Wildlife Rescue (505) 344-2500 Rare Bird Alert (505) 323-9323 Bat in Trouble? Call before you intervene. (505) 281-1133 or (505) 281-1515 Directory CNMAS Phone Number: 255-7622 PRESIDENT Beth Hurst-Waitz 804 Guadalupe Circle NW 87114-1710 home 898-8514 work 243-7029 fax 242-7343 VICE PRESIDENT and OUTREACH PROGRAMS Donna Thatcher 1128 Girard Blvd. NE 87106 phone 255-1546 SECRETARY Dianne Cress 256 Zena Lona NE 87123 work 841-2586 home 298-0085 CONSERVATION CHAIRPERSON Jeffrey Myers 2208 Rozinante Ct. NW 87104 work 998-1502 home 843-8114 MEMBERSHIP CHAIRPERSON (for change of address only) Ed Dover 1421 San Carlos SW 87104-1040 phone 242-5427 PROGRAM CHAIRPERSON/PUBLICITY Patrice Franklin 726-33 Tramway Vista Drive NE 87122 phone 856-7443 TREASURER Ronald Waitz 804 Guadalupe Circle NW 87114 phone 898-8514 AUDUBON ADVENTURES CHAIRPERSON Cindy Clark 2147 Black Willow Dr. NE 87122 home 822-1467 work 332-4737 INFORMATION for the FEDERAL JUNIOR DUCK STAMP CONTEST JoAnn Roll Bosque del Apache NWR (505) 835-1828 FIELD TRIP CHAIRPEOPLE Charlotte Green 808 Freeman Avenue NW 87107 Sei Tokuda 3008 Marble Avenue NE 87106 phone 266-2480 NEW MEXICO COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE/PARTNERS IN FLIGHT REP Jonalyn Yancey 860 State Road 344, Edgewood, NM 87015 work 884-6807 home 286-2949 EDITOR, BURROWING OWL Browning Coke 609 Graceland Drive SE 87108 phone 256-9130 email bcokenm@aol.com New Mexico Office David Henderson, Randall Davey Audubon Center P.O. Box 9314 Santa Fe, NM 87504 (505) 983-4609 Bosque del Apache NWR (505) 835-1828 US Fish and Wildlife Service 500 Gold Avenue, SW Albuquerque, NM 87102 Regional Director (505) 766-2321 Refuges and Wildlife (505) 766-2036 Habitat Conservation (505) 766-2914 Sandia Ranger District US Forest Service Clifford Dils, District Ranger11776 Highway 337 Tijeras, NM 87059 (505) 281-3304 New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Villagra Building P.O. Box 25112 Santa Fe, NM 87503-0001 (505) 827-6681
The Burrowing Owl Newsletter is published six times a year. Subscription is free to Central New Mexico Audubon Society members, $12 to nonmembers. CNMAS, P.O. Box 30002, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87190-0002
|
Filling the gap between Christmas Bird Counts and Spring Migration will be easy this year &emdash; the New Mexico legislature goes into session, and that can command all your birdwatching skills of observation, diligence, patience and perseverance! That is why we're asking you to get involved and insure that legislation enacted protects our wildlife. Want to get more involved? Follow issues more closely? Know just when to contact a key committee member? Call Dave Henderson at Randall Davey in Santa Fe, 983-4609. Meet with Conservation Voters Alliance and other enviro groups every Wednesday starting January 27 at 11:30 - 1:00 at State Land Office located in Santa Fe, 827-5760. To receive special notices about issues, send your e-mail address to bcokenm@aol.com. Visit the NM Legislature web site at http://legis.state.nm.us, and see what they are up to. Oh, and one last thing: Check off Share With Wildlife contribution on your New Mexico State tax return. After all, when it's voluntary, it's not tax, is it? The Second Annual 'Great Backyard Bird Count' takes place on February 19, 20, 21 and 22 this year. This is an easy but wonderful opportunity to participate in a continent-wide count of backyard birds. Co-sponsored by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society (and supported by Wild Birds Unlimited and Ford Motor Company), the GBBC requires only that you observe birds in your own backyard for 15 to 30 minutes on any one of the four days (you can of course observe longer and more often if you wish), count the birds and submit your results directly on the Internet to the BirdSource website at http://birdsource.cornell.edu. How to Count: Each day that you observe, count the highest number of each species that you see at any one time. For example, if you see three American Robins and two Western Scrub-Jays at one moment, and after they leave, you see one Robin and four Scrub-Jays at another time, your report would indicate that you saw three Robins and four Scrub-Jays. What to Count: There are 140 species included on the GBBC checklist for New Mexico, many of whom are unlikely visitors to your backyard. You can view the checklist at the BirdSource website. You have the option to include all of the 140 species that you see or you can limit your count to just some of the species. How to Report: You need to do a separate report for each day you observe. Do not combine the count of Scrub-Jays for one day with Scrub-Jays seen on the other days, and do not use the highest total observed on one day as your total for another day unless you see that same number on the other day. If you do not have your own access to the Internet, you can still participate by entering your counts at a Wild Birds Unlimited store or at most public libraries. Entry is a simple fill-in-the-blanks process. You can also count birds in your neighborhood park or other nearby place where birds regularly visit. For more information, visit the very helpful and easy to use BirdSource website. A new disease called Coot and Eagle Brain Lesion Syndrome (CEBLS) is caused by a neurotoxin that creates lesions in the brains and spinal cords of bald eagles and coots. It is being tracked by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If you see coots or eagles displaying impaired motor function, such as bobbing, weaving, and erratic walking and swimming movements, report these sightings to researchers listed on the CEBLS Web site at www.mvk.usace.army.mil/od/odm/cebls.htm