Mike Miller (1945-2022): A Wild Remembrance, by Susan Cerulean

During the annual Winter Shorebird Survey, birders and biologists all over Florida put their binoculars together to see how the original snowbirds are doing on their wintering grounds.

Some years back, my assigned territory required a kayak trip about a mile offshore to Lanark Reef, a set of linear, tidally submerged sandbars in Franklin County. There's really nothing out there for people, but that sand means everything to the birds.

The task I shared with my new birding buddy, Mike Miller, was to tally the numbers of 25 potentially occurring shorebirds, taking special care with the rarest and most imperiled: the American oystercatcher, the red knot, and three kinds of plover.

I first met Mike on the Apalachicola/St. Vincent NWR Christmas Bird Count, back when Barbara Stedman ruled Territory 2. Five of us were assigned to Barbara and her truck. It was crowded inside, so Mike and I stood in the bed of the vehicle. If we’d see a good raptor or find ourselves driving through a feeding guild of songbirds, we’d pound on the roof so everyone could pile out and tally. In later years, after Barbara’s passing, I took over Territory 2, and Mike stayed on the team along with Grayal Farr and others.

Mike Miller could sure tell a story. He was a talker. His 70 plus years had been so rich and full and lucky. Driving to the coast, driving to a count, wherever we found ourselves among wild birds, he’d entertain me with stories about working in the Red Hills, his grandchildren, his writing for Florida Wildlife magazine and his time as a small business owner selling outdoor gear.

What we had most in common was a love of this place, our North Florida bioregion from the Red Hills to the Gulf of Mexico.

Mike Miller at his spotting scope

Mike had an eye for the winter ducks. Our team counted on him to fill out our waterfowl list. He’d never disappoint. When we’d survey Tahiti Beach on the east facing shore of St. Vincent, he’d melt into the palm and pine landscape and return with a sighting of a Sambar elk, and the gadwall that the rest of us had missed.

That day out on Lanark Reef, we saw so many birds probing and plucking in the shallow water that we had to take turns with the spotting scope to spell our eyes. We set up a grid: Mike would count everything between the boat ramp and the water tower, calling out what he saw. When he counted dunlin, the most numerous little shore bird on the reef, I’d have a long time to wait and look around.

"Ten.” Pause. “Twenty,” he reported. “Another 30.” Pause. Silence.

“Take your time,” I said, shifting from foot to foot on the sand, relishing the sun on my back and the silence. Enjoying my great good luck to be out there at all. I thought about how a few years ago, a Tallahassee developer proposed plans to develop this very set of sandbars into condos. With septic tanks. Our Audubon Society put up the bucks to buy the reef and saved it for these shorebirds, who cannot live without it.

Then it would be my turn to count.

It took us four hours to tot up the several thousand birds taking refuge on Lanark at low tide. Our conservative estimate of dunlins was 1300 individuals. We saw 307 marbled godwits (those glorious cinnamon feathered beauties!). More than I've ever seen in one place. Ever.

When the wind is shaking your spotting scope and the tide is aslosh at your feet, you want a buddy with Mike’s experience and enthusiasm to back up your Wilson’s plover count. That’s the kind of friend you want in your life, too. When COVID came to town, my circle of in person get togethers contracted. I didn’t see Mike for two and a half years, and now he is gone.

With his passing, we have lost one of the too few naturalists who love this bioregion and keep it foremost in their commitments and activism. Weren’t we lucky to have him among for all this time?

Report from Rose Canyon, Arizona, by Don Morrow

Feature photo: Gila Woodpecker, by Don Morrow

We were dog sitting at my son’s place in Tucson while he was in Iceland. Behind his house there’s a desert wash full of mesquite and desert hackberry. On a July morning at first light, his back porch is a good place to enjoy a cup of coffee in the temporary coolness of a desert morning.

