february 2008 white bird newsletter peace river audubon society

8/9/2019 February 2008 White Bird Newsletter Peace River Audubon Society

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Peace River Audubon Society

White Bird February 2008 Volume 31, Issue 6

Sandy Artman, Editor Dan Artman, Dispatcher

2007-08 OFFICERS & DIRECTORS: (941)

President Gregg Klowden ‘08 613-6753Vice President Stu Lewis ’09 235-2590Secretary Mary Ann Hughes ‘08 637-7855 Treasurer Walt Williams ‘09 235-3352

Additional Phyllis Cady ‘08 575-4009 Directors: Mike Krzyzkowski ‘08 812-0764

Eleanor Marr ‘08 624-4182George Ruby ’08 423-0174Sandy Artman ‘09 575-0651

Cathy Olson ‘09 613-6753www.PeaceRiverAudubon.org

as author Jo Morrison presentsas author Jo Morrison presentsas author Jo Morrison presents Babcock Ranch: Tales of Bygone Days Babcock Ranch: Tales of Bygone Days Babcock Ranch: Tales of Bygone Days

A chronicle of the sights, sounds, and legends of theA chronicle of the sights, sounds, and legends of theA chronicle of the sights, sounds, and legends of the cattle ranching days on the Crescent B “Babcock” Ranchcattle ranching days on the Crescent B “Babcock” Ranchcattle ranching days on the Crescent B “Babcock” Ranch

Ms. Morrison will be signing the just released 2Ms. Morrison will be signing the just released 2Ms. Morrison will be signing the just released 2ndndnd edition of her book.edition of her book.edition of her book.

Dinner - Catered by Twin Isles Country ClubMenu Options: Chicken Marsala or Salmon

Silent Auction - Bid on many great items

Photo Contest – For your favorite unique nature shots(see rules below)

Thursday March 20Thursday March 20Thursday March 20ththth, 2008, 2008, 2008

At the Twin Isles Country Club301 Madrid Boulevard, Punta Gorda 33950

Cash Bar - 6:00 pm / Dinner - 7:00 pm

Mail check for $30/ person to:PRAS c/o Phyllis Cady

425 Fireball Ct / Punta Gorda, FL 33950*Please include Name(s), Phone, & Meal choic

***Sponsor a whole table (8 people) for $240 and receive special recognition***

Seats are limited so

make a reservation today!

Non-members welcome

Please bring a friend or two

Please Join Us For Our

Proceeds benefit theCharlotte Harbor Environmental Center &

our other Environmental Education Programs

For more information contactPhyllis Cady at 941-575-4009 or

[email protected] visit www.PeaceRiverAudubon.org

Reservation deadline is March 12thTickets NOT available at door

Linda Blondheim

Silent Auction Donations NeededThe silent auction during our banquet is our major fundraiser each year. Please donate new items, artwork, gift certificates,services, baked goods, etc. Contact Cathy Olson at 613-6753 or [email protected]

Banquet Volunteers NeededTo make our banquet successful requires the help of many people.Please contact Gregg at [email protected] or 613-6753 if you can help out with any of the following:

1. Help make centerpieces2. Help setup banquet and auction on March 203. Assist Bill with photo contest

4. Help distribute items to silent auction winners

Photo Contest Rules

Annual Banquet Photo Contest Enter your latest and greatest pictures in our annual photo contest! After the judging, all the pictures will be placed in the silent auction fundraiser. Please be ready to sign your picture for the auction winners. Banquetattendees will judge the competition.

Rules are as follows:

• 8x10 color or black & white print of any nature oriented subject

• Photoshop enhancements are allowed

• No signatures or identification on the print.

• No frames. PRAS will provide black poster board for display.

Entry fee: $5 for one print$10 for 3 prints



PRAS Garage Sale to benefit CHECSaturday, January 26, 2008

Volunteer of the MonthBill Marr

Congratulations to Bill Marr who is our volunteer of the month. Bill has been an active member for many years and has recently taken on several newduties. He helped to redesign our Christmas BirdCount PowerPoint presentation to include all 21years of PRAS survey results, he is organizing and leading the PRASPhoto Club, and will be running the Photo Contest at our upcomingbanquet. Many thanks to Bill for all his work. Over the past 31 yearsvolunteers like Bill have been essential to making PRAS an importantpart of our community.

