8/9/2019 April 2006 Laughing Gull Newsletters St. Lucie Audubon Society

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April Meeting:Thurs, April 6th, 7pm

Lee Hedrick of O.N.E. W.I.L.D.W.O.R.L.D. will be speaking aboutways to help our local beaches.

April Field Trip:

Annual Picnic and Field TripSaturday, April 8th

Picnic and special hayride at the

Savannas Preserve State Park; detailson back page.

Laughing GullThe Newsletter of the St. Lucie Audubon Society

VVlP.VoVO. Box 12474, Fort Pierce FL 34979 P.O. Box 12474, Fort Pierce FL 34979 P.O. Box 12474, Fort Pierce

FL 34979Volume 30 No. 7 P.O. Box 12474, Fort Pierce, FL 34979 April 2006

A year of Audubon activity is alreadydrawing to a close. At our April generalmeeting, the slate of officers will be pre-sented and we will vote for them at theMay meeting. I am happy to announce thatthe President, Vice President, Secretary,

and Treasurer have all agreed to serveanother year!

Do you enjoy walking our beautifulbeaches? If so, you could help biologists atFloridas Fish and Wildlife ResearchInstitute identify horseshoe crab spawningbeaches throughout the state. The besttime to find spawning horseshoe crabs isaround a high tide, right before or just aftera full moon. The next full moon will be

Thursday, April 13

th

. Time, date, and loca-tion of horseshoe crab sightings can be re-ported any of three ways:

E-mail to: horseshoe@myfwc.com

Online survey: http://research.myfwc.com/horseshoe_crab

Phone: 1-866-252-9326

Thanks to anyone who may be able to helpwith this project. Hope to see you at theApril meeting & annual picnic on the 8th!

Do the GreenThing and help ourchapter save printingand mailing costs bygetting your newslet-ter by email. Sendyour name & emailaddress toflbird40@bellsouth.net to sign up.

Oxbow Eco-Center5400 NE St. James DrivePort St. Lucie, FL 34983

(772) 785-5833

Daniel

Echeverri

Mrs. Lee Jacobs

Rose Largen

Sharon LeVan

Jean Lenz

Martha Welch

Lee-Pedro

Whitridge

Jean Melby

!"!"!"!"

Are you looking for ways to volun-teer to a worthy cause and organiza-tion, from home? Do you have basicto average computer skills? Do youhave a couple extra hours eachmonth? St. Lucie Audubon wouldlove your help as its NewsletterEditor! Please contact Misty at 785-5833 for more information.

Oxbow Eco-Centers 6th AnnualEarth Day Celebration!

When: Sat., April 22nd, from 10-3

What: Exhibitors, hikes, programs,live animals, food, music, crafts,Measure your Ecological Footprintactivity

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!"Construction has just begun on the StormwaterTreatment Area Projects near Indiantown in Martin

County. The project includes an above groundreservoir and stormwater treatment area (STA) thatare located north of the St. Lucie River and the C-44canal. These structures will capture, store and treatrunoff from the wider drainage basin and thenremove the nutrients from the water before it flowsto the St. Lucie Estuary.

The project has been designed and is beingmanaged jointly by the Florida Department ofEnvironmental Protection and the Army Corp of

Engineers. This is the first of what is hoped to beseveral water storage and cleansing projects andwill demonstrate how removing nutrients from wa-ter before it is released to the estuary will start toimprove the health of all our waters before theyreach the ocean.

#"$#"$#"$#"$

%&!'!

This time of the year is sometimes referred to as arebirth of the earth. Trees are leafing out andspring flowers are blooming. Many birds, in theirfresh plumages, have started their annual northerlymigration to take advantage of the bountiful supplyof insects and plants. This is one of the most excit-ing times to be a birdwatcher!

Many of our songbirds migrate at night fromMexico, the Caribbean and South America andarrive here in the morning. They may spend a dayor two here to feed and build up their fat storagebefore they continue their northerly flight.

This is a great month to get out to wooded areas tolook for migrants!

It is becoming a New York rite of spring. PaleMale & Lola are back on the nest. So it came topass yesterday, after months of aerial foreplay, thattwo Red-tailed Hawks who have captured theimaginations of bird lovers around the worldsettled into their roost 12 stories above CentralPark, on the opulent facade of a Fifth Avenueco-op building. According to bird-watchers whohave tracked the hawks' behavior for years, Lolahas almost certainly laid eggs. If so, it will be sixweeks, or perhaps until the end of April, before an

unlikely wildlife saga reaches its climax & babyRed-tailed Hawks are hatched. Or, perhaps, thehawks' reproductive effort will fail, as it did lastyear.

Coming 11 days before spring formally arrives onMarch 20th, & as New Yorkers were about to bewrapped in a balmy coat of springlike warmth, thesight of Lola sitting proudly on the nest, & of PaleMale swooping down with tasty morsels of rat &pigeon from the park, could not have been more

welcome. They are as much a sign of spring inNew York as the St. Patrick's Day Parade," saidAdrian Benepe, the city's parks commissioner.

