Newsletter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society August, 2013 Editor, Theresa Graham PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE I begin my term as president of TOS humbled by the honor the membership has seen fit to bestow on me. I have been a member since 1 978, and I vow to do the very best I can to guide TOS for the next two years. I want to thank Billie Cantwell, president of the Knoxville chapter, and her staff of volunteers for hosting a wonderful meeting in Knoxville. I know the weather was dreadful, but we got a lot accomplished, managed to see some great birds, and enjoyed Dr. James Tucker’s talk Saturday evening at the banquet. Next year’s spring meeting will be hosted by the Chattanooga chapter. Please plan to attend. It really is a lot of fun and a chance to meet some of our great birders and friends from around the state. We move ever closer to our 1 00th year as a society (201 5), and while we have accomplished a lot over that century, the future will require intense focus on conservation efforts. Numerous toxins in the environment, protecting and adding habitats, and declining bird populations are just a few of the many daunting problems facing us and the birdlife we love. Wildlife (mostly birds for us) and its habitats are a public resource. We have a duty to try our best to protect them for future generations. Please consider becoming a member of the American Bird Conservancy (ABC). The fee is pretty modest and you get a couple of mailings a year detailing the progress ABC is making on their conservation projects. They are an organization dedicated to bird conservation, not only in the United States but throughout the Americas, and are very well organized and efficient. Go to their website ( www.ABCbirds.ora l and click on “latest news” (along the top bar on the page) about conservation issues relating to birds. There is a very good article there about “the 10 best ways to help birds”. A couple of other ways to help keep track of bird populations in Tennessee are by participating in local bird counts (Christmas, Spring, & Fall) and helping to run the Breeding Bird Survey routes (BBS). Not all of these routes are spoken for, as some of the original surveyors have moved out of state or given up doing the route for some reason. Just go to www.pwrc.usas.aov/bbs to see what routes (5 of them) need to be run. Contact information for the Tennessee state BBS coordinator is there. While the BBS routes require a higher level of bird identification skills and record keeping, all levels of birders are able and welcome to participate in your local bird counts. If you don’t feel confident enough to do an area by yourself, there are numerous other chapter members who would be willing and glad to take you with them. We all started somewhere in this pursuit! More than anything else, get out there and go birding! Although I am ever so slightly biased, this just has to be one of the greatest hobbies in the world! I never tire of seeking out and viewing these creatures. Whether it’s something common or rare, it’s always different every day and usually interesting. Enjoy! Ron Hoff President, Tennessee Ornithological Society 2013-2015 Clinton, TN The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 2 FALL TOS MEETING September 27-29, 2013 The TOS Fall Meeting will be held September 27-29 at the Country Inns and Suites, 1-24 Exit 4 in Clarksville. The local Warioto chapter of Audubon will host the Friday night reception from 4:30-8:30 PM CDT. Rooms are $89 per night. Just call 1-931-645-1400 before September 10 th and ask for Erin or Donna and mention TOS to get the special room rate. (After Sept. 10 the rooms are $129) Registration is $15 per person. Checks should be made out to TOS. Please send the checks and registration to Cyndi Routledge, 1515 N. Willow Bend Ct., Clarksville, TN 37043. Saturday afternoon paper session and program will also be at the Country Inns and Suites. Registration Name (s) Address TOS Chapter Registrations @ $15 each = $ Total Please Mail to: Cyndi Routledge 1515 N. Willow Bend Ct. Clarksville, TN 37043 t *\ STATE TOS MEETING SCHEDULE UNTIL SPRING 2015 Information for all the state meetings will be published in our newsletter, The Tennessee Warbler. Winter meetings will also be posted on the TN-bird listserv. Fall meeting - 201 3. September 27-29, 201 3 - Clarksville, TN Winter meeting - 2013/14. January, 2014 (site to be determined at Fall meeting) Spring meeting - 2014. Chattanooga, TN (dates to be determined) Fall meeting - 2014. Highland Rim chapter hosting at Manchester (dates to be determined) Winter meeting - 2014/15. January, 2015 (site to be determined at Fall meeting 2014) Spring meeting - 2015. Our 100th annual meeting at Montgomery Bell State Park, just west of Nashville, TN. This meeting will actually start Thursday night and it will be a 3 day celebration instead if the usual two day affair. Watch for posts in The Tennessee Warbler for more information. X J The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 3 Knoxville Wonder of Hummingbirds Festival - August 24 th by Vickie Henderson The Ruby-throated Hummingbird weighs only