Western Prairie Audubon

At our Tuesday March 9th meeting we will feature Dr. Robert McCleery current Wildlife Ecology professor at WIU.   He will present a talk entitled  “The influence of our changing landscape on mammalian population”.  Included in his talk will be case studies of his work in Africa, Texas and our local area.  Dr Robert earned his Ph.D., in 2007 in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University.

Our Meeting is held at the Macomb Comunity Room in the City Hall and will begin at 7:00pm.  The talk is free and open to the public.  The talk is sponsored by the Western Prairie Audubon Society a Chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society.

Field Trip to Illinois River (Anderson Lake, Chautauqua Refuge, Spring Lake, maybe Sand Ridge State Forest etc.). We are planning to head east to view late winter birds and early migrating waterbirds on the Illinois River backwaters. We plan to break for lunch at Havana or another location. We plan to meet at 9 am at the Western Illinois Credit Union Parking Lot - Former Hy-Vee parking lot to share rides. Dress appropriately for cold weather. We don’t plan to do much walking. Viewing will be primarily through spotting scopes and with binoculars from the car. If you plan to attend please call Dan Moorehouse at 217-256-4732 or email at dmoorehouse@frontiernet.net

Due to the weather we have canceled our meeting tonight.  The Costa Rica program by Ed and Evelyn has been rescheduled for April 13th.

Western Prairie Audubon is presenting a program by  Ed and Evelyn Franks entitled “Birding in Costa Rica” at 7pm on February 9th at the Macomb City Hall Community Room.    Ed and Eveyln have offered to give a presentation on a birding trip they took to Costa Rica 4 years ago with Elderhostel.   Ed and Evelyn are long time birdwatchers and McDonough County residents.  They will provide a digital slide show highlighting some of the birds they saw on their trip  along with an overview of bird watching and conservation in Costa Rica.   Ed Franks is the former ornithology professor from WIU.  This talk is free and open to the public.

Our annual meeting for 2010 is Thursday January 14th.  For this meeting we will be electing officers, board members and our IAS representative.  Officers and Board Members serve one year terms, except for IAS Board Representative which serves a 2 year term.  If you have any suggestions to how we can improve Western Prairie Audubon Society please share your ideas at the annual meeting.

The program for the night is entitled “Saving Nature: the creation of the Illinois Natural Areas Plan” hosted by Angella Moorehouse. This DVD is a remastered version of a historic program that originally aired on PBS during the mid-1980s. The program includes interviews with some of the pioneers of the natural areas movement within the state of Illinois including Jack White, Jerry Paulson, Brian Anderson and Bob Betz. The program is just under one hour in length and Angella, who works for the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission which was created for the purpose of implementing the Natural Areas Plan, will be able for additional discussion if desired.  Everyone is welcome.

December 17th –  2009 Annual Christmas Party  We will hold our Christmas Party and Potluck at the Macomb City Hall Community Center in place of our regular chapter business meeting for December.  Attendees are asked to bring a potluck dish and table settings for themselves.  We will have turkey, potatoes, stuffing, and gravy, fruit punch and plenty of food.  Bring your appetite.  Dinner will begin that Thursday evening at 6 pm.  After dinner we will have a game, possibly butterfly bingo, and prizes will be awarded to winners.  Come and join us for an early Christmas celebration and lots of fun.

This year the Bushnell Christmas Bird Count will be held on Saturday, December 19th. Western Prairie Audubon member, Larry Hood, serves as coordinator for the count. If you are interested in participating in this winter’s count notify Larry Hood (772-2577) or let us know at the October or November meeting. Larry would like to know who is planning to participate in order to divide up the territories before our Christmas Party on December 17th. If you are interested in the other area counts (Keokuk on Dec. 21st or Chautauqua on Dec. 26th) please let us know.

The National Audubon Society sponsors the Christmas Bird Count. Like the Spring Bird Count, this count involves counting all the birds you see in a defined area. Unlike the Spring Count, CBC’s are confined to a 7.5 mile radius around a defined center point.

November 14th – “Birding the Mississippi River” For our November field trip we plan to view migratory waterfowl, bald eagles and other water birds along both sides of the Mississippi River from Hamilton to Keokuk, Montrose and Fort Madison, Iowa and back south along the Nauvoo Flats. Each fall thousands of waterfowl spend several weeks within Pool 19 of the Mississippi River to feed in waters rich in plant and invertebrate foods prior to making their journey south to their wintering grounds. We expect to see a wide variety of ducks including: Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Bufflehead, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, and American Wigeon along with other migrants such as the Bald Eagle, American White Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Pied-billed Grebe and American Coot. Meet Saturday morning at 8 am at the (WIUM parking lot west of Godfather’s Pizza) to share rides or meet at 8:45 am at the Casey’s Gas Station in Hamilton. The field trip will involve mostly driving with short periods of easy to moderate walking. Wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring binoculars, field guides and spotting scope if available (some will be provided; we can share). We plan to have lunch somewhere along the route. The trip will conclude by mid- to late afternoon. Please call Dan if you plan to attend 217-256-4732

Tuesday November 10th The Western Prairie Audubon Society will host a talk by Dr. Tim Spier the fisheries biologist from Western Illinois University. He will talk about the fisheries projects going on at WIU. The different projects will include lake sturgeon in the Mississippi River, stream fish in JoDaviess county, habitat in Spring Lake, and our current work on bowfins and on mussels in the La Moine and Spoon Rivers.

Everyone is welcome to attend this free talk which will begin at 7:00pm at the Macomb City Hall Community Room.

Tuesday October 13th The Western Prairie Audubon Society will host a talk by Daniel Thompson from Galesburg. Daniel is vice president of the Western Illinois Nature Group and serves as the volunteer steward for Knox Station Prairie located just north of Knoxville, Illnois. He will speak about the work he did in Texas and central America with the federally endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler. With a breeding range restricted to central Texas, this small black, yellow and white bird winters in Central America and has been the focus of many scientific studies. Daniel will show a collection of slides on his work and the habitat these birds utilize. Everyone is welcome to attend this free talk which will begin at 7:00pm at the Macomb City Hall Community Room.