The wash is a bit of wild desert in suburban Tucson. It has Gambel’s quail, desert cottontails and javelinas, along with the bobcats and coyotes who hunt them. Costa’s Hummingbirds like to perch on the tallest hackberry stems, while Verdins and Lucy’s Warblers seem to prefer the mesquite. There’s a lone saguaro that is favored by a Gila Woodpecker. Everywhere there are White-winged Doves, flying, sitting or calling. Cooper’s Hawks frequently sweep through looking for them. I get to enjoy all of this from my son’s porch while drinking my morning coffee.

Costa’s Hummingbird, by Don Morrow

Tucson is not an old city. The Presidio San Augustin Del Tucson was established along the banks of the Santa Cruz River in 1776 as a walled fortress housing seventy-five Spanish soldiers, their officers and families. Probably no more than a few hundred people in total. It has grown significantly since then and now has more restaurants.

Tucson is surrounded by mountain ranges that rise up out of the Sonoran Desert. The largest range, the Santa Catalinas, is also the closest and forms the Northeast perimeter of the city. Today, the dog will enjoy one of her regularly scheduled stays at Dogtopia, visiting with her canine friends, and we will head into the Santa Catalinas to escape the desert heat and do some birding.

We’re headed for the upper slopes of Mount Lemmon. The mountain is known as Babad Do’ag or Frog Mountain by the Tohono O’odham Nation and may have had other names in the past. People have lived in the area for ten thousand years, but any former names have been lost to the mists of time along with their speakers. The current name references Sara Plummer Lemmon, a botanist, who in 1881 was the first white woman to reach the summit. She had been accompanied by her botanist husband -- it was their honeymoon trip -- and a local rancher who had volunteered to be their guide. Although this is the only mountain named for her, several plants and one plant genus, Plummera, also bear her name.

The bird species found in the mountain ranges of Southeastern Arizona are uniquely different from those in the surrounding deserts. We’ll have a chance for several dozen species, some of which are only found here.

Our specific birding goal was Rose Canyon, about twenty miles east of our son’s house and, at 7,000 above sea level, almost a mile higher. Pine Flycatchers are being seen there. Although recent sightings of this Mexican species have been spotty, birding is good there and it is worth the trip even if we don’t find Pine Flycatcher. By road, we will travel over forty miles to reach the canyon.

The last half hour of the drive to Rose Canyon covers seventeen miles of the serpentine Mount Lemmon Highway and passes through several different plant zones as it ascends the mountain. It starts at 2,500 foot altitude in desert scrub. Saguaros and ocotillo sprout from the exposed rock on the lower slopes of the mountain. By the time the road has climbed to four thousand feet, you’re in chaparral. The cacti are gone and there are scattered shrub live oaks and manzanita. The exposed areas are covered with grasses, dried out by the summer heat. Higher up, the chaparral blends into oak woodlands and, above six thousand feet, there is a thick coniferous forest of ponderosa pine with scattered Douglas fir and Gambel’s oak.

We arrived at the turnoff for Rose Canyon just after 8:00 am. The ponderosa pines here are old and, in most places, have no understory. The sparse ground cover beneath them lends a park-like feel to the surrounding woods. It’s cooler up here on the mountain, the temperature is in the low seventies and will only make it up to the mid-eighties later in the day. By the time we had driven the mile-and-a-half down to the parking area for Rose Lake, a dammed portion of the creek, we had already seen Western Bluebird, Yellow-eyed Junco and Western Tanager.

Yellow-eyed Junco, by Don Morrow

There are a number of camping areas along the entrance road. The Pine Flycatchers had been seen near the last camping area, Black Bear Flat, which sits between the road and Rose Creek about a quarter mile before the end of the road. Earlier in the summer, the flycatchers had nested on the hillside across the creek from the campground.

We decided to walk up the creek bed to get to Black Bear Flat. Rose Creek is not a perennial stream. It is monsoon season in Arizona, a season with occasional afternoon downpours, and a recent storm has left scattered puddles and pools in the creek bed. There is intermittent vegetation growing along the shallow creek and we alternate walking in the creek and on the narrow trail that closely follows it.