about 1/1 0 th of an ounce and has a brain approximately the size of a BB. Yet hummingbirds are considered masters of navigation, timing and memory. Year after year a male hummingbird may return to the exact same breeding territory and land on the same favored perches on the same calendar date each spring. Females will return to the same nest site, refurbish the nest, and use it for a number of successive years. On August 24 th KTOS will host its third annual Wonder of Hummingbirds Festival, and visitors again will have the opportunity to see Ruby-throated Hummingbirds up-close at the banding table with Mark Armstrong, certified Master Bander of both hummingbirds and songbird species. In addition visitors will be treated to renowned speakers, live animal and drinks, locally made arts and crafts, bird and garden merchandise with nature themes. A hummingbird information booth will show the mapped locations of wintering hummingbirds that have been banded throughout Tennessee in the fall and winter months, and KTOS member and Naturalist Educator, Paula Schneeberger, will be on hand to answer questions. Chris Mahoney, Master Gardener from Chattanooga, will be available to discuss plants and flowering shrubs that can help attract hummingbirds to your garden. This year’s festival features speakers from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with T. David Pitts, Professor of Biology, UT Martin on the topic, “The Hummingbirds that Nest in your Yard”. Other speakers include Marcia Davis, Birdlife Columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel ; David Unger, Professor of Biology, Maryville College; and Steve McGaffin, Naturalist and Educator for the Knoxville Zoo. Lynne McCoy, a wildlife rehabilitator who takes in 600- 800 birds and mammals a year to rehabilitate and release back to the wild when possible, will bring a few of her “ambassadors” to meet festival guests. demonstrations, guided walks, vendors selling food items and a “Bird Bargain Barn” selling gently used The Wonder of Hummingbirds Festival will take place Saturday, August 24 th , from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and has an admission of $5.00. Children under six are admitted free. The festival is being co-sponsored by the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society and Ijams Nature Center and will be located at Ijams, 2915 Island HomeAve., Knoxville, TN 37920 (865-577-4717). KTOS invites everyone to join in the education and fun and celebrate the Wonder of Hummingbirds! If you are interested in helping as a volunteer please contact Billie Cantwell (865-567-4273) or email: bfcantwell@amail.com . The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 4 Discover Birds Activity Book in its Third Printing By Vickie Henderson The 36-page new edition of the TOS Discover Birds Activity Book was released at the 2013 Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival, January 19 th and 20 th at Birchwood, Tennessee. In less than three months the 1000 books were sold out. At the TOS Spring Meeting the executive committee approved a reprinting of 2000 books, making this the third printing of the publication. TOS chapters or individuals that wish to order a quantity of 1 00 or more books will receive the books at a discount rate of $1 .50 per book. Smaller quantities sell for $2.00 per book. To reserve books contact Cyndi Routledge at (931) 648-0911 or email: routledaes@bellsouth.net KTOS Discover Birds Project Reaches Nearly 400 Students KTOS Discover Birds Volunteers were greeted by an enthusiastic group of third graders at Sequovah Elementary School in Knoxville on May 14 th . Sixty-five students and their teachers participated in the program. In the small-group bird walks led by KTOS volunteers Tony King, Kelly Sturner and Chris Welsh, students quickly spotted birds on the school campus and were treated to close views through birding scopes. Kelly Sturner, a first- time volunteer with the program, described her experience leading the bird walks. “I have very little skill in setting up spotting scopes on birds! But the kids were so patient and just lit right up when they saw their first bird through a scope. They were noticing details they had never seen before, like a cardinal has an orange bill and a robin has a yellow bill.” Chris Welsh also described the fun of watching students really see the bird through the scope for the first time. “They look, and at first you can tell they aren’t seeing through the scope. You tell them to get their eye a little closer to the eyepiece, and suddenly they light up with a ‘wow!’ as they see the bird looking back at them.” The students rotated through a Bird Treasures presentation with hands-on objects they could see up close with Doug Schneeberger interpreting, and a slide presentation on birds rounded out the program. Billie Cantwell brought along her bird song application for her smartphone as she presented the slides, and it became a great hit with the students, “...they were asking ‘what app is that, I want it!’ They really enjoyed hearing the songs and if I talked about a bird they would ask ‘Can we hear what it sounds like?”’ Each child received a Discover Birds Activity Book, compliments of the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. One class was prepared with Tennessee Bird Checklists and after their bird walks, students were busy filling out the cards with the birds they had seen. With the addition of the Sequoyah visit KTOS has reached 394 first, second and third graders with the Discover Birds Program. In a recent communication with Sarah Green, a teacher from Sevierville Primary School , one of the three schools the program visited in the 2012-13 school year, Sarah says, “...thanks so much for all your The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 5 Continued from Page 4 efforts. I still have students stop me in the hall and tell me that they have put a bird feeder up for the first time, or they have seen a bird that you all introduced them to. You’ve changed lives, and I thank you for that. Please come back to our school.” If you would like assistance with starting a Discover Birds Program in your area or would like more information about Knoxville’s program contact Billie Cantwell at bfcantwell@amail.com. V isit the Discover Birds Blog for up to date information on school visits and student activities: http://discoverbirds.bloaspot.com/ Discover Birds Activities Become NIMBioS Education Modules In April of this year the National Institute of Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) published two activities from the Discover Birds Activity Book as Education Modules on the organization’s website. Chris Welsh, Deputy Director of NIMBioS, and Kelly Sturner, Education and Outreach Coordinator, both members of KTOS, developed the two activities featured in the book, Bird Champions and Changing Populations. Bird Champions invites students to use math skills to solve a code to learn which birds are the tallest, fastest and migrate the farthest. Changing Populations uses real data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey to find out what’s happening to Tennessee populations of Eastern Bluebirds, Wild Turkey and Northern Bobwhite. The Discover Birds Activity Book and Program were additionally featured in two NIMBioS blog posts authored by Kelly Sturner ( http://www.nimbios.ora/wordpress/2013/04/30/discover-birds-proaram-makes-the-arade/ and http://www.nimbios. ora/wordpress/201 3/03/1 5/kids-discover-birds-with-math/ L As a result of Kelly’s blog posts Ecological Society of America members posted information about the book and our school visits on their Twitter feed and Facebook page. The Ecological Society of America is based in Washington, D.C. and is the country’s largest professional organization of ecologists, representing 10,000 scientists in the United States and around the world. As a result a member of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology sent an inquiry to Kelly Sturner and she subsequently sent a copy of the activity book and information about our Discover Birds Program to Cornell. YOUR DUCK STAMP DOLLARS AT WORK On June 5 th the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (MBCC) approved the addition of more than 9,600 acres in fee-title (direct purchase) and leases to three units of the National Wildlife Refuge System: Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge (Texas) 81 acres fee-title. Red Rocks Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (Montana) 6,323 acres lease. Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge (Louisiana) 3,219 acres fee-title. The funding for all these acquisitions comes from the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund, commonly understood as the account where Duck Stamp dollars are deposited. Everyone who bought a stamp last year actually contributed to acquiring these valuable properties. During 2012 - 2013 almost 63,000 acres were secured through Migratory Bird Conservation Fund acquisitions in fee-title and easement properties across the U. S. for refuges and waterfowl production areas. The 2013 -2014 Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation (Duck) Stamp features the image of a male Common Goldeneye. It went on sale July 1 st . All birders are encouraged to purchase a stamp; still a bargain at $15. Dick Preston The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 6 Spring Count Data Now Due Spring count data are due as soon as possible to allow me to get my report in to the editor of The Migrant. Besides the actual count data, please be sure to include the effort data below: 1 - Hours and miles by car, foot and any night birding 2 - Number of observers and parties 3 - Any feeder watching hours & names 4 - Start and end times for the count 5 - Weather data for the count 6 - Names of all the participants 7 - Anything else about the count, i.e. record high or low numbers, extraordinary weather, all-time species total for your particular count, etc. If you do not have a local compiler you can send the data directly to me at the address/email below. TOS appreciates your efforts to record and track our bird populations and abundance. Thanks for helping us to archive this data for future generations and researchers. Ron Hoff • TOS State Count Compiler 282 Hackworth