CALENDAR

March 27 - Field trip to Grey Reef - Meet at 9:00 am at Audubon Center at Garden Creek

April 2 - General Meeting - See article HERE

April 4 - 2:00 am - Daylight Savings Time Begins

April 10 - Hat 6 Lek field Trip - See article HERE

April 13 - Bd. Mtg. - Casper College - 7:30 pm

April 22 - Raptors Class - See article HERE

April 24 - Field trip - See article HERE

May 31 - Birdathon - See article HERE

June 4-5 - Casper Bird Festival - See article HERE

August 28 - Murie Audubon 50th Anniversary Celebration - See article HERE

Feb. 5, 2005 - Murie Audubon Annual Banquet

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

(Click on title to go directly to article.  Click on Sage-Grouse at end of article to come back HERE)

APRIL PROGRAM

NATIVE SNAKES OF WYOMING

Don Tipton of Casper will speak to us about native Wyoming snakes and their conservation. He will also tell us about his wildlife-based facility called the Rocky Mountain Vivarium (RMV). Don works for the City of Casper as an Urban Forester, which allows him the unique opportunity to practice his lifelong hobby of herpetoculture. As a professional Herpetoculturist, Don works with all types of reptiles and amphibians, including highly dangerous species. He also works with arachnids.

After attending both Casper College and the University of Wyoming, Don began working with Metro Animal Control in 1997 as their "exotics specialist" plus serving on the Amoco Reuse Agreement Joint Powers board where his now serves as Chairman. Don devotes many voluntary hours to Metro both training officers and answering calls from Natrona County citizens concerning exotic animals. In the summer, Don provides a service to homeowners when they are confronted with either native snakes in their yards or escaped reptiles; he will identify the animal and remove it for relocation, treatment, or adoption. This service is an important concept in the mission statement of RMV, which focuses on conservation.  Don, through RMV, continues to educate the public through program presentations at schools, Casper College, and a monthly television segment on KCWY. He also provides training seminars for Parks and Utility workers, state and federal Animal Control officers, US F&W officers, State G&F officers, USDA officials, and law enforcement personnel.

Come join us on Friday, April 2, 2004 at 7 PM at the Don Basko Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Building at 2211 King Blvd. Please note new meeting location. Turn off 13th street (which runs between the Natrona County fairgrounds and Platte River Commons) north onto King Blvd. which leads directly to the building.

As always, the program is free and open to the public, bring a friend and come join us. Bring your quarters for another drawing of the "bird boxes". Congratulations to March's four winners! Bruce Walgren

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK

Audubon's main focus should be on birds. Our Chapter has been very good about maintaining this focus. Not only do we support the bird hospital and bird hotline, but our education efforts are the bird identification classes and Audubon Adventures for the classroom.

Sage-grouse are another area of interest. We are very involved with the Wyoming G&F sage-grouse conservation planning - Murie members make up about one-third of the local sage-grouse working group. In April we will again monitor sage-grouse leks. It is really important to keep monitoring the ones that we did in past years so that we have a complete record. We have expanded from the original four main leks in Bates Hole, and now monitor leks all over this area. All the sage-grouse monitoring being done in Casper Region is coordinated by Stan Harter, local G&F Wildlife Biologist. Anyone interested in helping with this monitoring should either contact Stan Harter (473-3400), or me (265-6213).

On another note, we will elect our officers at our May meeting. Rose-Mary King is leading the nominating committee. In order to continue our efforts, we need an active and energetic Board. Please don't wait for us to ask you to join the Board, give Rose-Mary a call (577-0568).

Field Trips - Saturday, April 10, meet at 5:45 am at the eastside Safeway parking lot to go to the Hat 6 sage-grouse lek. This is a tremendous show, and worth getting up early to see. Remember, don't get out of your car at the lek. These birds totally ignore cars, but people really stress them.
Stacey Scott

BIRD NOTES

In spite of the big snowstorm we had a few weeks ago (some of which still remains in evidence), Spring is starting to push its way into Wyoming. Waterfowl are beginning to make their way northward; House Finches have been singing for a month; and Red-winged Blackbirds sightings are increasing - the boys are singing, flashing their epaulets, deciding on where to stake out territories, and waiting for the girls to show up. Robins have been practically nonexistent in the Casper area, but are now starting to show up everywhere, belting out their familiar "cheerily, cheeriup" that makes me feel comfortable that Spring is sure to be here before long.

