one might have assumed, incorrectly, that she was reusing her 2011 and 2012 nest. We learned many years ago not to make these assumptions about unmarked kites.)

Slidell did not nest in 2013. The three pairs in this colony were already established on territories, so she may have simply been too late. She made several westward, eastward and northerly excursions within the Gulf Coastal states during the breeding season, possibly in search of her past mate or a new one. Slidell is an experienced breeder, having fledged two young in 2011 and also in 2012. Her 2013 movements illustrate how adverse weather conditions during an over-water-crossing event can impact even a seasoned veteran.

In July Slidell made two trips to the Big Black River between Jackson and Yazoo City, Mississippi. We suspect that this may be a kite area because she visits this section of the Big Black River every year around this time.

2011 was the first year that GPS-satellite technology was finally packaged in the form of a transmitter that is small and light enough for a Swallow-tailed Kite to carry. The transmitter must weigh less than 3% of the bird’s body weight. This is a permitting requirement of the Bird Banding Laboratory, and it makes sense because heavier transmitters were found likely to affect survival in pigeons. These cutting edge transmitters, engineered by Paul Howe of Microwave Telemetry, are truly ingenious. The transmitter is powered by two tiny solar panels and could, theoretically, last the life of the bird.

I don’t think any of us could have anticipated just how much information we are obtaining from these transmitters. The Orleans Audubon Society (OAS) is partnering with the Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to study various aspects of Swallow-tailed Kite movements and survival, using these GPS-satellite transmitters. OAS has been tracking three kites that my husband, Tom, and I tagged in Louisiana and Mississippi in June of 2011. Herein I will present some of what we’ve learned about the lives of Swallow-tailed Kites from tracking these three individuals in 2013.

One important aspect of Swallow-tailed Kite population ecology that we learned from tracking kites is that adults do not breed every year. We learned this lesson from Slidell, an adult female that was tagged as a breeder near the West Pearl River, southeast of Slidell, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Her spring migration in 2013 was perilous. She departed from the Yucatan on March 10th, heading north across the Gulf of Mexico for her breeding grounds in Louisiana. On March 11th, when she was about half-way across the Gulf, she encountered an unusually strong cold front. Apparently, proceeding northward against the front was risky, so she did an about face and used the wind in her favor to return to Mexico at southern Vera Cruz, making landfall on March 12th.

Lessons Learned from the Swallow-tailed Kite GPS-Satellite Tracking Study

By Jennifer Coulson

GPS Satellite Tracking, Continued on page 4

Winter 2014Page 4

Pearl MS is a breeding male that we captured near the East Pearl River northwest of Picayune, Pearl River County, Mississippi. Unlike Slidell, Pearl MS bypassed the Yucatan Peninsula entirely on the 2013 spring migration and followed the overland, western circum-Gulf route.

One of the many things we hope to obtain from the tagged kites is an estimate of lifetime reproductive success. This presents untold challenges because kites often nest in remote areas, and Pearl MS is a prime example. He nested in a different colony from the one we trapped him near, so finding his nest involved some detective work using the GPS coordinates as clues. It is easy to surmise the location of a tagged female’s nest because females spend the evening, night and early morning on the nest. Deducing where a male is nesting is much more challenging, especially because we programmed the transmitters to record most of the geographic coordinates for roost survey work at night. This means that some males may only be caught in the act of incubating once a day to every other day. I imported Pearl MS’s coordinates into an Excel spreadsheet and sorted them according to time. Next I selected the daytime locations and started searching for repeated coordinates and locations that were near the repeats. I then plotted these locations on Google Earth to examine possible ways to access this part of the West Hobolochitto River Basin.

Once on site, Tom and I used the coordinates to mark off a target area to search for Pearl MS’s nest. His nest was tucked into the top of a sweetgum. I am not sure that we would have seen it had he not alarm-called at our presence. His 2013 nest was 5.3 miles (8.5 km) from the kite colony where we trapped him. The nest ended up failing and I was able to determine this remotely when Pearl MS stopped his day shifts on the nest. We visited the nest soon afterward but could not find any signs to indicate the cause of nesting failure.

We tagged Pasc, a breeding adult male, near Boneyard Lake on the Pascagoula River Wildlife Management Area (WMA), George County,

Mississippi. His spring migration this year was similar to Slidell’s. He took off from the Yucatan on March 23, making a trans-Gulf trajectory. However, on March 23rd he encountered strong northerly winds and veered off course, flying due west to make landfall in the Yucatan. From here he followed the overland, circum-Gulf route.

