March 1999 Prairie Falcon Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society

8/9/2019 March 1999 Prairie Falcon Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society

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The Prairie Falcon - 1

INSIDE

RESTORATION

JOURNAL - 2

WHATSATSTAKE - 3

THE SKYBEYOND- 3

TREEOFTHE MONTH

REDBUD - 4

INSECTOFTHE

MONTH

LUNA MOTH - 4

MARCH BIRDINGIN

KANSAS - 5

CONTRIBUTORS

C. BISHOP

C. COKINOS

W. CORN

G. FARLEY

T. MORGAN

V. WRIGHT

PRINTEDBYCLAFLIN

BOOKSAND COPIES,

MANHATTAN , KS

PROGRAM PREVIEW

ECOLOGYOFWRENS

GREG FARLEY

7:30 PM, WED., MAR. 17, 1999

THROCKMORTON 1014, KSU CAMPUS

This months program will focus on the biol-ogy of wrens, a fascinating group of active and

vocal songbirds, with particular emphasis on

their nesting behavior. Greg will describe both

breeding biology and roosting physiology for

various wren species, and in the process emphasize some generally gee-whiz details

about their ecology.

Gregs research on wrens began right here on the Konza Prairie, when he worked

with John Zimmerman on Bewicks wren. He continued working with this family o

birds with his Ph.D. research on cactus wrens in Mexico and the Southwest U.S. He

is currently at Ft. Hays State University. and has initiated a long-term project on rockwrens.

Despite their high abundance in some localities, they are one of the least studied

songbirds in North America. Hopefully that will not be the case for long!

Before each program we invite our speakers to join us for an informal dinner and discussion

Feel free to join us this month at the Hunan Chinese Restaurant in the Westloop Center at

5:45 PM. The program will commence at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, Mar. 17th. Refreshments

are served after the meeting, please bring your own cup. All meetings are open to the public

Field Trips

Sat. Mar. 13 Beginning Birdwatching Walk Join us this Saturday and every secondSaturday at 8 AM in the Ackert/Durland parking lot on the KSU campus. We will carpoo

to a local birding hotspot, and should return by about 11 AM. Birders of every age and

interest level are welcomed; children are especially encouraged to attend. Call Hoogy

Hoogheem (539-7080) for more information.

Sun., March 21 Vernal Equinox Walk on the Konza. Meet at 3:00 p.m. at the trail

head of the Konza Nature Trail and plan on spending 1 to 2 hours walking the tall grass prairie

in the warm spring sunshine (weather cooperating, that is.) Call Carla Bishop at 532-1859

(w) or 539-5129 (h) for further details.

THE PRAIRIE FALCON

- MAR. 1999

NEWSLETTEROFTHE NORTHERN FLINTHILLSAUDUBON SOCIETY

P.O. BOX1932, MANHATTAN, KS 66505-1932VOL. 27, NO. 7


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THEPRAIRIEFALCON

Published monthly (except August) by the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society, a chapter of the National AudubonSociety, and edited by David A. Rintoul, 1124 Woodland, Manhattan KS 66502-2716.

Also available on the World Wide Web at the URL http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/falcon.html

RESTORATION JOURNALFOR MARCH

F

or some reason my older brothers friends used to

let me hang out with them. My brother was in

Viet-Nam, I was in high school still a kid tothem. Our main hang-out was the West Shack, one of

those great old all night diners that crowded everybody

in, and we breathed in the fragrant fresh bun steam and

the deep fry grease fumes from the busy double swing-

ing kitchen doors--before the aw-

ful days of Dennys and the

canned music that would eventu-

ally take over, but could never

replace a juke box like the one at

the West Shack. Buck Owens fit

that place so naturally he had a

taste--like you could have ordered

Waiting in Your Welfare Line

off the menu. Ray Charles was

just getting into his country and

western phase Cryin Time

Again. And the favorite of the

waitresses was Nancy Sinatra

singing These Boots are Made

for Walkin

These guys, my brothers friends, and this place wasmy connection to the real world--something I wasnt

getting in school. A lot of the late nights we spent at this

joint were school nights, so I slept through my morning

classes. I never felt like I was missing anything at the

time, and I still dont.