The PRAS garage sale to benefit the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center was a great success. Kudos to Cathy Olson, GreggKlowden and Jason Hale for setting up and tending to the sale for two earlyand long days. Several items have been placed on Ebay, so the final tallyearned is not yet in. The final amount and a check will be presented toCHEC at the next members meeting. Many thanks to all those who donateditems including Phyllis and Ray Cady, Dawn Carriere, Pat Davis, Amanda &Peter De Witt, Monica & Rich Dorken, Ken Ferris, Chuck & Joan Froman,Mark & Sherry Furnari, Norma Hamilton, Gail Hopper, June Hulse, JimmyJewell & Laura Wewerka, Gregg Klowden & Cathy Olson, George & JoanKufrin, Louise & Stu Lewis, Bill & Eleanor Marr, Bob & Jennet Repenning,Edward & Kate Staber, Dawn Terry, Frank & Jan Walker (and their neighbors), Bob & Joanne Winter, Linda Wright, Alfreda Wuerz, and all themystery donors.

Next Meeting, February 21 at 6:30 PMSpeaker, Pascha Donaldson

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church 2565 Tamiami Trail,Port Charlotte (just south of Midway)

Come listen to Pascha Donaldson, Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife, talkabout burrowing owls in Cape Coral at our February 21, 2008 members

meeting. Come learn more about these wonderful diurnal owls.

The PRAS field trip on March 8 will be to the Babcock Ranch Pre-serve. We will be receiving a guided tour by preserve staff who will show us portionsof the preserve beyond the publicly open

Babcock Wilderness Ecotour. This triprequires pre-registration, has a limit of 40people and is open first to PRAS mem-bers. Those registered should meet at the

Winn Dixie at the intersection of US 17 and Bermont Road at 7 am tocarpool to the preserve. If you would like to attend, several spots arestill open. Provide Cathy ([email protected] 613-6753)with your name, phone number and email address. PRAS and Bab-cock Ranch Preserve liability waivers are required. Please let Cathyknow if you have registered and are unable to attend so she maycontact people on the waiting list.

March Field Trip: Babcock RanchLed by Cathy Olson

Saturday, March 8, 2008

PRAS has been holding Birdathons for a number of years to raisemoney for environmental education. Teams solicit sponsors who payan amount determined by the team, based on the number of speciesthe team finds. This year’s Birdathon will be held on Saturday April 5.We will have some new categories for participants as well as modifica-tions for the old category. The traditional Birdathon Category I will con-sist of the usual teams of 2 – 4 people who will find as many species asthey can in Charlotte County beginning at a time of the team’s choosing, and ending at 4 PM. Bir-

dathon Category 2 is for people who want to par-ticipate but don’t want to travel. A team of 2 willfind as many species as they can in their yards,neighborhoods, and/or feeders, beginning whenthey choose and ending at 4 PM. Birdathon Cate-gory 3 will be a Photothon. Individuals will photo-graph as many species as they can until 4 PM. At 4PM, the participants will get together and share their day. It is not tooearly to make your plans to participate in this worthy activity. Moreinformation will be provided at the February PRAS meeting.

2008 Birdathon Saturday, April 5, 2008

On Jan. 8, 30 people turned out for a combined Walk-about/Photo Shoot/ Parks and Recreation walk. DaveMathewson from Parks and Recreation, entertaining asalways, drew on his extensive knowledge of natural his-tory and local lore, providing information on plants, in-sects, reptiles and more. Twenty-five species of birds

were seen or heard, including low-flying wood storks and pileatedwoodpeckers. The crowd dispersed around 10:00 AM, some to re-turn home, some to visit the visitor’s center, and some to follow Daveto nearby Amberjack Park to the lake overlook, where wetland birdsand an Empidonax sp. flycatcher (that did not call and so went uni-dentified) increased the count for the morning to 34.

