May-June 2010 Sandpiper Newsletter Grays Harbor Audubon Society

8/8/2019 May-June 2010 Sandpiper Newsletter Grays Harbor Audubon Society

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Membership MeetingSunday June 27, 2010

Annual Potluck Picnic1:30 pm 5:00 pm

Bear Gulch Home & Forest ofFranz and Ann Schneider

The

Sandpiper

May/June 2010

44th Annual MemorialDay Weekend Campout

by Helen EngleOfcially named the Hazel Wolf

Wenas Creek Bird Sanctuary, itis located SW of Ellensburg, inan Important Bird Area andhas been assured of protectivestatus. The free, primitivecampground along the north fork

of Wenas Creek has exceptionalopportunities for birding, bota-nizing and enjoying spring in theeastern foothills of the Cascades.

There are wonderful eld tripsscheduled, and there will be anold-fashioned campre in ourapproved re-pit device eachevening. We have a programitem or two, singing, story tell-ing and recapping the sightingsof the day.

Please visit the Wenas Website,

beautifully done by WebmasterMichael Hobbs. Youll see HazelWolfs familiar smiling face andget lots of downloadable informa-tion about our campout: www.wenasaudubon.org.

There are checklists of birds,and wildowers, outline of eldtrips and program, directions tothe campground, and lots of pho-tos.

For people who dont do web-sites, contact me and Ill sendyou printed information.

Bring friends & family, and join us at Wenas Memorial DayWeekend for as many days and/or nights as you want to stay -May 28-31, 2010. See you there,Helen Engle, [email protected],

photo by Burt Johnson

photo by Morgan Edwards

Audubon leaderscomment on U.S. State of

the Birds Report"groundbreaking report must be arallying cry for people who careabout birds and nature"\ by Dr. Frank Gill

Audubon President

The 2010 U.S. State of the BirdsReport is a powerful wake upcall. It says we must all tackle thethreats of a changing climate, notjust for the birds but for our owngood as well.

We must not tolerate the loss oreven the decline of birds that thisreport shows to be at risk fromclimate change. The vulnerabilityof species from the Black-footedAlbatross to the common Night-hawk reminds us of how vulner-able we are, too.

Fortunately, people can stillmake a difference for these birdsand for the future. We can restore

and protect the critical habitatsthat will help vulnerable speciesto weather challenges of a chang-ing climate. We can demand thelocal and legislative changes thatcan shrink our contribution ofclimate-altering emissions. The birds are telling us we must actnow.

This groundbreaking report

must be a rallying cry for the mil-lions of people who care aboutbirds and nature. It took countlesscitizen and professional scientiststo gather the data that made thereport possible and it will takeeven more committed people toaddress the peril it reveals. To-gether we can alter the future justas Audubon has done for morethan a century. We're grateful tobe among so many concerned or-

ganizations united in compilingthis vital report and in charting ahealthier course for birds and forpeople too.

We commend Secretary Salazarand the Department of the Inte-rior for leading the way in iden-tifying the climate threat to birds,wildlife and our environment, andfor leadership in helping wildlifeadapt to a changing climate. Thereport is available at http://www.stateofthebirds.org/

Further remarksby Glenn Olson

Chair for Bird ConservationThere is tremendous power in

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-vice and so many dedicated con-servation groups coming togetherto gather and translate complexscientic data into an understand

continued on page 3


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The Presidents perch

By Mary ONeil

page 2

Memo to Self: Tomorrow youneed to write the next article forthe Perch. But rst I need tobuy a new lock for our Audubongate out along Hwy 109....ohyes, did you know that yourAudubon Chapter owns some3,000 acres of land in andaround Grays Harbor County?Most of it is marsh land or re-growing forest land. This land isdedicated to wildlife habitat and

preservation of natural spaces -a concept that makes no senseto our Western European utili-tarian notions. The marshlandsfeed the seashores and makethem rich with the worms, in-sects and bivalves that make thisarea such an attractive refuelingstation for countless migrating birds. If you would like to getmore closely acquainted withthis vast and wondrous treasure,

I invite you to join the habitat orconservation committees whichmanage these lands.

