Coulee Birder

Newsletter of the Coulee Region Audubon Society

Website: http://couleeaudubon.org/

May-June 2008
Events President’s notebook
Audubon Meetings
Audubon meetings are held at 7:00
p.m. at the Ho Chunk Nation building,
Volunteers provide the spark!
lower level, 725 Main Street, La Crosse. We’re getting close to the end of board of directors for their contribu-
the program year and I have been look- tions to making this organization a
May 21
ing at my notes to prepare an annual success.
Program: Ken and Terry Visger -
report for national Audubon. This re- Everyone works well together to
Mussels and the River
view has given me a chance to think identify meeting topics and to com-
Terry will act out a story about a
about all of the people who have plete the business of our organization.
clammers wife in the early 1900’s. She
worked hard to make this year a suc- Special thanks need to go to Mary
is a professional storyteller, founder of
cess and I think that this is a good time Sullivan and Mark Webster for their
the Bluff Country Storytelling Guild, and
to extend a thank you. efforts as Treasurer and Secretary.
actively involved the the La Crosse
During the course of this year, we These are critical roles for any orga-
Storytelling Festival held each fall. Her
will have held 9 regular meetings, pub- nization and they are in good hands
story will depict the multi-million dollar
lished 5 newsletters, completed 2 high- for the Coulee Region Audubon Soci-
clamming industry on the Upper Missis-
way clean-ups, held the Christmas ety.
sippi.
Bird Count, completed the crane count, Fred Lesher has been the field trip
Ken is a self-described “old river rat
completed the initial phase of the first coordinator for many years. He is a
with a passion for preserving what we
Salamander survey, supported the great birder and his willingness to
have left of our great Upper Mississippi
MVC by arranging for birding guides share his skills and experience with all
resources.” He will talk about the threat
for several of their hikes, run 3 birding of us is really wonderful. I know that
to our native mussels and the life cycle
field trips, and provided speakers for I am a better birder because of my
of mussels
2 area organizations. chances to go out with him and I re-
He is active in both the Friends of the
All together, these events and the ally appreciate his knowledge and all
Upper Mississippi Fishery Services and
preparation for them represent hun- the work that has gone in to scouting
Mississippi River Wild, a refuge friends
dreds of hours of time from dozens of great birding locations and itineraries.
group.
people. I would like to give a special Jean Ledman and Mark Webster are
June18 thank you to Gretchen and Dave the coordinators of the Crane Count
Annual Picnic Pot-Luck at Myrick Skoloda. Gretchen has done a great and the highway clean-up. These are
Park 6:00 PM job for many years arranging our meet- important events and they run
Meet at the Gun Club. Bring a dish ing places, identifying and arranging smoothly and efficiently thanks to the
to pass and your own dishes and uten- speakers and generally making the efforts of Jean and Mark.
sils. A bird walk in the marsh will fol- monthly meetings happen. She and Last (and not least) thanks to all
low the picnic. The public is welcome to Dave are also responsible for editing of the members that take part in our
attend the pot luck and the bird walk. and publishing the newsletter which is meetings and participate in all of these
also a major undertaking. I would also
Field Trips like to thank all of the members of the See NOTEBOOK, page 3
May 13
Last Bird Hike in the La Crosse River
Marsh guided by Bobbie Wilson and Dan
Jackson. Meet at the RABBIT Trail park- We need your contributions of material for the Audubon news-
ing lot in Myrick Park just east of the old letter. Please send your suggestions for articles, news of
zoo at 6:30 AM. events and other things birders need to know. Deadline for
copy for the next issue is September 1. The next newsletter
will be for September and October. Send information to:
See EVENTS, page 2 [email protected].
EVENTS from page 1

