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The Lark Bunting Official Newsletter of the Denver Field Ornithologists

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THE LARK BUNTING OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE DENVER FIELD ORNITHOLOGISTS VOLUME 57 | ISSUE 10 | OCTOBER 2021 DFOBIRDS.ORG FIELD TRIP NEWS New field trip chair is David Suddjian PAGE 8 PROGRAM NEWS 1st in-person monthly program + livestream! PAGE 4 BIRD BEHAVIOR Silent summer: Where are the birds? PAGE 11 BIRD ARCHAEOLOGY Birds + ancient pueblos = cool webinar series PAGE 18 PHOTO OF THE MONTH Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs Mark Amershek Barr Lake State Park THE LARK BUNTING OCTOBER 2021 1 FROM THE PRESIDENT DFO Board retreat? I’d call it an ADVANCE! Susan Blansett (and sometimes because of it), DFO has made positive On a Sunday morning in mid-August, the DFO Board of momentum since 2019. We celebrated these milestones: Directors convened for its third planning retreat since 2016. Once again, we gathered at Barr Lake State Park, a lovely place x Our new Conservation Committee has delved into of refuge where we stepped back to consider the big picture public discussion and advocacy on the future of birding and chart our club’s path for the next few years. at Chico Basin Ranch and birder access to State Wildlife Areas. It now raises its voice on conservation topics The last time we did this, in the fall of 2019, we crafted a in each issue of The Lark Bunting, and it’s working on strategic plan for 2-3 years ahead. But that was just 5 months more issues and causes to come before you-know-what all but shut us down for a full year. In x We set a new membership record, now at 549 and hopes of returning to “normal” again soon, we thought it wise counting to review and update that Covid-interrupted plan. x DFO mastered Zoom to continue monthly programs online through the pandemic. This doubled, tripled and First, we took a short hike out on the park’s Neidrach Nature even quadrupled normal attendance AND exposed new Trail to fill our lungs with (relatively smoke-free) fresh air and audiences (and potential members) to DFO our eyes with birds. Back in the park nature center education x We formed new program partnerships with Denver room, we filled our coffee cups and got to work. Public Library, Denver Audubon, and the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History Before moving into the main group-think session, we did a x We expanded our media reach, with steady growth in bit of DFO business, including appointing a new Field Trip our Facebook and Instagram communities and, in my Committee chair. Thank you and welcome to veteran trip opinion, the BEST newsletter of any nonprofit EVER leader David Suddjian, who in this critical role will also sit on x DFO restarted a program of popular, free and varied the DFO Board. (Read more about David and his vision for field trips that is widely recognized as a model for DFO field trips in the article on page 8 of this issue.) birding clubs across the country x Thanks to continued member generosity, we expanded The strategic plan we drew up in 2019 focused on four key our thriving program of small grants to conservation- goals. We recommitted to them as still meaningful, even as we based, bird-related research and education recognize that we’re in a different world now. Those goals are: With the bar set that high, the board spent the bulk of our x Integrate conservation into everything we do retreat time working on how to do even better: continue to x Attract new and more diverse members grow, appeal to broader audiences, bring members even more x Improve the quality of DFO members’ experience value AND engage more of you in volunteering for the club. x Build partnerships with other organizations to promote conservation and enhance member value Here are some ways we’ll work for that in the coming months: We added a fifth goal: Ensure and improve DFO’s financial x Under David Suddjian’s new leadership, we have already health in the fiscal areas of management, revenue, fundraising recruited and trained four new field trip leaders and and reserves. aim to add more, while expanding both the numbers and kinds of birding outings that DFO offers It was a pleasant surprise to find that, despite the pandemic Continued on page 3 THE LARK BUNTING OCTOBER 2021 2 FROM THE PRESIDENT cont from page 2 DFO board retreat Patrick O'Ddriscoll x We will promote more member engagement in club activities and appreciation for those who volunteer their skills and talents to DFO x We are planning more Better Birding Workshops, including some focused on bird habitat (an idea straight from last year’s member survey) x We aim to deepen member involvement in community