September: ICE CREAM SOCIAL

Sojourner Truth Park,

Wed. Sept. 20th, 6:30 p.m.

Our year (Sept. 2006 - July 2007) begins:

We hope you all will join us at Sojourner Truth Park
for our annual ICE CREAM SOCIAL, and to see the Butterfly
Garden (now tended by Susan Blackford with help from Patricia
Yeager and Jodi Whittier). This is a great time to meet other mem-
bers of the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society, the Board, and
others in the community.
Please come and bring your favorite topping or accompaniment - all the ice cream, utensils,
and drinks will be provided. Bring your friends and family, too. There might even be some music...
There will surely be laughter and conversation.

INSIDE
2- INDIAN BLACK EARTH 4-TREASURES
3- SKYLIGHT 5- TAKE NOTE
P.O. Box 1932, Manhattan, KS 66505-1932
Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society,

prairie falcon
Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society
Newsletter
Vol. 35, No. 1 ~ Sept. 2006

Upcoming Events:

Sept. 7 Board Mtg. 7 p.m. Oct. 5 Board Mtg. 7 p.m.

Manhattan Public Library Workforce Cntr.
Printed by Claflin Books & Copies

Sept. 9 Beginning Birding 4th & Houston

8 a.m. Meet ackert Hall Oct. 11 Birdseed Sale
KSU (south Parking lot) ORDER DEADLINE
Sept. 17 Planting at Butterfly Garden Oct. 14 Beginning Birding
8:30 a.m. (Sojourner truth) for the NOVICE BIRDER
Manhattan, KS

Sept.20 ICE CREAM SOCIAL Oct. 21 Birdseed PICKUP

Sojourner Park (& Butterfly UFM 9-12p.m.
Garden)6:30 p.m.
Nature “indian black earth”
tom morgan “They know they ought to be marketing terra preta as a resource, or a policy
instrument, but they can’t stop seeing it as a wonder.”
Emma Morris, 2006. Black is the New Green. Nature 442: 624-626

Terra preta do indio or Indian black earth is a
delightfully fertile garden soil. The black component
of this soil is the biochar which is produced when
crop residues smolder. Biochar tenaciously holds onto
nutrients that tend to be leached beyond the reach
of the plant’s roots. It keeps the nutrients available to
plants. And it does all of this more effectively than
compost or other types of organic matter. The bio-
char supports healthy populations of microbes, that,
according Emma Morris, “... to turn the soil into that
spongy, fragrant, dark material that gardeners every-
where love to plunge their hands into.”
As I wrote in an earlier newsletter (Jan. 2003),
a village of 500 Native Americans in the Amazon
basin may have created a fertile, mounded midden
of terra preta do indio. The mound grew by the ac-
cumulation of their garbage and the collapse of their
wattle-and-daub houses for generation after genera-
tion, perhaps over a period of 2,000 years. Some areas
of black earth were created by ancient human societ-
ies as much as 7,000 years ago. Large regions were
enriched by charring all sorts of organic matter. And
the enhanced fertility enriched all the inhabitants of
the earth.
When organic matter smolders in an oxy-
gen-poor atmosphere, much of the carbon remains
uncombusted. An acre of earth enriched with bio-
char contains incredible amounts of carbon. As Morris
writes, “... turning unimproved soil into terra preta can
store away more carbon than growing a tropical for-
est from scratch on the same piece of land ...” In fact,
Johannes Lehmann of Cornell University estimates that
we could store more carbon in such soils each year than
is released by all of our current fossil-fuel use.
Terra preta “schemes” are a hot subject for re-
search and for policy decisions that could help decrease
global warming. One scheme is to take waste organic
matter and char it. This produces volatiles which can
be converted into biodiesel or even hydrogen. After the
process is complete, about half of the carbon will re-
main in the biochar, which can then be used to enrich
farmland, thereby locking up the carbon for at least the
next few centuries.
Unlike other ways of producing biofuels that are best
“carbon neutral,” this method is actually “carbon nega-
tive.” And unlike other methods of obtaining biofuel,
this one leaves me feeling quite evangelical, as visions of
enriching the earth for future generations bedazzle me.
One of the web sites devoted to this topic is -
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/
terra_preta/TerraPretahome.htm
© 2006 Tom Morgan

beginning birding & more!

