Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Audubon Society
(NSVAS)
Blandy Garden Fair 2008 sponsored by FOSA
Where: Blandy Experimental Farm, Virginia State Arboretum, 400 Blandy Farm Lane, Boyce, VA
When: Friday, May 9 from 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Saturday &Sunday, May 10 & 11 from 9 AM to 4:30 PM
Shenandoah Audubon will have a booth at this event selling birdhouses, feeders, books and other related items and will be distributing birding and conservation brochures.
Shenandoah Audubon is also sponsoring guided bird walks to be held Sunday at 1:00 to be led by Kaycee Lichliter. Meet at the amphitheater and dress for the weather, wear sturdy shoes, bring your binoculars and field guides and water.
b
Climate Change and the Media. Is the story true?
Dr. Caren Cooper, Research Associate with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, will focus on creating awareness about the power of the media to shape our beliefs, attitudes and values, while exploring what is known about the causes and consequences of climate change. Free and open to the public. Specific time and Shenandoah Campus Auditorium location to be announced. For more information, contact Kaycee Lichliter at kayceelichliter@hotmail.com.
JAY-BIRD'S CORNER
JAY-BIRD'S CORNER
Jay
Yount, Certified Wildlife Rehabilitator
It was overcast Sunday when the phone rang. One of those wintry, foggy mornings just after a cold front had passed through the area. The caller described a duck injured with two broken legs! Unable to walk, the duck was lying down in the middle of a large, asphalt parking lot. I told the caller that I would meet him there, so I bundled up and set out to pick up my new patient.
His most distinguishing feature was his large, rounded bill colored a beautiful baby blue. No other duck sports such a handsome blue bill! It was a male Ruddy Duck ( Oxyura jamaicensis). I examined him from the tip of his blue bill to the top of his vertical tail, and he appeared to be just fine. Not a single broken bone. In fact, both legs were in perfect working order. So, why couldn’t he walk, you ask? Why didn’t he just stand up and walk away, or fly away, you wonder?
Ruddy Ducks belong to a very special group of ducks referred to as “diving ducks.” This includes Grebes, Loons, Mergansers, Canvasbacks and others, which depend on diving to retrieve their food. These ducks are either on the water or in the air, but not on the land. As you look at one of these ducks, the first characteristic to catch your attention is the legs are positioned far back on their body, underneath the base of their tail. These ducks literally cannot walk! In fact, they can’t even stand up! And if they can’t stand . . . can’t walk . . . can’t run . . . can’t takeoff to fly from a solid surface. I like to say they become “ground bound.”
Whenever a Nor’easter passes through the Shenandoah Valley, I know the phone will ring. These seldom seen diving ducks, blown westward with the low ceiling and high winds, think the black, wet asphalt is a pond or lake. Thinking it is a safe harbour, they decide to land only to discover the unforgiving asphalt beneath their feet. Can you imagine the dilemma? Now the duck is stuck, unable to lift off. He is alone, stranded, soon to be starving until someone rescues him. Remember, if you should see a duck down on a parking lot, gather him with a towel or jacket and place him in a secure box for transport. It’s always a good idea to have the duck checked over before release. After a couple of meals and much needed rest, my Ruddy Duck was ready for freedom? All diving ducks require water for takeoff. They “skittle” upon the surface with flapping wings and running legs, until they have enough speed to lift off the water. We went to a lake and after diving for dinner and then a bath, my Ruddy Duck finally took flight and disappeared. He was a beautiful duck . . . and a grateful one for sure!
Winter Wonders
by Barbara Chaplin
I awoke to see the white pines kissing the ground, weighted down with thick, shimmering frosting that gleamed in the wavering morning sunlight. A flock of 30 Bluebirds and a flock of 50 Cedar Waxwings competed with Robins and our "household" birds for the berries on the Mother Tree in my front yard, flying off to congregate on Papa Persimmon's naked branches and sing their thanks. The Mother Tree is what we used to call a Juniper, but is now called Northern Cedar - tall and proud, cone shaped, and full of beautiful little blue berries that provide nourishment for many birds in the winter. Our feeders and nesting material hang from her green and brown branches to supplement her bounty. As the sun warmed and I enjoyed my first cup of coffee, flurries of wings came up to the house and landed somewhere above my bedroom window. Peering out, I discovered that as ice melted and tricked down the roof, it sluggishly moved down the gutter which provided a perfect drinking trough for the birds! One day … one more wonder in the ever wonderful world of nature.
Calmes Neck Wildflower Walk, hosted by
VNPS, will take place on April 19 from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon led by Gary
Fleming. Bring your own picnic lunch & join others afterwards at The Point.
Linda Thomas will be dedicating the wildflower walk area of the Clarke County
Conservation Easement that will be preserved in perpetuity in honor of her
mother, Fran Endicott. Contact Blanca Vandervoort 837-1637 or
cvanderv@nelsoncable.com for more
information.
Beginning March 22, every other Saturday will play host to a Nature Walk at Abrams Creek Wetlands Preserve, led by Jim Smith from 8:00-10:00 am. Dress comfortably, bring binoculars as you gaze around all the flora and fauna of the area with a focus on migrating birds. Meet at the Children of America parking lot on Jubal Early Drive before beginning a leisurely stroll through the spring transformation from March to May. See calendar for more details.