At an even younger age, before my brother went off,

I was let into their reading circles. With just enough

light to read by, sitting on the floor, a bottle of Barden-

heirs hard cider would be passed around and a book.

We took turns reading pages or favorite passages fromthe likes of Fanny Hill or Across the Wide Missouri by

Bernard De Voto. I might not have been allowed to

actually read, but the jug was passed into my hands, and

I took it and listened to the words with a joy and

reverence that they couldnt get out of me in school or

church.

Sitting in circles ... yeah, thats the connection! At

Leanns on a warm sunny Sunday in the first week of

February with books and site plans and ideas scattered

around the room, and tea to drink, we continued the

conjuring up of tree spirits to inhabit the forests still in our

imagination. An arboretum is taking shape. Sometimesthe ideas, effort, and creativity that come out of a group are

pleasure and satisfaction enough, but these are thoughts

that will be planted, tended and grown tall through time.

In a way we are planting something in the people that will

walk through the prairies and wood-

lands of this park in years to come

The best that we can do is protect

that open space in a childs mind

that thrives on mystery and

wonder-where the fox emerges after

its form vanishes into a thicket at theedge of the resting winter woods

where questions that dont have an-

swers are allowed; where mindless

wandering is encouraged.

Walking the old Blue River chan-

nel woodland that will become the

Cecil Best birding trail, Gerald

Weins and I are drawn to a small

leafless, to me undistinquished, gray

tree that had some hide worn off it by a deer rubbing itsantlers across the trunk. MadHorse, says Gerald. Thats

the way to tell what kind of tree this might be. Gerald

showed me the opposite leaf-buds that put the tree in the

family of either the maple, ash, dogwood or horse chestnut

MadHorse. We looked up to watch two bald eagles

soar in the gray overhead sky as Canada geese loosened

their ordered formation into a noisy free-for-all dive to the

harvested corn fields beyond the trees; bluebirds flickered

in the branches around us. This is a good place.

Thank you, everybody thats working on this park or justhaving good thoughts about walking through the planted

forests and restored prairie someday. We can always use

more help along the way. Give me a call if youre interest-

ed. 776-6253.

(A good word I found scrounging through the dictionary

insessorial which means adapted for perching, or

habitually perching.)

Wayne Corn


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CONTRIBUTIONSFROMOURREADERS

WHATSAT STAKE

Agrisly new computer game called African Safari

Trophy Hunter rewards the killing of endan

gered species as an integral part of the game.

This game is marketed directly to children and is used

to indocrinate them into an anti-ecological mindset.

Made by Wizardworks (on the World Wide Web at

www.wizardworks.com), this brutal anti-animal game

encourages players to murder elephants, rhinoceros,

crocodiles, lions and other African animals to put a

trophy head into a trophy room.

In this age of increasing violence, any game that en-

courages unethical forms of hunting is irresponsible.

Further, a game that targets endangered species for the

purpose of a trophy is digusting.

Please boycott this company and its products. And

write a brief note to the CEO to tell him what you think.

(Note: this company is owned by GT Interactive, which

markets many highly violent games, such as Doom

and Duke Nukem.). Write to:

Ronald W. Chamowitz

Chairman and CEO

GT Interactive Software

417 5th Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Christopher Cokinos

with thanks to Dale Bryan, Tufts University

THE SKYBEYOND

Spring is a time of blossoms, so it seems appropriate

that the dusk sky will present a blossoming of

planets, especially early in the month.

Step outside at sunset and watch for four points of light

appearing in the west and the west-southwest. First toappear will be brilliant Venuswhat we often call the

evening star. In general, stars twinkle while planets

tend not to. Take a look at a planet through binoculars or

a scope and you should see a flattened disk, without any

star-like beams.

Use Venus to find the other early March planets. Below

Venus is Jupiter, which is sinking lower and lower as the

month goes on. Ditto Mercury, which is lowest on the

horizon and may be hard to see. (On March 6, the

messenger Mercury and the king Jupiter will appear only

about four degrees apartquite close and quite lovely.)

High above and to the left of Venus appears golden

Saturn.