Pale Male has been cavorting with various femalehawks over Central Park, & producing offspring,for more than a decade. He first built a nest on hiscornice at 927 Fifth Avenue, at 74th Street, in1993. But his return this year with Lola, his currentmate, is remarkable because of the battle thaterupted over the nest 15 months ago. Members of

the co-op, who had tired of having a giant birds'nest on their facade, had it carted away. Theprotests that ensued spilled from City Hall to cos-tumed demonstrators on Fifth Avenue to the mostaffluent living rooms of the Upper East Side. Even-tually, the co-op returned the nest, & provided asteel cradle to hold it in place. "People talked toeach other, they didn't shout, and we've reached anelegant solution," he said. "This is New York at itsbest.

$"$"$"$"By Thomas Lueck Published: March 10, 2006 in theNew York Times (See the entire article atwww.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/nyregion/10hawk.html)

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((((((((%&!'!

)'))'))'))')

The results are in! The 9th annual Great Backyard

Bird Count, which occurred Feb. 1720, set newrecords. Birders tallied a record-breaking 623 birdspecies and 7.5 million individual birds. An effortbetween the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Na-tional Audubon Society, these reports provide asnapshot in time of N. American birdlife. Floridamade 2 Top Ten lists, including a state that sub-mitted a high # of checklists, and one that reporteda high # of species. Those counters in Ft. Pierceand Port St. Lucie reported between 70-85different species!

Interesting & unusual results include lg. popula-tions of Robins in the NW US, where totalsjumped to 96 % above last years count. Incontrast, Robins were down to less than 1/2 oftheir 05 numbers in TX, LA and MI. Its thoughtthat warm weather may have enticed some swal-low and warbler species to stay farther north thanusual. Tree Swallows, which feed on wax myrtleberries during winter, have broadened their rangefrom 11 states in 2001 to 20 states in 2006.

Check out the website at www.birdsource.org/gbbc to see complete tallies, maps, photos andreports on individual bird reports, including spe-cies in states hit by hurricanes, pathways ofSandhill Cranes, and local rarities.

Membership Renewals

Chapter memberships extend from October

through December. Chapter members may use

the coupon at right to renew membership for 2006.

Please mark RENEW on your check.

SLAS is now offering a Chapter-only annual membershipoption for those who want to financially support their localchapter. The annual cost is only $15 per year, which includesmonthly subscription to our Laughing Gull newsletter.

Please make checks payable and send to:

St. Lucie Audubon SocietyP.O. Box 12474, Ft. Pierce, FL 34979

Name____________________________________________Address__________________________________________City_____________________________________________State___________ Zip______________________________Phone___________________________________________

Frequently, we are asked which bird species

might be found nesting in our local surroundings.Since nesting has begun for many species, it isthe time of year to be looking for signs of nestingbirds. According to the Florida Breeding BirdAtlas, 87 bird species have been confirmed asnesting in St. Lucie County. Some species on thelist no longer nest here, such as the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Red-headed Wood-pecker. Visit www.wildflorida.org/bba/data/countyspecies.asp for more details.

Some of the most common nesting birds in ourneighborhoods are Northern Cardinals, BlueJays, Northern Mockingbirds, Mourning Doves,Common and Boat-tailed Grackles, Purple Mar-tins, Carolina Wrens. Many cavity-nesting spe-cies have declined due to habitat destruction.With our rapid development, many trees havebeen lost for new housing. Installing a nest box inyour yard may attract woodpeckers, owls, wrensand Great-crested Flycatchers. Check on theinternet or your library for the required specifica-

tions for the species you are interested in attract-ing. When choosing a location for a nest box,consider protection from predators.

If you are fortunate enough to attract a pair ofnesting birds to your yard, keep a comfortabledistance when viewing the amazing events thattake place in the process of nest-building, incu-bating and feeding the young birds.

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Laughing GullSt. Lucie Audubon

P.O. Box 12474

Fort Pierce, FL 34979

Please Remember to

Recycle!

Non-profit OrganizationU.S. POSTAGE

PAID

Fort Pierce, FL.Permit No. 442

April Meeting:

Thurs, April 6th, 7pm

Lee Hedrick of O.N.E. W.I.L.D. W.O.R.L.D. will be speakingabout ways to help our local beaches.

April Field Trip: Annual Picnic and Field Trip

Saturday, April 8th

Our Annual Picnic and April field trip will be held at Savannas State Parkon Walton Road in Port St. Lucie. Park Biologist, Greg Kaufmann will takeus on a special hayride field trip. We will have our picnic afterwards. Bringa covered dish and your own table service. Be sure to keep your food in acooler since there is no refrigeration available. Meet at the EducationCenter at the park at 9 a.m. The park is located on the north side of Walton

Rd. between Lennard Rd. and Indian River Drive. The phone number at thepark is 398-2779. Hope to see you!