MURIE AUDUBON SOCIETY                                                    CASPER, WYOMING
VOLUME 39 - ISSUE 5                     MONTHLY PUBLICATION              SEPTEMBER 2005

CALENDAR

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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

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INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING

    Dave Hough of the Casper Planning Division will be the guest speaker at the Murie Audubon monthly meeting.  The Planning Division provides long range community planning services to the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council. The Planning Division promotes the "livability" of the community by ensuring that new private developments meet community standards. Planning is responsible for administering the policies, programs and regulations that manage the housing, commercial and industrial growth and development of the City of Casper.  Its staff advises the City Manager, the Planning and Zoning Commission, and the City Council on matters affecting physical development within the City. The Planning Department assists the public with floodplain information and requests for zone changes, annexations, conditional use permits, plats/replats, variances, and site plans. Mr. Hough will explain the process of planning for this growth and how individuals and groups can become involved with the process.

      Join us on Friday, September 2nd at 7 pm at the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission Building at 2211 King Blvd.  As always, the program is free and open to the public.

Bruce Walgren  - Program Chair

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK

    Wheeeeeee!  What a great summer I had.  Hope all of you did, also.  Seems to soon for thinking about fall things but time doesn’t stand still.

    I went to two birding festivals in April - Cortez, CO and Great Bend, KS - and the Platte Valley/Saratoga Birding Festival in June.  Had a great time at all three and managed to get 10 life birds.  Also participated in the Flamm Fest in the Battle Pass area of the Sierra Madre Mtns. in July seeing my first Purple Martin and really seeing a Flammulated Owl not just hearing it call at night.  We all gathered a short distance away from an aspen tree and the scopes were set up and cameras on tripods.  When all were ready, Kim Potter walked over and tapped on the tree trunk and about 20 feet above her head out popped Mrs. Flamm as if to say,  “Who’s that tapping on my tree?”  We all got great looks.  Kim walked around the area in the afternoon tapping on many, many trees before she found the nest.

    I traveled to Brush, CO to see my Mother and to Cheyenne to see our granddaughter, Brooklyn - oh, yes, and our son and daughter-in-law - several times over the summer.  We celebrated Brooklyn’s first birthday in July, but Grandma Rosey had to show her how to eat her birthday cake.  I spent a week babysitting in August - well it was 6 days and since she is walking, there wasn’t much “sitting” unless she was napping.  It was a great time!

    Birders in the Pinedale area have decided to start a chapter of their own.  Brian Rutledge, Audubon Wyoming Director, gained a variance from NAS for the Pinedale birders so they could start a chapter without reaching the required number of members.  We bid the Murie members in that area farewell as they will be reassigned by NAS.

    Alison Holloran ran the bird-banding sessions this summer at Audubon Center at  Garden Creek (and in Laramie as well) and it was an unusual season.  We had a couple of nice days, rained-out one day, wind-blown another day, almost captured two deer fawns, but for the 6 banding days, the totals were:  107 new bands, 38 recaptures, 45 un-banded, for a total of 190 birds caught!  Several new people participated, interested on-lookers dropped by and kids from St. Joseph’s in Torrington descended  upon us one day.

    Bruce Dudley resigned from his position with Audubon Wyoming this past July.  In appreciation of his educational efforts both with the school kids and Murie, Murie hosted a pot-luck supper out at Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park.  Good eats and good fun.  Many of us thought, “Why don’t we do this every year as a summer get together?”  Thanks go to Gloria & Jim Lawrence and Ann & Wil Hines for organizing the get together.  PHOTO GALLERY

    Murie volunteers, Chris Michelson, Jim Herold (and daughter, Brigid), Bart and Liz Rea, Marcie Andre, Dinah Utah, yours truly and Brian Rutledge and Diana Walter with Audubon Wyoming had a successful day of cleaning up around Audubon Center at Garden Creek in July.  Audubon Wyoming has moved their office back to the Center and it was time for a clean-up both inside the Center, on the grounds and along the bird trail.  Liz  and Dinah cleaned the bathrooms, Marcie and Liz cleaned the bookcases and display cases, Marcie moved boxes in the basement,  Marcie, Dinah, Brigid vacuumed and I cleaned the kitchen, took pictures of everyone working inside and out, and  Brigid helped me finish the kitchen in the afternoon.  Chris zoomed around the area on the tractor lawn mower as well as running the grass trimmer.  Brian and Diana did all sorts of jobs outside with the tractor, tree trimmers, and grass trimmers.  Jim whacked away at brush along the bird trail.  Bart, decked out in his serious tractor mower gear - hat, mask, and protective ear- and eye-ware - mowed along the bird trail making it wider and easier to follow.   We accomplished a lot but more work needs to be done on the bird trail, bridges, and the bird-feeder area.  Hopefully we will have a spring and fall clean-up each year.  A sincere thank you to all who helped!  (Dinah, I'm sorry, I missed taking a picture of you.)  PHOTO GALLERY