Can you make out the rings in your scope?

Keep an eye on all these planets and watch the move-

ments that so fascinated ancient watchers of the sky and

so motivated pre-Copernican astronomers to develop

staggeringly elaborate explanations for the wandering

planets. It all made more sense when folks accepted tha

the planets revolved around the sun, not the other way

around.

Later in the evening, look to the east and watch for

another planetMarsrising like a red jewel. It comes

up around 11 p.m. early in the month, with its appearance

speeding up toward 9 p.m. as April approaches. Mars is

growing larger in the eyepieces of telescopes, so if youhave one, take a look. Ill be trying to make out dark

markings and the polar ice cap.

By the way, you might take a look at the crescent moon

on March 19; it shines like a blade near both Saturn and

Venus.

Spring brings flowers and new blossoms in the sky. It

also brings a field of dim, green galaxiesour destina-

tion next month.

Christopher Cokinos


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TREEOFTHE MONTH - EASTERN REDBUD

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) has a 2-4" long

seed pod. The brown pod often remains on the

branch all winter, although birds such as bobwhite

quail sometimes eat the seeds.

When the green seed pods are

still moist and tender, they canbe fried in oil, and eaten by

people. The small flowers can

be eaten in a tossed salad, but

these beautiful flowers have a

more important function. The

flowers remind us that certain

things connect us to eternity.

Redbuds have been planted near homes since 1641.

They were probably planted much earlier than that just

outside a persons tent. Perhaps those people couldnt besure whether they would camp in that location again, but

they hungered for beauty.

A redbud grows old fairly quickly, looking very ancient

with its bark forming scales and little ridges. Ive never

known anyone who was in a hurry to cut down a redbud.

The tree has always got one more year left, one more

Spring, before it finally rests.

Near my home, there was a redbud tree with three

trunks. Two of those trunks fell, and the third trunk was

beginning to fall, until I propped it up with a red boulder.Surely this old tree will bloom again.

Before dawn, you can see shape of the larger branches,

but you cant see the flowers. A soft glow extends along

the eastern horizon. The ridges of the horizon are out-

lined in soft smudges of pink light. Take a step forward,

and the earth moves, allowing more light to illuminate

the ground in front of your feet. Take another step, and

the earth jerks again. And still the night lingers. A bird

begins to sing, but sounds very sleepy.

The birds singing slowly acquires an incredible purity.The dawn reveals pink flowers on redbud limbs. Time

has no meaning now. This instant is eternity.

Thomas D. Morgan

INSECTOFTHE MONTH - LUNA MOTH

Luna moths (Actias luna) have vibrant, green wings,

and their wingspan is 3 or 4 inches. Luna moths

never eat or drink. Instead, they use the food

reserves that they acquired during their youth from trees

such as walnut or hickory.

In the fall, when the caterpillar stage is fully grown, it

spins a cocoon among leaves that are attached to the

twigs. When the leaves detach from their grip on the

twigs, the insect plummets to the ground, shaking and

rattling inside its bag of silk. The sudden stop at the end

of that plunge can destroy some of them, particularly if

the caterpillar has molted to a soft, white pupa, and has

had insufficient time to harden its outer skeleton. Some

caterpillars avoid this potential disaster, by descending

slowly under their own power, and then they use whatev-

er they may find, such as a prematurely fallen leaf, to

camouflage their cocoon.

The cocoon has a thin layer of silk. Damage to the silk

threatens the life of the moth, because it needs that rough

silk to cling to as it emerges from the exoskeleton that

encloses it like a straightjacket. Perhaps people also need

silken cocoons. People need that natural roughness to

cling to, when everything else is changing.

After the moth has crawled out of its exoskeleton, it

must tear its way out of the silken threads. The moth

heaves against the threads, tearing at them with a spur

that is present on its shoulders. After crawling through a

hole in the threads, the moth crawls to a vertical surface

and climbs up several inches. The moth lets its wings

hang down. Its blood pumps through veins in its wings

and the pressure begins to increase, forcing the wings tostretch and lengthen. The hind wings catch the eye

because of the long, gracefully curved tails, and because

the terminus of each tail is rounded.