January Walkabout Report by Eleanor Marr

Cameras were in evidence at both the Cedar Point walkabout and theCarlton Reserve/Laurel Landfill field trip. The grouphad its first discussion meeting at CHEC on January22. Upcoming events are as follows:

February 26: Meeting will take place at CHEC in the Wa-tershed Building at 2 PM. CHEC is located at 10941 Burnt Store Road,Punta Gorda. The Watershed Building is located near the gazebo, acrossfrom the office. Bring CD or prints of pictures to share. There will be aninformal discussion of equipment and techniques, and questions will be an-swered.

March 10: Photo Shoot at Ollies Pond at 9 AM. Meet in the parking lot onYork St. on the north side of the pond.

Directions to Ollie’s Pond from Edgewater Drive in Port Charlotte:Take Edgewater Drive west, not far from the end of Edgewater, to Collings-wood Blvd. Turn right and head north on Collingwood to Bly Ave. Turn

right on Bly to Felda Street where you will see the pond ahead. Turn left onFelda to York, then right to the parking lot.If you are coming from the Murdock, North Port or Englewood area, you canhead south on Collingswood Blvd to Bly, turn left and follow above directionsfrom there. Collingswood intersects Rt. 776 just south of Murdock Circle.

Photography Group Report by Bill Marr



Field Trips and WalkaboutsMarch 4: Walkabout: Hathaway Park

Eleanor Marr 941-624-4182March 8: Field Trip: Babcock Ranch Preserve

(pre-registration required - limited to 40 persons)Cathy Olson 941-613-6753 (East carpool location)

April 1: Walkabout: Audubon-Pennington ParkDave Lancaster 941-625-0979

April 13: Shorebird identification at Bunche BeachKevin Edwards (South carpool location)

April 19: Field Trip: Corkscrew SwampEleanor Marr 941-624-4182 (South carpool location)

May 6: Walkabout: Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center

Phyllis Cady 941-575-4009May 17: Field Trip: Fish-Eating Creek

Mike Krzyzkowski 941-812-0764 (East carpool location)

***For Walkabouts: meet at the park entrance at 8 AM ****For Field Trips meet at designated place (*see below)

at 7 AM unless otherwise notedCarpool locations:North: Peachland Mall:24133 Peachland Blvd., Pt CharlotteEast: Winn Dixie lot: 27680 Bermont Road, Punta GordaSouth: Sweet Bay lot: 10175 Tamiami Trail, Punta Gorda

Surprise Field TripsSoon we will be announcing two special surprise field

trips. We would like to make such surprise trips periodi-cally. If you would like to hear about these trips you willneed to be signed up to either our ‘PRAS Updates’email group or our ‘Nature Alert’ email group. .

February 21: Pascha Donaldson - Burrowing OwlsMarch 20: Annual Banquet, silent auction and photo contest

Jo Morrison Babcock Ranch:Tales of Bygone Days April 17: Missy Christie - Sea Turtles & ShorebirdsMay 15 : Members night: PRAS members present slides

Speaker Schedule

Despite a foggy morning, 19 people led by Stu Lewis found goodbirding activity at the Carleton Reserve. Red headed woodpeckersare usually a sure sighting in the parking lot area and were seen.

The next stop was the recently acquiredSleeping Turtle Preserve, a beautiful prop-

erty with trails through mossy live oaks, oldpastures and abundant wild coffee in fullberry. The Preserve consists of 211 acresalong 2 1/2 miles of the Myakka River. Aredstart, blue-headed vireo, priairie warbler and goldfinches were among the birds seenin trees along the river. People commented that they really enjoyedthis preserve and would come back again.

Onto the Laurel Road Landfill: Because of the drought, the wetlandsalong the entrance road are now dry - usually a wonderful place tospot all kinds of wading birds. Once into the landfill area, bird activitywas fairly quiet. But the pond at the end had the usual bevy of wood-storks and some other waders. Bald eagles flew overhead amidst theswarms of gulls, grackles, crows, etc.

A total of 56 species were seen on this trip.

January Field Trip Report by Stu Lewis

The PRAS Board has decided it is necessary toincrease the cost of a local membership from $10 to$20 per year. This reflects increases in our costsfor printing and mailing of the Whitebird newsletter, insurance costs,and other areas. There are still two membership options available.“Local Membership Only” includes the White Bird newsletter and allproceeds remain with PRAS. “National Membership” includes the

Whitebird newsletter as well as the National Audubon magazine.Normally about 2 or 3 dollars of a National membership is returned toPRAS. The local membership cost has not been raised for manyyears and we felt that $20 is a very good value for all of the greatthings that PRAS does for our community. We hope you agree. If you have any questions about membership, please contact PhyllisCady at (941) 575-4009 or [email protected].

