Northern Neck Audubon News
The Northern Neck of Virginia Chapter of the National Audubon Society
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P.O. Box 991, Kilmarnock, Virginia 22482!
Volume 39 - No. 3
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www.northernneckaudubon.org
May/June 2012
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
April 28 - Saturday Bird Walk
Beaver Dam Park (near Gloucester)
8:00 AM at the park ranger’s station
Led by Frank Schaff
804-462-0084
Cattle Egret Photograph by Karen Johnson
May 7 - Meeting 7:00 PM
Grace Episcopal Church, Kilmarnock
Topic Wild Turkeys
Speakers: Steve Proctor & Susan
Christopher
Type to enter text
Inside This Issue
President’s Message !...................................... 2
Upcoming NNAS Election !........................... 2
Newsletter in Color on the Web !.................. 2
May 12 - Saturday Bird Walk
Hutchinson Tract, Rappahannock
River Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Led by Frank Schaff
May 14 - Monday Bird Walk
Hutchinson Tract, Rappahannock
River Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Led by Frank Schaff
New Bluebird Trail !........................................ 3
Hope Returns to Virginia !............................. 3
Upcoming Events !.......................................... 4
Past Events !..................................................... 4
June 4 - Meeting 7:00 PM
Grace Episcopal Church, Kilmarnock
Topic: Birds of Central Virginia
Speaker: Marshall Faintich
NORTHERN NECK AUDUBON NEWS!
President’s Message
Hasn’t this been an interesting spring - weather and
bird wise?! It seems unusual to have had Dark-eyed
Juncos and White-throated Sparrows still here as
Hummingbirds arrive. Plants are two to three weeks
ahead of ‘typical’ budding and flowering, and based
on the looks of my car, plenty of insects are out and
about. The weather has been dry for a Northern
Neck spring. Make sure you have some water
available outside for the birds to use for drinking
and bathing. It is essential for their well-being, and
it’s highly entertaining to watch them splash around.
Our Chapter’s mission includes the wording “we’re
for the birds”. In order to accomplish that, outreach
to the public in an on-going way is essential. One
outreach opportunity is our booth at the Irvington
Farmers’ Market on the first Saturday of each month
from May through November. We have one of only
a few non-profit spaces at the Market, so it is
important that we not lose that space. Please
consider volunteering for the team that will keep our
“face” in the public eye. You can volunteer for a
couple of hours or more to greet people, sell a
Bluebird box or bird book, answer questions, and
generally visit with friendly folks.
I’ll be waiting to hear from you. Send your email to
paula.boundy [at] va.metrocast.net.
Have a great summer! !
Paula Boundy, Chapter President
Upcoming NNAS Election
The election of Officers and Directors of the Chapter
will take place at the June 2012 meeting.
A nominating committee, made up of Maggie Gerdts
and Nancy Millar, has been speaking to members to
arrive at a slate of officers for the upcoming program
year, as well as at least one more director to fill
vacancies on the NNAS Board. Here are the
nominations at the time this newsletter goes to press:
For President: Paula Boundy
Vice President: Open
Secretary: Beth Kendrick
Treasurer: Trudy Quinto
Director for term ending 2015: Open
MAY/JUNE 2012 PAGE 2
As new names are added to the slate, they will be
posted at the NNAS web site: http://
www.northernneckaudubon.org.
Nominations for any of the above positions will be
accepted from any member of NNAS. Nominations
may be submitted in writing to the Nominating
Committee no later than April 25. (This can be as
simple as an email to paula.boundy [at]
va.metrocast.net. Nominations may also be made
from the floor at the June 2012 general meeting as
part of the election.
The NNAS Board of Directors meets in the
afternoon of the first Monday of the following
months: February, March, April, May, June,
October, November, and December. The meetings
last approximately 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
NNAS cannot function without volunteers. Please
do your part to keep NNAS going strong. If you
want to know more about the duties of any of the
positions, please ask.
