cheyenne – high plains audubon society flyer › 2018 › 02 › december2.pdfdec 02, 2018 ·...
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Flyer Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society Chartered by the National Audubon Society since 1974
Serving southeastern Wyoming Audubon members
Officers and Committee Chairs
Barb Gorges, President—307-634-0463,
Dennis Saville, Vice president—307-632-
1602, [email protected]
Donna Kassel, Secretary—307-634-6481
Chuck Seniawski, Treasurer, 307-638-6519,
Jack Palma, Audubon Rockies liaison—
Pete Arnold, Audubon Rockies liaison
Greg Johnson, Bird Compiler—307-634-
1056, [email protected]
Conservation—Vacant
Belinda Moench, Education—638-8257
Field Trip—Vacant
Historian—Vacant
Mark Gorges, Newsletter, Habitat Hero
program—307-287-4953,
Art Anderson, Important Bird Areas—
307-638-1286
Wanda Manley, Member at Large
Membership—Vacant
Barb Gorges, Programs—307-634-0463,
Lorie Chesnut, Hospitality, Website
The CHPAS Flyer is published monthly as a bene-
fit of chapter membership. Submissions are wel-
come. The current issue is available online at
www.CheyenneAudubon.wordpress.com.
Please become a CHPAS member—Send $12 and your name and mailing address to the chapter. Include your e-mail address to get your newsletter digitally to save re-sources and see the photos in color. All chap-ter memberships expire Aug. 31.
Cheyenne-High Plains Audubon Soc.
P.O. Box 2502
Cheyenne, WY 82003-2502 www.CheyenneAudubon.wordpress.com
Wyobirds e-list - Subscribe, post and/or read interesting sightings: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?A0=WYOBIRDS.
December 2017
Dec. 29—Cheyenne Country Club Survey 8 a.m.
Contact Chuck Seniawski if you wish to take part or be on his email notice list: 638-
6519, [email protected]. You are welcome to join the group, but please register with
Chuck the week before the survey so that we can arrange golf carts for the survey.
Jan. 16—Program: Wyoming Toad Reintroduction Progress. Learn about chang-
ing strategies for releasing toads and the captive breeding program.
Jan. 20—Field Trip to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge: We
will tour the visitors center and look for bison, prairie dogs, bald eagles, other raptors
and other winter wildlife.
Dec. 17—Guernsey/Ft. Laramie Christmas Bird Count
Cheyenne birders will meet at 7:30
a.m. at Lions Park, in the parking lot south
of the Children’s Village on South Lions
Park Drive.
Please let Mark Gorges, mgorg-
[email protected], 307-287-4953, know if you
plan to come in case there are any changes
in plans due to weather.
Bring water, lunch, warm clothes,
binoculars, and a scope if you have one, and
whatever you need for a day watching birds
at Grayrocks Reservoir, Guernsey State
Park, Ft. Laramie National Historic Site, the
Oregon Trail Ruts and Hartville, leaving for
Cheyenne about 4 p.m., depending on
weather or stopping for refreshments or
dinner.
Birding on your own or watching
your feeders? The center point of the 7.5
mile radius count circle is where Highway
26 crosses the Goshen County/Platte County
line. Please send in your results ASAP to
the count compiler, Jane Dorn, 640-4002,
Anyone in the neighborhood of the
count area is welcome to meet Jane at 8 a.m.
at the Ft. Laramie Post Office, or at 9:30
a.m. at the main entrance to Guernsey State
Park.
Dec. 30—Cheyenne Christmas Bird Count and Tally Party
Be a field observer with a group:
Downtown Post Office lobby,
2100 Capitol Ave., by 7:30 a.m. Dress for the weather and bring
pencil, notepaper plus thermos, cookies,
binoculars and field guide, if you have
them. We will divide into groups to visit
simultaneously Wyoming Hereford Ranch,
High Plains Grasslands Research Station,
F.E. Warren and Lions Park. Your group
may finish up within a couple of hours.
Be a field observer on your own. You are free to look for birds any-
where within the count circle—see map on
p. 3. Record numbers of each species you
observe and the amount of time and dis-
tance you travel—and the kind of transpor-
tation you use. Keep track of where and
when you saw species of note so we can tell
if you counted the same bird or flock as
someone else.
For your report, compile the total
number of individuals of each species and
include your travel information. Turn in
your results at the potluck or call Greg
Johnson, CBC coordinator, 634-1056,
Be a feeder watcher. See p. 3.
