Killdeer Jan – Feb 2015 Volume 3, No. 3 Huntington–Oyster Bay Audubon Society A chapter of the National Audubon Society Serving Huntington and Northern Oyster Bay Townships Birdseed Sale Success! Inside This Issue Sharon Brody, Birdseed Sale Co-chair Out on a Limb ......................................... 2 Our annual birdseed sale on Saturday, From the President ................................... 3 November 8, was again, a success. It is Audubon Dues ......................................... 4 our most important fundraiser of the year. The sale would not have been NYS Audubon Council Meeting, Birders’ Box ...... 5 successful if not for our wonderful Meetings and Events ................................. 6 volunteers and the purchasers of our Field Trips and Activities ............................ 7 birdseed. Thank you! Duck Stamp ................................................. 8 Our volunteers were exceptional. Cathy Fitts, as usual, did an outstanding job with the data entry. Special thanks goes to Simone DaRos and Charlotte Miska who helped with the time-consuming task of compiling the order forms and Adopt-A-Highway Program placing the birdseed order while I was out of the country. Marc Brody, Blair Broughton, Simone DaRos, Rich Our dedicated volunteers completed Edwards, Dave Papayanopoulos, Vinnie Schiappa, and their 2014 monthly cleanups of the Marty Wenz, worked in the parking lot of Huntington High one-mile stretch of Pulaski Road in School loading the seed orders into the cars. Cathy Fitts, Huntington on December 7. Thank Charlotte Miska, and Rosemarie Papayanopoulos worked you to everyone who gave back to the tables inside the school's lobby. A kiss goes to my the community by ensuring this husband Marc for being my go-fer and for calming me beautiful stretch of road is kept clean. down when problems arose. To all, thank you, again! The adopt-a-highway idea started in Texas in 1986 with Editor’s Note: It takes a master organizer to run a a campaign called Don't Mess with Texas. Similar successful birdseed sale. Sharon makes it look easy due to programs have spread to all 50 states and was even her dedication, attention to detail, and hours of hard work. featured in a Seinfeld episode when Kramer announced Thank you Sharon for making HOBAS’s biggest fundraiser he was a proud parent of a one-mile stretch of the a success. fictional Arthur Berkhardt Expressway. There are no cleanups in January and February. Cleanups will resume on Sunday, March 8 at 8:00 AM Field Trip Leaders Needed and should take about an hour and a half. Meet at the WPW Growers parking lot across from Wicks Farm. Are you interested in sharing your knowledge of birds, nature, and birding hotspots with others? Additional dates will be in the next Killdeer and also HOBAS is looking for new field trip leaders to join posted on hobaudubon.org. our team. You do not have to be an expert to Please consider joining us for our spring cleanups. lead a trip and field trips can cover any aspect of Share in the camaraderie and fun and it is good exercise! the natural world – not just birds. For more information please send an e-mail to Simone Volunteer to lead a field trip by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. ([email protected]). www.hobaudubon.org 1 Killdeer Jan – Feb 2015 Out on a Limb Alex McKay MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS The monarchs have been returning to their mountain forests Cold Spring Harbor Public Library in central Mexico. The traditional arrival date for wintering 7:00 PM Refreshments monarch butterflies in central Mexico was November 1, 7:30 PM Speaker coinciding with the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) and the corn harvest. To the local population, the monarchs Wednesday, January 14, 2015: symbolize ancestors’ souls returning to earth for their annual The Turtle with the Clown Lips: visit. Families gather at cemeteries and favorite meals of the departed are prepared. Children are treated with calaveras de Diamondback Terrapins azucar, candy skulls. The bright colors and fragrance of with John Turner flowers guide the returning souls. The return of the mariposas is eagerly awaited. Wednesday, February 11, 2015: A Special Documentary Screening: An Original DUCKumentary See page 6 for details. The mission of the Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon Society is to increase community awareness about the environment and to encourage others to enjoy and protect birds and other wildlife in their natural habitats. Monarchs return to El Cerrito Forest On October 30, 2014 at about 6:35 PM three monarch butterflies were seen in the El Cerrito forest in central Killdeer Mexico, the first migrants of the season to appear in their is the newsletter of the wintering habitat and cause for celebrating. By November 2, over 10,000 butterflies had settled into the nearby Sierra Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon Society Chincua Sanctuary. Migration sightings from Minnesota to P.O. Box 735 Texas have shown good numbers of monarchs moving south. Huntington, NY 11743-0735 Roost reports to Journey North, the clearing house for monarch information, were almost triple those of last year. a chapter of the National Audubon Society and is published five times a year. Large concentrations heading across Texas and entering Mexico have raised hopes for a population comeback after Officers last year’s lowest wintering population on record. President Stella Miller 516-695-0763 Vice President Simone DaRos 516-987-7136 Favorable weather conditions for the northward migration, Secretary Vacant efforts to plant milkweed and establish waystations with Treasurer Cathy Fitts 631-427-8623 nectaring plants, and a rising awareness and concern for the Newsletter dwindling monarch numbers contributed to the apparently Editor Charlotte Miska 516-922-9710 successful breeding season. Final wintering numbers will not be in for a couple of months, but it seems the winter of 2014- For Distressed Wildlife Call 2015 will see a more bountiful population. The monarchs are Volunteers for Wildlife 516-674-0982 rebounding. Get the latest reports at journeynorth.org. You can find us on the Web at Editor’s Note: HOBAS volunteers under the direction of www.hobaudubon.org H Stella Miller have been working in Stillwell Woods to remove invasive species and plant milkweed. Please see President’s e-mail us at [email protected] Message on page 3 for more information. 2 www.hobaudubon.org Jan – Feb 2015 Killdeer broader conservation through art effort and look forward to From the President growing this campaign in 2015. Stella Miller Restoration Project at Shu Swamp The Year in Review: We continue to document the return of spring ephemeral Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon in 2014 wildflowers in the area where we have been pulling English ivy. In addition, we have observed a noticeable Happy New Year to all of our decrease in the amount of garlic mustard growing in the wonderful supporters and friends! preserve. While there are other non-native plant species in As we move forward into the Shu, we are focusing on these two species to determine if New Year, I want to take a long-term efforts will pay off. moment to catch you up on some of our efforts from the past year. None of these would have been possible without your remarkable support and I want to thank each and every one of you! Sharing Our Beaches with Threatened Birds Awareness Campaign The Shu Crew Funding a Native Pollinator Garden at Former Exxon Mobile Site We are sponsoring a native pollinator garden at the North Shore Land Alliance's grassland restoration site in Cold Spring Harbor. Ground breaking will be in the spring. We hope to continue to sponsor native gardens such as this within our chapter territory to help provide habitat for Hobart Beach Good Egg Poster wildlife as well as to educate the public on the importance of going native! In March, HOBAS hosted a workshop as part of Audubon New York's "Be a Good Egg" campaign. Youngsters Grassland Restoration at learned about beach nesting birds with an interactive Underhill and Stillwell Woods Preserves program, where they tested their knowledge and learned In 2014, we hired a consultant to conduct a comprehensive how interesting, important, and imperiled these birds are. survey and mapping of the non-native invasive plant After the program, the kids turned artsy and created posters species at Underhill Preserve in Jericho. This report, along which were made into signs and posted at Hobart Beach in with management recommendations provided to us by our Northport to educate the public and help protect the birds’ other paid consultants, has been submitted to the nesting grounds. Over the summer we hosted two NYSDEC, the property owners. Over in Syosset, we have Awareness Days at Hobart, educating the public about been working with Nassau County to restore grassland and beach nesting birds. Educating children about birds is a meadow habitat at Stillwell Woods Preserve. Our fantastic great start. Allowing them to help protect birds by giving volunteers, the Habitat Heroes, worked over 500 collective them an opportunity to make a real difference offers them hours between June and October, pulling non-native ownership of conservation efforts and a sense of invasive plant species and planting pilot areas of milkweed accomplishment. These kids were not just making a craft seed. In the spring, we will plant milkweed plugs to to be taken home and eventually discarded; they were increase our chances of success in these plots. We also making a difference in the lives of birds and they hired a consultant to make recommendations for understood this. We hope to expand this program into a www.hobaudubon.org 3 Killdeer Jan – Feb 2015 From the President (Continued) environment, as well as well as their communities.