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• Rare Visitor Spotted at St George State Park
• Winter Programs Kicking off
• Florida Birding Festival and Nature Expo Offered Tons of Trips
• Member's Travel Column
• LWCF00 -- Land and Water Conservation Fund, year 2000

The Apalachee Audubon Chapter wants to recognize and thank Buckeye Florida for its generous contribution in support of publishing this Newsletter.

By Val Weeks
According to a December 12, 1999 article in the Tallahassee Democrat, park workers at St. George Island State Park have sighted an unusual winter visitor in the park: Nyctea scandiaca — the Snowy Owl.
   It seems unbelievable that a bird that rarely ventures past the extreme northern climes of the U.S. during winter migrations would actually appear in Florida. However, the sighting has been verified by expert birder James Cavanaugh, according to the Democrat article.
   Needless to say, park workers said they expect an increase in  human  winter  visitors since the sighting!
      I personally sighted the owl Dec. 14 at marker #8 near the far pavilion.  The diurnal bird is roosting along the dune line between the road and the ocean.  Park rangers have asked that birders use extraordinary care in observing the owl.

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   Richard Paul will join us for an evening discussing the NAS Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuary on January 25th during our monthly program.  Rich is the Manager/ Biologist of the NAS Fla. Coastal Islands Sanctuary since 1980 and has extensive study and management experience with colonial waterbird populations.

   Rich will talk about the history and growth of the sanctuary (dates from 1934), the species and numbers of nesting birds on the islands, and programs both current and planned.  Rich says, “Overall (on sanctuary islands and at other colonies), we protect or influence the protection of about 50,000 breeding pairs of ca. 25 species of birds, at 35 or so colonies.  And we want to grow.”

   Bill Parker will speak on February 22 on the Leon Sinks.  This is our annual lasagna dinner, so call Ellen Shelton (942-5194) if you want to contribute lasagna, salad or a dessert.

   Bill will lead us on a field trip to the sinks on February 27th.   Bill  holds a B.A. and M.S. from Univ. of Tennessee, and a Ph.D from Univ. of Chicago. He has been teaching at FSU since 1980. Bill’s areas of interest are quantitative evolutionary paleontology and carbonate petrology.

   More info is available  at "http://gly.fsu.edu/faculty.html"

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By Joycelyn Stowell

   The second year of the Florida Birding Festival and Nature Expo Sept 30-Oct 3, l999 in Clearwater was even better than the first.  The sheer number of trips offered in the Tampa Bay area was impressive and made it very hard to choose an itinerary.  Field trips generally started promptly at 7:00 a.m. with bus rides either directly to the birding sites like Fort de Soto Park, Honeymoon Island, Booker Creek Preserve,Weeden Island, etc. or to boat rides to Shell Island and Egmont Key.  Most  trips lasted 4-6 hours.

The range of birds varied from short-billed dowitchers, a long-billed curlew, marbled godwits, a snowyplover, black-belted plover, semipalmated and Wilsons plovers, roseate spoonbills, various herons, egrets, ibises, double-crested cormorants, merlins, kestrels, ospreys, peregrine falcons, willets, brown pelicans, oystercatchers, ruddy turnstones, red knots, belted  kingfishers, a clapper rail, eurasian collared doves, wood storks, magnificent frigate birds, black and white warblers, palm and yellow warblers, American redstarts, blue-winged teals, lesser yellow legs, sanderlings, tree swallows, laughing gulls, various terns.  Workshops on  birds, butterflies, and insects ranging from migration patterns to habitat information completed the days except for those with the stamina to attend a late evening owl prowl (one lasted into the wee hours!)  My mother, Elspeth and I bowed out since we had chosen to attend all four days and couldn’t face getting up at 6:00 a.m. after an evening like that.  Anyway there were speakers we would have missed!
    The pelagic tour was the only disappointment this year offering a view of only a few gulls and terns in addition to some impressively acrobatic flying fish.  Although this year we didn’t participate in the Kissimmee bus tour we heard participants spotted crested caracara, Mississippi and snail kites, sandhill and whooping cranes, scrub jays, loggerhead shrikes, brownheaded nuthatches and more.
   Registration for all three days costs about $150 including well-known keynote speakers.  Proceeds have gone towards purchase and conservation of Tampa Bay  wildlife areas such as Shell Island.  Consider attending the 2000 event.