Attend the CBC tally party and
potluck. Westgate activity center,
5519 Gateway Dr., 5:30 p.m. Bring your results and a food con-
tribution to share. At the intersection of
Yellowstone and Carlson, go west on Carl-
son half a block. Turn south on Gateway
Drive (through the gate). Look for the two-
story building immediately on the left.
Thanks, John Cornelison, for making ar-
rangements for the tally party location once
again.
Get more potluck information. Call Mark Gorges, 634-0463.
Nov 24—Cheyenne Country Club survey results by Chuck Seniawski
Pretty much a routine day for the
Cheyenne Country Club survey.
Nov 24, 2017 8:00 AM - 9:15 AM
12 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose 2
Mallard 25
Sharp-shinned/Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 4
American Kestrel 1
Black-billed Magpie 2
American Crow 9
Mountain Chickadee 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 4
Pygmy Nuthatch 8
American Robin 1
European Starling 22
View this checklist online at http://
ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S40846509
Chapter News—see more on page 4
Nov 18—Front Range Lakes Field Trip Report by Mark Gorges
It was sunny with icy roads in
town when five intrepid CHPAS bird
watchers started out. South of the state
line, the roads were mostly dry. The tem-
perature never got above the mid-40s, but
there was hardly a breeze.
We stopped at four reservoirs:
North Poudre Reservoir #3, North Poudre
Reservoir #4, Bee Lake, and Fossil Creek
Reservoir
The highlights of the trip were the
bright white heads on many Buffleheads
and close looks at a couple of Northern
Harriers. There were hundreds of Canada
Geese, Mallards, Northern Shovelers and
Common Mergansers.
19 species and thousands of birds:
Snow Goose Canada Goose Northern Shoveler Gadwall Mallard Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Common Merganser Ruddy Duck Horned Grebe Eared Grebe Great Blue Heron Northern Harrier Red-tailed Hawk American Coot
Ring-billed Gull Prairie Falcon American Kestrel European Starling
Nov. 21 meeting: Greater Sage-Grouse update: Daly Edmunds, director
of policy and outreach for Audu-
bon Rockies, described the devel-
opment of the Wyoming Sage-
Grouse management plan. It does
not eliminate oil and gas drilling in
core habitat areas, only limits it to
a lesser density of wells.
Daly then discussed the Notice of Intent from the Bu-
reau of Land Management to revise those guidelines throughout
the West and the impacts it might have in Wyoming. Many chap-
ter members attended the BLM public meeting in Cheyenne Nov.
6 and submitted comments by the Dec. 1 deadline.
Since Nov. 21
However, The U.S. Forest Service has published a No-
tice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. This
begins the scoping process asking for public comments on Great-
er Sage-Grouse land management issues that could cause land
management plan amendments similar to BLM’s.
Land management plans for national forests in Idaho,
Montana, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming were amended
in September 2015 to incorporate conservation measures to pro-
tect the Greater Sage-Grouse.
To read the Notice of Intent and submit a formal com-
ment, use the link above or go to this website: https://
www.federalregister.gov. In the search area type: Ask Forest
Service to Amend Greater Sage-Grouse Land Use Plan. It is dat-
ed 11/21/2017.
Comments must be received by January 5, 2018. For an
analysis of the notice, please contact Daly Edmunds, Audubon
Rockies, [email protected].
First chapter grant approved by board: Up to $500
was approved to purchase eight pairs of binoculars for Kerry Pe-
terson’s third grade class at Prairie Wind Elementary in Chey-
enne. This will be the start of scientific observations document-
ing birds using a feeder.
Winter Moose Day Jan. 27: The University of Wyoming
Biodiversity Institute is surveying the moose of Pole Mountain
and the Snowy Range. Participants follow routes on foot looking
for moose and moose sign. Training provided. Contact Juliet
Slutzker, [email protected], 307-766-6240.
Habitat Hero workshop March 18: This will be our
fourth year helping you learn how to provide habitat in your yard
for birds, bees, butterflies (and bats) and other wildlife. It will be
a whole day of the Bee College conference at LCCC, but with
separate registration. More info next month.
Noah Strycker coming May 14: Author of “Birding
Without Borders, An Obsession, A Quest, and the Biggest Year
in the World,” saw 6,042 species, but he hasn’t birded Wyoming
yet! See more about him at http://noahstrycker.com/.
Greater Sage-Grouse.
