The Hooter Kittitas Audubon November 2015

“Justin Gibbens: the Art of an unnatural History” ~ presenter: Justin Gibbens, professional artist, scientific illustrator Membership Meeting - Thursday, November 19th @ 7:00 PM ~ Hal Holmes Center next to the library

Thirty-some odd years ago when Justin Gibbens first began moving graphite on paper he was rendering the boyhood standards: dino- saurs, creepy crawlers and other freakish fauna. Not much has changed in three decades. A master draftsman, Gibbens was trained in both scientific illustration and traditional Chinese painting–a skill set that he employs in his subversive zoological paintings. As Gib- bens sees it, our world is mysteriously fascinating and amazingly weird, and humankind's relationship to the animal kingdom is lay- ered, complex and ambiguous. It is through his work that he takes joyful pleasure in celebrating this. At the November meeting, Gib- bens will share his curious take on wildlife illustration and how he finds influence in the wonderfully splendid and strange world in which we live. Artist Justin Gibbens received his BA in painting and drawing from Asp-necked Flamingo Central Washington University in 1998 and a Scientific Illustration Certificate from University of Washington in 2003. He is a founding member of PUNCH Gallery, an artist-run gallery located in Seattle. Gibbens was the recipient of a 2006 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award and a 2008 Artist Trust Fellowship Award. He shows regionally and nationally and lives in rural Thorp. He is represented by G. Gibson Gallery in Se- attle, and Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, OR. His work has been collected by Grinnell College, Microsoft, 4Culture/King County Portable Works Collection, City of Seattle, and the Wash- ington State Arts Consortium. In addition to his studio practice, Gibbens has begun adapting his images for larger-scale public mural projects. Come join us for a unique presentation by an outstanding artist on Great-Horned Owl November 19th.

All Audubon meetings, held on the 3rd Thursday of each month at the Hal Holmes Center next to the Library, September through May (except December), are open to the public. Please come and meet with us. A brief business session precedes the program. Stay afterwards for juice, treats, and conversation. Many thanks to the Ellensburg Public Library for sponsoring our meetings here! Page 2 The Hooter

KAS BOARD MEMBERS President –Tom Gauron 968-3175 Board Notes Vice President – Judy Hallisey 674-6858 Secretary – Jim Briggs 933-2231 by Gloria Baldi

Treasurer – Sharon Lumsden 968-3889 Conservation- Board members Your Board is busy! Here’s a summary of business at the Education – Judy Hallisey 674-6858 October 1st meeting: Field Trips – Steve Moore 933-1179 Historian – Gloria Lindstrom 925-1807 1. All volunteers for various projects are encouraged to turn Programs – Jeb Baldi 933-1558 Publicity – Gerry Sorenson 968-4857 in expenses with mileage as soon as possible to Treas- Scholarship – Gloria Baldi 933-1558 urer Sharon Lumsden for reimbursement. Climate Change – Barry Brunson 674-6858 Past President – Jim Briggs 933-2231 2. Volunteers to lead Field Trips to birding destinations are *Newsletter – Jan Demorest 933-1179 being requested. Call Steve Moore. *Membership – Tuck Forsythe 925-2356 st *Wildlife Habitat – Joe Meuchel 933-3011 3. KAS will participate in Nature of Night on Nov. 21 , and *Bluebird boxes – Jan Demorest 933-1179 Judy Hallisey is asking for volunteers. *Social Greeter – Kay Forsythe 925-2356 *Christmas Bird Count–Phil Mattocks 899-3370 4. The WATV lawsuit that KAS is a plaintiff has been settled, *non-voting members as the Forest Service has withdrawn its plan to open the 350 miles of trails to ATVs. Rules required by the Na- KAS Board Meetings are held at 4:30 tional Environmental Policy Act were not followed. (KAS PM on the 1st Thursday of each concern is for the impact on habitat, especially for birds.) month in the PUD meeting room, 1400 Vantage Highway. These meet- 5. There will be a People’s Climate March locally in Novem- ings are open to the public and all ber to emphasize the Climate Summit in Paris. All are Audubon members; please come and urged to participate. (see notice on Page 5) join in the discussions. Meetings ad- 6. Barry Brunson is scheduled for four presentations in journ by 6:00 or 6:30, after which we Eastern Washington regarding Climate Change. Monies all go out for a sociable dinner ~ NO from the NAS grant will be used. business discussion allowed! 7. KAS sponsored a film at the Ellensburg Filmfest: The Sagebrush Sea.