For the most part, the land-owners from whom we receivedthese properties entrusted themto us with express limitationson human access. But there itis the gate on Hwy 109 withits lock sawed off. In the ditcheither side of the gate is a grow-ing pile of bagged lawn waste.(What is it with Harborites

who refuse to accept responsi-bility for their own yard waste but choose to dump it in anyunguarded portion of some- body elses property? Doesntanybody understand the wordcompost?) Walking down theold road that used to cut throughthe property, we see fresh trucktracks. So what kind of busi-ness is going on in here?

We see side trails carved intothe young alders. I would behappy to see beaver teeth marks, but it looks more like a bushclipper. These openings appearto be scouting venues. The areais rich with cedar, salal, ferns

and Cascara all commoditiesthat bring a buck on the mar-ket place. A little farther alongwe spot the remnants of a campsite: tarps and mattresses in aheap under the trees. And dareI mention in a polite newsletterthe piles of human excrementthat surpass the coyote pelletsscattered throughout the area.Oh, sorry about the rant, but Icant help but think what kindof person thinks he can trample

this earth grabbing and takingwithout thought to his footprint!(Oops, sounds like Im talkingabout Wallstreet and the bank-ing industry.) No, I mean veri-table footprints! In our woods!Woods that are supposed to beprotected natural spaces!

So are you feeling motivatedyet? Perhaps by stepping asideand saying, Let John do it weare ourselves guilty of desecrat-

ing our open spaces. Personalresponsibility is so integral toevery phase of our lives that itcan be overwhelming to thinkabout. In April we celebratedEarth Day and vowed that wewould stand up to protect ourmother the Earth. But comeMay, do we step aside and letour footprint stamp out the goodworks we started in April?

Coming up in June, let usgather by the campre of our

organizations annual picnic tohold hands and pledge renewedinterest in cooperating with thewonderful plan of the natural.(Notice how I sidestepped the popular and overused termi-nology: going green.) Join usthere and be ready to Jump! The bandwagon is coming and itscoming for you.

The Electronic age comesto Audubon Chapters

This edition of The Sandpiperwill be exclusively (almost) elec-tronic only. For those Audubonmembers who dont have access

to computers, we will print outand mail our pdf version of thenewsletter. But due to risingcosts and declining revenues,we need to conserve our fundsfor Chapter activities and con-servation. GHAS is not the onlyregional chapter to present elec-tronic newsletters.Willapa Hills Audubon Society

(WHAS) now offers delivery ofthe Whistler newsletter elec-tronically. On the publication

date, an email will arrive an-nouncing the availability of theWhistler on the WHAS web-site, with a link to the web pagewhich will open in your defaultweb browser. You can read theWhistler online or save it toyour computer for reading later.Archived Whistlers are alsoavailable on the WHAS web-site: http://www.willapahillsau-dubon.org.

Please help GHAS reducewaste, mailbox clutter, and theexpenses associated with print-ing and mailing The Sandpiper.Send us your email address andwe can forward the latest issuethe moment it is ready to pub-lish or visit http://ghas.org toview the newsletter as a colorpdf le. Your email remains pri-vate with us.


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Online Info

Dont forget, you can accesscurrent and back copies of TheSandpiper by going to http://ghas.org, select newsletter atthe top of the page and selectthe edition you are interested inreading.

Other Audubon chapters arefollowing this technology aswell. See alsohttp://www.willapahillsaudu -bon.orghttp://www.discoverycoas-

taudubon.com/http://www.blackhills-audubon.com/http://www.audubon.org/states/index.php?state=WA

Or contact Mary ONeil formore information or copies.

State of birds continued frompage 1ing of what is happening to thebirds and to the world we share.

The science says it all: someof the most beautiful but vulner-able creatures in the world are in

real trouble. And that's helpingus see that we are too.

The dangers to these birdsreect risks to everything wevalue: our health, our nances,our quality of life and the stabil-ity of our natural world. But ifwe can help the birds weather achanging climate, we can helpourselves. More than a centuryof Audubon experience con-rms that we can do it.