Prairie Falcon by Mark Gorges
_____ Rock Pigeon
_____ Eurasian Collared-Dove
_____ Northern Flicker
_____ Downy Woodpecker
_____ Blue Jay
_____ American Crow
_____ Black-capped Chickadee
_____ Mountain Chickadee
_____ Red-breasted Nuthatch
_____ White-breasted Nuthatch
_____ European Starling
_____ Dark-eyed Junco
_____ House Finch
_____ House Sparrow
Other species: _____________________
CHEYENNE CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT FEEDER-WATCHER DATA SHEET
Directions:
The feeder(s) you intend to watch on Dec. 30 must be within the “count circle,” an area defined by a 15-mile diameter circle
centered on the Capitol building in downtown Cheyenne. See the map below.
Identify and count the number of each species that visits your feeder on the day of the count. Record only the maximum number
seen at any one time. For example, if a single house finch visits your feeder 10 times, but you never actually see more
than one house finch at a time, then that counts as one house finch seen, not 10.
Record the total hours spent observing the action at the feeder. It is not necessary to watch the feeder the entire day. Even if
you can only watch for 15 minutes, we’re still interested in receiving your data.
Please report the species and number observed ASAP to Greg Johnson, Cheyenne CBC compiler, at 307-634-1056 or by email
Date: Dec. 30, 2017 Name: ___________________________________________________
Phone: _________________________ Feeder(s) watched for ______ hours and _________ minutes.
Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society
P.O. Box 2502
Cheyenne, WY 82003
Board of Public Utilities Habitat Hero project CHPAS members have worked with Dena Egenhoff of
the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities to design a water-smart,
bird-friendly Habitat Hero demonstration garden at BOPU’s of-
fice at 2416 Snyder Ave.
The chapter is applying for a National Audubon Society
collaborative grant to help pay for the vegetation that will be
planted this spring. The chapter board voted to match up to $500
of the amount granted.
BOPU is committed to showing people how to save
water. Climate change will negatively affect mountain snowmelt,
the city’s major water source.
The goal is to demonstrate to the 200-300 BOPU visi-
tors per day that a water-smart landscape is beautiful, beneficial
to birds, butterflies, bees and other wildlife, and installing their
own Habitat Hero garden saves them money, not only by using
less water, but avoiding BOPU customers having to invest in
finding new water sources.
The other outcome of the demonstration garden project
is that it will convert 1,500 square feet of lawn to wildlife-
friendly habitat and could inspire more conversions in the 25
square miles (16,000 acres) of the city.
Outreach including signage, brochures (plant lists and
how-to-garden), news releases, social media and mail will reach
the 60,000 people in the city, plus the 15,000 city water users
outside the city limits.
Chapter supports Crow Creek Revival By Chuck Sniawski
At its October meeting, the CHPAS board voted to do-
nate $1,000 to the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce
Crow Creek Revival project which is focused on the restoration
of Crow Creek and its tributaries.
The project is designed to improve water quality, restore
wildlife habitat and create the opportunity for easier public ac-
cess. The ultimate goal is to make Crow Creek a welcoming
gateway for visitors and a destination for locals.
100 percent of funds received are to be applied
to project design and implementation. This is a collaborative
effort of Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce, Wyoming
Game & Fish Department, Wyoming Department of Environ-
mental Quality, Laramie County Conservation District, BOPU,
City of Cheyenne, Cheyenne Parks & Recreation, Adventure
Cheyenne, Greater Cheyenne Greenway, Curt Gowdy Chapter of
Trout Unlimited, and Wyoming office of The Nature Conservan-
cy.
Cheyenne Business Park Natural Area plans In the spring of 2014, Matt Ley, from the Laramie
County Conservation District, introduced our chapter to the dis-
trict’s opportunity to make a mostly unbuildable part of the
Cheyenne Business Park into a natural area to use for nature edu-
cation, recreation and wildlife habitat.
During the next two years, the district met with local
educators, including CHPAS members, to gather ideas. In No-
vember, Ayres Associates presented a plan that includes siting a
new LCCD office on Whitney Road, just north of Campstool
Road, two outdoor classrooms that double as picnic shelters, an
amphitheater embedded in a hillside, realignment of Dry Creek
and wetlands to improve the hydrology by slowing water flow
with more curves, gravel paths, connection to the Greenway,
replacing invasive vegetation with more natives. Funding could
allow for construction to begin in 2019.
How a mysterious bird collection could unlock sci-
entific secrets in the future Brian Barber, UW Biodiversity Institute faculty mem-
ber, recounts how he accidently discovered a bird collection in
Laramie and how it could answer future scientific questions.
Listen to the podcast that aired May 25, 2017, at http://
www.outtherepodcast.com/episodes/2017/5/25/what-the-future-
will-hold.