Ln. • Clinton, TN 37716 • 865-435-4547 aves7000@bellsouth.net Report Peregrine Falcon Sightings During Breeding Season The Peregrine Falcon is celebrated widely for its incredible high speed stoops while hunting prey in flight. Today the species is also highly known for its recovery after populations in North America plummeted with the widespread use of DDT from 1945 through the sixties. In 1997 Tennessee received the first reports of Peregrine re-nesting in the state after an absence of fifty years. An active Peregrine eyrie was discovered in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and another active nest sight was reported on the historic railroad bridge near Chattanooga. Since that time only one additional active eyrie has been confirmed. Of these three sites only one is still active. In the early twentieth century, prior to the species’ disappearance, Tennessee had 25 confirmed Peregrine eyries. In 2012, fifteen years after the first re-nesting occurred, there was only one confirmed active Peregrine eyrie in Tennessee. Bordering states give the following reports of active eyries: Virginia, 23 in 2010; North Carolina, 10 in 2010; Kentucky, 12 in 2012. Peregrine breeding activity in Tennessee begins in early April and lasts through August. TOS members who are back country hikers are encouraged to watch for and report Peregrine activity in remote areas. Please email or call your reports to: Paul Super, biologist for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park ( paul super@nps.aov : 828- 926-6251 ) and Scott Somershoe, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency ornithologist ( Scott.Somershoe@tn.aov : 616-781-6653). Please also copy Vickie Henderson on your sightings correspondence. Email: vickielee13@ amail.com : 865-661-1925. For more information, you may enjoy reading Vickie’s article on “The Peregrine Falcon in Tennessee” in the July/ August issue of the Tennessee Conservationist Magazine published by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation ( http://www.tn.aov/environment/tn consv/1 . The article summarizes the history of the Peregrine in Tennessee, including historic photographs. The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 7 WILD HOG MEETING, MAY 29, 2013 I attended the wild hog Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) meeting at the TWRA headquarters in Nashville. TOS has signed on to support TWRA in their efforts to get the wild hog problem under control. Twenty-two different agencies were represented at the meeting. I was very impressed with the professionalism and seriousness of all the folks who attended. This is a massive problem coming down the pike, and it looks to get worse in the coming years. These are not imported hogs but local pigs that have gotten loose and gone feral. They are breeding faster than the agencies involved can eliminate them, thus necessitating more monetary involvement every year. This takes away badly needed and scarce funds from all other projects that need to be dealt with in the state by TWRA and other agencies. The hogs are wreaking havoc with agriculture by digging up newly planted fields or eating crops outright. This is done mostly at night, as they have figured out that people can’t hunt them as well then. Nine out of 1 0 of the hogs trapped or killed have tested positive as carriers of psuedorabies and/or brucellosis, both of which are harmful to livestock and humans. They compete with other mammals and birds for some of the same food resources and they contribute to erosion and water pollution. It gets worse. 38 states now have wild hogs, and they now cause $1 .5 billion in damage per year, with half of that being agricultural. In Tennessee we now have wild hogs in 89 of our 95 counties, with an estimated 1 37,000 wild hogs in the state. Most of these hogs are concentrated in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and the Cumberland Mountains. This figure is projected to grow to 850,000+ in the next 1 0 years! This will not only require more of TWRA’s scant funds in the coming years, but it will demand it. Chuck Yoest is the wild hog coordinator for TWRA. TWRA knows what the problem is and what they would like to try to do to stem the tide, but this problem is massive and very complex. As with all conservation issues facing us, please show your support by getting it touch with your regional Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission member and/or your state representative. A telephone call or personal letter is always best, but a personal email is valuable as well. Ron Hoff President, TOS TOS Pledges $1000 to Eagle Shooting Reward Fund Made possible by a generous and anonymous donation received by the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society (KTOS), TOS pledged $1000 to the reward fund for information leading to the capture and conviction of those responsible for shooting two bald eagles in east Tennessee earlier this year. One eagle was shot near Soddy Daisy in March, and the second was shot near Madisonville in May. Both eagles were last reported as surviving and receiving rehabilitation at the American Eagle Foundation in Pigeon