Birdist Rule #74: Watch Some Movies About Birding “Stuck Indoors for the Holidays? Scrutinize These Birding Movies Instead of Real-Life Field Marks.”

Happy Holidays!

Vol. 6, No. 3. The Internet Site for Environmental Information in Oklahoma December 2017 - January 2018 From the Audubon Society, read the whole article at this URL: http://www.audubon.org/news/birdist-rule-74-watch-some-movies-about-birding Birdist Rule #74: Watch Some Movies About Birding “Stuck indoors for the holidays? Scrutinize these birding movies instead of real-life field marks.”

According to the article, this is a great romp, with, as you can see, a stellar cast, but be- ware, the ornithology is not always accurate. This movie is based on Mark Obmascik’s book of the same name, with the tag line, A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession and

There are 8 more movies listed in the article.

Unlike The Big Year, this film is celebrated for its accuracy. You will see a Black-throated Green and Canadian Warblers. This is a com- ing-of-age film which is sweet and low key. Just the kind of antidote you may need from all the

We, at the EnvironMentor, will hunt for the other 73 Birdist Rules and

In this issue ... Quiz!! Quiz!! Quiz!!

Birdist Rule #74 Cover Who…who…who is this handsome fellow? Editorial Page 2 Not an Endorsement, but ... 2 Quiz!! Quiz!! Quiz!! 2 2018 Oklahoma Environmental Education Expo 3 118th Christmas Bird Count 4 - 5 2017-2018 Bald Eagle Watch Dates 6 Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival 7 M.e.t. 2018 Recycling Directory 8 Envirothon Save-the-Date 8 Project WILD Workshops 8 Crow Creek Community Recognition and Activity 8 “How We (and You) Collect and Process Milkweed Seeds” 9 Free Milkweeds for Restoration Projects 10 Partners in Flight Award 10 The “Smart Nest Box” 11 See Page 11 for the answer and much OK Invasives 11 Destination: Horse Thief Canyon 12 more information. Destination: Curl Creek 12 2017 Texas Horned Lizards Results 13 Playing Dead: Foxes and Winter Trees 14 - 15 An environmental education newsletter for The EnvironMentor on Facebook 16 the citizens of Oklahoma sponsored by the QuikLIST 16 Department of Biology at Oklahoma City University. Items appearing in this newslet- Calendar Form 17 ter do not necessarily reflect the opinions or endorsement of the sponsoring organization.

Editor: Beth Landon Not an Endorsement , but ... [email protected] Please send any submissions to The EnvironMentor Newsletter or The Calendar to: “We are fusing massive data [email protected]

analysis with knowledge from the Published bimonthly each year. crowd and professional reporting The next deadline is January 20, 2018. to build a new kind of journalism that better serves the public. If you wish to receive an email We’re just getting started and we’re glad you stopped by. Check out announcing when a new issue our stories, discover what we’re doing and join us in building a new has been uploaded, please send kind of journalism.” an email to [email protected].

https://orbmedia.org/ Download your EnvironMentor Newsletter in pdf form from: Using citizen science and crowd sourcing, Orb Media has produced http://www.okcu.edu/environmentor an article concerning microscopic plastic particles in water. Repre- sentatives talked about this on NPR’s 1A Program on November 1, Visit The EnvironMentor Calendar at 2017. Stream the show through your computer from this website: http://www.okcu.edu/environmentor/ Scroll down from The Newsletters. Regularly updated as information becomes available. https://the1a.org/shows/2017-11-01/plastics-are-forever

The 21st Oklahoma Environmental Education Expo will be held at Oklahoma City University’s Sarkeys Science & Math Center on Friday, February 2, 2018. The theme for this year’s EE Expo is “Natural Connections Across Our State”. The opening session will feature a keynote address from Claire Willis on using clay in the classroom.