    I guess you could say I became a bunny-hugger this spring and summer feeding baby cottontails at Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation from “slicks” (1-4 days old) to ones 2-3 weeks old.  Lynn Herold and I fed a lot of bunnies, some died from Coccidiosis, but we released a bunch!  I saw what  damage can be done to a gull who falls into a barrel of used cooking oil when the lid was not replaced.  I played with a fox pup until the Herolds received a second pup and then the two became play mates.  I held a Short-eared Owl and a Ferruginous Hawk in my hands while Merlyn fed them.  I overcame my abhorrence for mealy worms when I fed them to a fledgling Blue Jay and a hatchling Cliff Swallow.  My distaste for the worms was helped by the fact that I crushed their heads with a tweezers before feeding them to the birds!  Because of the number of raptors at SCWR  and the need for a natural food, the Herolds started a mousery set up by volunteer, Jeanice Crnich.  I haven’t in the past looked closely at the mice I have caught in mousetraps at the house, so I was astounded by the endowment of one male mouse - he really looked uncomfortable!!  And on a slow evening in early August I went out on the Herold’s deck to experience 40 - 50 Broad-tailed and Rufous hummers buzzing around me and the feeders.  I’ve seen pictures in the Birds and Blooms magazine of people holding a red measuring spoon in their mouth and the hummers lighting to take a sip.  So I tried that and after awhile they began hovering just a few inches away or on my finger to take a sip.  The really cool part was that I could see that long tube-shaped tongue that darts out of their long beak and “slurps” up the sugar-water.  It was an adrenaline rush for sure! 

Hummer is straight across from my mouth.

    Now fall is approaching and we need to get back in the routine of all our fall and winter activities.  Maybe we will have a beautiful Indian summer and winter will hold off until about December.  Yeah, right!

Rose-Mary King, President

NOTES FROM AUGUST BOARD MEETING

Donna Walgren - Secretary

Audubon Adventures

    If the old adage, "time flies when you are having fun” is true, I have been having one heck of a time.  It seems only last month that I was writing to remind you of Audubon Adventures sponsorship.  Well, it is that time again.  The amount is the same ($41.50 per classroom) and your money can be sent to me, Ann Hines, 1600 Linda Vista Dr., Casper 82609. 

    Murie greatly appreciates your support of this program.

Ann Hines, Education Chair

Audubon Adventures website

NEW OFFICE LOCALES

    Audubon Wyoming has opened an office in Laramie, therefore Alison is NOT working out of her home anymore!  The new contact info is as follows:

Audubon WY
154 N 8th Street
Laramie, WY 82072
307-745-4848 (Alison Lyon and main line)
307-745-4877 (Brian Rutledge, Executive Director).

    If for some reason you can not reach Alison at the office, feel free to call her cell: 307-760-9105.

     

    Audubon Wyoming in Casper has moved from their downtown location back to Audubon Center at Garden Creek, 101 Garden Creek Rd.  Brian Rutledge or Diana Walter can be reached at 307-473-1987.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Field Trip - Sept. 3, meet at the Piggery (Murie’s Sanctuary NW of corner of CY Ave. and Wyo. Blvd.) at 7:00 am for birding and then on to Amoco Puddle and EKW State Park.

Used Ink Cartridges - Bring to the Sept. 2nd meeting to Rose-Mary King to send into US Recycling.

Bird Greeting Cards - Bring your greeting cards with birds on them (both front and back) to the Sept. 2nd meeting to Rose-Mary King for bird boxes for the annual banquet in January.

Membership - If you are a “Friend of Murie” member, your membership dues are due in September.  Please use the form HERE. 

If you are a member of National Audubon Society, your renewal form will be sent by NAS.

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