Cooper's Hawks, Sharpies, and Merlins are still doing feeder watch - and Lonnie Frimann still has the Curve-billed Thrasher on his ranch north of Scottsbluff, NE. (That is a very confused bird - or maybe it's just contrary!)
 

Yard Birds - February's yard bird list totaled 187 selections (71 different species) from 20 states plus Rio Negro, Brazil. The top pick was the American Robin (Spring is on its way!!), Sharp-shinned Hawk was 2nd again, with Bald Eagle and Northern Flicker tied for 3rd place.

In Wyoming:

Thanks to all who helped with the Yard Bird Project in February. Bird activity should be increasing from now on - with the possibility of an interesting bird or two showing up. (Bruce and I had a lone Chukar wandering the streets in our neighborhood a couple weeks ago.) Send your March selection to Donna Walgren (234-7455), 4311 S. Center St., Casper 82601, or email Donna.

To find out what has been seen around the state and other bird-related news, call 265-BIRD (in Casper), 1-888-265-BIRD (outside of Casper). Donna Walgren

CONSERVATION NOTES

Senate Deletes Arctic NWR Drilling Revenues from Budget - The Senate passed its budget resolution for fiscal year 2005) without the inclusion of revenues (direct or indirect) from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. At this time, the US House is finalizing its budget resolution. House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) says he will not include drilling revenues from ANWR. Keep the pressure on our legislators!!!

Mercury in the Atmosphere - As currently written, the Clean Air Act requires power plants to update their facilities in order to significantly reduce mercury emissions within a specific timeframe. The Administration and the EPA have proposed a rule change to the Clean Air Act that would allow power plants to continue emitting elevated mercury levels by delaying mercury reductions by a decade or more. When this pollution falls out of the atmosphere, it ends up in our waters and accumulates in the food chain.

Population and Habitat - On March 10, 2004, Western Hemisphere countries voted 40-1 to reaffirm a world commitment to the global environment originally adopted ten years ago to tackle the problem of rapid population growth in the developing world, including its impact on the environment. Only the United States voted no, despite being a vocal supporter of the original effort in 1994.

Scientists Support Endangered Species Act - On March 8th, more than 350 prominent scientists, among them Jane Goodall, joined together to submit a letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) urging them to reverse a proposal to change the Endangered Species Act by expanding the importation of endangered species. This change will help grease the wheels for circuses, pet importers, and leather importers that would like for it to be easier to capture, exploit, and even kill endangered species in foreign countries. The public comment period for this change closed on March 9th, but feel free to continue submitting letters to the USFWS, your legislators, and President Bush so they will know of your opposition. (from Audubon Advisory, March 12, 2004)

Medicine Bow National Forest Management Plan - In January the US Forest Service finally released the long-range management plan for the Medicine Bow NF. Notably, there is a gain of nearly 30,000 acres of new wilderness which includes 17,530 acres in the Rock Creek Roadless Area. Located northwest of Laramie, Rock Creek is the largest remaining heavily forested area in the Snowy Range to remain untouched by logging and road building.

Lawsuit to Eliminate Preble's Jumping Mouse Protection - The Preble's meadow jumping mouse was listed as threatened in 1998 because of declining populations, habitat loss, and other threats. The Prebles's needs high quality streamside habitat, including dense vegetation and a clean water source. Urban sprawl along the Front Range of Colorado, domestic livestock grazing, and irrigation developments have all degraded streamside habitats. Poorly planned agricultural development is also a threat in southeastern Wyoming. On March 8th, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance (BCA) moved to oppose a lawsuit aimed at eliminating protection for the Preble's. Although opponents claim that protecting the mouse is harming agriculture in Wyoming, in 2001, USFWS actually exempted all ongoing agriculture development on private lands from complying with the Endangered Species Act. Therefore, all ongoing domestic livestock grazing, haying, mowing, irrigation ditch maintenance, and other activities (which are all reported to harm the mouse and its habitat) are not restricted in any way. This exception is planned to remain in effect indefinitely. (from Biodiversity Conservation Alliance's E-Mail Newsletter)

Economics of Birding - In 2001, American birders spent $32 billion on optics, travel, food, cabins, and other expenses, demonstrating significant economic clout, according to "Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis," published in August, 2003. This generated $85 billion in overall economic output, and $13 billion in federal and state income taxes, and supported more than 863,00 jobs. To be considered a birder, one has to travel more than a mile from home for the primary purpose of observing birds or make a purposeful effort to identify them around home. However, the report says that the number of backyard birders has been declining since 1991 when it stood at 51.3 million, then dropped to 42.2 million in 1996 and to 40.3 million in 2001.

