sept 2006 prairie falcon northern flint hills audubon society

8/9/2019 Sept 2006 Prairie Falcon Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society

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prairie falconNorthern Flint Hills Audubon Society

Newsletter

N o r t h e r n F l i n t H i l

l s A u d u b o n S o c i e t y ,

P . O .

B o x 1 9 3 2 ,

M a n h a t t a n ,

K S 6 6 5 0 5 - 1 9 3 2

P r i n t e d b y C l a f l i n B o o k s &

C o p i e s

M a n h a t t a n ,

K S

September: ICE CREAM SOCIAL

Sojourner Truth Park,

Wed. Sept. 20th, 6:30 p.m.

Our year (Sept. 2006 - July 2007) begins:

We hope you all will join us at Sojourner ruth Park

or our annual ICE CREAM SOCIAL, and to see the Buttery Garden (now tended by Susan Blackord with help rom Patricia Yeager and Jodi Whittier). Tis is a great time to meet other mem-bers o the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society, the Board, andothers in the community.

Please come and bring your avorite topping or accompaniment - all the ice cream, utensiland drinks will be provided. Bring your riends and amily, too. Tere might even be some musicTere will surely be laughter and conversation.

INSIDE

2- INDIAN BLACK EARTH 4-TREASURES3- SKYLIGHT 5- TAKE NOTE

Sept. 7 Board Mtg. 7 p.m.

Manhattan Public Library Sept. 9 Beginning Birding

8 a.m. Meet ackert Hall

KSU (south Parking lot)

Sept. 17 Planting at Butterfly Garden

8:30 a.m. (Sojourner truth)

Sept.20 ICE CREAM SOCIAL

Sojourner Park (& Butterfly

Garden)6:30 p.m.

Vol. 35, No. 1 ~ Sept. 2006

Oct. 5 Board Mtg. 7 p.m.

Workforce Cntr.4th & Houston

Oct. 11 Birdseed Sale

ORDER DEADLINE

Oct. 14 Beginning Birding

for the NOVICE BIRDER

Oct. 21 Birdseed PICKUP

UFM 9-12p.m.

Upcoming Events:



p. 2 Sept. 2006 Prairie Falcon Newsletter

Nature

tom morgan“indian black earth”

“Tey know they ought to be marketing terra preta as a resource, or a policy instrument, but they can’t stop seeing it as a wonder.”

Emma Morris, 2006. Black is the New Green. Nature 442: 624-626

erra preta do indio or Indian black earth is adelightully ertile garden soil. Te black componento this soil is the biochar which is produced whencrop residues smolder. Biochar tenaciously holds ontonutrients that tend to be leached beyond the reacho the plant’s roots. It keeps the nutrients available toplants. And it does all o this more eectively thancompost or other types o organic matter. Te bio-char supports healthy populations o microbes, that,according Emma Morris, “... to turn the soil into thatspongy, ragrant, dark material that gardeners every-

where love to plunge their hands into.”As I wrote in an earlier newsletter (Jan. 2003),

a village o 500 Native Americans in the Amazonbasin may have created a ertile, mounded middeno terra preta do indio. Te mound grew by the ac-cumulation o their garbage and the collapse o their wattle-and-daub houses or generation ater genera-tion, perhaps over a period o 2,000 years. Some areaso black earth were created by ancient human societ-ies as much as 7,000 years ago. Large regions wereenriched by charring all sorts o organic matter. And

the enhanced ertility enriched all the inhabitants o the earth.

When organic matter smolders in an oxy-gen-poor atmosphere, much o the carbon remainsuncombusted. An acre o earth enriched with bio-

char contains incredible amounts o carbon. As Morris writes, “... turning unimproved soil into terra preta canstore away more carbon than growing a tropical or-est rom scratch on the same piece o land ...” In act, Johannes Lehmann o Cornell University estimates that we could store more carbon in such soils each year thanis released by all o our current ossil-uel use.

erra preta “schemes” are a hot subject or re-search and or policy decisions that could help decreaseglobal warming. One scheme is to take waste organicmatter and char it. Tis produces volatiles which can

be converted into biodiesel or even hydrogen. Ater theprocess is complete, about hal o the carbon will re-main in the biochar, which can then be used to enricharmland, thereby locking up the carbon or at least thenext ew centuries.Unlike other ways o producing biouels that are best“carbon neutral,” this method is actually “carbon nega-tive.” And unlike other methods o obtaining biouel,this one leaves me eeling quite evangelical, as visions oenriching the earth or uture generations bedazzle me.One o the web sites devoted to this topic is -

http://www.css.cornell.edu/aculty/lehmann/terra_preta/erraPretahome.htm

beginning birding & more!