Some of the other kites crossing the Gulf around that time were not so lucky. On March 23, Paul Conover found a dead adult kite that had washed ashore on Holly Beach in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Two of the kites tagged by ARCI also perished around this time.

Much of the Pascagoula River WMA was flooded this spring, so we were not able to search for Pacs’s nest for quite some time. I did try…I waded for over a mile, taking time out to wave to the alligators, but that’s another story. He nested, quite conveniently for us, in a tall sweetgum right beside a trail. Two chicks hatched, but when we checked the nest a couple of weeks later, on the June 15th nest visit we found only one surviving chick. I brought my new camera, a Canon 7D, with me and photographed Pasc several times as he delivered food to the nest. Each time the female lit on the nest, she took the food from the male, and then the male rapidly departed, uttering the kee-kee-kee call. Those of you who don’t like sad stories might as well skip to the end. The last time we saw Pasc was at12:14 p.m. He died before the transmitter’s next scheduled data transfer to the satellite. Unfortunately, the transmitter must have landed in a position where the solar panels could not gather sunlight to recharge the battery. We returned on June 23 to find the fully grown, ready-to-fledge nestling lying prostrate, dead on the nest. It died on June 22nd. It probably starved when Pasc, its main food provider, died.

We spent one extraordinarily hot day searching Pasc’s many past roosting sites, hoping to find his remains and the transmitter. We found instead the remains of a number of egrets and ibis under a Great Horned Owl’s roost sites. There is a huge rookery at Boneyard Lake and this owl was capitalizing on the situation. Did he also eat Pasc? We will never know.

GPS Satellite Tracking, Continued from page 3

GPS Satellite Tracking, Continued on page 5

Winter 2014Page 5

In summary, crossing the Gulf of Mexico in the springtime is a risky venture. Kites encountering strong cold fronts while crossing the Gulf may be forced to turn back or they may die trying to face northerly winds. None of the three kites tagged in Louisiana and Mississippi produced any young in 2013. One kite did not breed and the nests of the other two kites failed. One of the three tagged kites died during the breeding season.

To learn more about Swallow-tailed Kites, their global movements, and to view the tracking maps, visit the OAS website: www.jjaudubon.net and click on “Swallow-tailed Kite Project” on the menu bar. To learn more about different kite migration strategies, visit ARCI’s Swallow-tailed Kite Blog:http://swallowtailedkites.blogspot.com/2013/10/swallow-tailed-kite-migration-30.html

We (OAS and ARCI) have to pay for satellite time to gain access to the tag data. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant covered the first two years of data retrieval. You can help us continue this project by contributing to the Adopt-a-Kite program. Any donation amount is welcome. Data retrieval costs $100 per month or $1200 per year per kite. To adopt a kite, send a check payable to “Orleans Audubon Society” and write “Adopt-a-Kite” on the memo line. Mail the check to: Michael Crago, OAS Treasurer, 801 Rue Dauphine, Ste. 304, Metairie, LA 70005. The OAS is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization, and as such, your donation may be tax deductible.

Why? Over the past half-century, the historically abundant Rusty Blackbird has endured one of the steepest population declines ever documented among North American landbirds. Within the last 15 years, scientists have learned more about this bird’s breeding and wintering ecology, and this knowledge allows us to target conservation initiatives during these phases of this bird’s annual cycle. However, as with many migratory species, we know very little

“Get Rusty” this spring to save a declining blackbird!

Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz - Calling All Birders!about Rusty Blackbird ecology, distribution, and habitat use during migration. Are there hot spots where many individuals congregate? Are there stopover areas that are used predictably each year, and are these locations protected? The

Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz will address these and other questions to help focus future research and conservation of one of North America’s most vulnerable blackbirds. We’re recruiting an army of birders to participate in this effort to help conserve this fascinating songbird. Will you accept our birding challenge?

Who? The International Rusty Blackbird Working Group, eBird, and the Vermont Center for Ecostudies are partnering with Louisiana State University to recruit volunteer observers from across the southeastern U.S., East Coast, Midwest, Alaska, and Canada.

