Volume 33, Issue 2 OCTOBER, 2008
www.jayhawkaudubon.org
The Douglas County Commission Affects Your Life
Property Taxes, Rural Development, Emergency Managementand much more fall into the Commission’s remit.
WHERE DO CANDIDATES STAND?
Find Out Monday, October 27th at the
JAS COUNTY COMMISSION CANDIDATE FORUM
The candidates for District #2 are: Democrat Nancy Thellman and Republican David L. Brown. The candidates for District #3 are: Democrat Ken Grotewiel and Republican James E. Flory. Not sure of your district? Call the CountyClerk’s office, 832-5356 or check www.douglas-county.com. Click on ‘districts’ under ‘commission information’.The forum, which will be moderated by Bev Worster, will provide attendees an opportunity to pose questions aboutissues that come before the County Commission. Examples are overall budget issues including support for socialservice agencies; alignment and completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway; property taxes to support countyservices such as Emergency Management including purchase and placement of warning sirens, Fire and MedicalServices, collection of motor vehicle taxes, the Register of Deeds office, and the Sheriff's Department to name a few.The Commission also fills vacancies for the county's 4 seats on the Lawrence/Douglas County Metropolitan PlanningCommission; cooperates with the city on location and start-up funding of business and industrial parks; funds ECO2Open Space projects jointly with the city; maintains roads and bridges and decides timing and frequency of roadside rights-of-way mowing and pesticide applications which can have significant impacts on wildlife.If you would like to submit questions before hand, please send them to Joyce Wolf atrjjawolf@sunflower.com.-Joyce Wolf
Meeting:
7:30 p.m. Trinity Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall. 1245 New Hampshire Street. Lawrence.Refreshments will be served. Ample parking east of the church. Enter the lot from New Hampshire.
All programs of the Jayhawk Audubon Society are free and open to the public
~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~
Savannah Sparrow.US Geological Survey
Christopher Goldade
Marsh Wren. MissouriDept. Conservation
The Long Wait Is Over!
First-of-Season Seed/Feeder/Book Sale is 10/18
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Lawrence Senior Center. 745 New Hampshire
Order form inside. Deadline to pre-order is 10/13. Walk-ins welcome.
The totals are in and now JAS can say
THANK YOU
to the seed sale patrons whovery generously added $400 in donations to their orders last year. JAS keeps itsexpenditures small and local so this was a real boost to programs such as Eagles Day,Wetland Learners, Natural History Museum scholarships & Monarch Watch/JAS Tagging Day.
JAYHAWK AUDUBON SOCIETY
2
“LBJs” got you frustrated
?
DE-STRESS ON THE JAS
OCTOBER FIELD TRIP
"Little Brown Jobs" exasperate many birders, especially in the fall, but thereis hope! Come to the Baker Wetlandsto learn field marks and other identifica-tion tips that can make these birds lessintimidating. We will focus on themany species of sparrows and other difficult to identify birds which passthrough the Wetlands in large numbersduring the fall. We’ll meet at theentrance off 31st Street on
Saturday
,
October 25 at 8:30 AM
. Contact me atsteveroels00@hotmail.com or (616)450-4262 if you have questions or need directions.-Steve Roels
Whet your appetite with the LBJs depicted in this issue.
White-crowned Sparrow.Sonoran Desert Museum
Field Sparrow. USGeological ServiceChristopher Goldade
Pine Siskins
The Patter of Little Ferret FeetOn Kansas Soil Is Good News
25 biologists and volunteers spent from dusk to dawn four nights this August searching 27,000 acres for black-footedferrets in order to gauge the success of the December 2007re-introduction of the endangered mammals to the Kansas prairie. Dan Mulhern of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inManhattan directed the survey. One morning, after a long nightof searching, I spotted a ferret at 5:23 a.m., but it didn't come back out of the burrow and into the live trap set in the entrance.When we arrived back in the area that evening to set the trap inthe burrow again, I first had to dig out hard plugs of dirt thathad been packed a foot deep down into the entrance of that andan adjacent burrow by prairie dogs during the day. Apparentlythey knew the ferret was in there and wanted to do their best toseal it underground. That was prairie dog behavior that I wasastounded to observe.Sighting more than one ferret in a single location at thistime of year indicates a mother with young or siblings. At least15 ferrets were observed during the survey, with three litters inthe Haverfield / Barnhardt / Blank complex and one litter at The Nature Conservancy's Smoky Valley Ranch. It was a case of looking for needles in a hay stack since ferrets seldom appear above ground and an area can be searchedfor hours night after night before onesuddenly emerges. The majoritywere observed on the fourth andfinal night, having gone undetected thefirst 3 nights.