Acorn Woodpecker, by Don Morrow

By the time we had gone a few hundred feet, we had seen Spotted Towhees and Acorn Woodpeckers. Broad-tailed Hummingbirds were feeding on the flowers of red penstemon. Most of the birds that we saw were flitting about in the patches of box elder growing along the creek. We kept getting distracted by Yellow-eyed Juncos, which popped up everywhere. Things were getting intense. We ran into Grace’s and Virginia Warbler, multiple vireo species; Plumbeous, Warbling and Hutton’s, and both White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatch.

Grace’s Warbler, by Don Morrow

My wife called me over to look at a flycatcher. Pine Flycatchers are very similar to Cordilleran Flycatchers. We decided that it was a Cordilleran and not a Pine. While watching it we noticed a family of Black-throated Gray Warblers that were working through the low vegetation. Looking up, I saw two raptors in an open patch of clear blue mountain sky. They were black, broad-winged with short tails that had distinctive black and white bands, Common Black Hawks.

Common Black Hawk, by Don Morrow

Up on the hillside above the Black Bear Flat campground we started running into birders and exchanged notes with them. We learned that there were no Pine Flycatcher sightings yesterday and only one report of a heard-bird early this morning.

We spent some time looking and then decided to go downslope to Rose Lake and try for the flycatcher again later. As we followed the creek down, high up in a pine, a Painted Redstart was displaying. A small black warbler with a bright red chest and belly, it repeatedly spread its tail and wings, revealing white wing patches and tail edges. Down at the lake, there were several Mallards and a pair of Violet-green Swallows were sweeping low over the water. We also found American Robins, but otherwise we saw only the same species that we had been seeing.

We worked our way back up the creek for a second try at Pine Flycatcher. It was now late morning and birding was starting to slow down. We had continued to run into flycatchers, but they were all Cordilleran. We did come across a family of Red-faced Warblers, more Western Tanagers and many more birders. The American Birding Association’s youth birding group, Camp Chiricahua, was out looking for the bird. No one reported having seen Pine Flycatcher.

Red-faced Warbler, by Don Morrow

We gave up on the Pine Flycatcher and walked down the entrance road to our car to grab lunch. A Hairy Woodpecker was working on a cavity in a ponderosa pine and a Black-headed Grosbeak flew by our picnic table as we ate our sandwiches. With a long drive ahead of us and a need to pick up the dog, we decided that it was time to head home.

As we drove down the mountain, we made a few random stops to look for birds, but added only Steller’s Jay and Mexican Jay to our trip list. Despite missing the Pine Flycatcher and a few other species that would have been good, like Hermit Warbler and Greater Pewee, it had been a good day of birding.

By the time we picked up the dog and got back to our son’s house it was 3:00 pm. The White-winged Doves were still flying around in the wash in the 108° heat on a Tucson afternoon in July.

Backyard Baby Birds and More

By Kathleen Carr

NOTE: This blog article isn’t quite done yet. Check back to learn about our double-decker chickadee-bluebird nest and see photos and videos of some of our baby birds.

Before diving into the baby bird topic, I have to share an observation of a Brown Thrasher behavior I’ve never seen before. Click the image below to watch the video on my YouTube channel.

Snake! Brown Thrashers display at and harass a snake

On May 25, 2022, I saw our Brown Thrasher pair doing an elaborate raised wing display in the back flower bed and immediately started recording video. (Camcorder is mounted on a tripod in the kitchen window, always ready to record.) When I opened it in iMovie to process it for uploading, I was shocked to discover that the cause of the display was a snake gliding across the flower bed! Click Watch for it about 20 seconds into the video, towards the bottom of the frame, as the head of the snake comes into view and it moves to the left, all the while being harassed by the two thrashers.

——————

Since mid-February our front and back yards and feeders have been busy with breeding birds. Since mid-April, when our nest of five Carolina Chickadees fledged from our bluebird nest box, baby birds have been seen and heard everywhere! This is the first year I’ve kept track of the baby birds in our backyard nursery and I was surprise at how many species we’re seeing! At last count, we’ve seen 11 species of baby or immature birds, and I’m certain other birds that I’m seeing and hearing are breeding nearby.

