Western Prairie Audubon

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.

Our next meeting we will have a talk by Mary where she will describe for us a trip she took to Mexico this past March to view the large gatherings of Monarchs in Mexico preparing for their long migration north into the United States and Canada. This year’s Monarch population has been high compared to previous years with record numbers seen on many of our butterfly counts. We look forward to hearing Mary’s story on why this year has been so good for these butterflies.

The talk will be held at the community room in Macomb City Hall. Meetings typically begin at 7 pm. Programs will typically follow the chapter meetings, starting between 7:30 and 8pm. All Western Prairie Audubon talks are free and open to the public.

On Saturday August 29th Western Prairie Audubon is leading a Field Trip to Pioneer Cemetery Prairie Nature Preserves.   Meet up at 8am in Macomb (at the WIUM parking lot west of Godfather’s Pizza) to share rides.  We’ll plan to have lunch after visiting the first 2 sites.  Pioneer cemeteries established by the early settlers in the 1830-1850s retain some of the best natural prairie remnants representative of the original black soil prairie left in the state of Illinois.  We will travel north to Henry County to see Munson and Greenlee cemeteries near Cambridge.  Afterwards we can travel back west to Brownlee and Spring Grove in Mercer and Warren counties.  Access to these cemeteries is relatively easy and only light walking will be required.  However, only one of these cemeteries, Munson has a mowed trail.  The rest will require walking through the tall prairie grasses or viewing the prairie from the roadside.  The prairie should be in full bloom with sunflowers, goldenrods, asters, gentians, and various grasses.  The trip should conclude back in Macomb at around 3-4pm.   Please Call to let us and know your coming 217-256-4732.

Angella Moorehouse will be giving a Grasshopper Workshop 6pm at Lake View Nature Center.  Often despised as crop pests, we’re all familiar with the huge numbers of grasshoppers that appear during the late summer.  Angella will take us through the basics on how to distinguish grasshoppers from crickets and katydids as well as how to identify some of the different types of grasshoppers we’ll see in the prairie restoration at Lake View Nature Center.  There will identification booklets and a short introduction on how to use the booklets followed by a hike with attempts to catch, identify and release grasshoppers in the field.  Feel free to bring field guides and bug nets.  Some will be provided.

We will meet at 8:30am at the Moorehouse residence in Warsaw.  Directions:  On Rt. 136 West in Hamilton take a left at the first stop light onto Rt. 96.  At stop sign continue straight towards Warsaw.  Approximately ¼ miles past the first 45mph speed limit sign take a right on Grunt Street.  The gravel road leads up a short hill; it’s the log house at the top on the right side.  If anyone has trouble finding it call 217-256-4732.  If you want to carpool from Macomb contact David Hess (309) 837-9362.
The morning portion will involve some moderate walking. Comfortable walking shoes, lightweight long pants, insect repellant, sunscreen and water are recommended. Bring a butterfly net and identification book if you have them. Everyone is welcome to participate regardless of experience level.  We will stop for lunch in Warsaw and resume counting during the afternoon.  The count will conclude around 2:30pm.