Newsletter in Color on the Web
NNAS has begun to post the Chapter’s
newsletters on the NNAS web site (http://
www.northernneckaudubon.org/). They can be
found on the “Chapter Documents page (http://
w w w. n o r t h e r n n e c k a u d u b o n . o r g /
Chapter_Documents.html). Depending on the
browser being employed by the user, clicking on
the link to a particular issue of the newsletter will
either open it in the browser or allow the user to
download it to his/her own computer. Please note
that a link to a free read-only version of Adobe
Reader is available on that same page. If you do
not have software that displays PDF documents,
you can download Adobe Reader by clicking on
the plugin link and following the directions
provided at the Adobe web site.
Would you prefer to receive the newsletter
electronically, in color, rather than in print, in
black and white? If so, please send email to
bbwilson [at] kaballero.com.
NORTHERN NECK AUDUBON NEWS!
MAY/JUNE 2012 PAGE 3
New Bluebird Trail
On February 24, Shanna Minarik, John Narney,
Glyn Surdam and Paul Servis installed a 20-box
bluebird trail at Westmoreland State Park. The day
began with rain showers but soon developed into a
beautiful warm summer-like day. The trail went up
without a hitch because of Shanna's preplanning,
and we finished work around 12:45 PM.
NNAS donated the boxes and the funds to buy the
mounting pipes, baffles and hardware. Shanna
from the Westmoreland Park Staff, John from the
Friends of Westmoreland State Park, plus Glyn and
Paul from NNAS provided the manpower for the
task.
The Westmoreland Park Bluebird Trail will be
monitored by volunteers during the nesting season.
If you live in the Westmoreland area and wish to
help with monitoring, contact Shanna Minarik at
shannanb [at] hotmail.com.
Monitoring takes
about 2 hours per session. Training with be
provided. The trail will be monitored once per
week April through August, and several teams of
two will share monitoring responsibilities.
Many thanks for a job well done to Shanna, John
and especially Glyn, who drove most of the
mounting pipes into the ground,.
At lunch Glyn and Paul ran into the
Superintendents of Westmoreland and Belle Isle
State Parks. They both thanked us for their
Bluebird trails. From the drift of their conversation
it seems that there may be a spirit of competition
between the two parks over the number of fledges
on their respective Bluebird trails! The pressure is
on.
Detail of a photograph of Hope at Great Pond on 9
January, 2012. Photo by Lisa Yntema.
Glyn Surdam, Shanna Minarik, and John Narney
installing new Bluebird trail at Westmoreland State
Park. Photo by Paul Servis.
Hope Returns to Virginia
News Advisory from the Center for Conservation
Biology, College of William and Mary - Virginia
Commonwealth University (Williamsburg, VA)
Hope, a Whimbrel carrying a satellite transmitter,
has returned to the Eastern Shore of Virginia after
spending the winter on St. Croix in the U.S.
Virginia Islands. The bird has been tracked by a
team of researchers through her migratory travels
since she was captured on Box Tree Creek in
Northampton County, Virginia on 19 May, 2009.
Since that time she has traveled more than 44,100
miles (71,000 kilometers) back and forth 3 times
between breeding grounds on the MacKenzie
River in western Canada and Great Pond
Important Bird Area on St. Croix. She likely left
Great Pond on the evening of April 1st and
arrived in Virginia on the morning of April 4th,
covering the 1600 miles in approximately 60
hours. She had been wintering on Great Pond
since September 14, 2011.
NORTHERN NECK AUDUBON NEWS!
Hope Returns to Virginia (continued)
Hope has taught the research community a great
deal about the migratory pathways and habits of
whimbrels. She has made tremendous nonstop
flights, moved great distances out over the open
Atlantic, confronted storms while at sea, navigated
with precision to stopover sites and shown high
fidelity to her breeding site, her wintering site, and
several staging areas. Hope is one of more than a
dozen birds that have been tracked in a
collaborative effort between The Center for
Conservation Biology, The Nature Conservancy
and other partners designed to discover migratory
routes that connect breeding and winter areas and
to identify en route migratory staging areas that are
critical to the conservation of this declining species.