Yard babies:

1. Carolina Chickadee

2. Carolina Wren

3. Downy Woodpecker

4. Eastern Towhee

5. Eastern Bluebird

6. Northern Cardinal

7. Pine Warbler

8. Red-bellied Woodpecker

9. Summer Tanager

10. Tufted Titmouse

11. White-breasted Nuthatch

Possible nearby breeders:

1. Brown Thrasher

2. Fish Crow

3. Great Crested Flycatcher

4. Mourning Dove

5. Northern Parula

6. Red-shouldered Hawk

7. Yellow-throated Vireo

End of the Year Summary and Volunteer Recognition

by Kathleen Carr, AAS President

eBird training visit to the Annie Schmidt’s Crooked Creek Conservation Easement, with Noah Strycker

June signals the end of our chapter’s program year, and it goes without saying that this was not the year we were expecting at the start of our year last July. We planned to resume in person meetings last fall, but the emergence of two pandemic variants changed that and kept our programs on Zoom for the rest of the year. My thanks to the program committee—Norma Skaggs, Donna Legare, and Dara Miles-Wilson—for putting together a terrific set of programs. Dara was responsible for setting up our Zoom presence so we could have programs when we couldn’t meet in person, for which we are deeply grateful. It was wonderful to keep our programs going, and we hope to continue our streaming programs even after we resume meeting in person. By the way, these program were all recorded and you can watch them on our YouTube channel.

Thankfully, infection rates were low enough by April that we were able to host two special programs, Among Penguins and Birding without Borders, with internationally known Bird Man Noah Strycker—IN PERSON, for the first time in two years! During his 2015 World Big Year, he was the first person to see more than half the world’s 10,000 species of birds—6, 042 to be precise—in one year. These programs were also live-streamed and recorded, so if you weren’t able to attend, visit the Apalachee Audubon YouTube channel to watch those as well as any of our other programs from this year.

Thankfully, we WERE able to keep our monthly field trips and birding socials going throughout the past year, and I want to thank Heather Levy for organizing and planning those. People were definitely ready to meet up in the out-of-doors. Heather also served on the board the past two years and organized our first (at least in recent history) chapter conservation grant program for local research and/or conservations projects. We’d planned to award one $500 grant this year, but another application was so deserving that we awarded two grants!

Our after school bird club at Pineview Elementary resumed in late January and our Education Committee volunteers have been visiting twice a month to engage the children in environmental and birdwatching activities. Read Donna Legare’s end of the year wrap up about how the children created bird nests for their final project. You can see photos of all the kid-built nests!

The chapter continues to be involved at Lake Elberta Park with trash clean-ups, invasive plant removal, and special projects. In December 2020, we had a bat house installed, we’ve set up nest boxes for Eastern Bluebirds and Wood Ducks, and every winter we set up a tree of gourds for Purple Martins nesting.

This year’s project was building and installing a chimney swift tower. Thank you to Jody Walthall for building the tower with assistance from Jim Carr and several Native Nurseries employees, and to Brian Bryson for his lovely artwork on the sides of the tower. Special thanks to Ann Morrow for writing the text and working with the interpretive sign company to create the sign, which we expect to be installed this fall. This was financed in part by a grant from the Aramark company (who also provided volunteers for a trash cleanup last October) and numerous other donors who are listed on our website blog. I encourage you to visit the park to see the tower for yourself, have a pleasant walk, and an excellent birding experience!

Thank you to the following:

Elizabeth Georges: Our chapter webmaster, who designed and developed our current website, and continues to maintain it, a critical role in today’s world of online communications.

Chris Grossman: For the past several years, Chris has been editing, assembling, and sending out The Limpkin Times e-newsletter, our primary communications with our chapter members and friends.

Tammy Brown: She has been organizing our February Wildlife-friendly Yards Tour and fundraiser for many years now. After a year off due to the pandemic, this year’s event set a record for attendance, with 250 people purchasing tickets!