Send in your stories & photos! 8. At least 8 members are attending the Audubon Confer- The Hooter is the newsletter of ence of Washington in Mount Vernon, October 24th. Kittitas Audubon, published 9. KAS is supporting the proposal to make Mountains to monthly except for July. Sound Greenway a National Heritage Area.

~~~~~~~ 10. Judy Hallisey is submitting the KAS Annual Report to Submissions from members & NAS. other readers are most wel- Next meeting is November 5th at 4:30. Please consider joining us to learn more about KAS’ activities and concerns. come and encouraged! The editor reserves the right to edit for space, grammar, and/or suit- ability. Email text and/or photos to The mission of Kittitas Audubon [email protected] or snail mail is to develop an appreciation of to Jan Demorest, Hooter Editor, nature through education and 712 E 2nd Ave, Ellensburg, WA conservation, with a focus on 98926. Submissions need to be in birds. by the 20th of the preceding month. The Hooter Field Trip Reports & More Page 3

FIRST SATURDAY BIRDWALK (Black-billed Magpie, American Crow, and Steller’s Jay), two wrens (House and Bewick’s), two duck The October 3rd BirdWalk completed thirteen species (Mallard and Common Merganser), along years of KAS’ First Saturday BirdWalks. That very with a Belted Kingfisher, American Kestrel, Can- first Saturday BirdWalk in November 2002, Jeb ada Goose, American Robin, a tiny Ruby-crowned and I were the only participants………which may Kinglet, and a few of those ever-present- have had something to do with the weather tem- overpopulated-introduced species, the European perature of eleven (11) degrees. Brrrr……it was Starling and House Sparrow. cold and we debated whether we should venture forth? But we did…………finding a total 12 species Join birders on next month’s BirdWalk November which were also ‘braving the cold’. 7th. ~ Gloria Baldi What a far cry from the warm 2015 October Sat- urday when the temperature ranged from 58 to 70 degrees, and eleven birders enjoyed the Yellow-rumped search for feathered creatures……….finding 26 Warbler species. A Red-tailed Hawk provided the best show of the day when it left from a park tree with a nice slow descent across the roadway over the fence into the grassy field to pounce upon a ro- dent, give a squeeze and fly to a near-by exposed branch to enjoy a fresh breakfast. Late migrat- ing Tree Swallows and a Turkey Vulture were spotted in the air as our year-round common spe- cies flitted in the trees and thickets: Northern Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped Chicka- dee, California Quail, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Yellow-rumped Warbler, three corvids

Thanksgiving Day Bird Count ~ Get the turkey in the oven, then sit down and count the birds in your backyard! November 27th, Thursday, for one hour—any hour of your choosing! You may sit in the comfort of your home, or a special spot outdoors. Choose a center spot and expand it to a 15-foot circle which extends upward to form a cylinder. Count all birds that enter that area, but count the same bird only once. If a group enters several times, use the highest count for that species. To record your results, use the form enclosed in this month’s Hooter, then send to the address printed on the form. The Thanksgiving Bird Count was begun in the east in 1966 but did not have a western coordinator until 1992---so this is the West’s 23rd anniversary. Last year 431 counters in the eleven Western States and Alaska made 440 counts. They tallied 161 species of birds (plus a lot of mammals and other things, too). The top five species counted in these states were House Sparrow (1), Dark-eyed Junco (2), House Finch (3), Black-capped Chickadee (4) and European Starling (5). As predicted, the Pine Siskin dropped out of the top five last season, but should be more numerous this year. Directions and form can be found at www.huachuca-audubon.org/THANKSGIVING.pdf . If you have questions, please call 933-1558. Page 4 News and weather Hooter

COMMUNITY CLIMATE WALK Kittitas Audubon has teamed up with Our Environment (Kittitas County’s local environmental action group), D&M Coffee, the CWU Environmental Club, and the Ellensburg Public Library, for a climate awareness and action day. The COM- MUNITY CLIMATE WALK, on Sunday, November 22 from noon to 3pm, consists of three parts: rally at the SURC courtyard, an advocacy walk downtown, and a speaker at Hal Holmes, Kittitas Audubon is sponsoring Dr. Steve Chan, Climate Scientist, from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In describing his talk, “Saving Snowpack Without Hurting the Economy”, Dr. Ghan said, “This year provides a telling example of what the future holds on a consistent basis if emis- sions of carbon dioxide, the primary driver of the warming that turned snowfall into rain this year, are not substantially reduced in the next twenty years.” Dr. Chan will talk about how U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide can be reduced by 50% in twenty years, while adding 2 million more jobs, preventing 200,000 early deaths, and spurring the rest of the world to follow. The COMMUNITY CLIMATE WALK kicks off the build-up to the global PEOPLE’S CLIMATE MARCH that will happen all over the world, leading up to the UN CLIMATE SUMMIT that gets underway on De- cember 12th in Paris. This local event is free and open to the public. Audubon members are encouraged to come out and support this community wide event.