May 15 more familiar and friendly native Wiscon- (Stout Property in Grant Co.)
Last Bird Hike in Hixon Forest sin insects. June 14 - 10 a.m. Holland Sand Prai-
guided by Bobbie and Pat Wilson. Meet She has a Ph.D. in entomology from rie
at the Hixon Forest Trail parking lot just UW-Madison. She recently returned to July 12&13 - 7:30 – 9:30 a.m. New
east off of Hwy. 16 on Bluff Road Pass Madison from the Pennsylvania Depart- Amsterdam Grassland (limit 12 people
at 6:30 a.m. ment of Conservation and Natural Re- per morning)
Walks last unti about 8:00 a.m. You sources to become the Director of the Si- August 16 -10 a.m. Miller Bluf
f
are welcome to leave early or stay later. erra Club’s John Muir Chapter. She will (North La Crosse Bluffs)
Bring binoculars and a bird guide if you also tell us what’s going on in the Sierra See the MVC website,
have them. Club in Wisconsin and the status of Si- www.MississippiValleyConservancy.org
erra Club legislative priorities. for directions and additional information
May 17 - Wyalusing
The Wyalusing field trip is scheduled Conservancy Links to the or call 784-3606.
for Saturday, May 17th starting at 6:30 Land Hikes
am at the park entrance. The trip will May 17 - 10 a.m. Devils’ Backbone
go until about noon. This is a field trip
to one of the best birding locations in
Southwest Wisconsin. Some of the tar- Cold temps fail to deter
get species include: Cerulean Warbler,
Kentucky Warbler, Yellow-throated hardy spring birders
Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Acadian Here’s a reminder of what you miss if ground and someone spotted a dead tree
Flycatcher, Henslow’s Sparrow and you don’t get up early in May! that was loaded with Tree Swallows sit-
more. Last year, all of these species were This report is from President Dan: ting scrunched together on all of the
found. The trip will be led by Fred On the first of the Myrick / Hixon bird branches. There were easily 200+ birds
Lesher and Dan Jackson. walks of the year a nice group of hardy on the single, small, dead tree.
For those interested in car pooling, souls braved the forecast and the chill for This was the first of 6 annual walks
please call Dan Jackson at 483-2271 a wonderful walk in the marsh. The morn- that are sponsored by the Hixon Forest
(home) or 317-3614 (cell) or e-mail him ing light was spectacular and the birds Nature Center. The Hixon Forest walks
at [email protected]. We will were cooperating. A total of 44 species of start from the Hixon Forest parking lot
meet at 5:00am at the Kwik Trip in birds were seen. and are led by Pat and Bobbie Wilson.
Stoddard. If others would like to car Highlights were: The first Myrick Marsh walk was led by
pool from a La Crosse location, that can Common Loon (first I have seen in the Bobbie Wilson and myself (Pat, who usu-
be arranged as well. Myrick Marsh The water level is very ally leads, couldn’t make it).
high due to flooding and beaver dams.) On May 1, Pat and Bobbie led the first
Sierra Club - May 27 Yellow-rumped Warblers (100 + feed- of the walks in the Hixon Forest in La
7:00 PM at the Ho Chunk Nation ing on the ground and on the floating veg- Crosse. The woods were hopping and
building, lower level, 725 Main Street, etation in the marsh) noisy!! We ended up with 37 species. The
La Crosse. Palm Warblers(15-20) highlights were:
Speaker: Shahla Werner, Ph.D., Yellow Warblers (2) Rose-breasted Grosbeak (FOY - fi-
Chapter Director, Sierra Club, John Muir Nashville Warblers (4) nally)
Chapter Black-and-White Warbler(1 - First Of Gray-Cheeked Thrush (FOY)
Topic: Insects and Conservation Is- Year(FOY)) Ovenbird (FOY)
sues Orange-crowned Warbler (1) Veery (FOY)
We’ve heard a lot recently about in- Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (1) Yellow-throated Vireo (FOY)
vasive forest insects such as the emer- Sora (2) almost tame, totally ignored Empid (Least?) Flycatcher (FOY)
ald ash borer, hemlock woolly adelgid, the group Tennessee Warbler (FOY)
Asian Longhorned beetle, and Sirex Eastern Kingbird (heard only - FOY) Gray Catbird (FOY)
woodwasp. These insects are not found Great Egret Swainson’s Thrush (FOY)
in Wisconsin yet, but may get here one Displaying Hooded Mergansers, Nashville Warblers (4-5)
day. Shahla Werner will tell us about the Wood Ducks and many other species that Orange-Crowned Warblers (3-5)
problems posed by these insects and ef- were wonderful to look at in the great light. Yellow-rumped Warblers (25+)
forts under way to help protect our for- The birds were moving very slowly White-Throated Sparrows
ests and urban trees. Shahla will also with the cold. The Yellow-rumps and Eastern Towhee (heard only)
cover the need for conservation of our Palm Warblers were mostly feeding on the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (many)
Kind pushes for bill to conserve migratory birds
From the American Bird has initiated a coalition of Bird Conser- ally, the coalition will work to secure fu-
Conservancy vation Alliance (BCA) member organi- ture full appropriations for the Act. For
zations including National Audubon So- information about the coalition contact
Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI) ciety, Defenders of Wildlife and the Joint Alicia King @ 202-234-7181 or
and Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) have intro- Ventures Management Boards and other [email protected]. Organizations can
duced legislation (act, H.R.5756), reau- groups that will work together for an early pledge their support by going to:
thorizing the existing Neotropical Migra- reauthorization of the NMBCA under the www.birdconservationalliance.org/
tory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA), campaign, Act for Songbirds!. Addition- actforsongbirds/index.htm
but at significantly higher levels, to meet
the growing work needed to conserve
neotropcial migratory birds.
Spring highway cleanup
NMBCA currently provides a maxi-
mum authorization of $6 million per year; helped by OHS students
last year Congress appropriated $4.5 mil- Coulee Region Audubon’s Spring Kyle Edmunds
lion, a $500 thousand increase from the Adopt-a-highway clean up on Saturday, Ian Adcock
previous year, but grossly underfunded. April 26th was a great success despite Brandon Hernandez
Under the new law, that amount would the 35 degree temperature, snow flur- Mattie Buswell
increase to $20 million by 2015. ries, and the extremely strong NW wind Craig Lind
Of the 178 continental bird species that was blowing that morning. Eleven I also wish to thank John Edmunds
included on the American Bird Conser- volunteers filled 29 large trash bags in for helping (and Denise Edmunds for
vancy/Audubon WatchList of birds of just over two hours along the two mile helping to coordinate the students!), and
highest conservation concern, over one- route between Dresbach and Dakota, thanks to the ever dependable Tom Link,
third, 69 species, are Neotropical mi- Minnesota. and to Mark and Jean Ledman for pass-
grants. At least 29 species of these mi- We were honored to have the help of ing up that wild turkey and still coming
gratory birds are experiencing significant six dedicated and hardy Onalaska High out to help! I think that in the eleven
population declines. Several species, the School National Honor Society (NHS) years that we’ve been picking trash on
Cerulean Warbler and Olive-sided Fly- students. We couldn’t have done it with- this route, it was never as cold as it was
catcher, have declined as much as 70% out them!! on Saturday. That’s a real testament to
since surveys began in the 1960s.FWS A great big THANK YOU goes out those who braved the elements.
lists 341 bird species as Neotropical mi- to the following OHS NHS Students: Thanks again to all the volunteers!
grants: http://www.fws.gov/birdhabitat/ Patty Edmunds Mark Webster, Coordinator
Grants/NMBCA/BirdList.shtm.
American Bird Conservancy (ABC) Become a Bigbyist; Learn how here
NOTEBOOK from By Bill Mueller “Bigbyists” are now found in a num-
ber of Asian countries in addition to the
page 1 Conservation Chair, Wisconsin
U.S., Canada, Australia, and several Eu-
Society for Ornithology
ropean countries. Join me and a slowly-
other special events and projects. On Although conservationists spend a growing number of Wisconsin birder/con-
behalf of the board, I hope that we are great deal of effort trying to get the pub- servationists in seeing how many birds
meeting your expectations. As always, lic to be aware of environmentally-sound you can find in one or more fossil-fuel-
if you have any suggestions, please talk ways to do things, we don’t always think free categories during 2008. There is an
to me and/or the other board members. we need to substantially change OUR online forum to discuss and describe this
We are always open to new ideas and OWN behavior. process at: http://www.sparroworks.ca/
methods to educate and involve our mem- If you are a birder, consider trying bb/
bership in the wonders of our natural something different and “setting a good In a related development, involve
world. On that note, please make it a point example” in 2008 by participating in the these climate-friendly birding efforts in
to take the time to enjoy my favorite time “Big Green Big Year” or “Bigby”. This raising funds for avian conservation this
of the year ñ spring and the spring mi- new attempt to find and count birds while year, in association with the folks doing
gration. The woods and fields are full of on foot, muscle-powered conveyance a year-long, 12,000-mile, birding-by- bi-
life and song and are waiting for you to (bicycle, kayak, etc.), or via public trans- cycle adventure. See more about “The
enjoy. While you are out and about, re- portation, is gaining adherents in many Bird Year”, at:
member to share what you see with those locations around the planet. See more h t t p : / / w w w. b i r d y e a r. c o m /
you meet. You never know when you about the Bigby effort at: Protect%20Birds/FFF_big_days.html
will ignite a fire of interest, if only you h t t p : / / w w w. s p a r r o w o r k s . c a /
supply the spark! bigby.html See BIGBY, page 4
BIGBY from page 3