Across America, nearly 500

Audubon Chapters are work-ing close to home to protect andrestore the habitats essential tohelping birds and other wild-life to endure the unprecedent-ed challenges that come with achanging climate. You can meetthem, you can talk to them,and you can see the differencethey're making.We've also got people of every

background, political persua-

sion and walk of life calling fortough action to shrink the emis-sions that make this crisis worseevery day. And that's just Audu- bonthere are millions morebird lovers and other groups likethe Nature Conservancy work-ing with us to engage them.

This report is their call to ac-tion. It means: if you love natureand care about the health of ourplanet, there is no time to lose.This isn't just about birds; it's

about our chance to shape ourfuture.

Olson was recently appointedby Interior Secretary Ken Sala- zar to a 3-year ex-ofcio termon the North American Wet-lands Conservation Council andthe Neotropical Migratory BirdConservation Advisory Group.

20,000 gigabits under thesea

On Thursday, May 20th theGrays Harbor County MarineResources Committee, Washing-ton Sea Grant, and the Univer- sity of Washingtons College of

the Environmentare sponsoringa presentation by Dr. John Dela-ney, UW Professor of Oceanog-raphy, Principal Investigator andDirector of the Regional Scales Nodes Program, and holder ofthe Jerome M. Paros EndowedChair in Sensor Networks.Dr. Delaney will present at two

separate sessions on May 20th,at the Ocean Shores ConventionCenter. A very lively questionand answer session is expected

to follow each session.Session #1 2:00 pm - In-

vitation Only for businesses,industries and others whose fu-tures may be directly affected by the information discoveredusing the Regional Scales Nodesocean observatory.

Session #2 7:00 pm - Thispublic session is open to all andwill appeal to a diverse audi-ence from junior-high school

students to college students, beachcombers to tourism busi-ness owners, bankers to grocers,and area residents to retirees.The University of Washington isleading the effort to build a re-gional ocean observatory off theOregon and Washington coasts.This observatory, earlier knownas NEPTUNE but now knownas the Regional Scale Nodes, isone component within the U.S. National Science Foundations

Ocean Observatories Initiative,a network of instruments, un-dersea cables, and instrumentedmoorings that, when completed,will span the Western Hemi-sphere. Oregon State Univer-sity is among the partners in thisInitiative.Dr. Delaney, is a passionate and

tenacious advocate for launch-ing next-generation ocean sci-

ence, including the RegionalScale Nodes approach of usinghundreds of kilometers of ber-optic/power cable to connect ro-bot-sensor networks in the north -eastern Pacic Ocean. Thesenetworks will allow continuous

and real-time observations andinteractions with the complexi-ties of the oceans including:weather-producing currents, in-habitants ranging from seaoormicrobes to blue whales, and theunderlying tectonic plates whichare responsible for generatingmassive earthquakes and tsuna-mis. By extending the Internetinto the oceans, such networkswill allow anyone with accessto the Web to better understand

the complexities of this greatnatural resource that is crucial tomaintaining a habitable planet.http://www.interactiveoceans.washington.edu/portal/Obser-vatories or http://www.oceanob-servatories.org/.


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Annual Potluck PicnicJune 27thGo out in the woods that day

Please come to the GHAS An-nual Potluck Picnic beginning at1:30 pm this year for the won-derful opportunity to experience

the spectacular property ownedby Audubon members Ann andFranz Schneider. Nestled in thehills of Bear Gulch, this prop-erty offers great bird watchingand wildlife viewing as well asa chance to see Natures recov-ery from the devastation of theDecember 2007 storm.

Franz and Ann have workedvery hard to set the stage forbringing their forestland back toits original splendor.

See the map for directions.GHAS Board members areasked to arrive by 1:00 PM fora brief meeting.

Take E. Market Street in Aberdeen and continue following that road NE as itbecomes Young Street, then Roosevelt Street and nally E. Wishkah Road.

Turn right at Bear Gulch Road. The Schneider residence will be on the left

about 2 minutes after you turn. 121 Bear Gulch Road, Aberdeen.