We are posting this rather early because the field trips, especially the boat trips, fill up quickly. Steve and I went on the San Juan 3-day cruise (small boat), and had a really great trip: lots of sea birds and orcas! And a won- derful boat, captain & crew, & fabulous birding guide. This included lots of history, geol- ogy, and maritime lore.

Olympic Birdfest, April 15-17, 2016. Enjoy guided birding trips, boat tours, live auction & raffle, gala banquet, and more. Our featured speaker: noted artist Tony Angell, "Revealing the Secret Lives of Owls". Join our festival pre-trip: a three-day, two-night birding/sightseeing cruise of the San Juan Islands, April 12-14, 2016. Register separately at www.pugetsoundexpress.com/audubon. Extend your festival with our Neah Bay post-trip on April 17-19, 2016: two days exploring northwest coastal Washington. BirdFest registration at www.olympicbirdfest.org. Locations are in the Sequim area. The Hooter BIRD STUFF Page 5

KITTITAS AUDUBON AWARDS SCHOLARSHIP Kittitas Audubon is pleased to award its first $2500 scholarship to Dusty Pilkington, a graduate stu- dent at Central Washington University in the field of Resource Management. Dusty is pictured with Tom Gauron, President, and Gloria Baldi, Scholarship Chairperson. The monies are to be used for tuition and/or project expenses. Dusty’s re- search is related to the history of fire in two ar- eas of the Carlton Com- plex Fire. Analysis of long term core deposits will help reconstruct vegetation history, the effects of climate shifts, and the historical effect of humans on fire activ- ity, along with assessing the potential for future fire risk in the area around the Carlton Com- plex Fire. The more we know of conditions that fuel hot fires, the more we can work to alleviate those conditions to pro- tect habitat. Kittitas Audubon supports the preservation and en- hancement of native Tom Gauron, KAS president, with Dusty Pilkington, scholarship recipient, and habitat. Gloria Baldi, scholarship chairperson

Image of the Day: Rare Bird The elusive Moustached Kingfisher Mustached Kingfisher (Actenoides bougainvillei excelsus) was (Solomon Islands) photographed for the first time earlier this month by a team of scientists working in the Solomon Islands.

~ by The Scientist staff | September 30, 2015 The Scientist is the magazine for life science profes- sionals—a publication dedicated to covering a wide range of topics central to the study of cell and mo- lecular biology, genetics, and other life-science fields.

~ thanks to Marte Fallshore for submitting this announcement Page 6 Climate Ribbon Project Hooter

People are making local CLIMATE RIBBONS for If you want to host a RIBBON CIRCLE of your the Community Climate advocacy WALK set for own, email to [email protected] for infor- Sunday, Nov 22. Each Ribbon carries a message mation and ribbons kits while supplies last. from the maker about what they love and never This is a project in progress to be used at the site of want to lose due to climate chaos. One person wrote, “…the sound of bees buzzing in the morn- the Paris UN Climate Summit in December. Your ing…” Another wrote, “…my children’s future”. climate ribbons will hang from the branches of this This is part of a global project. You can check it monumental tree! Participate! ~ Thanks to Martha out at www.climateribbon.org. Duskin-Smith for contributing this announcement The CLIMATE RIBBON PROJECT kicks off Sunday, October 25 and ends the day of the COMMUNITY CLIMATE WALK on Nov. 22. Anyone can go to a YELLOW BAG CLIMATE RIBBON STATION in town (Winegars@Jerrols, Winegar’s North, D&M Coffee Downtown, and Pearl Street Books) and make a CLIMATE RIBBON. You can leave the RIBBON in the YELLOW BAG, or bring it to the WALK, or to Hal Holmes at 1:30 on Nov. 22nd. After the talk by Steve Chan, all the RIBBONS will be gathered and sent to Paris for the UN Climate Summit. Martha Duskin-Smith, a Climate Ribbon organ- izer, thinks this is a great way to start talking about the personal impact of climate chaos and bring people together. “The activity asks us to go deeper than facts and news reports allow. It helps us find out things we hold in common, and hopefully find reasons to work together. It is good activity for families as well as organiza- tions. We’re all in this together,” she said, “and CLIMATE RIBBONS can help us find ways to build the solidarity we need to turn the tide on climate change.”

