Gideon Lincecum Chapter Texas Master Naturalist™

NEWS

April 2009

BIRDS OF THE BLACKLAND PRAIRIE AND POST OAK SAVANNAH

Mark McClelland of Bastrop, President of the Lost Pines chapter of Texas Master Natural-ists, was the speaker at a program on Saturday, March 21. The public was invited and there were about 45 attendees. We have been working toward sponsoring a series of regular programs since our chap-ter’s beginning, and we now have a Program committee that is working to make it happen.

Mark's subject was Birds of the Blackland Prairie and Post Oak Savannah. He gave an informative overview of the typical birds of this area and he covered what it takes to attract and identify these birds. After the presentation in the Winedale Meadows Conference Center, we walked

around the Winedale Lake and identified several species of birds. Mark demonstrated differ-ent binoculars and spotting scopes and discussed the important fac-tors of optics for bird viewing. Gene and Debbie Luhn and Mary Evelynn Sorrell are our Program Committee members. Please contact them with your suggestions for future programs and your offers to help. Dave Redden

GRADUATION PARTY Saturday, May 9, 5 pm Winedale Dining Hall

Celebrate the graduation of the

2009 Training Class!

All Gideon Lincecum MNs are invited, (even if you haven’t completed your train-ing hours). This is an important time for us to socialize. Spouses are welcome!

Main course, drinks and condiments will be provided. Please bring a side dish or dessert of your choice and some wildflow-ers for the tables. Carol Montgomery

These programs will be on Saturdays fol-lowing our chapter business meetings. Coming attractions are:

• Saturday, May 16 - Dragonflies and

Damselflies, with a field trip around the

lake, Terry Hibbits

• Saturday, July 16 – To be announced

• Saturday, September 19 – Introduction

to Butterflies and how to do a butterfly

count, Dan Hardy

• Saturday, November 21 – Conserva-

tion Easements, Don Steinbach

FUTURE PROGRAMS

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WHEP TEAMS COMPETE IN REGIONAL EVENT

Dave Redden

WHEP, Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Pro-gram, is a national 4-H program with con-tests for youth on county, regional, state, and national levels.

The program is designed to encourage critical thinking skills in youth, ages 8 – 19, using wildlife science and wildlife manage-ment practices as the basis. The members of the team learn to identify wildlife species, what they need in their habitat, and how to make improvements in that habitat to en-courage or discourage various species. Then they use those skills to compete against other teams following a set of rules.

Gideon Lincecum chapter currently sup-ports the teams in Austin, Fayette, and Washington Counties. We will support teams in Colorado and Lee Counties when they are formed. We hope to see active 4-H teams in all the counties since this program fits in di-rectly with our mission.

Fayette County Continues Its Winning Ways

Bobby and Lanette Williams, coaches of the Fayette County WHEP teams had an-other successful day at the Houston Live-stock Show and Rodeo regional contest on March 14. They entered two senior teams and two junior individuals in the contests. The senior teams took second and third places. Their years of experience showed as they all came well prepared for the cold, rainy weather.

Arch rival, Waller team, once again took first place in the junior and senior team events. Grimes County 4-H won first place in the junior individual competition.

Washington County Competes for the First Time

Earlier this year, Washington County 4-H formed its first WHEP team and began prac-ticing for state and national competitions.

From left: Joy Nutt (coach), Haley Nutt, Faith Nutt, Emily Seeker, Carter Williams, Colby Seeker, Austin Derkowski, Jon Wellmann, William Corn.

After only six weeks of training, the Wash-ington County team, under the leadership of chapter members, Joy Nutt and Dave Red-den, went to regional competition in Houston with one junior team and one senior team.

It was a cold, rainy day, beginning before light and lasting late in the day. The two teams performed well and finished fourth place overall out of 8 junior and 5 senior teams. Two of the junior team members, Wil-liam Corn and Austin Derkowski, and one of the senior members, Faith Nutt, received special recognition for their outstanding indi-vidual scores. They all had a good time, learned a lot, and are looking forward to next year.

Austin Derkowski and William Corn complete the entry forms and get ready for the contest.

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TRAINING SESSION SCHEDULE

Monday, April 6, 3:00-5:15 pm - Plant ID

field trip at Winedale, Jim Varnum

Monday, April 6 - Plants, classroom ses-

sion, Jim Varnum (See below)

Monday, April 13 - Herpetology, Bill

Brooks

Monday, April 20 - Entomology, Bart

Drees

Monday, April 27 - Ornithology, Gary

Fritcher

Saturday. May 2 - Tree ID field trip at

Fayette Lake, Daniel Lewis

Monday, May 4 - Mammals, Greg Pleas-

ant

Saturday, May 9 - Graduation

Check our web site for more details. Re-member that you can make up any sessions you missed in previous training classes, or repeat classes, if you like. Soon, a video of the first orientation session will be available. Watch for more details.