The male moth has feathery antennae that detect the

scent of a female. The female produces the scent as the

hour of midnight approaches. This communication be-

tween moths occurs in April. One or more of these moths

may discover the light beside the front door of your

home.

One morning, I inhaled the scent from peach blossoms

Then I saw the luna moth near the porch light. I still

remember the awe that I felt. When a dead moth is placed

in a collection, the color of its wings slowly fades. Only

the living being has awe-inspiring beauty. There will be

a luna moth with vibrant wings in April. It will float

above a bitternut hickory tree, and soft rays of moonlight

will touch its wings.

Thomas D. Morgan


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MARCH BIRDING IN KANSAS

The bird is not, has never been, a harbinger of woe. It is only whatit is, a feathered carrion eater, no less usefully and ingeniouslyengineered than other scavengers hyena, crab, bone-cleaning ant.Its appearance means nothing more than bird at work, hastening to oractually performing its real job in the real world. And if it seemsrepulsive in its relish for putrefaction and its utter lack of fastidious

table manners, blame the beholder. People are the squeamish ones, notvultures. Yet we share with them several causes (though only a humanwould denominate as a cause an action thats automatic to the bird).One, for a happily growing number of my kind, is an interest intidiness, in trying to provide good housekeepingfor the planet. The other, the common bedrockurge, is to promote the well-being of our indi-vidual selves and so, secondarily, the good healthof the species. Janet Lembke, in DangerousBirds: A Naturalists Aviary, Lyons and Burford,

NY (1992).Yes, March is the month for the return of

the turkey vultures to Kansas. Even if

they never win the Good Housekeeping

Seal of Approval, their appearance is a sure sign of spring

and renewal, and is not to be regarded as a sign of bad luck

or impending woe. When the swallows return to Capistrano,

and the vultures return to Hinkley (OH), it is time for

celebration of a new season for the birdwatcher and others

interested in the health of the planet.

Ducks will also be returning to Kansas this month, and, if

conditions are right, a trip to your local wetland should

produce a good list of species. Elegant northern pintails,

gaudy mallards, outrageous northern shovelers, and spec-

tacularwood ducks lead the parade north, but others will

soon follow. Redheads, canvasbacks, hooded mergan-

sers, and the inappropriately named ring-necked ducks

should also be found later in the month, responding to an

urgent inner voice that hurls them northward towards the

thawing prairie potholes. Half a million lesser sandhill

cranes, virtually the entire global population, will fly across

Kansas to gather at the annual crane potlatch on the Platte

River; their exuberant bugling can be heard daily in late

February and early March if you live in the western two-

thirds of the state. They will linger at the Platte for a few

weeks, eating fine Nebraska corn (and a few snails, frogs,

mice and other goodies) before continuing their journey

towards the bleak marshlands where they will raise the next

generation. Some of these cranes (an estimated 70,000)

travel across the Bering Sea to nest in marshes in eastern

Siberia, a twice-yearly journey of over 3400 miles. Make

plans to take a weekend (or weekday) trip to Grand Island or

Kearney to see this spectacular gathering of cranes, ducks

geese and birdwatchers; you wont regret it. Like th

birds, you may then find yourself returning there next

spring!

Other migrants that become quite obvious in March

include the bald eagles. They often gather in great flock

locally, waiting for some mysterious signal or weathe

change before they too vanish back into Canada to starbuilding nests and raising eaglets. A good place to se

these concentrations locally is the K-82 causeway and

bridge across the upper end of Milford Reservoir; severa

years ago we counted over 100 eagle

flying around, loafing on the ice, or sleep

ing in the trees there. By the end of March

most of the eagles will be gone, and the

birds soaring over the local reservoirs wil

be mostly turkey vultures.

Locally, our ownred-winged blackbirds

have started to stake out territories; by midMarch their insistent oak-a-lee calls wil

be blasting from every appropriate

fencepost, cattail, or shrub within sight o

water. Male greater prairie chickens

will commence booming and dancing at their ancien

dance floors (leks) throughout the Flint Hills; the odd

antics and other wordly noises seem comical to human

but are apparently quite attractive to prairie chickens o

the opposite sex. These mating rituals will continue

through April and into May in most years. Last year

however, prairie chickens could still be heard on thebooming grounds locally in late June.