Looking ahead

In lieu of a membership meeting/program, Saturday, December 19th is the date of the Christmas Bird Count. More information will appear in next month’s Hooter. Hooter Membership & other news! Page 7

GET “THE HOOTER” ONLINE Remember to Save paper, printing, postage. If you would renew your prefer to receive the membership! electronic version, send your name, mailing address, & Consider email address to: [email protected] giving a gift At the beginning of each month, membership to a friend or family we’ll send you an email with a quick link to the new Hooter.

BECOME A KITTITAS AUDUBON MEMBER!! (Or renew your membership) Receive The Hooter ~ help support education and conservation activities and projects!

Two options are available: Darling Bird Studios, ©2007 UNA

OPTION 1: Membership in National Audubon includes a subscription to the magazine, Audubon, membership in the local chapter (KAS), and KAS monthly newsletter, THE HOOTER ____ Join as a new National Audubon member $20 (includes KAS membership) ____ Renew a National Audubon membership $35 Make check payable to: National Audubon Society Include this form and mail to: Membership Data Center, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235 Name ______Address ______City ______State, ZIP ______Chapter Code COZY220Z

OPTION 2: Membership in only the local chapter, KAS, includes the monthly newsletter, THE HOOTER ____ Join the local Kittitas Audubon Society (KAS) chapter $20 ____ Renew your KAS membership $20 ____ Make a donation to KAS $______(amount) Make check payable to KAS and mail to: KAS, P.O. Box 1443, Ellensburg, WA 98926 Name ______Phone ______Address ______Cell ______City ______Email ______

State, ZIP ______Would you like to receive The Hooter electronically? May we print your name in The Hooter as a new, Yes ____ No, prefer paper edition ____ renewing, or donating member? Yes ___ No ____

Kittitas Audubon is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. All memberships and donations are tax-deductible.

Membership forms are also available on our Web site: Kittitasaudubon.org. For membership information contact Membership Chair, Tuck Forsythe ~ [email protected]

See The Hooter in COLOR on our website ~ http://www.kittitasaudubon.org Kittitas Audubon P.O. Box 1443 Ellensburg WA 98926

Be Thankful ~

The Hooter ~ November 2015 The Newsletter of Kittitas Audubon - http://www.kittitasaudubon.org

Upcoming KAS Field Trips

November close-up looks. Sparrows & snipes are trying to keep warm. Dress for the weather and meet at th 7 ~ Saturday ~ First Saturday BirdWalk, the Irene Rinehart riverside parking lot off of Rinehart Park. Fall is in the air. Eagles and a Umptanum Rd at 8 AM. Leader TBA. few waterfowl are showing up, woodpeckers are hungry, leaves are coloring up and falling off, Jack Frost is anxious for cooler weather. Meet at the Irene Rinehart riverside parking lot off of Umptanum Rd at 8 AM. Jan Demorest and Steve Moore lead; 933-1179 for info.

December 5th ~ Saturday ~ First Saturday BirdWalk, Rinehart Park. Waterfowl are settling in on the ponds. Somebody will bring a scope along for

THANKS TO KITTITAS COUNTY BUSINESSES SUPPORTING KAS! Inland Internet, Roslyn ~ donates Internet service for our Website: http://www.kittitasaudubon.org Old Mill Country Store, Ellensburg ~ Provides a discount on bird seed to KAS members. Get your bird seed here!