Updated tracking maps may be viewed online at
http://www.ccb-wm.org/programs/migration/
Whimbrel/whimbrel.htm.
Editor’s note: A program on this Whimbrel research was
presented at the September 2009 NNAS meeting.
Upcoming Events
May Monthly Meeting
May 7, 2012, 7 PM,
Grace Episcopal Church, Kilmarnock
Wild Turkeys & the Northern Neck Wild Turkey
Association
Stephen (Steve) Proctor, a long time member of the
Northern Neck Wild Turkey Association (NNWTA)
and its past President, will discuss the wild turkey
population in the Northern Neck, its habitat and
outlook for the future. He is a graduate of
Hampden-Sydney College and T.C. Williams School
of Law at the University of Richmond, a member of
the Virginia State Bar, and served on active duty
during the Viet Nam era as an attorney in the in
Navy JAG Corps. Steve resides on the family farm
situated in the Bluff Point area on Dividing and
Jarvis Creeks. He is the father of two daughters and
grandfather of five grandchildren.
Susan O'Hara Christopher is a retired educator/
counselor from Northern Virginia and lives in her
MAY.JUNE 2012 PAGE 4
husband's family home in Wicomico Church.
She has been active in the Northern Neck Wild
Turkey Association since it started in the mid
90s. She has been a board member and held
various offices in NNWTA. Her current and
favorite activity for the organization is serving
as its Educational Outreach Coordinator. She
will discuss the history of the NNWTA, its
programs -- which include scholarships,
fellowships, plantings, youth programs, spring
and fall shoots (target & clay) -- and other
membership activities. The NNWTA will
provide door prizes and other things to share
during the program. Susan and Steve look
forward to questions and a lively discussion.
June 2012 Monthly Meeting
June 4, 2012, 7 PM, Grace Episcopal Church,
Kilmarnock
The Birds of Central Virginia
Dr. Marshall Faintich is the official
photographer and the senior birding editor for
the Rockfish Valley Trail. His bird photography
can be found on several nature trails in Virginia
and Maryland, has been used on numerous
websites, and has been published in Virginia
newspapers. He an astronomer by training, a
cartographer by trade, and a student of
numismatics, archaeology, and history.
Dr. Faintich received his B.S. in Applied
Mathematics from the University of Missouri at
Rolla, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy
from the University of Illinois. He is the author
of A Photographic Guide to the Birds of
Wintergreen.
His field reports and many photos can be seen
on
his
web
site:
http://
www.symbolicmessengers.com/blog.htm.
Past Events
Facts and Folklore about American Vultures
Attendees of the March NNAS meeting were treated to a
fascinating talk about American vultures. The speaker,
William Lynch, received his B. A. in Biology from Berea
College and an M.S. in Biology from Eastern Kentucky
University.!
During the past 17 years Bill has worked
NORTHERN NECK AUDUBON NEWS!
Past Events (continued)
as a Wildlife Biologist for the Kentucky Department of
Fish and Wildlife Resources. His primary duty is assisting
private landowners with habitat improvement for native
plant and animal species. He also teaches part-time at
Western Kentucky University.
Bill’s interest in vultures began during his undergraduate
studies at Berea College. He often hiked Berea College’s
Indian Fort Mountain, which is dominated by sandstone
cliffs. It was during his explorations of the cliffs and rock
outcrops that he originally came across Turkey Vultures.
The big birds impressed him, and he soon began a
literature search for any piece of information he could
find about them. However, he found that there had been
little research done on Turkey Vultures, so he decided to
make them the focus of his Master’s thesis research. His
interest in and research of vultures have continued from
1975 to date.
He has obtained permission from a great number of
Kentucky landowners to access their property in order to
observe nest sites, many of which he found in abandoned
buildings as well as in hollow trees, and in crevices in
cliffs in the knobs region of central Kentucky. He found
the nest sites by observing roosts of 7 or so vultures, and
then triangulating these roosts and tracking the birds.
(Non-nesting vultures can have roosts of 300 - 500 birds.)
