CENTRAL NEW MEXICO AUDUBON SOCIETY, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1984 Welcome! Central New Mexico Audubon studying western hawks and hawk migration Society meets the third Thursday of each since 1976. His interest in hawks began month at 7:30 P.M., St. Timothy's Luthei> while he was in school near HawkMountain, an Church, Copper and Jefferson, N.E. Pennsylvania. See Welcome above for time Nonmembers are welcome at a ll meetings, and place. field trips, and special events. SUNDAY, AUGUST S - Field Trip SUNDAY, AUGUST 12 - Field Trip Hart Schwarz w ill lead a field trip to A field trip to Hyde State Park and Silver Hut in South del Agua Canyon in surrounding area will meet at 8:00 a.m. the Sandias. This is a 7-mile round trip at the north end of the DeVargas Mall of easy walking. We should see Red parking lot in Santa Fe. Call leader Pat Crossbills, Clark's Nutcrackers, three Insley (1-982-0796) or Evelyn Price species of Nuthatches, Band-tailed (242-6604) for more information. Spon­ Pigeons, Towndsend's Warbler, and much sored by the Sangre de Cristo Audubon more. Meet at the junction of Tramway Society. Road and the road to Juan Tabo Park at 7:30 a.m. Bring lunch and water. Call THURSDAY, AUGUST 16 - Regular Meeting Hart (266-1810) for more information. Steve (Hawkman) Hoffman w ill present a SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 - Field Trip program on Hawk Migration in the West. Steve will stow a movie of his research The Espanola area will be the destination project observing and banding hawks and of this field trip led by Marj Cramer. present slides of most of the Western Meet at 7:30 a.m. at the north end of the raptors describing the birds' life his­ DeVargas Mall in Santa Fe or 8:00 a.m. at tories and identification points. His the Big Rock Shopping Center in Espanola. special emphasis will be on hawk migra­ Call Marj (1-662-3067) or Pat Insley tion in the Sandia and Manzano Mountains. (1-982-0796). Sponsored by the Sangre de Cristo Audubon Society. Steve is a wildlife biologist with the endangered species office of the U.S. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 - Regular Meeting Fish & Wildlife Service. He is also an enthusiastic admirer and student of Scott Brown, Education and Information raptor populations. Steve has been Officer for the NM Dept, of Game & Fish BURROWING OWL 2 August - September 1984 and Vice-President of CNMAS, will te ll us If you could host from 12:30 to 4:30 any about the Game & Fish Dept.'s PROJECT day from Tuesday through Saturday, please WILD. PROJECT WILD is "based on the call Darwin Miller (265-6361) or Mary Noel premise that young people • • • have a in Santa Fe (1-982-2866). vital interest in learning about the earth as home for people and wildlife." THE NEW MEXICO AUDUBON COUNCIL Time and place in Welcome paragraph above. I am sure some of the Chapter members wonder just what the Council is and what SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 - Field Trip i t does. Hie Bosque del Apache NWR is beautiful in Hie Council is a coalition of New Mexico Septentoer and is also host to a nuirber of Audubon Chapters to facilitate the sharing m igrants. Evelyn and George P ric e and dissemination of information between (242-6604) will lead a trip to the each and to engage in such educational, refuge. Meet at 7 a.m. at the parking scientific, and literary pursuits as lot of the UNM Physics and Astronomy stated in the purposes of the National Building, Yale & Lomas, N.E. Bring lunch Audubon Society. and water. Many environmental issues are of concern SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 - Field Trip statewide. Wiile each Chapter may concern itself with an issue, even more clout is Darwin Miller will lead a trip to Mt. realized when all the Chapters work Taylor for birds and fa ll colors. Red together. An example of this is coal Crossbills and Wild Turkeys are among the mining and wilderness areas in the San possibilities. Meet at UNM Physics & Juan Basin. As a result of our participa­ Astronomy Building parking lot at 7 a.m. tion along with others in these issues, Bring lunch and water. Darwin needs to wilderness areas are in the process of know in advance if you are coming, so being established and existing mining give him a call at 265-6361. leases are being traded for more appropri­ ate locations. Valuable archeological, SATURDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20-21 — scenic, and wildlife areas will be pre­ New Mexico Audubon Conference served. A very favorable outgrowth of this and other issues is that both private Hie New Mexico Audubon Conference will be enterprise and government agencies are now held in Roswell. It begins at 10 a.m. asking