Cierra Nelson: a CLI student (Conservation Leadership Initiative program developed by Audubon Florida) mentored by Dara Miles-Wilson. Cierra was also our chapter intern from Florida A & M University and worked AAS member Donna Legare, conservation educator Patty Brown and camp director Meghann Dawkins to design and implement a bluebird trail at the Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center in Midway. She arranged for members of the FAMU Outdoor Club to build eight nest boxes in November that are now set up along a bluebird trail. Read Cierra’s account of her experience with Apalachee Audubon.

Treasurer, Harvey Goldman: A LONG time member of Apalachee Audubon. As chapter treasurer, he has kept our chapter finances and business matters on a solid footing since 1996. He and his wife Judy have organized our Coastal Clean-up for many years, and have volunteered many hours of sweat equity over the years at our annual banquets, birdathons, and anything requiring extra sets of hands.

Secretary, Nelson Ball: Board member the past two years and an officer this past year. Nelson started with the chapter in 2019 as an intern and a CLI student (Conservation Leadership Initiative program developed by Audubon Florida) mentored by Donna Legare. He’s been active with our projects at Lake Elberta, including a writing up a study of the source of trash that ends up in the lake.

Board Directors

Tallulah Biletzskov: They started with the chapter in 2020 as a CLI student (Conservation Leadership Initiative program developed by Audubon Florida) mentored by Dara Miles-Wilson. Tallulah joined our board this past year, and while we’re sad that they won’t be able to complete the second year of their term, it’s for great purpose. As a recent FSU graduate, they are headed to a job in Sweden in June and we couldn’t be more thrilled for them! They also participated as a chapter representative in a program with Audubon Florida called FLEDJE: Future Leaders for Equity, Diversity, and Justice in the Environment and will advise the chapter as we move towards inclusivity. The chapter received a $1,000 grant because of this participation and will be applying it towards providing birding activities for a summer camp program this summer.

Caleb Crow: Caleb is completing his first year of board service and he’s been instrumental in grant writing this year, running Zoom programs, and now that outdoor events are resuming he and his family have been volunteering at tabling events this past spring.

Donne Legare: Former chapter President and a long time member of Audubon and our board, retiring this year. She’s also supervised our intern, Cierra Nelson, and helped her develop a new project when she was not able to help out at Pineview Elementary because of the pandemic. Many thanks also to her and Jody Walthall for providing overnight accommodations for Noah Strycker during his April visit.

Howard Kessler: Completing his 2nd term on the board, his experience and advice has been instrumental to the board this year. This year, Howard participated as a chapter representative in a program with Audubon Florida called FLEDJE: Future Leaders for Equity, Diversity, and Justice in the Environment and will advise the chapter as we move towards inclusivity. The chapter received a $1,000 grant because of this participation and will be applying it towards providing birding activities for a summer camp program this summer.

Peter Kleinhenz: Former chapter President and long-time board member. Peter was instrumental in launching our chapter’s involvement with Lake Elberta Park and launched our chapter’s e-newsletter, The Limpkin Times. He chaired the Conservation Committee this year and, through his job at Tall Timbers and with a grant from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, he recruited a number of chapter volunteers to assist with training conservation easement landowners in using eBird. This was to give them the ability to identify and report birds on their property, providing more data for areas not available for birding by the public.

Norma Skaggs: Director and program chair. who is retiring from the board. She and the committee did a brilliant job with scheduling this year’s programs and she has also helped with tabling events this spring.

Rob Williams: Director and Conservation Committee member, who is active with our state regional conservation committee, monitoring state land purchases for Florida Forever, and recently consulted on behalf of the chapter with the City of Tallahassee and made a number of recommendations for environmental improvements for Debbie Lightsey Nature Park.