This year, we plan on providing a birding experience for the novice (adult and /or child) - including
how to purchase a pair of binoculars, instructions on using binoculars, finding birds, listening to calls, different
habitats, tips on identification and more.
We also are planning field trips for the more experienced birder. As well as some Saturday morning
events that will be a combination of a short talk/program with an outing.
Watch for news about these events.

p.  Sept. 2006 Prairie Falcon Newsletter


Among of the windows into history available in the
museum that was once the spacious Union Pacific To-
peka passenger station are posters from WWII that had
been put forth with the idea that railroad workers then
needed such extra stimuli to do their utmost. One of
the posters has a freight engine of the era powering its
load through the night, accompanied by the exhorting
words: “Only the stars are neutral”. I expect that even
astrologers would have agreed that the cosmic influences
weren’t picking Earthly favorites. But the poster might
have drawn cold stares from the governments of all the
countries that were, however genuinely, officially neutral
throughout the War.
And what of the GIs whose tanks and planes
bore identifying white stars, while the Russian equip-
ment showed red stars and the Japanese were identified
by the round orange Sun, another star. In a grim way,
those insignia made many battles a different kind of
“star wars”.
New Mexico’s flag, also displayed there, shows a
Sun symbol, Kansas’ promises “Ad astra...”
I got to wondering about this multi-focus on
stars--for were not the trees, birds, clouds, etc. equally
neutral?--after yet one more visitor to our place stepped
outdoors at night, and let our conversation go hang
while they paused and stared silently upward a moment
before exclaiming, “Look at the stars. I haven’t seen
them since--” and the time given could be measured in
decades reaching back toward conditions when many
more people actually took note of the natural light in the
sky. I began to think that if the American Revolution
was going on now Betsy Ross, at her computer, would
be printng out a banner that had a circle of thirteen
streetlamps, and stripes of yellow, alternating solid and
dashed, as per our highways.
This is not to futilely decry the changes of time,
which have brought many things besides the blurring of
the stars from Earth. But it seems relevant in an election
season to take note that slogans are unreliable, and that
many symbols are rooted in situations that no longer ex-
ist.
At the same time it is the stars that are the star
performers of September. Oh, Jupiter as usual is not
skylight plus
pete cohen
shy, but he’ll be hanging low in the evenings and not
hanging there for long. Venus and Saturn get into
the pre-dawn act, Venus increasingly briefly, and
though not at her brightest still the brightest point to
be glimpsed. Saturn keeps showing up a little earlier
each morn, sharing the scene with some significant
stars. Regulus low at the bottom of Leo’s big sickle,
and the two dog stars, Procyon (of the Little Dog)
higher up, with the brightest of the stars, Sirius (in
the Big Dog), more to the southeast. Actually Saturn
will be more notable below the Moon on the 18th,
above on the 19th.
As to the evening stars, bright blue Vega opens
the month high overhead to be gradually replaced by
the dimmer but still prominent white Deneb, the tail
star of Cygnus the Swan who will be soaring south-
ward down the Milky Way. That vast array of stars
will be dividing the sky into east and west halves dur-
ing the third week of the month. During that time
the autumn equinox will divide the sky into halves of
day and night as the Sun crosses above the Equator at
11p03 CDT September 22nd.
On the 2nd the stars of Sagittarius that form
a teapot shape will also be framing the waxing Moon.
And all month the four widely separated stars of the
Great Square of Pegasus will be parading overhead
through the night, shining modestly but in an area of
the sky that seems to have not much else in it. From
the Square’s upper left star, Alpheratz, the equally
modest bent cone of Andromeda will be trailing
behind toward the edge of the Milky Way where a pi-
shaped glitter of stars represent Perseus, Algol being
the brightest of the glitterers.
Meanwhile Antares will be coasting along the
southern horizon, just ahead of Sagittarius and at the
heart of Scorpio while way up north those depend-
able circumpolars--Cassiopeia and the two Bears
(with Draco the Dragon winding between them) will
be available for admiring, with Capella in Auriga the
Charioteer joining the circle near midnight. Moon
full, 7th at 1p42; new 22nd at 8a45.
© 2006 Peter Zachary Cohen
Sept. 2006 Prairie Falcon Newsletter p. 
 Treasures

You might find them at garage sales, library book sales, used
book stores, grandma’s attic -- treasures!
Sometimes when you aren’t even looking. But they are out
there.