Condor Chick Fledges - The California Condor chick that hatched in a Grand Canyon Cave last spring flew from its nest on November 5. "It was not the graceful flight we had envisioned; it was more like a controlled fall and our hearts were in our throats as it dropped 500 to 600 feet below the nest cave," says biologist Sophie Osborn. All condor chicks are closely monitored. The only other condor chick to hatch in the wild in 2003 was found to be severely diseased and had to be euthanized. (from Birder's World, February, 2004 and Bird Watcher's Digest, March/April, 2004)

Murie Conservation Committee

NOTES FROM MARCH

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

Donna Walgren, Recording Secretary

WYOMING COUNTY BIRD LISTS

Here are the county life list totals that we have received for through 12/31/03. Since there was a mix-up on notification of when to send these numbers in, if anyone would still like to have their totals included, please go ahead and send them to Donna Walgren, 4311 S. Center St., Casper, WY 82601, or email Donna. We do not need the annotated list, just the number for each county with 125 or more. (Do not include your additions for 2004.) As you can see, there aren't a lot of high numbers - I know many people have bigger lists - show us what we can shoot for!!!

         257 Jean Adams, Sundance

        145 Will Cornell, Rock Springs, WY

Donna walgren

MONITORING AVIAN PRODUCTIVITY AND SURVIVORSHIP (MAPS) BIRD BANDING PROGRAM

Background of MAPS: The Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) Program is designed to provide the critical information of the life histories of individual birds and on the size, productivity, survivorship, recruitment and migration routes of bird populations. This information is essential to bird conservation and monitoring programs, and much of it cannot be gathered in any other way. It is becoming increasingly apparent that Earth's biosphere and its landbird populations are facing a growing number of environmental threats of ever-increasing severity. Many of these threats, such as extensive habitat loss, climate change, loss of stratospheric ozone, and toxic pollution are truly global scale. It is not surprising therefore, that a number of large-scale, long-term monitoring programs for landbirds were already in place before the MAPS program. However, many of monitoring programs fail to provide data on the primary demographic parameters (productivity and survivorship) of landbirds. Without this critical data, it is difficult if not impossible to population changes.

Objectives and Outcome of the MAPS Program: Audubon Wyoming will accomplish the goals of gathering information about bird productivity and survivorship in Wyoming by constant-effort mist-netting and banding during the breeding season. The MAPS banding course will provide participates with the skills necessary to become banding assistants in avian research and standardized monitoring programs. Topics include, operation of and removal of birds from mist nets, bird-handling skills, in-hand aging and sexing methods, and scoring and recording of data using MAPS protocol. Discussions will cover avian life histories, energetic and molt, and banding ethics.

The MAPS program will enable volunteers to get up close and personal with the birds inhabiting Wyoming. All volunteers are required to attend a banding training class on May 27, 2004, which will begin at 7 am and end approximately 12 pm at the Audubon Center at Garden Creek (101 Garden Creek Road). The training will provide the volunteers with the skills required to set up and take down mist nets, remove birds from nets, and band, ID, sex, and age the birds. The banding station (where mist netting will take place) will be located at the Audubon Center at Garden Creek in Casper. Bird banding will begin June 9, 2004 and continue through August 4, 2004 banding within the appropriate established periods.

2004 BIRDING CLASSES

Bruce Dudley, Education Coordinator of Audubon Wyoming, and Murie Audubon is offering the following classes for the 2004 year. If you have any questions, please call Bruce at (307) 473-1987 or E-Mail Bruce.

All classes will be on Thursday evening and field trips on Saturday morning unless otherwise noted.
 

ACGC is Audubon Center at Garden Creek in Casper, WY.
 

April 22 "RAPTORS", 7 - 8:30 pm, class at ACGC - Instructor - Stacey Scott, Murie Audubon President and experienced birder.
April 24 field trip, meet at ACGC at 8:00 am, back at noon. Areas visited will be Boxelder Road and along the Laramie Range.