He would set a trap in the carcass of a dead animal to
catch the vultures, then apply tape to the tails to be able to
recognize individual birds during his observations.
Incidentally, male and female vultures are identical in
appearance from afar.
Just a sampling of the things he has learned about Turkey
Vultures and Black Vultures over the years include:
Vultures do not like canines. He baits road kill to trap and
band vultures, but they will not go near a dead dog's
body. This aversion may originate from a fear of coyotes.
Vultures are wary, approaching their nests by landing on
several perches and checking out the area before going to
their nests. Eggs are the size of goose eggs, and the chicks
are tiny and helpless. Growth from egg to adult takes
approximately 3 months. Both parents feed the young.
Vultures do not have a voice box of any consequence, but
they do make a "arrival call" -- a sort of huffing noise -when approaching their nest to feed young. Based on the
last of these vulture facts, Bill hopes to publish a scientific
article about his research into vulture communication.
A lively discussion about vultures followed Bill's
presentation.
The Nature Friendly Garden
A delightful and insightful talk about the
interdependency of creatures in the natural world, even
those creatures that most of us see in a negative light, was
MAY/JUNE 2012 PAGE 5
presented at the NNAS April meeting. The speaker was
Marlene A. Condon, author of The Nature-friendly Garden:
Creating a Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People
(Stackpole Books). Her talk was beautifully illustrated
with a slide presentation of photographs that she took of
the animals living in and around her home in Crozet,
Virginia.
She began by informing the audience that fireflies lay their
eggs on moss, and when the larvae hatch, the feed on
slugs and snails. Of course, most gardeners abhor slugs,
but Marlene pointed out that slugs and snails are not "bad"
animals. In fact, they do great good by recycling organic
matter and that they usually do not eat healthy plants.
Next she spoke of aphids, another life form seen as a
garden pest. Gardeners are told to wash aphids from their
vegetable plants using a hose, but Marlene said that
aphids, too, had a place in the balance of nature. They
keep plants from overproducing, and more appealingly to
members of NNAS, aphids serve as a source of protein for
Hummingbirds, who cannot live on sugar water and
nectar alone.
From one animal species to the next, Marlene showed how
we view each from a human perspective -- a very narrow
and short-sighted one, rather than as an indispensable part
of a harmonious whole. When we interrupt this delicate
balance of nature, we pay a price in the resulting
proliferation of one or more species, and that it is this
proliferation that is the real problem. As an example, she
talked about how many people hate snakes, because
(among other things) they eat birds. However, if 2 birds
parent 3 broods of 4 chicks in each, and if each of those
chicks survived to adulthood and bred in these numbers,
this pattern repeated for 10 years would result in
565,000,000 birds from the original 2. That would simply
be unsustainable. In addition, snakes themselves are
subject to predation, serving as an important source of
food for Red-tailed Hawks and other birds.
Only the gist of Marlene's talk can be given here. For a full
understanding of the wisdom she has accumulated over
her years as a naturalist, you should really read her book.
Many fortunate NNAS members who were at the meeting
happily purchased copies of her book, which she had
brought with her and which she graciously autographed.
INJURED BIRDS
Diana O’ Conner - 804-313-2240
INJURED ANIMALS
Nancy Johnston - 804-435-3040
Application for Membership in NNAS - Chapter Code X50, 7XCH
❒ Local Chapter Only Membership - $15.00 annually, renewable in June; includes local newsletter and directory.
❒ National & Local Membership - $20.00 introductory ($35.00 after), is above, plus glossy National Audubon Magazine.
Make checks payable to “National Audubon Society”.
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Northern Neck Audubon Society Resources
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Membership!
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Jessica Servis
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Open
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Fred Witschey &
Ron Feldman
Rea Hinch
Paul Servis
Jan Tyndall &
Paula Boundy
Bonnie Wilson
Frank Schaff
Ron Feldman
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Northern Neck of Virginia Chapter!
Of the National Audubon Society!
P.O. Box 991!
Kilmarnock, VA 22482-0991!
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