How can you pass up an old “Birds of Kansas” published

by Kansas State Board of Agriculture. A 1945 report by
Arthur L. Goodrich, Jr. Dept. of Zoology. JC. Mohler,
Secretary. And when you get home, stuck inside is a 1998
issue of the Kansas Ornithological Society with an article
about Arthur Goodrich - one of the seven co-founders of
the Kansas Ornithological Society.

p.  Sept. 2006 Prairie Falcon Newsletter

 take note

The Northern Flint Hills Audubon Socitey Board will meet the first Thursday of every month, at the Workforce
Center, located at 4th and Houston (except this Sept. 7 - which will be at the Manhattan Pulic Library). As you
can see from the following list, there is plenty of opportunity for you to become involved. Volunteer to help on
a committee, be a board member, help our chapter.

2006-2007 Board members: Committee Chairs:

President Patricia Yeager
Vice President Cindy Jeffrey
Secretary MJ Morgan
Treasurer Jan Garton
At-Large Tom Morgan,
Ingrid Neitfeld
John Tatarko
Paul Weidhaas
AOK Hoogy Hoogheem
(Audubon of Kansas representative)
Membership Carla Bishop
Newsletter Cindy Jeffrey
Conservation
Programs
Education
Northeast Park Jacque Staats
Butterfly Garden Susan Blackford
Outreach Dolly Gudder
Field Trips

new plants for the butterfly garden

New plants are being purchased for the Butterfly Garden (Sojourner Park), and a PLANTING
DAY is planned for Sept. 17, 2006 from 8:30 a.m. till about noon. (Rain day is Sept. 24 -same
time) YOU are invited to help plant - come anytime during the morning.
Susan Blackford

And this
wonderful
little book for
children was
published in
1966. Can you
imagine tagging
a butterfly!

Sept. 2006 Prairie Falcon Newsletter p. 

 Northern Flint HIlls Non-profit Organization
Printed on 100% post-consumer U.S. Postage Paid
Audubon Society
recycled paper Permit No. 662
P.O. Box 1932
Manhattan, KS Manhattan, KS 66502
66505-1932

Return Service Requested

Published monthly (except August) by the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society, a chapter of the National Audubon Society.
Edited by Cindy Jeffrey, 15850 Galilee Rd., Olsburg, KS 66520. (cinraney@ksu.edu)
Also available on-line at www.ksu.edu/audubon/falcon.html

Subscription Information: Introductory memberships - $20/ NFHAS Board

yr., then basic membership is $35/yr. When you join the Northern President: Patricia Yeager 776-9593
Flint Hills Audubon Society, you automatically become a member Vice Pres. Cindy Jeffrey cinraney@ksu.edu 468-3587
of the National Audubon Society and receive the bimonthly Audu- Secretary: MJ Morgan
bon magazine in addition to the Prairie Falcon newsletter. New Treasurer: Jan Garton 539-3004
membership applications may be sent to Treasurer, NFHAS, P.O. COMMITTEE chairs:
Box 1932, Manhattan, KS 66505-1932. Make checks payable to Membership: Carla Bishop 539-5129
the National Audubon Society. Membership renewals are handled Programs:
by the National Audubon Society and should not be sent to the Conservation:
NFHAS. Questions about membership? Call 1-800-274-4201 or Northeast Park: Jacque Staats
email the National Audubon Society join@audubon.org. Butterfly Garden: Susan Blackford
If you do not want to receive the national magazine, but Education:
still want to be involved in our local activities, you may subscribe Land Preserv.: Jan Garton
to the Prairie Falcon newsletter for $15/yr. Make checks payable to Outreach: Dolly Gudder
the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society, and mail to: Treasurer, Newsletter: Cindy Jeffrey cinraney@ksu.edu 468-3587
NFHAS, P.O. Box 1932, Manhattan, KS, 66502-1932. Fieldtrips:
RARE BIRD HOTLINE: For information on Kansas Birds, sub- At-large: Tom Morgan, John Tatarko,
scribe to the Kansas Bird Listserve. Send this message <subscribe Ingrid Neitfeld, Paul Weidhaas
KSBIRD-L> to <list serve@ksu.edu>and join in the discussions.
Audubon of Kansas Trustee: Hoogy Hoogheem

Contacts for Your Elected Representatives ( anytime) Write, call or email @

Governor Kathleen Sebelius: 2nd Floor, State Capital Bldg., Topeka , KS 66612. Kansas Senator or Representative _________: State
Capital Bldg., Topeka, KS 66612. Ph# (during session only) Senate - 785-296-7300. House - 785-296-7500. U.S. Senator Roberts <Rob-
erts@senate.gov> U.S. Senate, Washington DC 20510. or Brownback <Brownback@senate.gov> U.S. Capital Switchboard 202-224-
3121. President G.W. Bush - The White House, Washington, DC 20500.