Download - March 2006 Kite Newsletter Audubon Society of the Everglades

8/9/2019 March 2006 Kite Newsletter Audubon Society of the Everglades

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EVERGLADE KITENEWSLETTEROFTHE

AUDUBONSOCIETYOFTHEEVERGLADESServingPalmBeachCounty,Florida

Volume46,Number6March2006

Everglades Day was a day to remember. It was full of excellentprograms and bright minds. Special thanks to our volunteers whomade it a success.It is hard to believe that my two year term as president it almost overit has been both exhilarating and exhausting! As you know, thisis an all-volunteer organizationall help is appreciated! Please joinour committees and do what you can to help with environmentaleducation and conservation. Election of ofcers is in April.

Get ready for those tiny little birds to move through Florida thisspring. Although some warblers stay in Florida, most migrate, someall the way to and from South America. It is truly amazing that these4 inch insect-eaters can y so far. It is a delightful challenge to be ableto identify them as they it through the branches. Which will be yourfavorite warbler this year?Dr. Merritts programs are very popular and this one will help us

learn eld marks and behavior. In 1978, he moved to Florida wherehe received a Ph.D. from the University of Miami. Since 1985 hehas held the position of Regional Ecologist at the Treasure CoastRegional Planning Council. He has served as editor of the

, a scientic journal of ornithology published by theFlorida Ornithological Society. He has also served as president ofFOS.Please join us at 7:30 PM on March 7 at the Howard Park CommunityCenter!

CALENDARTues.Mar.7,7:30p.m.MonthlyProgram,HowardPark

Sat.Mar.11,8:00a.m.Wakodahatchee Wetlands,Boynton Beach. Meet atboardwalk. East side of JogRoad,1.5milesnorthofAt-

lanticBoulevard.Leader:BenKolstadTues.Mar.14,8:00a.m.Royal Palm Beach Pines,Royal Palm Beach. Weston Okeechobee Blvd., turnnorth(R)toRoyalPalmBeachBlvd.Turn left at trafc light,elementary school on NWcorner.Turnwest(L)atschool.Proceed to Saratoga Blvd.

Continue north on Saratoga(therewillbeasigntoRPBP).Turnwest(L)onNaturesWay.Meet at parking lot. Leader:BarbaraLiberman

Sat.Mar.18,9:00a.m.JohnPrincePark,LakeWorth.Leader:BruceOfford

Sun.Mar.19Sunset Cruise, Lake WorthLagoon. Meet at 5:45 PMat the Banyan Street dockin West Palm Beach. Bringa picnic dinner! $25 perperson.Forreservations,callClaudineat655-9779.

Tues.Apr.4,6:00p.m.Annual meeting, Green CayNature Center, 12800 HagenRanchRoadinBoyntonBeach

WarblersofFloridaandtheBahamasPeterMerritt,Ph.D.

PresidentsComments

ClaudineLaabs

ConservationReport......2

BirdingclassatRiverbendPark..................2

FieldTripReport......3

WhatsInaName?......3

MembershipForm........4

SeeWhatsInsideRefuge Designated Gateway SiteforGreatFloridaBirdingTrail

At noon on February 11 thesouthern portion of the GreatFlorida Birding Trail was nallycompleted with the dedication ofthe second gateway site, our ownArthur R. Marshall LoxahatcheeNational Wildlife Refuge. Visitorsand dignitaries from far and wideattended the event, which coincidedwith ASEs annual Everglades Day.


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TheEvergladeKiteisthenewsletteroftheAudubon

SocietyoftheEverglades,published12timesayear.

PresidentClaudineLaabs 655-9779

1stVicePresidentCarolShields 964-15222ndVicePresidentCynthiaPlockelman 585-1278

SecretaryRickByrnes 798-6566

TreasurerLeahSchad 848-9984

FieldTripsGloriaHunter [email protected]

BirdID GloriaHunter 585-7714

ConservationRosa(Cissie)Durando 965-2420

EducationSusanSnyder [email protected]

MembershipDebbieSmith 712-1100

SalesStellaRossi 732-4786

LibraryGloriaHunter 585-7714

HospitalitySheilaReiss 627-0510

GrantsEstherZaresky 689-6689

[email protected]

[email protected]

ASEontheInternet

[email protected]://www.auduboneverglades.org

Audubon Society of the Everglades,incorporatedin1966,servescommu-nitiesfromJupiterandTequestasouthto Boca Raton; in other words allPalmBeachCounty.Ourpurposeistopromote theconservationofwildlifeand thenatural environmentand toadvancehumanunderstandingofourplaceinthetotalecologicalsystem.