Concurrent sessions will have separate tracks for Early Childhood, Elementary, Secondary and Mixed ages. Topics include:

 Soil Painting  Weaving  Monarch Initiative  Investigating the Spread of the Emerald Ash Borer  High School Envirothon Competition  High School Wind Energy Competition – Oklahoma Kid Wind Challenge  Early Childhood Water Curricula – Getting Little Feet WET  Soil Health  Leopold Education Project  Environmental Education Field Trip Opportunities in Oklahoma – lunch panel

Click on the link below to register. The deadline to register is January 26, 2018 at 5:00 P.M.. Onsite registration (without lunch) will be available at event.

https://okaee.com/expo/2018-ee-expo/

Audubon's 118th Christmas Bird Count will take place this fall between the inclusive dates of Thursday, December 14th, 2017 through Friday, January 5th, 2018.

1 7 8

2 10 6 9 12 5 3 11 4

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16 14 15

# Location Contact Email 1 Kenton (Black Mesa) Max Thompson [email protected]

2 Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge Glen Hensley [email protected]

3 Arnett Eddie Stegall [email protected]

4 Washita National Wildlife Refuge Levi Feltman [email protected]

5 Sooner Lake John Couch [email protected]

6 Stillwater Timothy O’Connell paynecountyaudubonsocie- [email protected] 7 Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Don Wolfe [email protected]

8 Hulah Reservoir Don Wolfe [email protected]

9 Tulsa Jeff Cox [email protected]

10 Rogers County Richard Stuart [email protected]

11 Spavinaw Frank Houck [email protected]

12 Fort Gibson Reservoir Nadine Varner [email protected]

# Location Contact Email

13 Sequoyah Chad Ford [email protected]

14 Broken Bow Reservoir Mia Revels [email protected]

15 Red Slough Leif Anderson [email protected]

16 Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge Charles Brown [email protected]

17 Oklahoma City John Shackford [email protected]

18 Norman Mark Howery [email protected]

19 Chickasaw NRA Ron Parker [email protected]

20 Stephens County Roma Lenehan [email protected]

21 Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge Michael Husak [email protected]

Below is a short December calendar listing by number the date of the Christmas Bird Count at those locations. If your location is not listed, they haven’t published a definite date. For more information you can email the event organizer or go the following URL: https://audubon.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

15 16 (9) Tulsa (19) Chickasaw

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 (11) Spavinaw (12) Fort Gibson (4) Washita NWR (14) Broken Bow (16) Tishomingo (21) Wichita Mts (15) Red Slough

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 (20) Stephens Co (2) Salt Plains (6) Stillwater

31 (1) Kenton

Registration is now open for the 2018 Lesser Prairie-Chicken Festival! April 11-18, 2018 Featuring keynote speaker Al Blatt

Al Blatt of Hartland, Minnesota is a writer, speaker, storytell- er and humorist. Al writes humor and nature columns for many newspapers and does regular radio shows about nature. He writes a number of popular cartoon strips that are syndicated nationally and is author of the book, "A Life Gone to the Birds." He is a columnist for Bird Watcher’s Digest and writes for a number of magazines and books. He is a trustee of the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Haines, Alaska. Al has hosted TV shows, speaks around the country, and has re- ceived numerous awards. Al speaks to anyone who will listen. His mother thinks he is special.

Join us in Woodward, Oklahoma, in northwest Oklahoma April 11- 18 for the 2018 Lesser Prairie-Chicken Festival. Besides seeing the Lesser Prairie-Chickens (and so far 99% of participants have had close looks!) and birding around northwest Oklahoma, we are again offering these special features for 2017:

An opportunity to view Greater Prairie-Chickens from blinds in Osage County, Oklahoma! Packages designed specifically for photographers!