Forge, TN. The TOS pledge will be added to funds donated by the American Eagle Foundation, The Humane Society of the US, and the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, along with state and federal funds designated for this effort. The TOS donation raises the reward offered to $1 1 ,500 for each eagle. Information about these shootings should be reported to US Fish & Wildlife Service at (865) 692-4024 or Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (800) 262-6704. The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 8 TENNESSEE WHOOPING CRANES, WINTER 2012-2013 Every Whooping Crane in the Eastern Population is fitted with a radio transmitter and uniquely colored leg bands. The captivity-raised young cranes are released in the fall and learn the migration route to wintering habitat either by following Operation Migration’s ultralight aircraft, or by the International Crane Foundation’s method of Direct Autumn Release. Eva Szyszkoski is the Whooping Crane radio tracker for the International Crane Foundation. She found 1 0 cranes in Meigs, Rhea and Hamilton Counties during the winter of 2012-2013: two single females, two single males and three adult pairs of Whooping Cranes. In addition there was an adult pair that spent the winter in Nashville, Davidson County. Unfortunately a male of one of the Meigs County pairs was found dead on February 2. The cause of death was unknown because the carcass was too decomposed at the time it was found. It is important to note that the number of Whooping Cranes recorded in Tennessee during the 2012-2013 winter season is an absolute minimum. Eva radio tracks Whooping Cranes throughout the wintering range from Florida to Indiana. These 1 0 birds were the only ones she received radio signals from during her few visits to Tennessee last winter. The Davidson County pair of cranes spent the winter on private property and was identified by their colored bands. Melinda Welton WHOOPING CRANE SHOOTING CASES In separate incidents and legal cases two men in the U.S. were sentenced recently for shooting and killing endangered Whooping Cranes during their southward migration from the Wood Buffalo National Park population in Canada. In Texas a 42-year-old man shot a juvenile Whooping Crane in January after mistaking it for a Sandhill Crane. He pleaded guilty on 6 March to one count of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and was fined $5,000, ordered to make a $1 0,000 community service payment to the Friends of Aransas and Matagorda Island National Wildlife Refuges and placed on probation for one year. In South Dakota a man was sentenced in February for shooting an adult Whooping Crane in April of last year. The 26-year-old man was ordered to pay $85,000 in restitution, placed on probation for two years, had his hunting rifle confiscated and lost hunting rights anywhere in the U.S. for two years. CERULEAN WARBLER MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES Interested in recommendations for retaining and enhancing habitat for Cerulean Warblers? There is a new downloadable 25-page document available from the Appalachian Mountain Joint Venture titled “Cerulean Warbler Management Guidelines for Appalachian Hardwood Forests” that should be appreciated by federal, state, and private foresters, land managers, biologists and any other involved bird or conservation organizations. These guidelines are based largely on the recently completed Cooperative Cerulean Warbler Forest Management Project, but they also incorporate relevant findings from other research projects. The guidelines apply primarily to upland oak-dominated habitats where the majority of the reported research was completed. You can view and download the guidelines here: http://amjv.org/documents/cerulean guide 1-pa lavout.pdf Above articles from Birding Community E-bulletin - April 2013 The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 9 Sandhill Crane Survey A recent study was conducted for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) to determine residents’ and hunters’ knowledge of and experiences with Sandhill Cranes, their opinions on hunting Sandhill Cranes and their experiences with the Tennessee Sandhill Crane Festival. The study entailed a telephone survey of residents of Tennessee, residents of the proposed Sandhill Crane hunt area and hunters. TOS (President Preston and our Conservation Policy Committee) was given a pre-survey brief by Responsive Management, the firm selected to conduct the study, and given an opportunity to comment on proposed questions as well as an opportunity to suggest questions of interest to TOS. TWRA gave serious consideration to all concerns raised by TOS, and several questions were modified or added to the study to address those concerns. The study was conducted during April 2013. Among the results one encouraging conclusion stood out: “While approval of hunting is high (ranging from 80% on up to nearly 100% among the six groups studied), there is little support for the hunting of Sandhill Cranes - even among hunters there is not a majority in support.” To view the complete study results: http://www.tennessee.aov/twra/pdfs/cranereport.pdf Dick Preston TWRA Requests Public Input on Migratory Bird Issue The following announcement has been posted by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and can be found at this link: https://news.tn.gOv/node/1 0960 The TWRA is also soliciting input on a possible Sandhill Crane hunting season. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recommended a potential 60-day Sandhill Crane season, with 775 permits available (3 birds per permit). The Sandhill Crane zone would be restricted to the southeastern portion of the state (south of 1-40, east of Hwy 56) where the majority of the birds migrate. To provide comments on the Sandhill Crane season send emails to TWRA.Comment@tn.aov with the subject line “Sandhill Crane.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will also have a 10-day public comment period once the recommendation is published to the Federal Register in late July. Both the Waterfowl opening day survey and the TWRA Sandhill Crane comment period will be open until August 1 0, 201 3. For those individuals without internet services comments on both issues can be mailed to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Att: Waterfowl Regulations, PO. Box 40747, Nashville, TN, 37204. Sportsmen casting a vote on the opening day of waterfowl seasons must supply a valid TWRA ID number. In addition to sending your comments to the above email address, it is also suggested that you send a copy to Chairman Jeff McMillin (jeff.mcmillin@tn.gov ). Director Ed Carter ( ed .carter@tn.gov ) and your area TFWC Commissioner. The contact information for all commissioners is found here: http://www.tn.aov/twra/comnames. html You will also find the video of the most recent commission meeting on this page. The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 10 CHAPTER NEWS The LEE AND LOIS HERNDON CHAPTER ofTOS held its annual Spring Bird Count Saturday, April 27. The day started off damp and remained so for the duration of the count. A total of 39 participants in nine parties took part in this year’s count. Despite less-than-ideal conditions the count found 1 55 species of birds, which is slightly above average for this yearly survey of birds in the counties of Carter, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi and Washington. Some of the exceptional birds for the count included Lesser Scaup, Red-necked Grebe, Sandhill Crane, American Avocet, Black-crowned Night-heron, Northern Harrier, Sora, Herring Gull, Grasshopper Sparrow, Bobolink, Purple Finch and Baltimore Oriole. The chapter conducted its 20th Carter County Summer Bird Counton Saturday, June 8. A total of 1 9 observers in five different parties participated in the count. Atotal of 121 species was found which established a new record. The old record of 118 species dated back to 2008. Despite the record number of species compiler Rick Knight noted that Great Horned Owl was a notable miss. Other birds not found included Bald Eagle and Black- billed Cuckoo. The average number of species found over the previous 1 9 years was 1 1 2 species. “Over the 20 year run of this count 149 species have been found,” Knight said. Of that number 81 species occurred every year while 16 occurred in just one year. Knight said that some unexpected finds this year included Black- crowned Night-Heron and White-throated Sparrow. The most numerous bird on the count was the European Starling with 389 individuals counted. Other common birds included American Robin (282), Barn Swallow (157), Canada Goose (137), Indigo Bunting (130) and American Crow (118). With 100 individuals counted the Hooded Warbler was the most numerous of the 20 species of warblers found during the count. Other abundant warblers included Ovenbird (80) and Chestnut-sided Warbler (31). There will be a long gap between counts now. The next count conducted by the chapter will be the Fall Bird Count, which is a regional census conduced in the five- county area of Northeast Tennessee in late September. Martha R. Dillenbeck, 93, a long-time chapter member, died Monday, February 1 8, 201 3, at the NHC Johnson City. She was a native of Reading, Pa., and had lived in Johnson City since 1962. She received a bachelor’s degree from Kutztown State Teachers College and a master’s degree from Penn State University in Speech Pathology. She started the Speech Correction and Remedial Reading programs in the public schools of Hershey, Pa. Eight years later, she helped to set up the Speech and Hearing Clinic at the Harrisburg Center of Penn State where she was an Assistant Professor. She was a supervisor in the Speech and Hearing Clinic on the Penn State main campus for three summers. Martha was an avid birder. She held several offices with the chapter and had led birding trips locally and to Roan Mountain. She participated in many bird counts in this area. In 2004, the Herndon Chapter honored her 40 years of dedicated service. Birding was her favorite hobby. She also delighted in gardening and sewing. As an active member of Our Savior Lutheran Church, she had served on Church Council, taught Sunday School for 10 years, gave programs on “Birds of the Bible” in the morning circle