An Audubon Adventure, by Cierra J. Nelson

On January 27th, 2021, an opportunity presented itself to me through the Apalachee Audubon Society, an opportunity that would influence and change my view of conservation, wildlife, birding, and help define me as a Black environmentalist. But a bit of context is needed for this story to flow. My name is Cierra Janae Nelson, a spring 2022 Environmental Studies graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. During my time at FAMU, most of my environmental studies were centered on areas of policy, law, and environmental health and safety. While studying these areas I delighted in the knowledge presented to me, and more importantly understood the critical relationship between education and preserving our Mother Earth. For only through education do the necessary tools and resources pass down from those in power to those who will succeed them in an ever-flowing cycle of knowledge. Knowledge is key in preserving Earth's definitive and infinite resources and is vital for ensuring the flora and fauna of today are present for the generations in the future. 

The allure of exploring a career within this area was exciting but I had my reservations. One, I would be the first in my family to ever explore a career in this area, for I come from a long line of military and medical health personnel. Secondly, the diversity or lack thereof within green careers and those related to conservation is shocking and was almost enough to deter me to seek careers in other areas. Nevertheless, once the opportunity for a FAMU exclusive Apalachee Audubon education intern presented itself, I applied with eagerness and hope. I was accepted into the internship towards the end of February which is where my Audubon adventure begins.

During the Spring 2021 semester, I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Donna Legare who served as the AAS President. She is the director of the internship, a valued mentor and educator, and helped shape my environmental journey. Additionally, there was Sarah and Chloe, two other interns with whom I had the pleasure of collaborating for the spring semester. The project assigned for the spring semester was the beautification of Lake Elberta Park in Tallahassee Florida. This public park features Purple Martin gourds, a bat house, a healthy population of geese, and a burdening amount of stormwater pollution. The stormwater pollution that plagues Lake Elberta is attributed to stormwater runoff from fifty plus businesses including restaurants, auto shops, and both FSU and FAMU. This pollution defies the installed filtration systems and produces a rather unpleasant site and habitat for the birds and people who frequent the park. After 3 months of collaborating, Chloe, Sarah, and I along with fourteen recruited volunteers removed 44 lb. of stormwater pollution and trash on March 27th, 2021. The day went blissfully, and we were able to educate and empower more people about how they could make a change and protect Tallahassee's public parks.

Fall 2021 saw my fellow colleagues graduate from high school and college and I remained as an AAS intern. Mrs. Donna helped to continue my growth by encouraging me to think about an individual project and to apply for Audubon Florida’s Conservation Leadership Initiative (CLI), which is a unique program designed to uplift underrepresented voices in the field of conservation by providing extensive opportunities in leadership as well as multiple occasions to network with current and past professionals within the conservation field. As a member of this cohort, I was provided research opportunities and eventually the chance to collaborate with other members of the cohort to create a leadership conference in conservation for recent high school graduates of underrepresented communities. Acceptance into this program also comes with a mentor to guide your journey in exploring green careers and careers in conservation. My mentor’s name is Dara Wilson, the first African American woman I have met who is a trailblazer in the fields of conservation, environmental justice and equality, and public outreach. She persistently challenges and defies expectations of African American women in this field and strives to dismantle what is standard and acceptable when not practical for all parties. My two most memorable moments with the CLI program include an alternative spring break in Titusville, Florida where we researched horseshoe crab migrations, provided habitat for the endangered Least Tern, and witnessed a rocket launch on Florida’s Space Coast. There was also a regional meet up in Lake City where I experienced kayaking on the Ichetucknee River for the first time and saw a new variety of Florida flora and fauna including river otters and spoonbills.

Cierra and a member of the FAMU Outdoor Club installing a bluebird house.

Spring 2022, the spring semester brought a flurry of new activities and opportunities through our Audubon chapter. With the help of Mrs. Donna, I was able to complete two projects, one independently and one that had been started at the beginning of my internship but had to be postponed due to the pandemic. Operation Bluebird Trail was my own independent project with the goal of providing better accessibility to birding for children at Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center in Midway, Florida. The bird trail consists of 8 to 10 houses assembled by me and other members of FAMU's Outdoor Club at Native Nurseries in Tallahassee. The houses were assembled prior to winter break and were installed during the first week of February in order to synchronize with the nesting season of bluebirds, chickadees, and other cavity nesting birds that frequent Joe Budd. The first week after installing there was little activity but, by March we had our first resident bluebirds as well as chickadees making their homes and raising their young. The trail is now available to the public and even able to be visually seen mapped out on Google Earth.