Theyre here.... A trip to the City of Westportis in order. Not just because thebeach is nice and the marina lledwith shing boats is intriguing,

but because the Pelicans are back, in full force. Dont missthis opportunity to see ocks ofthese magnicent birds snakingacross the airwaves as they visitWesthaven State Park beachesand surrounds.

Photos courtesy of Michael Bruce,

Mayor of Westport andphotographer

extraordinaire.


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Birding binoculars getyou up-close andpersonal with natureHow to Choose and Use Optics

by Jim UllrichWhen and Where

Choosing which binoculars to

buy is based on a wide variety offactors. The most important arewhen and where will you be us-ing them and what you want tosee. To answer these questions,you must do your homework.

When and where will de-termine if you need binocularsthat are good at light gathering.If you will use binoculars earlyin the morning, late in the eve-ning, during overcast or rainysituations, you will need some

that deliver a lot of light to youreyes. If you are in the woodsunder a thick canopy or in theshadows, regardless of time ofday, you need binoculars thatgather and deliver as much lightas possible. Conversely, if youwill only use them during bright,sunny days, light gathering isnot as important. If you usebinoculars in the rain or snow,you must look for waterproof

(not water-resistant or weather-proof) and fog-proof binocularsthat are lled with nitrogen. Wa-ter-resistant or weather-proofbinoculars will fog internally inthe rain or snow and, therefore,youll only see gray with themuntil they are dried.The Size of the Lens

To determine binoculars abil-ity to deliver light, take the ob- jective lens size (the second ofthe two numbers on a binocular)

and divide it by the magnica-tion (the rst of the two numbers.) The higher the resultingnumber, the wider the beam oflight that is delivered to youreyes. To ensure the binocu-lars are delivering the crispest,clearest image, select ones thathave fully multicoated lensesthat are at least BAK4 lens typeor better. The type called BK7

(used in cheap binoculars) islow-grade glass that will delivera low-grade image.Higher vs. Lower Magnica-tion

The what will determine themagnication, close focus and

eld of view. If you are lookingat objects that are very far away,higher magnication may bemore important but realize thathigher magnication binocularswill be more difcult to holdsteady and their light-gatheringcapability will be reduced com-pared to a lower magnication.If you are studying birds andbugs, binoculars that focus closeare very important. The eld ofview is the distance from left to

right that you can see when youlook through binoculars. A widereld of view eases your abilityto nd whatever you picked upthe binoculars to see. However,when all other things are equal,your eld of view narrows asyou increase in magnication.Lining Up With Your Eyes

Make sure that you are get-ting binoculars that work withyour eyes. You must ensure that

your eyes line up with the ocu-lar lenses (the lenses closest toyour eyes). Interpupillary dis-tance (the distance between thecenters of your pupils) must bewithin the interpupillary rangeof the binoculars. If not, then donot purchase those binoculars.You can only determine this if

you look through them beforeyou purchase. If you wear eye-glasses/sunglasses when using binoculars, make sure the eye-cups around the ocular lensesare down. If the eyecups are upand you are wearing eyeglasses,

your eyes are too far away fromthe ocular lens and your eld ofview will narrow. If you dontwear eyeglasses, twist or movethe eyecups up so that your eyeshave enough room to move andyour eyelashes dont get in theway. When your eyes are tooclose to the lens, you will see ir-regular shadows. When the eye-cups are set correctly, you canstabilize the binoculars by rest-ing them on your eyebrows or

eyeglasses.These are a few of the aspects

to keep in mind when lookingfor binoculars that are the cor-rect ones for you. Touch and testthe binocular before you buy.Jim Ullrich is the owner of WildBirds Unlimited of Gig Har- bor. For more information goto www.wbu.com/gigharbor orcall (800) 851-2575.