© 2006 om Morgan

Tis year, we plan on providing a birding experience or the novice (adult and /or child) - includinghow to purchase a pair o binoculars, instructions on using binoculars, nding birds, listening to calls, dierenthabitats, tips on identication and more.

We also are planning eld trips or the more experienced birder. As well as some Saturday morningevents that will be a combination o a short talk/program with an outing. Watch or news about these events.



Sept. 2006 Prairie Falcon Newsletter p. 3

skylight plus

pete cohen

Among o the windows into history available in themuseum that was once the spacious Union Pacic o-peka passenger station are posters rom WWII that hadbeen put orth with the idea that railroad workers thenneeded such extra stimuli to do their utmost. One o the posters has a reight engine o the era powering itsload through the night, accompanied by the exhorting words: “Only the stars are neutral”. I expect that evenastrologers would have agreed that the cosmic inuences weren’t picking Earthly avorites. But the poster mighthave drawn cold stares rom the governments o all thecountries that were, however genuinely, ofcially neutral

throughout the War. And what o the GIs whose tanks and planes

bore identiying white stars, while the Russian equip-ment showed red stars and the Japanese were identiedby the round orange Sun, another star. In a grim way,those insignia made many battles a dierent kind o “star wars”.

New Mexico’s ag, also displayed there, shows aSun symbol, Kansas’ promises “Ad astra...”

I got to wondering about this multi-ocus onstars--or were not the trees, birds, clouds, etc. equally

neutral?--ater yet one more visitor to our place steppedoutdoors at night, and let our conversation go hang while they paused and stared silently upward a momentbeore exclaiming, “Look at the stars. I haven’t seenthem since--” and the time given could be measured indecades reaching back toward conditions when many more people actually took note o the natural light in thesky. I began to think that i the American Revolution was going on now Betsy Ross, at her computer, wouldbe printng out a banner that had a circle o thirteen

streetlamps, and stripes o yellow, alternating solid anddashed, as per our highways.Tis is not to utilely decry the changes o time,

which have brought many things besides the blurring o the stars rom Earth. But it seems relevant in an electionseason to take note that slogans are unreliable, and thatmany symbols are rooted in situations that no longer ex-ist.

At the same time it is the stars that are the starperormers o September. Oh, Jupiter as usual is not

shy, but he’ll be hanging low in the evenings and nothanging there or long. Venus and Saturn get intothe pre-dawn act, Venus increasingly briey, andthough not at her brightest still the brightest point tobe glimpsed. Saturn keeps showing up a little earliereach morn, sharing the scene with some signicantstars. Regulus low at the bottom o Leo’s big sickle,and the two dog stars, Procyon (o the Little Dog)higher up, with the brightest o the stars, Sirius (inthe Big Dog), more to the southeast. Actually Saturn will be more notable below the Moon on the 18th,above on the 19th.

As to the evening stars, bright blue Vega opensthe month high overhead to be gradually replaced by the dimmer but still prominent white Deneb, the tailstar o Cygnus the Swan who will be soaring south- ward down the Milky Way. Tat vast array o stars will be dividing the sky into east and west halves dur-ing the third week o the month. During that timethe autumn equinox will divide the sky into halves o day and night as the Sun crosses above the Equator at11p03 CD September 22nd.

On the 2nd the stars o Sagittarius that orm

a teapot shape will also be raming the waxing Moon. And all month the our widely separated stars o theGreat Square o Pegasus will be parading overheadthrough the night, shining modestly but in an area o the sky that seems to have not much else in it. Fromthe Square’s upper let star, Alpheratz, the equally modest bent cone o Andromeda will be trailingbehind toward the edge o the Milky Way where a pi-shaped glitter o stars represent Perseus, Algol beingthe brightest o the glitterers.

Meanwhile Antares will be coasting along thesouthern horizon, just ahead o Sagittarius and at theheart o Scorpio while way up north those depend-able circumpolars--Cassiopeia and the two Bears(with Draco the Dragon winding between them) willbe available or admiring, with Capella in Auriga theCharioteer joining the circle near midnight. Moonull, 7th at 1p42; new 22nd at 8a45.

© 2006 Peter Zachary Cohen



p. 4 Sept. 2006 Prairie Falcon Newsletter

Treasures

You might nd them at garage sales, library book sales, usedbook stores, grandma’s attic -- treasures!Sometimes when you aren’t even looking. But they are outthere.