The second project featured the reestablishment of the After-school Bird Club, which meets biweekly at Pineview Elementary, a Title 1 school, after a 2-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The bird club safely resumed on January 27th with an audience of twelve third graders new and eager to the world of birding and conservation. Donna and I along with five other environmental educators provided the children after school enrichment featuring introductory to birding with their own binoculars, bird anatomy, the bird food chain, nesting 101, and other related topics. The club ran through the remainder of the school year and has plans to continue in the fall as we received great feedback from the children and their teachers about the benefits of the after-school program. The after-school participants of the bird club and their entire third grade class also visited Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center, where they were able to view the bird trail as well as participate in other activities such as archery and wilderness survival.

My internship experience with the Apalachee Audubon Society concluded May 2022 when I officially completed four years of undergraduate education and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in International Relations from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. The lessons and knowledge provided for me through this internship are innumerable but, overall, I am grateful that the local chapter of the National Audubon Society provided a young Black environmentalist like me this fantastic opportunity to gain experience in all areas within this critical and important field

Honoring Chimney Swift Tower Donors

Chimney Swifts returned to the chimney at our house on April 1 this year. Hopefully a pair will grace our recently built tower at Lake Elberta. The interpretive sign about Chimney Swifts will be installed sometime this fall; the sign company in High Springs, Florida has been swamped with work so we are patiently waiting. This project would not have taken place without the sweat equity of volunteers and our donors who supplied funds for construction materials and the building of the interpretive sign.

Special thanks to Ann Morrow for writing the text and working with the interpretive sign company, Jody Walthall for building the tower with assistance from Jim Carr and a few Native Nurseries employees, and to Brian Bryson for his lovely artwork on the sides of the tower. Now we wait for occupants!

Our appreciation to the following financial donors:

Aramark, Wolfgang and Winnie Adolf, Howard Kessler and Anne Van Meter
Kristen Summers, Amelia and Bill Everett, Carolyn Back (one of our original Lake Elberta interns!), Jane Fleitman
Ann J. Morrow, Jim and Kathleen Carr, Bruce and Sandra Bodjack, Brent McNeal, Polly Beason, Donna Legare
Beth Wright, Beth Grant, Mary Anne Hoffman, Barbara Cooper, Sunny Phillips, Tricia Elton

Chimney Swift Tower Project at Lake Elberta

By Donna Legare

Jody and I have lived in our house in Betton Hills for over 30 years. Every spring we host a pair of chimney swifts who nest in our chimney. We are so used to their happy chittering sounds that we laugh when visiting friends look astonished by bird sounds coming from the fireplace. One of the nicest things about having nesting or roosting swifts is watching them zoom above the roof and the surrounding live oaks in the evening hunting for insects, finally settling in for the night at dusk. The swifts migrate to South America before we have any interest in winter fires.

Jody Walthall making the cuts in the shiplap paneling for the tower walls, Jim Carr holding it steady.

The chimney swift population is in decline. Historically they nested in large hollow trees that barely exist anymore. They have long since switched to nesting in chimneys and other human made structures. Now, however, most people either do not have chimneys or have placed caps over the ones they have.

Many Audubon Chapters have successfully installed chimney swift towers in parks, and this is exactly what Apalachee Audubon Society has decided to do.

The twelve-foot tower is for just one pair, but the tower and its interpretive sign will provide information about this fascinating species and what we can do to encourage them. It may also be used later in the season for congregating swifts prior to migration.

Completed Chimney Swift Tower Sections with Jody Walthall and Jim Carr. They will be stacked to make a 12 foot tower.