A few early shorebirds will make tentative probes into

the state in March, but the bulk of the shorebird migration

will be in April. That gives you time to study your field

guides and get ready for a trip to Cheyenne Bottoms or

Quivira in April. You might find a few lesser yellowlegs

early in the month, and greater yellowlegs and lesser

(American) golden plovers later in the month. Killdeers

(some of which stayed all winter) will become more

obvious in March as well. The Holy Grail of North

American shorebirding, the extremely endangered Es-kimo curlew, also probably passes through the state in

late March, and would be found in wet meadows (not in

mudflats) if any happened to stop over this year. Any

sighting or suspected sighting of this bird should be

reported to the US Fish & Wildlife Service at (308)-381

5571. It is estimated that perhaps only a few dozen

individuals of this once abundant species remain on earth

due to uncontrolled shooting in the last century and

habitat degradation in this one. Dave Rintoul


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NFHAS Officers and Board Members

1998-9

President: Hoogy Hoogheem* (539-7080)Vice-president: Dave Rintoul (537-0781)

Secretary : Dolly Gudder (537-4102)Treasurer: Jan Garton (539-3004)

Committee Chairs

Conservation co-chairs: Janet Throne (776-7624)Chris Cokinos* (537-4143)

Education: Sue Dwyer (539-8142)Program: Jan Garton (539-3004)

Fieldtrips: Patricia Yeager (776-9593)

Membership: Steve Amy (456-7053)Finance: Carla Bishop (539-5129)

Public Outreach: Dolly Gudder (537-4102)

At-large Board Members

Jan Allen, Phoebe Samelson, Beth Tatarko, John Tatarko,

Gerald Weins

(* - Kansas Audubon Council representatives)

Northern Flint Hills Audubon SocietyP.O. Box 1932Manhattan KS 66505-1932

Return Service Requested

Non-profit OrganizationU.S. Postage Paid

Permit No. 662Manhattan KS 66501printed on 100% post-consumer

recycled paper

RARE BIRD ALERT HOTLINES

Kansas (statewide): 316-229-2777

Kansas City Area (incl. W. MO): 785-342-2473

Nebraska (statewide): 402-292-5325

Addresses and Phone numbers of Your Elected Representatives - Write - or call( anytimeGovernor Bill Graves: 2nd Floor, State Capitol Bldg., Topeka KS 66612 u Kansas Senator or Representative _________________: State Capitol Bldg., Topeka KS 66612, Phone numbers

(during session only) - Senate: 913-296-7300, House: 913-296-7500 u Senator Roberts or Brownback: US Senate, Washington DC 20510 u Representative _____________________: USHouse of Representatives, Washington DC 20515 u US Capitol Switchboard : 202-224-3121 u President Bill Clinton, The White House, Washington DC 20500

u Information about a particular piece of legislation can be obtained by calling the following numbers: In Topeka - 800-432-3924;in Washington - 202-225-1772; Audubon Action Line - 800-659-2622, or get the latest on the WWW at http://www.audubon.org/campaign/aa/

Subscription Information

Introductory memberships are available for $20 per year; after that abasic membership is available for $35 annually. When you join theNorthern Flint Hills Audubon Society, you automatically become a

member of the National Audubon Society and receive the bimonthlyAudubon magazine, in addition to the PRAIRIE FALCON. New member-ship applications may be sent to NFHAS at the address below; makechecks payable to the National Audubon Society. Renewals of mem-bership are handled by the National Audubon Society and should notbe sent to NFHAS. Questions about membership can be answered bycalling a toll-free number, 1-800-274-4201, or by electronic mail toBetsy Hax at the National Audubon Society ([email protected]).

Nonmembers may subscribe to the PRAIRIE FALCON newsletter for$10 per year. Make checks payable to the Northern Flint HillsAudubon Society, and mail to: Treasurer, NFHAS, P.O. Box 1932,Manhattan KS 66505-1932.

March 1999 Prairie Falcon Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society

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