for our irput before they propose Lunch and dinner w ill be served on any actions. Until the Council gained Saturday, and a field trip to the great recognition, action was well on the road Bitter Lake NWR will be held on Sunday. before we learned of it. Registration fee is $13.00 ($15.00 after October 1) and includes both meals and We have also completely blocked some all activities. See flyer in June-July questionable proposals. We have furnished BURROWING OWL for details or call any of favorable canment for some projects; for the NM Audubon Council on back page for example, the Salinas National Monument details. rehabilitation project and some Bureau of Reclamation work. There are a number of HOSTS/HOSTESSES NEEDED AT RANDALL DAVEY other such actions we have taken. A Cibola Forest Plan is coming up soon, and Host or hostess volunteers are needed at we can expect the Santa Fe National Forest the beautiful Randall Davey Audubon Plan to be resubmitted in the near future. Sanctuary in Santa Fe. This is a great opportunity to get to know this enchanted Our activites are certainly not confined place better and contribute something to to issues. This year we initiated an i t at the same time. annual birding event for all Chapters, BURROWING OWL August - Septem ber 1984 this one at Silver City. It was a huge fences equipped with these in sulators success. It is for all Audubon members. revealed one hummingbird death for each We are going to do i t again in 1985. We five insulators. Most of the deaths are are planning an annual "camp-out" in the result cf hummers sitting on the wire areas vhere the birding is excellent but and probing into the insulator in search where there are few if any motels or for nectar. Most fatalities occur during hotels. We are also now proposing to migration either before nectar-bearing become more active in educational flowers are in bloom or after a particu­ programs. larly dry summer, when there simply are no flowers available. The phenomenon, of The Council was organized several years course, relates to the high degree of ago, but it has necessarily taken several preference of red flowers by hummingbirds years to develop programs. We now have seeking a food source. considerable momentum. Full Chapter backing has contributed to the success of There appear to be several courses of the Council; and with continued backing, action vhich can and should be carried on activities should become even more simultaneously and with persistence: interesting. 1. Contact fence owners and urge them to Council meetings are open. Anyone, use a different color of insulators, or including nonmembers, is invited to paint the red ones black. attend the quarterly meetings. These meetings are announced by Chapter 2. Contact the manufacturer: Albert Presidents and published in chapter news Berg, Chairman, and/or Howard Langlie, sheets. There will be a Council Meeting President, North Central Plastics, and Annual State Audubon Conference in Incorporated, Ellendale, Minnesota 56026 Roswell on October 20, 1984. All Audubon (Telephone 507/684-3721). Urge them not members are urged to attend. This is to offer red insultaors on the market and your annual conference. Call your to work toward redesigning the insulators Chapter President or your Council to protect hummingbirds. For example, representatives or any Council officer. sane sort of cap or plug that could be These are listed on the last page of the inserted after the insulator is attached, BURROWING OWL. or possibly some sort of insulated tube that could be slipped over the fence wire HUMMINGBIRDS KILLED BY RED INSULATORS for two or three inches each side of the insulator. That red is highly attractive to humming­ birds is wall known. Red insulators on 3. When you spot a fence with red electric fences are no exceptions. Un­ insulators, contact the farmer and get fortunately, hummers are electrocuted permission to walk the fence line and lock when they probe these insulators looking for hummingbirds. Keep notes on the date, for food. Ross Teuber has done a lot of time, and location of mortalities. If research on this problem and has given possible, take photographs. Send informa­ the following report: tion of verified kills to: a. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service To date, all rqaorts of occurrences have Laurel, Maryland 20811 cane from five states: Missouri, Wiscon­ sin, Minnesota, Colorado, and California. b. Carroll Henderson Missouri has been working on it the Box 7, Dept, of Natural Resources longest and has found that in a ll the 658 Cedar Street verified cases, the offender red insula­ St. Paul, Minnesota 55155 tor has been the "Red Snap'r" manufac­ tured by North Central P lastics, Ellen­ c.