What? Each participating state, province, and territory will have a 3-8 week target window during which birders will search for Rusty Blackbirds. Within this window, birders may explore favored birding haunts or newly identified areas that they suspect may harbor Rusty Blackbirds. We’ll provide some guidance on potential habitats to explore, but birders should feel free to get creative – and ambitious! – with their searching.

When? Spring 2014 kicks off the first year of this three-year Spring Migration Blitz; the Blitz window will span early March through mid-June, with more specific timeframes identified for each state or province to account for the northward migratory progression. The target period for Louisiana includes all of March.

Where? Get ready for a continent-wide event! The Spring Blitz will span the Rusty Blackbird’s entire spring migration range, from the wintering grounds in the southeastern United States, up the East Coast and through the Midwest to Canada and Alaska.

How do I get involved? Easy! If you’d like to contribute data to the Spring Migration Blitz effort, bird as you

GPS Satellite Tracking, Continued from page 4

Rusty Blackbird, Continued on page 6

Winter 2014Page 6

normally do, focusing on potential Rusty Blackbird habitat during the Blitz time frame established for your region. You can seek out the best-known places for Rusty sightings or explore uncharted territory. Make sure to report ALL of your observations to eBird – we want to know both where you saw these birds and where you didn’t. Check out the newly revamped website of the International Rusty Blackbird Working Group (http://rustyblackbird.org/outreach/migration-blitz/) for information about identification, vocalizations, habitat preferences, and types of data to collect to support this initiative. Also, check with your state coordinator Sinead Borchert (sborch2@lsu.edu) for additional ways you can help with the Blitz efforts in your region, or contact Spring Migration Blitz Coordinator Judith Scarl (jscarl@vtecostudies.org) to get involved in the broader Blitz initiative!

Thanks for “Getting Rusty” with us this spring! Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/rustyblackbirdspringblitz) to follow up-to-the minute information about our Blitz, and happy birding!

The International Rusty Blackbird Working GroupeBird and the Cornell Lab of OrnithologyVermont Center for EcostudiesLouisiana State University

Rusty Blackbird, Continued from page 5

Louisiana Christmas Bird Count

LOS MEMBERSHIP FORMDues are payable January 1st of each year;

Please check your mailing label for expiration date.  Renewal  New Member

Name:___________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

City, State, Zip:___________________________________________

Phone:(______)_____________ E-mail:_______________________

DUES STRUCTURE:___Regular: $20.00/yr ___Family: $25.00/yr ___Junior (under 14): $7.50/yr ___Student: $10.00/yr ___Senior (over 65): $15.00/yr ___Senior Family: $20.00/yr ___Library $15.00/yr* ___Contributing: $50.00/yr ___Sustaining: $100.00/yr ___Life: $300.00** ___Family Life: $500**

Make check payable to: LOSSend to: Judith L. O’Neale, LOS Treasurer

504 Whitebark Drive, Lafayette, LA 70508-6362

** Installments may be arranged for Life memberships

* Please add $2.00 for foreign

subscriptions

Louisiana CBC Circle CentersBR Baton Rouge Dan Mooney dan.mooney@birdnerds.comBC Bossier-Caddo Paul Dickson paul@morrisdickson.comCA Catahoula NWR Marty Floyd Progne99@aol.com

CB Claiborne John Dillon kisforkryptonite@gmail.com

CR Creole Erik Johnson ejohnson@audubon

CW Crowley Marty Floyd Progne99@aol.comCL C'ville-Lecompte Marty Floyd Progne99@aol.comDA D'Arbonne Joan Brown bljnbr@att.netFP Fort Polk Jim Johnson (limited access)GI Grand Isle Chris Brantley chrisbrantley@charter.netJB Johnson Bayou Ken Sztraky berrysheepfarm@att.netLT Lacassine-Thornw Steve Cardiff scardiff@lsu.eduLA Lafayette Erik Johnson ejohnson@audubonNA Nachitoches Charlie Lyons lyon5516@bellsouth.netNZ Natchez* Stratton Bull strattonbull@earthlink.netNI New Iberia James W. Beck carpodectes@gmail.comNO New Orleans Glenn Oussett goussett@bellsouth.netNS Northshore-Slidell Thomas Trenchard trench19@hotmail.comPP Pine Prairie Marty Floyd Progne99@aol.comRB Reser-Bonnet Carre Melvin Weber mweber@rtconline.comSA Sabine NWR Marty Guidry guidryrm@cox.netSH Shreveport Charlie Lyons lyon5516@bellsouth.netST St Tammany Linda Beall lbeall@minilogic.comSC Sweet Lake-Cam Pr Steve Cardiff scardiff@lsu.eduVE Venice Robert Purrington danny@tulane.eduWL White Lake Michael Seymour mseymour@wlf.la.gov*part of this count is in LA