To access the registration pdf click on this URL: http://lektreks.org/lek-treks-2018.pdf

If you have any question, feel free to contact John Kennington at 918-809-6325 or [email protected]

At the Conference at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa

100 East 2nd Street, Tulsa, OK 74103 OkIPC is organizing For more information and registration an invasive species symposium to high- form click on the URL below. light exceptional Register now for the annual gathering of state natural resource work, both research and management, on professionals and students! will be the February 21-24, 2018 invasive species in the state. 4th annual Oklahoma Natural Resources Conference in Tulsa. We will also be awarding student presentation http://www.oknrc.com/ prizes for both oral and poster entries.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

High Schools!! High Schoolers!! The M.e.t.’s Recycling Directory is the ency- Assemble Your Teams Now!! clopedia of recycling for the Tulsa Metro- Build your expertise in Aquatics, Forestry, Soils, politan Area. In our directory, you will find Wildlife, and Western Rangeland Management up-to-date information on the best places to http://www.oklaenvirothon.org/ locally dispose of various items. Click here The First Place Team from the Oklahoma to access the full PDF version of the direc- Envirothon will go to the international tory. For a printed booklet, call our office at competition this year to be held in Idaho. 918-584-0584. Sponsored by:

Oklahoma State Butterfly Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Get WILD in February ...

Project WILD “The Crow Creek Community was a finalist for the About Reading! Team Builder award given by Keep Oklahoma Beautiful this year. We didn't win, but it was a February 3, 2018 great honor to be nominated!”

Project WILD Workshop February 10, 2018 Read more about Crow Creek and their Clean-Up Day in the article in the Tulsa news February 24, 2018 at the URL below:

Talk with Lisa at the EEExpo http://ktul.com/news/local/crow-creek-community- on February 2, 2018. See Page spends-saturday-morning-in-the-water

MonarchWatch wants you to know: “How We Collect and Process Milkweed Seeds for Monarchs” — and you can too! “Step 1: Gather the milkweed pods Wearing gloves, they gather the browning milkweed pods. If you squeeze the pod and it pops open, it is ready to pick!” from: http:// www.ediblewildfood.com/ “Step 2: Dry the milkweed pods milkweed.aspx They load the milkweed pods into large, custom-built wooden boxes with circulating air to ensure thorough drying.” Step 3: Separate the milkweed seeds from their pods https://garden.org/ideas/view/ Sharon/103/All-About-Milkweed/ After thorough drying, they load the milkweed into a hammermill that crushes the pod and separates it from the hundreds of seeds it contains inside. Step 4: Separate the seeds from the white fluff They use a grain tumbler (a.k.a. white fluff separator) to separate the seeds from the milkweed silk — the white feathery fluff inside the milkweed pod to which the seeds are attached. Step 5: Sweep up the seeds and you have milkweed ready to be planted and shared The seeds fall out through the small holes in the grain tumbler and the white fluff gets blown off and out! https://medium.com/conservation-service-in-action/how-we-collect-and- process-milkweed-seeds-for-monarchs-f6b5e899d878

At the URL below you will find easier in- structions for collecting Milkweed seeds from “How to Harvest Milkweed sees: All the Facts, None of the Fluff!”. You will not need fancy equipment. https://monarchbutterflygarden.net/ harvest-milkweed-seeds-no-fluff/

You may donate your seeds to Monarch Watch at the URL below. They ask that no seeds that have been purchased , nor those from plants that have been purchased be donated. http://monarchwatch.org/bring-back -the-monarchs/milkweed/seed- collecting-processing/

Free Milkweeds for Restoration Projects “To ... restore habitats for monarchs, pollinators, and other wildlife, Monarch Watch is initiating a nationwide landscape restoration program called “Bring Back The Monarchs.” The goals of this program are to restore 20 milkweed species, used by monarch caterpil- lars as food, to their native ranges throughout the United States and to encourage the planting of nectar-producing native flowers that support adult monarchs and other pollinators.”

“Free milkweeds are for large-scale (two acres or more) native habitat restoration only. Habitat restoration is defined as the prac- tice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats. Gardens or landscaped areas do not qualify as restoration. The portion of property where milkweed will be planted must be a minimum of two acres in area. Roadsides and Trails are acceptable areas.”