It is difcult to escape the self-promotion of the powers that be,whether originating from at the county, state, or federal level. TheAcceler8 program to fund Everglades Salvation by state actionfastbears some close scrutiny. It was followed rapidly by a desk-pounding governor in Washington with brother president to get theFeds to walk away from Restoration oversight. This really needs astrong NO to Congress people and legislators. [Ed.: the SFWMDwebsite, www.everglades.now, for a schedule of public hearings.]In my opinion neither of the two state-managed rapid programs (bothin our county) will perform satisfactorily as touted. They are bothstill under public scrutiny and will have public hearings. It would begreat to see some more of our chapter attend the public hearings andcomment. I would be happy to brief you in detail (or not).One involves our Refuge, which is supposed to be rescued byDecember 31, 2006, according to the original CERP agreement. Anunbelievable amount of nutrient loading is to be dumped in the West

Palm Beach Canal (C-51) running east to Lake Worth Lagoon alongSouthern Boulevard. The plan is the dirty water will go west to theSTA-1-E at the north point of the Refuge. But if that gets overloadedit COULD be pumped east!The second bad plan would store hundreds of thousands of acre-feetof water in a reservoir with a 23-foot high dike north of the HoleyLand in southwestern Palm Beach County. The panther that remainsis gone if this happens there. And I do think the Florida ConservationCommission is already softening us up for this possibility in newsreleases.Everglades Day at the Refuge was great. I especially commend

Nat Reeds panel that had ex-South Florida Water Managementrepresented, an ex Army Corps colonel, an ex DER-DEP stafferan FWS senior scientist (that gave our chapter programs on theEverglades), an IFAS biologist, and: a SFWMD (defensive) plantcommenting in the rear!Please call me to learn about the potential impacts of these projectsin our backyard. The public comment period ends March 26; pleaselet our legislators know that we dont want to lose federal oversightof these projects!

ConservationReportRosaDurando

Adult program for adults to learn bird identication includingslideshow of Riverbend Park birds and guided walk. Tour in-cludes oak and pine woods, lakes, Cypress swamp boardwalk,citrus orchards and open elds. Join us at Riverbend Park, Sat-urday, March 4th from 8 a.m. to noon. Bring binoculars, waterand curiosity. Riverbend Park is on the south side of IndiantownRoad, one mile west of the Florida Turnpike Interchange. Pleasecall (561) 748-2028 to reserve a place or for further informa-tion.

BeginningBirdingatRiverbendPark


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Saturday, January 27, 2006, 8:00 a.m. An enthusiastic group of 27birders, some experienced and some new to the sport, gathered atthe causeway leading to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge,binoculars, scopes, bird books in evidence.Their rst stop was on the Pump House Road, where the groupwalked a dirt road with shorebird-lled mud ats on either side.They checked out some wooden posts several hundred yards awaywhere Ann said peregrine falcons occasionally rested. No falcons.Hundreds of shorebirds were there dunlin, black-bellied plovers,semi-palmated plovers, willets, and marbled godwits all workingin the mud to capture food. The rst ducks of the day northernshovelers were in abundance.The next stops were on the Black Point Wildlife Drive, and onehighlight was seeing the cooperatively feeding American avocetsand hooded mergansers. Phil described the avocets as turbulentlyroiling the waters, stirring up food as they scurried along, with the

mergansers out in front taking advantage of the food being drivenforward by the avocets. Cathy spotted a frozen American bitternand until the wild hog startled it, almost everyone got to see it.After a picnic lunch at the boat ramp, some folks went to the naturecenter and some went on the Scrub Ridge Trail where Jo found a eldsparrow. The group checked out the seashore at Playalinda Beach andcould see diving gannets far off shore. Along the road to the beach,Ben got to see his rst canvasback. Glorias car followed the PeacocksPocket Road during the afternoon and found the previously reportedsnow goose. Simon and Cecilia re-checked Pump House Road andfound a peregrine on one of Anns posts!