May 6 "SPARROWS", 7 - 8:30 pm, class at ACGC - Instructor - Chris Michelson, Murie Audubon Treasurer and experienced birder.
May 8 field trip - meet at 7:30 am Audubon Center at Garden Creek, 101 Garden Creek Rd.  Area birded will be Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park

May 27 "WARBLERS", 7 - 8:30 pm, class at ACGC - Instructor - Ann Hines, Murie Audubon Education Chairman and experienced birder.
May 29 field trip - meet at 7:00 am at the eastside Safeway.  Area birded will be Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park to identify migrating warblers as well as other migrants and locals.

June 25 (Friday) "FLYCATCHERS", 7 - 8:30 pm, class at ACGC - Instructor - Stacey Scott, Murie Audubon President and experienced birder.
June 26 field trip - meet at ACGC 8:00 am, back at noon. Coal Mountain Rd., Little Red Creek area and Muddy Mountain.

July 22 "SHOREBIRDS", 7 - 8:30 pm, class at ACGC - Instructor - Chris Michelson, Murie Audubon Treasurer and experienced birder.
July 24 field trip - meet at 8:30 am at Audubon Center at Garden Creek, 101 Garden Creek Rd. Area birded will be Goldeneye Reservoir.

August 19 "BATS", 6 - 8 pm, Wyoming Game & Fish Bldg., 3030 Energy Lane, Pronghorn Room,  field trip to Audubon Center at Garden Creek, 101 Garden Creek Rd. following class. 

September 23 "GALLINACEOUS BIRDS", 7 - 8:30 pm, class at ACGC - Instructor - Stacey Scott, Murie Audubon President and experienced birder.
September 25 field trip - meet at Audubon Center at Garden Creek, 101 Garden Creek Rd. at 8 am.   Areas to be birder will be announced at Thursday’s class.

October 28 "FIELD EXPERIENCES", 7 - 8:30 pm, class at ACGC, Instructor - Bruce Dudley, Education Coordinator for Audubon Wyoming

November - Gull Trip to Colorado - sponsored by MAS

Rose-Mary King

BIRDATHON

Murie Audubon Chapter's birdathon will be May 31st. This is a fund raiser for Murie so get your teams together and your sponsors lined up. Your team can go on your own or you can join up with the larger group. The early birders will meet at the eastside Safeway at 5:00 am. We will check the Hat Six lek and birding spots on up the road pending access. Late birders can join up with the early birders at 7:00 am at Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park (bring coffee and donuts!)

Rose-Mary King

MURIE AUDUBON'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Can you believe it? We are 50 years old this year.

Murie's board has been discussing ideas for the celebration and we have set August 28th for the date. We would like to hold the celebration at Izaak Walton, the meeting place of Wyoming Audubon, our name before we became Murie Audubon Chapter.

In order to make this a great celebration we very much need the input of our members. Specifically we need:

1. a chair(s) for the celebration

2. birding experience stories

3. birding trip stories

4. pictures from down through the years

5. memorabilia from the early years to the present

6. early member lists

7. accomplishments

8. anything else you would like to see included

Please consider how you would like to help. Contact Stacey Scott (265-6213) or Rose-Mary King (577-0568).

Rose-Mary King

RECYCLE PRINTER INK CARTRIDGES

Don't forget to bring your used printer cartridges to the next General Meeting on April 2 to recycle. Or you can call or email Rose-Mary (307-577-0568, Send E-Mail) and I will pick them up from you. We will be paid from $1 - 5 for each cartridge sent in to US Recycling.

Several of you have contributed your used cartridges and I will be sending in a box of them soon. THANKS!

Rose-Mary King

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!

The first 3 months' newsletter of 2004 were folded by Murie Audubon Chapter members who answered my plea with only a few hours notice. I would list your names but I'm afraid of leaving someone out - you know who you are and I thank you very much.

Also, I would like to on my behalf and those who attend the monthly general meetings, thank Bruce & Donna Walgren for unlocking the doors, setting up speaker equipment and getting the hot water ready as well as bringing in a lot of supplies to each meeting. And thank you, "goody bringers" for your delicious delectables!

Rose-Mary King

REMEMBERING DR. RONALD LUND

Ron Lund was one of the nicest people I have ever known. He was not afraid to defend what he believed in with thoughtful, knowledgeable comments, and he dedicated much time and energy to the support of those causes. I really enjoyed working with him in Murie Audubon.

We all miss him very much.

Lois Layton

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