The production of 4 litters the first summer is incredibleand encouraging for the eventual success of this experimentespecially since all 24 ferrets released in December werecaptive-bred and five were females beyond their reproductive prime. They also had to adapt abruptly to a world with coyotes,great-horned owls and other dangers including extensive Rozol poisoning on surrounding ranches. The Haverfields, Barnhardtsand Maxine Blank who own these lands deserve our thanks for making conservation of native wildlife a priority on their land--10,000 acres that is akin to a national wildlife refuge with jack-rabbits, swift foxes, badgers, coyotes, burrowing owls, cotton-tail rabbits, mule deer, pronghorns, whitetails, uplandsandpipers and barn owls. AOK hopes to organize toursof the area in the future.-Ron Klataske, Executive Director Audubon of Kansas(excerpted from postings to KSBIRDS)For more on the ferret reintroduction visitwww.audubonofkansas.org.
More October Events
10/6: Congressional Forum U.S. House 2nd District.
Nancy Boyda (D) and Lynn Jenkins (R). 7-9 pm.Dole Institute of Politics. KU Campus.
10/11: Baker Wetlands Work Day-Sierra ClubWakarusa Group.
9a.m. to Noon.
Removeinvasive honeysuckle. Contact George Brenner tosign up and learn where to meet. 785-393-3828 or gbrenner@sunflower.com; Space is limited
.
10/20: Candidate Forum: Kansas House and Boardof Education.
7-9 pm. Free State HS Auditorium.District 10: Brown (D) and Coen (R)District 45: Wilson (D) and Sloan (R)B of E: Campbell (D) and Meissner (R)
10/21:
Eagles Day Committee
7 pm. The Shaw’s. 1635 Mississippi.842-0475. Treats for the workers!
As of 10/1 only
117 days
‘til Eagles Day
.
10/25: JAS Field Trip.
Sparrows at theWetlands. See above for info.
.
KIDS’ PAGE JAYHAWK AUDUBON SOCIETY
3
THE KIDS’ PAGE IS
GEARING UP FOR
HALLOWEEN
WITH….
SPIDERAMA
ARE YOU
SCARED
OF
SPIDERS???
DON’T BE!
SPIDERS HELP US BY EATING BUGS like cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes thatget in our food or bite us!!! Next time you see a spider don’t kill it--instead take a goodlook at it, then say “
thanks for eating all those bugs
!!!”
THE SPIDER STORY:
Spiders are tiny animals with 8 legs-known as
arachnids
.
They are not insects which have 6 legs
.
Spiders spin silk. Many build webs to catch insects for food. Not all spiders make big webs.Some stalk their prey. Some hide & then pounce on a passing bug.
Spiders stun or kill insect prey with a
venomous
bite. All spiders have
venom
, but
ONLY A FEW
spiders can hurt people with their bite. The truth is spiders have
NO INTEREST
inattacking humans...We are much too
BIG
for a spider to eat!1
Spiders often leave a silk threadbehind them. This is called a
dragline.
The dragline can be an escape line.
So, when you see a spider hanging downfrom his web, he may be escapingsomething. Could it be YOU?
PARENTS:
Visit the
Spider Myths
websitewith your children. It debunksurban legends and putsspiders in a better light:www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/
Crab spider
Connect the dots inalphabetical order.Color the picture if you want to.
Dot to dot from www.kidzone.ws
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
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