A Record Breaking Year for the CN CBC
We had a really great day for the annual Calmes Neck Christmas Bird Count, held on January 5, 2008 (the CBC period is from Dec. 15th to Jan 5th). Our total number of species was 94 & our total number of participants was 59, both of which are record breakers for this count. We also sighted four rare birds that require reports: A Golden Eagle, Northern Saw-Whet Owl, Solitary Sandpiper & a Peregrine Falcon. Other interesting findings include: yellow-bellied sapsucker and redheaded woodpecker numbers are up while hairy woodpecker numbers are down; large numbers of red-tailed & red-shouldered hawks were sighted; a good variety of duck species, but low numbers; a flock of 70 American Pipits were sighted (only recorded 2 or 3 times before on this count!); there were great flocks of Blue Jays, 4 Eastern Phoebes, 3 Pie Billed Grebes, 2 Black-capped Chickadees & a Ruffed Grouse in a woodlot. There were 648 Bluebirds recorded, but none with bands reported. The full report should be available for viewing by the time of this newsletter at www.audubon.org/birds/citizenscience/CBC. You can find both Calmes Neck and Northern Shenandoah counts, both sponsored by Shenandoah Audubon, at that website address.
Those that were able attended the tally rally that evening at Blandy & enjoyed a main course of shrimp jambalaya prepared by Mike Wilson, as well as other goodies brought by others for the potluck supper. Also available for review was an archive of this count on a spreadsheet that included all the data from 1964 (informally counted by the Schole family ‘64 to ’76) through 2006 sent by our regional Audubon count editor, Teta Kain.
The count was held in memory of Fran Endicott this year who was instrumental in the formation of this official Audubon circle in 1977 with others at Calmes Neck, and served as the compiler from 1987 to 2002, 16 years. She still holds that record!
Remembering
Gregory John Baruffi
1953 – 2007
by
Kaycee Lichliter
During the evening of December 18, a tragic vehicle accident claimed the life of our Shenandoah Audubon President, and dear friend, Greg Baruffi. Although Greg claimed to live a “simple life,” I struggle to recall anything simplistic about him or his life, but rather, a life wherein he wove intricate threads throughout our community and into many relationships, creating a colorful tapestry with his love and generosity.
Delving deeply into his work as an educator at Timber Ridge School, Greg learned patience from those who needed patience the most. As witnessed by many, Greg made a tremendous impact on his students, and they did likewise on him. As a volunteer in our community, this multifaceted individual was equally impressive, exhibiting a deep compassion for our Mother Nature, never hesitating to speak straight from his heart to defend her. Some of Greg’s most challenging and rewarding moments were derived while teaching Little Nature Camp and assisting with children’s activities at the Virginia State Arboretum Garden Fair and Arbor Fest events. By combining studies at Colorado Mountain College, Lord Fairfax Community College and Shenandoah University, Greg armed himself with knowledge and enjoyed earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies.
For four years, Greg put his heart and soul into co-coordinating the Bluebird Trail at Blandy Experimental Farm. The tremendous amount of time and energy this conservation research mission consumed was just a glimpse at his involvement with ‘one of many’ environmental-related projects. Over the years Greg was involved in a wide array of projects, some of which were working to protect the Abram’s Creek Wetland Preserve, Friends of the Shenandoah River, The Opequon Watershed, Audubon Christmas Bird Counts and the Cape May Raptor Banding Project, Inc. He became highly skilled in the field of songbird banding, having participated at Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve, Environmental Studies at Airlie, Blandy Experimental Farm and Powermill Nature Reserve banding stations; and, during the summer of 2007 he was instrumental in all facets of the development and operation of the Burwell-Van Lennep Foundation Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship bird banding program in Clarke County, VA. Being the innovative and enthusiastic carpenter that he was, Greg built houses for songbirds, bats, woodpeckers and owls, always striving to provide for others.
Some of Greg’s simple joys were observing lightening bugs in the meadow on a warm summer’s eve, listening to the deafening calls of Spring Peepers, scrutinizing the spider on a dew-laden web, contemplating the intricacies of a stalk of celery, and sitting motionless on a mountain top boulder while quietly surveying the valley below. Greg’s love of “the simple things” was a reflection of his own image. You see, “the simple things” are really “quite complex,” and only remain simple, as long as we keep them simple. While Greg was obviously quite a multifaceted and exquisite individual, he chose to keep it simple, and he would often, after quite a bit of serious thought and consideration, sum things up by simply stating, “It is, what it is.” Although will miss Greg’s physical presence, it is not necessary to bid him farewell, because you see, Greg is in all the things we love; the snow, the birds, the trees...
If you are a Member of the National Audubon Society…SHENANDOAH AUDUBON NEEDS YOU!
Dear National Audubon Member: Your local chapter of Audubon would like your support. It is the local chapter that carries the message of conservation and environmental awareness to the community around us—and we need your help! We would like to be able to contact our local NAS members, so please SEND AN EMAIL to dianesours@yahoo.com with "AUDUBON MEMBERSHIP" in the subject line, and tell us how we can contact you. Unfortunately the member information we receive from NAS is not always current or correct. We need your email address, phone number, and a correct mailing address.
YOUR ASSISTANCE IS GREATLY APPRECIATED! THANK YOU!