of WE LCA (women’s group), organized member visits to nursing homes and helped Cover Girls to make quilts. Bryan Stevens, Newsletter Editor OCTOBER 31ST DEADLINE The deadline date for the December issue of The Tennessee Warbler is October 31st. Please submit all articles, announcements, reports and items of interest by this deadline date. Submit Material To: Theresa Graham, Editor PO Box 366, Oakland TN 38060 (901)465-4263 (home) (901) 748-9324 (fax) e-mail: 2araham@bellsouth.net The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 11 CHAPTER NEWS MEMPHIS CHAPTER - At our May meeting the following officers were elected for the coming year: President, Gaynell Perry; Vice-President, Pam Key; Secretary, Knox Martin; Treasurer, Barbara Bullock Pyles; Local Directors, Jay Walko and David Blaylock; State Directors, Susan McWhirter, Mac McWhirter and Dick Preston Within the past few months, two of our members have passed away. Dr. Gerald Papachristou joined TOS in 1 975 and was one of the leaders of our annual hike in Overton Park. Gary Bentley had been a member of our chapter since 2007. He and wife Sheila had been scheduled to give a talk to the chapter on the birds of South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe when Gary became ill. Both men will be missed. Eric Rosenthal entered his rendering of a Hooded Merganser in the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Design Contest and was awarded first place for his age group in Tennessee. He has agreed to provide the cover design for the chapter’s upcoming membership directory. Knox Martin is hosting again our summer picnic at the Raptor Center at Shelby Farms in Memphis. David Blaylock KNOXVILLE CHAPTER- Forthe March meeting Lynne McCoy, a home-based Wildlife Rehabber, brought some of her “ambassadors” to the meeting including hawks and owls. Michael Sledieski talked about Rankin Wildlife Management Area in April, and in May Roger Applegate gave a presentation on the history and future of the Northern Bobwhite in Tennessee. At the June picnic officers for the 2013-2014 year were installed: Billie Cantwell as President, Patty Ford as Vice President, Karen Wilkinson as Secretary and Carole Gobert as Treasurer. Chris Welsh and Michael Plaster also began terms as State Directors. The 2013 TOS Spring State Meeting was held in Knoxville April 26-28 with the meetings and banquet on Saturday and field trips on Saturday and Sunday between rain storms. A Discover Birds program was created for Sixty-five 3rd graders at Sequoyah Elementary on May 14. Full story about the program can be found on page 4. There were birding field trips to Sharp’s Ridge, Obed Wild and Scenic River, Big South Fork and Schoolhouse Gap Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Don’t miss the KTOS Wonder of Hummingbirds Festival on Saturday, August 24th, 2013. See page 3 for complete details about the festival. Melinda Fawver, KTOS Secretary STEPHEN M. RUSSELL CHAPTER (Bristol) - In May the Bristol Bird Club elected officers for 2013-2014. They are: Lois Cox, President; John Moyle, First Vice-President; Mary Erwin, Second Vice-President; Faye Wagers, Secretary; and Judy Roach, Treasurer. The officers assumed duties at the annual picnic held at Steele Creek Park on June 15. A Great Crested Flycatcher was frequently spotted in a nearby tree during our picnic. Recent programs at our regular meetings included a presentation by Dr. David Kirschke about his experiences of pelagic birding off the Atlantic coast and one by Tom Hunter on Birds of Panama. Some of our members led bird walks at Natural Tunnel State Park in Virginia the third weekend in May during a Naturalist Weekend at the park. Our club will lead two bird walks at Fun Fest in Kingsport, TN. One will be to Bays Mountain Park and the other on the Greenbelt in Kingsport. Our club participates annually in these events. Plans are underway for a full and eventful year ahead. Lois Cox, President The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 12 Migration Magic We have all experienced the wonder of migration as the seasons change and the birds come and go. But for a few of us who attended the NTOS field trip to Dauphin Island in April we were able to experience this wonder in a most inspiring and personal way. Acold, misty and blustery morning forced our intrepid band of birders to head toward the eastern side of the island near Ft. Gaines. The expected cast of characters was there: Brown Pelicans, Laughing Gulls, Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings, Least Sandpipers, a Snowy Egret, etc. While we were enjoying the sights of shorebirds and sea birds a lone Yellow-billed Cuckoo surprisingly whizzed right by us into a low, dense hedgerow approximately 20-30 yards wide. Okay, check off the Yellow-billed Cuckoo for the day. Within 15-20 minutes another lone cuckoo sailed by us into the same hedge. Twenty minutes or so later here came another... then another and another.... roughly the same interval of time and never more than one at a time, all landing quickly and immediately hidden in the dense hedge. What we all began to realize, as this continued over the next few hours, was that