“The Spring 2018 application is now open for habitat restoration projects located in the Monarch Milkweed Corridor. This includes most of the eastern half of the United States. South Carolina, Florida, Ala- bama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are not included in the grant at For more information and to this time. As of 1 October 2017, Monarch Watch has secured fund- apply click here: ing for 100,000 milkweeds for Spring 2018. We are actively seeking http://monarchwatch.org/ more funding sources. If funding and seed become available for bring-back-the-monarchs/ more areas, the application will be updated accordingly.” milkweed/free-milkweeds-for -restoration-projects/

Partners in Flight awards recognize exceptional contributions to the field of land-bird conservation. Nominees who have furthered the goal of protecting migratory and resident land-birds and their habitats will be evaluated for their effective public awareness activities, innova- tive leadership, insightful ecological investigation, or sound land stew- ardship. The Partners in Flight Awards Committee will review the ac- complishments presented in this nomination form only. Please send in one application for each category in which you nominate a person or group. If you nominate one person or group in more than one category please send in separate forms and explain what your nominee has accomplished in each category.

Please submit your nomination no later than January 12, 2018. If you prefer to submit via e-mail, please submit to Carol Beidleman at [email protected]

To submit online: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DLJNQKK

“The 'Smart Nest Box' Provides a Peek Into the Secret Lives of Birds”

To see the schema, photos of actual Boreal Owls in their nests, and read an extensive article on the Smart Nest Box click on the URL below:

https://home.czu.cz/zarybnicka/project---smart-nest-box/

The range of the Boreal Owl does not include Oklahoma; however, this technology can be of interest.

“Zárybnická’s team wants to debut the Smart Nest Box in the United States by 2018. They also plan to use it for more research: to compare Boreal Owl behavior in different habitats and analyze how light pollution af- fects songbird routines. One thing’s for sure . . . with the camera constantly rolling, there will always be fresh enigmas to explore.” To read the article from which this quote was taken, click on the URL below: http://www.audubon.org/magazine/summer-2017/ the-smart-nest-box-provides-peek-secret-lives

Answer to Quiz! Quiz! Quiz! is the Northern Saw-whet Owl. For an article on this engaging little owl click on: http://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/news/local_news/birds-of-a- feather/article_c732d99c-e1c5-5ed7-961d-6d12c75cd681.html

This poster has been out for a few years, but you may not have known where to obtain a free one. Contact the Oklahoma Invasive Plant Council at www.okinvasives.org (scroll to the bottom of the page. The Council also has an opportunity for you to become a citizen science. Check out the Watch List at https://www.okinvasives.org/ watch-list-1 for information and photos. If you see any of these inhabitants, there is a form on the website to report the location.

Destination: For another topo map: https://prd- tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/ StagedProducts/Maps/ USTopo/1/21365/7342727.pdf

Cimarron River

Horse Thief Canyon

An article from the Oklahoma Historical Society can be found at: http://www.okhistory.org/ publications/enc/ entry.php?entry=ho034

Horse Thief Canyon

For more information visit this Facebook page: https:// www.facebook.com/pg/Horse-Thief-Canyon- 152140381467640/about/ “Ever heard of Curl Creek? …

“The 17.27-mile stream flows south through Little-known creek is a Nowata and Washington counties southeast of conservation success story” Bartlesville, pretty close to the county line on ei- ther side, until it enters the Caney River — a tribu- tary that flows into the Verdigris River between Collinsville and Claremore.”

Curl and Fourmile creeks in the Caney River Basin See a topo map and more information at: https://www.topozone.com/oklahoma/ washington-ok/stream/curl-creek-4/

“The latitude and longitude coordinates of Curl Creek are 36.5903691, -95.8574853 and the Read the entire approximate elevation is 610 feet (186 meters) article at: above sea level.” http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/ever-heard-of-curl-creek-it-s-one-of-dozens/ article_4432189c-0053-523b-983a-51eb4548c26d.html 12

From Jena Donnell, Wildlife Diversity Specialist: “We wanted to know where Texas Horned Lizards were spotted this summer and with your help, were able to confirm that lizards are still present - at least at the county level - across nearly 70 per- cent of their historic range! We were only able to shade in areas where lizards were reported to our online citizen science project…help us fill in the blanks by reporting your sightings!”