science, including the HawkWatch program that DFO took on more than a year ago So, while you enjoy shorebird migration, the fall passage of warblers and (soon, please?) those first bites of crisp autumn air, know that there’s more to come. And while you consider that, tell a friend or two about DFO, won’t you? Thank your trip leader or other club volunteers, too. Come to the Members-Only Picnic on Sept. 18! A smart, giving group of club volunteers is committed to bringing you the very best that birding together as a Colorado community can offer. Thanks, and good birding! Susan Blansett Patrick O'Driscoll — Susan THE LARK BUNTING OCTOBER 2021 3 FALL PROGRAM PREVIEWS A return to in-person programs . plus live streaming from home! Detail from Beginning Sept. 27, Denver Field Ornithologists returns to in-person monthly Radeaux painting programs for the first time in more than a year and a half. This program, in which DFO member Scott Somershoe updates his 2021 bicycle birding odyssey to raise funds for avian research, will be live in the Unity Spiritual Come in person Center Denver — and livestreamed via YouTube for those who prefer to for chance at attend remotely. bird painting An important note for those attending in person: Denver Field Ornithologists will Unity Denver’s Covid-19 protocols strongly encourage wearing masks and celebrate its return to in-person social distancing in the church’s sanctuary. It has abundant seating (capacity monthly program meetings in 330) and can easily accommodate this simple adjustment as the need for September with a special door prize that one lucky attendee will take commonsense precautions lingers until recent surge conditions subside. We home. ask that you honor this sensible practice by bringing a mask and sitting apart from others beyond your own close circle. It’s an original and stylized painting of a Black-throated Sparrow (with For those of you attending remotely, tuning in at DFO’s YouTube Channel is butterflies) by the accomplished easy. There’s no need to register or launch a computer app. Here’s what to do: painter, illustrator and birder Radeaux of Pueblo, CO. Among At or before the 7 p.m. MDT start time, open your computer, smart phone or his many other artworks focused other Internet device and click on the DFO YouTube Channel at on the fauna of Colorado, Radeaux https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFqZeYj0BHP-EuNxjb4bthQ. created the illustrations and painted (While you’re there, click on “SUBSCRIBE” to find it easily next time.) the covers of the Colorado Breeding That’s it! You’re watching live. Bird Atlas. The 8-1/2-by-11-inch painting, If you miss the program, DFO’s YouTube Channel will store the recording, mounted and matted in a 15-by- which also will be archived via link on the DFO website’s Past Programs page. 18-inch art frame, was donated to DFO by the family of a former club A FINAL NOTE: member after his death in 2019. Because of sometimes-shifting official guidance around Covid-19 precautions Anyone attending the Sept. 27 indoors, arrangements for in-person DFO programs this fall are subject to evening program at Unity Spiritual change. IF that happens, DFO will inform all members via email (as we do now Center Denver will be eligible for to announce programs) and will post updates on the DFO website, Facebook, the drawing. and Instagram pages. Good luck! Programs will not be canceled, only readjusted if necessary. THE LARK BUNTING OCTOBER 2021 4 FALL PROGRAM PREVIEWS CONT. A Green Big Year: My 2021 birding quest for the new Joe Roller Memorial Grant Scott Somershoe Monday, September 27, 7 p.m. MDT LIVE in person at Unity Spiritual Center Denver STREAMING LIVE on DFO’s YouTube Channel On Sept. 27, DFO’s own Scott Somershoe will tell the story of his “Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year” so far — a self-powered, carbon-free mission to record as many species in Colorado as possible, but only by bicycle or on foot from his home in Littleton. When he began on Jan. 1, 2021, Somershoe was aiming for at least 250 species, six more than he recorded in a similar year-long pursuit in 2020. As of Aug. 31, he has already reached 251 species — and so Scott has a new goal with four months left in 2021. As autumn migration begins, he has set sights on more than two dozen target species in the categories of “common” or “rare but regular” visitors to Colorado. “I can’t wait for fall migration,” he told followers on his Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year blog. “It’ll be a blast!” The species tally is important because Somershoe is gathering per-species pledges and flat donations for the new Joe Roller Memorial Grant for bird research in Colorado.
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