Most of the birders gathered for a great seafood dinner at the DixieCrossroads Restaurant, thanks to Jos reservation efforts. They thenmet at the motel for a slide presentation by Phil, which includedphotos and stories about much of what had been seen that day. Annread the list of birds seen by everyone and the total was over 80species so far.Next morning the group went back to the Refuge to nd the snowgoose! After a beautiful drive on a road through an Old Floridaarea of grasslands and wetlands edged by huge forests of cabbagepalms, they came out onto the Indian River. Each marsh pond hadto be scanned and each ock of white birds had to be inspected,searching for the snow goose. Finally, as luck would have it, thegoose was found feeding in one of the ponds, and everyone got goodlooks before it waddled back and disappeared into the reeds.The Scrub Ridge Trail was explored again this time by most of thegroup and several species of land birds and soaring hawks werefound. They then returned to the seashore road ponds and foundmore canvasbacks and nally a few American wigeons to completethe list of ducks. The group ended the trip with a grand total of 104species. What a pleasant way to spend a weekend!

Are you a birdwatcher bent on know-ing the scientic names of the worldsavifauna and where they perch on theavian evolutionary tree? If so, be fore-warned: a big shakeup to current taxo-nomic practice could be in the works.

According to a recent article in The

Economist(Today we have naming ofparts, February 11, 2006, pp 75-76),a group of taxonomists representingICZN (The International Commissionon Zoological Nomenclature) is callingfor the implementation of a new uni-versal taxonomic database.

Known as ZooBank, this massive da-tabase would enable scientists to assignand keep track of the scientic names ofall of the worlds identied species withmuch more accuracy than is currentlypossible. It would thus replace thepiecemeal method of scientic nomen-clature which, over two and a half cen-turies, has resulted in the establishmentof 4 times as many scientic names asthere are known species (approximate-ly 6 million scientic names for only 1.5million identied species!).

Although the idea of a universaldatabank of scientic names is gener-ally welcomed by the world scienticcommunity, there are still difcult ques-tions to be addressed about ZooBanks

operation. One key issue: which indi-viduals or groups would arbitrate inthe case of a naming conict? Anotherkey issue: how many, and which other,information databases would ZooBanklink to? A third issue: should speciesnames be available for purchase by thehighest bidder?

Many also wonder how traditionalmethods of taxonomic appraisal (i.e.,anatomy) will blend with relativelynew methods of research (i.e., thosebased on genetics and molecular biol-

ogy). Of course, birders are alreadyquite familiar with how surprising theresults of genetic analysis can be: onerecent major revision to avian taxo-nomic groupings was the placementof vultures with storks, thanks to theSibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.

The progress of the ZooBank project,with its potential to change not justwhat we call each bird species but alsowhere we place it on the evolutionary

tree, is worth watching closely.

WHATSINANAME?MarcellaMunson

MerrittIslandNWRFieldTripReportAnnYeendWeinrich


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Name ____________________________________

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MembershipsintheNationalAudubonSocietymakegreatgifts!In Florida, a special 3-way membership automatically makes you a member in the National Audubon Society,

Audubon of Florida, and Audubon Society of the Everglades. Your membership will includesubscriptions to AUDUBON magazine and the EVERGLADE KITE.

Make check payable toNational Audubon Societyand send to:

Membership ChairAudubon Society of the EvergladesPO Box 16914West Palm Beach, FL 33416-6914

E007XCH

Recipient of Gift Membership:

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Address ___________________________________

City ______________________________________

The Audubon Society of the Everglades General Meetings are held the rst Tuesday of every monthat 7:30 p.m. at Howard Park Community Center in West Palm Beach. The phone number for the Community

Center is (561) 835-7055. The public is welcome to attend.

DeadlineforsubmissionsfortheApril2006issueisMarch10th

AudubonSocietyoftheEvergladesPOBox16914WestPalmBeach,FL

33416-6914(561)588-6908

Non-protOrganizationU.S.Postage

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WestPalmBeach,FloridaPermit46

TheEvergladeKiteisamonthlypublicationoftheAudubonSocietyoftheEverglades,P.O.Box16914,WestPalmBeach,Florida,33416-6914.Alsoavailableontheweb:www.auduboneverglades.org.Members:AdvertiseintheKite.3linesfor$10.Contactnewsletter@auduboneverglades.org

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