We know that Texas Horned Lizards are not out and about at this time, but we wanted to let you know about this project so you can keep a lookout as the weather gets warmer. If, by chance, you have a sighting, here is the link to report it. We will repeat this link in later issues.

Find the data sheet where you can report your sighting at: https://wildlifedepartment.com/wildlife/wildlife-diversity/report-texas-horned-lizard-sightings/form

Also keep a lookout in future issues of The EnvironMentor Newsletter for information about the Oklahoma Nest Box Trails Project -- another Citizen Science Opportunity.

This is the Eastern Bluebird, the mascot for this project. 13

Playing dead: and foxes and Buzzard from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska (T. Callaway) winter trees Possum is not the only critter who can pretend to be dead, at least in folktales... There was once a man returning home from a very good day of fishing. He had caught so many fist that they covered the bed of his wagon! He was looking forward to a big fish dinner, and then smoking fish to last Friday, June 16, 2017 the winter. But a hungry fox, looking down from a hilltop, spotted his delicious load and quickly made a plan. She dashed ahead and lay down flat in the road, careful to hold absolutely still. When the man drove up with his wagon, he saw the fox. "Oho, poor dead foxie. But what beautiful fur -- not a mark on her! There are no flies buzzing around: she must have dropped dead just a few minutes ago." The man stopped his wagon. "That fur could make me a hat and mittens." So he picked up the apparently dead fox, threw her into the bed of his wagon, and drove on. But Fox was not dead. Silently she got up and began throwing fishes out of the wagon! With the last one in her mouth, she leaped down and escaped into the tall grass. After a good snack, she went back along the road and picked up more fishes. Meanwhile, the man arrived home and called out to his wife, "See what good luck I had today! A wagon-load of fish and a fox fur too!" But when they looked, the wagon was empty.

From The Earthteller,

Fran Stallings Facttale: In winter, trees certainly appear to be dead. Like Fox, they hold still and don't do anything. A leafless forest looks like a wasteland. How depressing! But it is just pretending to be dead. The trees are really dormant ("sleeping"), hunkering down until re- liable mild weather returns. They don't just doze off. To go dormant, they have to work through a process called "hardening."

(Continued on Page 14) 14

(Continued from Page 15) The lethal thing about freezing temperatures is the ice crystals that can form inside cells. Daggers of ice can pierce membranes, breaching subcellular compartments and leaking precious cell fluids to the outside. Not only are the cells' innards scrambled, but also any tissues whose structural support depended on sacs filled with water ("vacuoles") will sag and flop over -- permanently. How to prevent this? In the trunks and branches, the living cells under the bark get rid of as much water as they can. They pump it out into the spaces between cells. The remaining cell fluids become so syrupy and concentrated that they act like antifreeze! Meanwhile, the water in the intra-cellular spaces is so ultra-pure that it can super-cool down below -40F before it will freeze. Hardened trees can survive the up&down temperatures of an Oklahoma winter. And fortunately they depend on shortening day-length, not our unreliable autumn temperatures, to tell them when to get ready. Deciduous (leaf-dropping) trees prepare for the cold by jettisoning their most vulnerable tissues: the leaves that they had worked so hard to produce in the spring. By autumn, the leaves have finished their work of capturing the Sun's energy and feeding the tree. Unlike the leaves/needles of evergreen trees, they aren't protected by thick waxy waterproof coatings, and they don't "harden" like the living cells under the tree's bark. The tree must get rid of them. How does a tree shed those leaves? (No, the next year's leaves don't push the old ones off!) Every leaf is born with a built-in circuit breaker, a layer of special cells ("abscision zone") across its base where it attaches to the stem. When shortening daylength tells the tree that the time has come to for leaf-drop, the cells in this layer die; the layer becomes weak and brittle. In a few days all it takes is gravity, rain drops, or a blustery wind to snap off the leaf. No great loss: in a forest, the leaves will decay to compost and return their minerals to the tree's roots. And in the spot where each leaf was attached, a waterproof corky layer ("leaf scar") From https://thegreenthumb20.wordpress.com/tag/ seals off the stem. So the evergreens and the naked deciduous trees, hardened against the worst winter can bring, "play dead" while they sleep. No fish dinner awaits them, but they will feast on sunlight when spring comes again.