A Hearty Welcome to the following New Members

Our beloved Audubon Pennington Park needs your help to maintainthe trails and keep out non-native plants. Please join other Audubonvolunteers every Wednesday from 8 to 10 am for a bit of gardening.If you can, please bring along gloves and gardening sheers.

Audubon-Pennington Park is located in central Port Charlotte on Alton Road, between Midway Blvd. and Peachland Blvd.

Audubon Pennington Park

Subscribe to ‘PRAS Update’ to receive 2 or 3 monthly email re-minders of upcoming meetings and field trips.

To sign up or for more informationcontact [email protected] or visit

http://www.PeaceRiverAudubon.org/

Subscribe to ‘Nature Alert’ to communicate with others concernedwith nature, wildlife, and protecting the environment in the CharlotteCounty area

New Membership Fees

Bobby & Anna WrennMeredith L. MyersLarry BordsenThe Liegl FamilyMr. & Mrs. T.D. GalvinAl & Alice Novak Mr. James E. JacobsMs. Angela SmithMs. Beverly Caporossi

T. StratusRobert & Patricia ChildsJoan KufrinElsie DarneyRobert BoltonRaymond & Lynn DayJoseph & Jettie MinucciIsabelle Frasier



The Peace River Audubon SocietyPO Box 510760Punta Gorda, FL 33951-0760

February2008White Bird

Printed on Recycled Paper C & R Graphics (folding donated)

Non-profit OrganizationU.S. Postage PaidPunta Gorda, FLPermit No. 100

Peace River Audubon Society Membership Application / Renewal

Join us for some fun and birding. Help protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, & the wildlife we love...help us protect Florida.

___ New Membership ___ Renewal

Name: ______________________________________ Organization: ________________________________

Address: ___________________________________ City, State, Zip: ______________________________ Phone: ( ) _______________________________ E-mail: _____________________________________

The Peace River Audubon Society is a 501 ( c )(3) non-profit organization. Our Federal tax ID number is 59-2190872. We do not engage a professional solicitor and 100% of thefunds generated by this request will be used to support our Chapter programs. Our registration number with the FDA Division of Consumer Services is SC-040701.

Check the “Exp” date on your address label!“1208” means your PRAS and/or National membership expiresDecember 2008. To save the cost of sending reminders,please use the application below to renew your membership. If youhave questions please call Phyllis Cady at 575-4009 or send anemail to: [email protected]

Electronic White Bird: If you would like to receive the White Bird via e-mail, please send a request to :[email protected]

------------- ---------- ----------- ----------- ---------- --------------- --------------- ---- ---

Bird of the Month: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius)by Cathy Olson, PRAS Board member

MAIL CHECK WITH THIS FORM TO:PRAS, PO box 510760, Punta Gorda, FL 33951-0760

The yellow-bellied sapsucker is unique among eastern North American woodpeckers in that it is migratory.

It breeds in northern North America and winters in the southeastern quarter of the United States downthrough Panama and the West Indies. The bird gets its name from its feeding habits. Two types of holes aremade to get sap from trees; deep round holes which it inserts its bill to lap up sap and shallow rectangular holes which are continuously maintained to keep a flow of sap. Other animals also lap up the sap and eat theinsects that are attracted by the flowing sap. This woodpecker is easily distinguishable from other similar sized woodpeckers by the white vertical stripe on its side and its yellow belly. Here in Florida, we see them

during the winter in open forests. .

( ) $20 Local Audubon Membership OnlyIncludes the “White Bird” newsletter with local news articleslocal meetings, field trips, bird walks, & special events. All proceeds stay within local chapter

( ) $20 Local and National AudubonIncludes all of the above plus National Audubon magazine.

( ) Additional Gift for PRASPlease help PRAS continue our educational andconservation programs with a tax deductible contribution.

Total Enclosed $ _________

Chapter Code: E14-7XCH

february 2008 white bird newsletter peace river audubon society

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