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By Dave Redfield

   In July 1998 Pat and I traveled to  South Eastern Arizona for a three day birding adventure. Of the five hundred twenty bird  species recorded in Arizona, we had seen somewhere all but nine. But at this time of year we had the chance to see six more.

   Rich Hoyer, a young professional guide for WINGS, met us at the Tucson airport and drove us in a four-wheel drive Chevy Blazer to a point near to the Mexican border where three of the target birds could be seen: the Five-striped, Botteri's and Rufous-winged Sparrows. Then we drove up to a Madera Canyon, had a picnic supper and went to a particular spot where Rich thought we should see a Whiskered Screech-Owl. Rich called it and it flew to a tree ten feet above the car and sat there for us to view from every angle. The next day we got up early again and drove through absolutely gorgeous rural areas to Carr Canyon and up a mountain road to successfully find the Buff-breasted Flycatcher. Having seen five of our six target birds we thought we'd go to Miller Canyon to view Hummingbirds. We were fortunate in seeing the very rare Berylline Hummingbird and six other hummingbird species.

   The next morning we were up at 3:30 AM and off through Box Canyon to Sugar Valley where we had a great look at two of the Bendire Thrashers sitting side-by-side on a TV antenna. This was our sixth target bird. In all we saw ninety-three bird species in Arizona most of which one never sees here on the East Coast.
 

Editors note:   If you have a special trip that you would like to share with us, let us know.  Please send your article (250-300 words) to Val Weeks via email at vweeks@gtcom.net.

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Submitted by J. Harvey Goldman

    Our chapter's nominated site, St. Marks NWR, was chosen as one of National Audubon's Land and Water Conservation Fund priorities for FY01.  As a priority, it will be included in their annual publication, which will be delivered to all members of congress. The land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is the premiere avenue for acquiring environmentally sensitive lands throughout the country, and has an authorized level of $900 million annually.
   Here is our strategy over the next few months.  All our friends and members are encouraged to participate in these efforts.

1. December: write letters to the Chair of the president's Council on Environmental Quality, requesting inclusion of St Marks NWR in the  president's budget:
  Council on Environmental Quality
  Chairman George Frampton
  722 Jackson Place, NorthWest
  Washington DC 20503
  (FAX 202-456-2710)

2. Jan-Feb: (a) Generate letters to our congressional Representative, urging  him to support LWCF funds for St Marks (I have a sample letter); (b) Ask our congressional representative  to testify at Members Day and request funding through LWCF  from the Appropriations Committee. Members Day is a once a year opportunity for Representatives to appear before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior to request appropriations.  This is one of the best ways to get our site earmarked in the House appropriations budget.

Representative: Allen Boyd   email: rep.boyd@mail.house.gov,  301 South Monroe Street, #108, Tallahassee, FL 32301. (850) 561-3979  Fax: (850) 681-2902
1237 Longworth  Washington, D.C. 20515  (202) 225-5235
30 West Government Street, #203, Panama City, FL 32401
(850) 785-0812  Fax: (850) 763-3764

3. March: Generate letters to our Senators, urging them to support LWCF funds for St Marks.

Senators:
*Bob Graham: email: bob_graham@graham.senate.gov.   Staff member: Julia Hathaway   202-224-3041
*Connie Mack: email: connie@mack.senate.gov.              Staff member: Colleen Cresanti 202-224-5274

(Ed. Note: Harvey has sample letters for members to use as a guide in the letter writing campaign.)

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