How can you pass up an old “Birds of Kansas” published

by Kansas State Board of Agriculture. A 1945 report by Arthur L. Goodrich, Jr. Dept. of Zoology. JC. Mohler,Secretary. And when you get home, stuck inside is a 1998issue of the Kansas Ornithological Society with an articleabout Arthur Goodrich - one of the seven co-founders of the Kansas Ornithological Society.



Sept. 2006 Prairie Falcon Newsletter p. 5

take note

2006-2007 Board members:President Patricia Yeager Vice President Cindy Jeffrey Secretary MJ Morgan Treasurer Jan Garton At-Large Tom Morgan,

Ingrid Neitfeld John Tatarko

Paul Weidhaas AOK Hoogy Hoogheem (Audubon of Kansas representative)

And this

wonderfullittle book forchildren was

published in1966. Can youimagine tagging a buttery!

Committee Chairs:Membership Carla BishopNewsletter Cindy Jeffrey ConservationProgramsEducation

Northeast Park Jacque StaatsButtery Garden Susan BlackfordOutreach Dolly GudderField Trips

New plants are being purchased for the Buttery Garden (Sojourner Park), and a PLANTINGDAY is planned for Sept. 17, 2006 from 8:30 a.m. till about noon. (Rain day is Sept. 24 -same

time) YOU are invited to help plant - come anytime during the morning.Susan Blackford

new plants for the butterfly garden

The Northern Flint Hills Audubon Socitey Board will meet the rst Thursday of every month, at the WorkforceCenter, located at 4th and Houston (except this Sept. 7 - which will be at the Manhattan Pulic Library). As you

can see from the following list, there is plenty of opportunity for you to become involved. Volunteer to help ona committee, be a board member, help our chapter.



Northern Flint HIlls

Audubon Society

P.O. Box 1932

Manhattan, KS

66505-1932

Subscription Information: Introductory memberships - $20/yr., then basic membership is $35/yr. When you join the NorthernFlint Hills Audubon Society, you automatically become a memberof the National Audubon Society and receive the bimonthly Audu-

bon magazine in addition to the Prairie Falcon newsletter. New membership applications may be sent to Treasurer, NFHAS, P.O.

Box 1932, Manhattan, KS 66505-1932. Make checks payable tothe National Audubon Society. Membership renewals are handled

by the National Audubon Society and should not be sent to theNFHAS. Questions about membership? Call 1-800-274-4201 oremail the National Audubon Society [email protected].

If you do not want to receive the national magazine, butstill want to be involved in our local activities, you may subscribe

to the Prairie Falcon newsletter for $15/yr. Make checks payable tothe Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society, and mail to: Treasurer,

NFHAS, P.O. Box 1932, Manhattan, KS, 66502-1932.RARE BIRD HOTLINE: For information on Kansas Birds, sub-

scribe to the Kansas Bird Listserve. Send this message <subscribeKSBIRD-L> to <list [email protected]>and join in the discussions.

Contacts for Your Elected Representatives ( anytime) Write, call or email @Governor Kathleen Sebelius: 2nd Floor, State Capital Bldg., Topeka , KS 66612. Kansas Senator or Representative _________: StateCapital Bldg., Topeka, KS 66612. Ph# (during session only) Senate - 785-296-7300. House - 785-296-7500. U.S. Senator Roberts <Rob-

[email protected]> U.S. Senate, Washington DC 20510. or Brownback <[email protected]> U.S. Capital Switchboard 202-224-

3121. President G.W. Bush - The White House, Washington, DC 20500.

NFHAS BoardPresident: Patricia Yeager 776-9593 Vice Pres. Cindy Jeffrey [email protected] 468-3587

Secretary: MJ Morgan Treasurer: Jan Garton 5

COMMITTEE chairs:Membership: Carla Bishop 539-5129

Programs:Conservation:Northeast Park: Jacque Staats

Buttery Garden: Susan BlackfordEducation:

Land Preserv.: Jan Garton

Outreach: Dolly GudderNewsletter: Cindy Jeffrey [email protected] 468-3587Fieldtrips: At-large: Tom Morgan, John Tatarko,

Ingrid Neitfeld, Paul Weidhaas

Audubon of Kansas Trustee: Hoogy Hoogheem

Printed on 100% post-consumer

recycled paper

Non-profit Organization

U.S. Postage Paid

Permit No. 662

Manhattan, KS 66502

Return Service Requested

Published monthly (except August) by the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society, a chapter of the National Audubon Society.Edited by Cindy Jeffrey, 15850 Galilee Rd., Olsburg, KS 66520. ([email protected])

Also available on-line at www.ksu.edu/audubon/falcon.html

sept 2006 prairie falcon northern flint hills audubon society

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