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GHAS Board of Directors

Steve Hallstrom 273-9280 [email protected]

Arnie Martin 612-0437 [email protected]

Dianna Moore 289-5048 [email protected]

Mary ONeil 533-9833 [email protected]

Linda Orgel 648-2476 [email protected] Prine 268-0485 [email protected]

Diane Schwickerath 495-3101 [email protected]

Janet Strong 495-3950 [email protected]

Chapter Ofcers

President Mary ONeil 533-9833

[email protected]

Vice President Arnie Martin 612-0437

[email protected]

Treasurer Diane Schwickerath 495-3101

[email protected]

Secretary Vacant

Committee Chairs

Newsletter R.D. Grunbaum, 648-2476

[email protected]

Membership Dianna Moore 289-5048

[email protected]

Conservation Janet Strong, 495-3950

[email protected]

Education Renee Prine, 268-0485

[email protected]

Field Trips Dianna Moore 289-5048

[email protected]

Program Chair Dianna Moore 289-5048

[email protected]

Hospitality Linda Orgel 648-2476

[email protected]

Publicity Vacant

Habitat Vacant

Other Audubon Contacts

GHAS voice mail (800) 303-8498

State Audubon (360) 786-8020 National Audubon (212) 979-3000

GHAS Website http://www.ghas.org

Endangered SpeciesAlert

Grays Harbor Audubon is anendangered species at this point,and we must cut back on our ex-penses.

If you want to have a voicein the issues facing the birds ofGrays Harbor and those passingthrough on their migration, youmust join us, by updating yourmembership and making an ad-ditional tax-deductible gift toGHAS. Through your past gen-erosity, we were able to preservealmost 4,000 acres of critical birdand other wildlife habitat. We aremore powerful as an organiza-tion than as individuals, and thebirds need our help. Update anddonate generously today.


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Please Fill Out and Mail Back

ANNUAL GRAYS HARBOR AUDUBON

CHAPTER MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES

If you would like to join Grays Harbor Audubon Society (GHAS), please ll out the form below, makecheck payable to Grays Harbor Audubon Society and return it with your check to:

Grays Harbor Audubon SocietyP.O. Box 470

Montesano, WA 98563

Chapter Memberships include a subscription to The Sandpipernewsletter. All Chapter Membershipsabove the Sandpiper category provide nancial support to our Chapter. The Grays Harbor AudubonSociety is totally self-supporting.

Name _________________________________________________ Date ____________

Address _________________________________________________________________

City _____________________________________ State/Zip_______________

Phone Number _____________________ E-Mail ______________________________

Heron $25.00

Pelican $50.00 Falcon $75.00

Eagle $100.00

The Sandpipersubscription only $15(Fixed or limited income membership orSandpipernewsletter only)

I am renewing my membership I am a new member

To join National Audubon or renew your National Audubon Membership, call 1-800-274-4201.

If your newsletter is stamped withLast Issue-Please Renew, be sure to ll out the Membership Formabove and send it in to keep your membership active and keep receiving the newsletter! Thanks!

A SPECIAL GIFTWe know that the economy is causing difculties for everyone, but we know that GHAS

provides special effort to protect habitat for birds and other living things. Enclosed is a specialgift to GHAS to keep our organization off the endangered species list.

$_______________


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The SandpiperP.O. Box 470Montesano,WA 98563

Membership MeetingAnnual Potluck Picnic

SundayJune 27, 2010

News & Editorialsend materials toP.O. Box 1044

Westport, 98595-1044or email to

[email protected] deadline ongoing

Inside this Issue

Wenas Campout 1State of Birds 1Presidents Perch 2

Electronic age 2Birds continued 320,000 gigabits 3Online info 3Annual Picnic 4Theyre here... 4Choosing optics 5Board & Ofcers 6

Member Application 7

How Do I Know When MyMembership Is Due?

If we have mailed your copy,look in the upper right handcorner of your label and it will

give you your renewal date!For those of you on email, wewill notify you via email of your upcoming renewal date.

GHAS Mission The mission of the Grays

Harbor Audubon Society isto seek a sustainable balancebetween human activity andthe needs of the environment,and to promote enjoyment ofbirds and the natural world

May-June 2010 Sandpiper Newsletter Grays Harbor Audubon Society

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Transcript of May-June 2010 Sandpiper Newsletter Grays Harbor Audubon Society