Audubon Programs For the next three meetings, in place of our regular meetins, CNMAS will offer a series of bird identification classes conducted by some of New Mexico's most accomplished birdwatchers. All classes will be held at St. Timothy's Lutheran Church located at the corner of Copper and Jefferson NE. Please arrive early, doors open at 7:00 pm, to enjoy refreshments and meet other members. Classes will start promptly at 7:30 pm. Preregistration is requested. For more information, call Pat at 856-7443. Audubon Trips top February Trips Sunday, February 14 Conchas Lake. Wintering sparrows, raptors and waterfowls. Meet at the West entrance to the Four Hills Shopping center on Central Avenue S.E. at 6:45 am. Dress appropriately for weather conditions and bring food, water and snacks for all day outing. Call Sei 266-2480 for details. March Trips Saturday, March 6 Montecello Point, Caballo Dam and Percha Dam. These sites often provide sightings of vagrant birds; and Percha Dam is one of the best year-round birding sites in New Mexico. Meet at the UNM Physics parking lot at the northwest corner of Yale and Lomas Blvd. at 6.45 am. This can be a day or overnight trip. Call Sei 266-2480 for details. Saturday, March 20 Mystery Trip. Join Jim Place and Hawks Aloft for a trip to be determined by weather conditions and/or recent bird sightings. Meet Jim at the UNM Physics parking lot at 7 am. Call 883-1253 for details. April Trips Saturday, April 3 Bosque del Apache. Meet at the UNM Physics parking lot at 7 am for a full day of birding. Call Sei at 266-2480 for details. Thursdy Morning Birding Group For information on weekly birding outings (every Thursday), call Julie Goodding at 255-9366. Meeting time and location as well as duration vary. We're not talking about canines here, but prairie dogs. One would assume that these industrious earth moving rodents would be a good snack for a raptor but they play a much more important role in the lives of Burrowing Owls. Burrowing Owls are small ground-dwelling owls found in open, dry grasslands, agricultural and range lands, and desert habitats from Canada to Mexico, and in some southern states including Louisiana and Florida. They are opportunistic feeders, consuming mostly beetles and grasshoppers; mice, rats, gophers, and ground squirrels are also important food items; and lizards, scorpions, young cottontail rabbits, bats, and birds, such as sparrows and horned larks, are eaten as well. When one reads how far and wide the Burrowing Owl has adapted and how varied their diet is, it is surprising to learn that their populations are shrinking in many areas. Why? Pesticides and destruction of grasslands are contributing factors, but active programs for killing off prairie dogs are destroying more than their food source. Since the owls will eat just about anything they can carry off and they coexist well in some urban areas, it is becoming evident that the Burrowing Owl's Achilles heel is its dependence on ready-made nesting burrows supplied by ground squirrels and prairie dogs. So much so that, in Minnesota, Burrowing Owls have not bred since 1991 which is thought to be because of an active prairie dog eradication program by the U.S. and Canada. Fortunately, in New Mexico, Burrowing Owls are faring better than in the northern states. Prairie dogs are being "managed" here as well, but not as extensively and several groups are working to monitor Burrowing Owl populations to better understand what can be done to protect these small owls in the Southwest. Auduboners can contribute to the knowledge on the Burrowing Owl distribution in the Southwest by looking for Burrowing Owls whenever you are out on field trips. Carol Findley is a graduate student in the Fishery & Wildlife Science Dept. at NMSU, and she is conducting research on the distribution and population dynamics of the Burrowing Owl. On your travels around New Mexico,Texas, Arizona, Sonora, or Chihuahua, you should record your Burrowing Owl sightings. A paragraph with date, location (highway mile marker, maps, or descriptions), number of birds, whether or not there is an obvious burrow, and general habitat should be emailed to rcampbell@zianet.com or mailed to Carol Findley, 1941 Mahogany Drive, Las Cruces, NM 88001. One last note. Concern about the loss of nesting burrows has also inspired some creative designs for building artificial nesting structures for the owls. A California group has posted their plan on the web at: www.srcsd.com/about/about_envir/envir_casebur/nestsite.html. These artificial burrows are quickly adopted by owls when positioned nearby owl colonies. Maybe we should be building Burrowing Owl condos.owl Thank You top We at Central New Mexico Audubon Chapter have been the recipients of a cornucopia of kindness recently, and we want to extend a cornucopia of thanks in return:
Christmas Bird Count Reports top The information for the following compilations of the Albuquerque count and the Bosque del Apache NWR count was provided by Hart Schwarz and Steve Cox. Hart's group of 49 found 105 species (21,057 individuals). Steve's group of 25 found 115 species (65,360 individuals). You can review the results of other New Mexico counts at www.birdsource.cornell.edu. NMOS Meeting The 1999 New Mexico Ornithological Society meeting will be held at the San Juan College in Farmington, on Saturday, February 20. The registration fee is $5 per person(students are exempt) and $16 per person for the banquet. Please contact Bo West, 10 Katchina, Los Alamos NM 87544, phone (505)662-7343 to register or for more info. Here is a schedule of some of the activities. Friday, Feb. 19
Saturday, Feb. 20
Sunday, Feb. 21
|