we were indeed witnessing the final stage of migration across the Gulf of Mexico for each of these South American wintering cuckoos. Amazingly, although they were not landing en masse, they were all landing within the same 20 - 30 yards of one another. We were directly in the “Yellow-billed Cuckoo” landing strip for that day! After awhile I wanted to applaud them, much like the runners crossing the finish line at a marathon. “Good job!!... Way to go!! I knew you could do it!!...Atta boy, Y.B.!!” But experiencing this just prompted more questions. Did the cuckoos all leave together or separately? Were they “pre-programmed” to follow the same pathway or did weather conditions dictate their flight pattern? After that long arduous flight why did they have to dodge the Peregrine Falcon stealthily monitoring their arrival from the safety of the shoreline? (Who put him in charge of the Welcome Wagon, anyway?). As far as we know they all made it, albeit one of them just barely! Simply stated, it was a marvelously magical spectacle to experience, one that none of us will likely soon forget. Steve Routledge NTOS / \ Congratulations, Chloe! We’re excited to announce that NTOS member Chloe Walker has finished second in her age group (11 - 13) in this year’s ABA Young Birders Program. Chloe has been very active in NTOS as well. Besides being very active on our field trips she has volunteered her time on behalf of NTOS at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville. Subsequently, she also developed a proposal and then spearheaded the Sandhill Crane bracelet fund that has made over $500 in this specific conservation effort. We appreciate all that she is doing for birds and birding here in Tennessee. Thank you, Chloe. Keep up the good work! Steve Routledge NTOS The Tennessee Warbler August, 2013 Page 13 OPERATION MIGRATION 2013-2014 Operation Migration (OM) has played a lead role in the reintroduction of endangered Whooping Cranes into Eastern North America since 2001 . Using ultralight aircraft (ULs), OM pilots act as surrogate parents and guide captive-hatched and imprinted Whooping Cranes along a planned migration route beginning in Wisconsin and ending in Florida. First OM needs whoopers. According to OM’s Brooke Pennypacker, one hundred eggs were produced at the whooper propagation centers this spring, with another 25 collected from abandoned nests in Wisconsin. Conventional wisdom states that roughly 75% of the eggs will hatch into chicks. On this basis the Recovery Team allocated chicks as follows: 14 to Louisiana with a few genetic holdbacks, 6 to the Parent Rearing Experiment at Necedah, 8 to DAR, and 8 chicks to OM. OM’s 8 chicks, hatched in May, were trained at Patuxent, MD, by Brooke Pennypacker and Geoff Tarbox. At this stage the chicks are brown and white and flightless. The chicks were moved from Patuxent, MD, to White Marsh, Wl, on July 9, 2013, once again by the generous people at Win d way Airway. At White River Marsh, OM’s team will continue training the chicks with ULs and Special Light Sport Aircraft (SLSA) until time to migrate south, sometime in early October. You may follow the training by contacting http://operationmiaration.org/ . Each summer, before the birds are shipped from Patuxent, MD to White River Marsh, Wl, the pen site must be de-winterized and refurbished after a long winter hiatus. Volunteers tackled the task of mowing and weed whacking the pens and aircraft runway which were covered in lush growth due to above average rainfall. Large tractors on the runway cut ruts so smaller lighter mowers were used to tame the jungle. A formidable task was accomplished. Seven states and 1,285 miles separate the current class of 8 Whooping Cranes from their summer home in Wisconsin and their wintering grounds in Florida. OM needs your help to make this migration happen. For 12 years OM has relied on contributions from individuals and foundations to continue their work. This year’s budget for the migration is set at $257,000. As of July 6, 2013, $18,000 has been contributed towards this goal by MileMaker supporters. Two hundred dollars per mile is this year’s campaign request. So far TOS has contributed to one mile. There are many member clubs in TN. Contribute from your club this year and assist OM in this worthy cause. In conclusion, after 10 years the maximum size of the Eastern Migratory population Whooping Cranes as of June 15, 2013, was 104 birds according to Eva Szyszkoski of the International Crane Foundation. Of these, 97 were located in Wisconsin. Bird On!! Tony King, Certified Craniac (865) 988-6172 Send corrections & Change of Address Requests To: npmcwhirter@amail.com “THE TENNESSEE WARBLER” Published by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 1760 Rayburn Walling Road Rock Island, TN 38581 PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Memphis, TN Permit No. 478 Want to save a tree, unclutter your mailbox and save mailing expense for the Society? If you would prefer to read each edition of The Warbler online at the TOS website http://tnbirds.org/warbler.htm please drop Mac McWhirter an email at npmcwhirter@amail.com The Tennessee Warbler - August, 2013