Winter 2014Page 7

LOS On FACeBOOkLabirders: This is just to let you know that those of you who are LOS members and are also on Facebook may be interested in “liking” LOS’s new Facebook page. Just type in “Louisiana Ornithological Society” in the FB search box, and you’ll find it.

Good birding, Christine KooiBaton Rouge

LOS new MeMBerSNorwyn & Lynda Johnson, Baton Rouge

Malise Prieto and Harry J. “Rick” Delaune, Mandeville

Kathryn Sheely, Baton RougeJo Ann Welsh, Baton Rouge

America’s national symbol, the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) was a common south Louisiana resident in the early 1900s, nesting in the state during the winter. After experiencing drastic population declines, which occurred throughout the nation, numbers were precariously low by the early 1970s. Since then, nesting has increased exponentially with at least 387 active nests in Louisiana by 2008. However, despite the recovery of the nesting population and the removal from the threatened and endangered species list, Bald Eagles are rarely seen in Louisiana during the summer.

While studying the recovery and nesting of Louisiana’s population of Bald Eagles, Master’s student Nick Smith is also tracking eagles to better understand their movements and figure out where these birds go for the summer. In cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Nick is studying Bald Eagles under the supervision of Dr. Alan Afton and collaborator Tom Hess, head of the state’s Bald Eagle Program.

Nick fitted five adult and four sub-adult Bald Eagles with satellite GPS transmitters. Each transmitter fits on the bird like a backpack and is programmed to record the bird’s location every hour. From this data Nick will document migration,

home ranges, and habitat use as well as look at any variation between birds and years within an individual.

Preliminary results from the first spring of the study showed

New Life MemberDr. Ronald A. Javitch,

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Louisiana Bald Eagles By Nick Smith

Nick Smith holding a Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle fitted with a transmitter.

2012 migration routes of LA Bald Eagles fitted with satellite transmitters.

all the marked birds left Louisiana and headed north for the summer, but the amazing thing was how far north they traveled. Every bird flew to Canada for the summer with one bird traveling all the way to the Northwest Territories and another to British Columbia. After staying there for a while the birds made their way back south and returned to Louisiana by early November. In the following spring all eagles started their way back north again following similar routes as in the previous year. We now know where at least some of Louisiana’s eagles are going for the summer. It will be interesting to see what other results are obtained as the study continues and new locations are recorded.

Judith O’NealeLouisiana Ornithological Society504 Whitebark DriveLafayette, LA 70508

Dues are payable in January of each year; please check your mailing label.

PRSRT STD.

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

Lafayette, LA

Permit No. 507

– PRE-REGISTRATION FORM –LOS 2014 WINTER MEETINg – LAFAYETTE, LA

UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA AT LAFAYETTEName(s): _____________________________________________________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________________________________________

City, State, Zip: ________________________________________________________________________________

Phone: _______________________________________________________________________________________

Email: ________________________________________________________________________________________

Number registering for meeting _________ at $15.00/person = $ _____________ Number attending buffet _________ at $20.00/person = $ _____________Student registration only _________ at $5.00/person = $ _____________Membership Dues enclosed + $ _____________ Donation + $ _____________ $ _________ Total enclosed INdIcATE FIELd TRIPS:Half day Full daySat ___ Sun ___ Crowley Treatment Facility & Fields ___ Cheneyville – Sand Hill CranesSat ___ Sun ___ Lafayette Hummers / UL Farm ___ Lacassine NWR / Cameron Prairie ___ Palmetto Island SP banding

Please complete form and mail with check payable to LOS to:Judith O’Neale, 504 Whitebark Drive, Lafayette LA 70508337-981-1011 • jloneale@aol.com • www.losbird.org

PRE-REgISTER FOR WINTER MEETINg

by MONDAy, JANUARy 20TH TO ENSURE

A bUFFET REqUEST!

SEE REgISTRATION FORM bELOW.