SOURCES Folktale motif K371.1 In Europe and Japan there are many stories about Fox pretending to be dead, tricking people who want more than they have. Native American Nations also tell about a predator (Bobcat, Raccoon, etc) who pretends to be dead so that prey (Turkeys, Crayfish, etc) will come close enough to grab. There are advantages to being able to play dead! My retelling is based on Judit Bodnår, A Wagonload of Fish (Hungary) Lothrop Lee & Shepard 1996; Myra Ginsburg, One Trick Too Many: Fox Stories from Russia, Dial 1972. Variants are known from Ireland and Finland to Russia. Facts I am inspired by Hope Jahren's essays in Lab Girl (Alfred A Knopf 2016), especially pp 95-96 and 191-193. For a fine microscopic view of an http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/Resources/Botany/Shoot/Leaf/ abscission zone see: Abscission%20layer%20IAA/Leaf%20abscission%20MC.jpg

On February 23, 2013 The EnvironMentor dipped a toe into social media. We made this decision because, at this time, there are two to three months between issues of the Newsletter. During this past gap an im- portant event had an application deadline of April 1st so an announcement went out from Facebook. We won’t bother you with anything trivial, so … “Like” The Environmentor on Facebook!!

10301 South Sunnylane Road QUIKList Oklahoma 405-814-0006

Leopold Education Project http:// http://www.aldoleopold.org/Programs/ www.museumofosteology.org/ lep.shtml Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Type in Oklahoma Saturday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Sunday 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Oklahoma Blue Thumb http://bluethumbok.com/ Project Learning Tree (PLT) Oklahoma Blue Thumb Association http://www.plt.org/ [email protected] http://www.forestry.ok.gov/project-learning-tree

Oklahoma Envirothon Project WET http://www.oklaenvirothon.org/ (Water Education for Teachers) http://www.bluethumbok.com/project-wet.html Oklahoma Green Schools

http://www.okgreenschools.org/ Project WILD

http://www.projectwild.org/ Oklahoma Master Naturalists http://okmasternaturalist.org/ As with all hyperlinks in The EnvironMentor

Oklahoma Native Plant Society Newsletter, these are clickable. http://oknativeplants.org/ Do you know an environmental group in Okla- Oklahoma Recycling Association (OKRA) homa that should be listed. Send that infor- http://www.recycleok.org/okra/ mation to: [email protected]

Most people who remember The EnvironMentor Newsletter know that the pages at the end of the issue were reserved for The Calendar. Being online has some great advantages. When you downloaded your copy of the newsletter you may have noticed the box on the right side of the webpage. This is a conven- ient listing of the next events from The Calendar. This will always be up-to-date because it happens au- tomatically. For more information on the event just click on it and a window will open up with all the details. If you wish, you can access the rest of the calendar from the there.

To have your event posted to The Calendar, copy and paste the following list into an email, fill in as much information as you wish, and send it to: [email protected]

Title of your event: Start Date and Time End Date and Time Location Location Address Contact Name Contact Phone Contact Email Details in Narrative Form Location Link Event Link Map Link

Please note: We are not able to publish for-profit information.

To go directly to The Calendar click on:

http://www.okcu.edu/environmentor