INDIAN CREEK WORK DAYS

Wednesday, April 22, 9 am and Saturday, April 25, 9 am

Carol Montgomery

Hi TMNs! I am scheduling two workdays in April. The first one is April 22, a Wednes-day for those who cannot make it on Satur-day. The next one is Saturday, April 25.

After our heavy rains I am happy to say that the mulch on the trail is all intact. There are some new shoots of poisonous and in-vasive plants to be "Remedied", and an ar-madillo has been on the trail, but hardly any damage was done.

I did see some fresh poison ivy near the creek that will need to be sprayed and we can spray all the stobs again. We will need dirt for the bridge approach and mulch. I saw some trash, probably washed in, so we can use a few bags for gathering that up. The burn ban is off so we can burn our trash pile. We need to find a place for those large 3 x 12s also.

So, weather permitting, we will work April 22 and 25. See you there!!

Next Chapter Members’ Business Meeting

Saturday, May 16, 9 am, at Winedale His-torical Center. All members are welcome.

BRENHAM ISD OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

Grade 6 Outdoor Classroom at Birch Creek State Park - May 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Grade 3 Outdoor Adventure at Nails Creek State Park - May 13, 14, 22

Contact Joy Nutt to volunteer

PLANTS Please note that the Plant ID field trip and the Plants training class session will be on the same day, Monday, April 6. The field trip will begin at 3 pm in the Winedale Lake area. At 5:15 pm there will be a break for dinner (which will be provided) and the classroom session will begin at 6 pm.

Bill Deaton and Carol Montgomery work on the foot bridge, while Raye Pearson works on mulching the trail.

Volunteer

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What are you gonna do when the well runs dry?

South Central Texas Water Conservation Conference

Saturday, October 3, All Day

This program will be a combined effort of several organizations: TPWD, Texas Wild-life Association, Master Gardeners, Wash-ington County Wildlife Society, Texas AgriLife Extension, Native Plant Society and Gideon Lincecum chapter of Texas Master Naturalist. More to come. . .

Contact: Larry Joe Doherty, Dave Redden

BLUEBIRD BOXES FOR WINEDALE

Jim Weatherly and Kathy Milenki will begin a project to build and install bluebird boxes at the Winedale Complex. Jim will build the boxes and Kathy will help with monitoring the nests and recording data. If you would like to participate in this project in any way, contact either Jim or Kathy.

CHAPTER SCRAPBOOK Cindy Rodibaugh and Judy Deaton have

been working hard on our chapter scrap-book. Cindy presented the results of their work at the chapter members’ business meeting on March 21, and promised that the scrapbook will be up to date by October, when it will go to the state Master Naturalist meeting. We’ll all get to see it soon.

Yahoo Group Sign up for our chapter’s Yahoo Group so you can post your photos, chat about nature, ask for plant and animal ID help. To join, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/glmasternaturalists/

RECERTIFICATION Turn in your volunteer and advanced training hours to Martha Koslosky as soon as you have met your 2009 requirements for recerti-fication. You’ll get a new pin!

Recent chat on our Yahoo Group concerned questions about monitoring bluebird nests. Bluebird nest boxes should be monitored so that they can be put to the best possible use. To avoid pre-mature fledging, do not check the box after day 13 after the chicks have

hatched. After the birds have fledged, the nests

should be removed. You can gauge when the nests have been vacated by the ab-sence of the parents sitting on tree limbs or power lines nearby.

Here’s a timetable for how long an eastern bluebird pair spends at each nesting stage.

Nest building: 1-6 days

Egg laying: 5-7 days

Incubation: 12-14 days

Brooding: 6 days

Fledging: On day 14-22 from

first egg hatch

A good source for information about blue-birds is a small pamphlet called Enjoying Bluebirds More by Julie Zickefoose; it is published by Bird Watcher’s Digest. It is available from Naturally Curious, our friendly Texas nature booksellers, for $2.99. or you can get it directly from Birdwatcher’s Digest for $4.99. The pamphlet covers:

Nest box design

Nest box monitor-

ing

Nesting schedules

Competitors

Troubleshooting

chart (

Predators (and

how to protect from them)

Parasites and pests

Plants that benefit bluebirds

Texas Bluebird Society web site has a lot of good information in downloadable pdf for-mat at well. You can join the organization and volunteer for them when you’re not busy volunteering for Master Naturalists!

BLUEBIRDS