I’ve had some folks tell me that they friendly lifestyle. I beg to differ; it’s all ing the way I look at all of my own ac-
think saving a few gallons of gas while about emphasis, awareness, and a differ- tivities, and I think that may produce
birding really won’t make any appre- ent mindset. I surely will drive my car some surprising results. We’ll see.
ciable difference toward a climate- this year, and sometimes will do so in Bill Mueller, Conservation Chair,
search of birds. But I’m gradually chang- Wisconsin Society for Ornithology.

Contacts Coulee Region Audubon Society

PRESIDENT
Dan Jackson 608-787-6398 Local Membership
[email protected] [email protected] [ ] $15 Household [ ] $30 Supporting
608-483-2271 [ ] I'd like to receive the newsletter electronically
BOARD MEMBER
VICE PRESIDENT Tom Link Name______________________________________
Phoebe Sorenson 608-783-8047
1729 Barnabee Rd. [email protected]
Address ____________________________________
La Crosse 54601
788-7027 BOARD MEMBER
Kurt Brownell City _________________________St ___ Zip _______
TREASURER [email protected]
Mary Sullivan 608-269-6124 Email ____________________________________
608-785-7095 Mail with your check to:
[email protected] NEWSLETTER EDITORS Coulee Region Audubon Society
Dave and Gretchen Skoloda PO Box 2573
SECRETARY 608-781-7502
[email protected]
La Crosse, WI 54602-2573 Thank you!
Mark Webster