Jody Walthall is an experienced woodworker and small boat builder. He has volunteered to build the tower and has worked with Kenny Welsh with the City of Tallahassee Parks and Recreation to choose the location at Lake Elberta. Kathleen and Jim Carr have helped with the initial building which is taking place in our home carport. Let me know (dlegare@comcast.net) if you would like to help with the construction and installation of the tower. Natasza Fontaine, artist and biologist, has agreed to add her artwork to the tower and Ann Morrow, retired biologist, and writer, is working on the wording for the interpretive sign. It is a group effort.

Here is another way you can help. Though the labor is donated, the lumber and other materials are costly, and the production of the interpretive sign is about double the cost of materials, but we feel the sign is of utmost importance. Our goal is to raise $3000. So please chip in whatever you can to this project. We’ve already received a donation of $500 from AAS members Wolfgang and Winnie Adolph to kick off the fundraising! Be sure to indicate “chimney swift tower” on your check and mail to:

Apalachee Audubon Society
PO Box 1237
Tallahassee FL 32302-1237

Connecting Landowners to Their Birds

It’s time to give credit where credit is due. If it were not for conservation-minded private landowners throughout the country, we would have far less wildlife. And that wildlife includes birds.

Birding in the restored longleaf pine savanna on Helen and Tom Roth's property

In Florida and Georgia, private lands make up the majority of both states (79% and 90.3%, respectively). Many of these lands, such as shopping malls and golf courses, are unsuitable for many declining bird species. However, millions of acres of private lands in both states are conducive to these species and, in many cases, are the deciding factor in whether or not populations can persist in an area over the long term.

With this in mind, the Tall Timbers Land Conservancy is working to empower conservation easement landowners to document the birds that occur on their properties. Tall Timbers applied for a Cornell Lab of Ornithology grant to help them achieve this goal. They have partnered with the Alachua Conservation Trust and Conservation Florida, as well as with four Audubon chapters, to link Audubon volunteers with private landowners. The idea is to have solid birders from Audubon chapters teach landowners how to identify birds and use eBird to record what they see throughout the year. Land trusts like Tall Timbers often visit properties only once per year to conduct easement monitoring visits and, even then, often are not recording every bird species that they see. Helping landowners fill in the who, when, and where for different bird species in places where surveys rarely, if ever, occur could help to augment the efforts of ornithologists.

Apalachee Audubon volunteers posing by a waterfall on Annie Schmidt's property.

Staring at a vesper sparrow found in a field on Guy Anglin and Jan Blue's property

You may be wondering what this project looks like in practice. Well, the bottom line is that it’s been a lot of fun for all involved. Tall Timbers staff have conducted four landowner visits so far in partnership with Apalachee Audubon. At Hays Cummins’ and Donna McCollum’s property, participants got to watch hundreds of wading birds fly over their heads to a wetland roost at sunset. Helen and Tom Roth’s property offered the chance to see habitat restoration in action on a beautiful landscape, with a flock of gorgeous (and uncommon) purple finches providing icing on the cake. Serenading grasshopper sparrows at sunset rounded out a visit to Annie Schmidt’s property, that had already included steephead ravines, a waterfall, and salamanders. Guy Anglin and Jan Blue’s property visit resulted in great looks at a vesper sparrow, a northern harrier, bald eagles, and nesting red-headed woodpeckers.

AAS volunteers and Tall Timbers staff scanning the ephemeral wetland owned by Hays Cummins and Donna McCollum

Hays Cummins, who with his wife, Donna, owns the wading bird rookery mentioned above said, “It was a great day of fellowship and experiencing the many natural wonders of this region of Florida. It was so invigorating to be with people whose passions for the environment matched ours. Strong partnerships like this give us hope for the future of the region.”

The visits offer opportunities for Audubon members to learn more about habitat management, see the benefits of conservation easements firsthand, and experience spectacular natural habitats that they would probably never experience otherwise. They offer landowners the chance to deepen knowledge of their property and the species that occur within it, and maybe even introduce them to a new hobby.

With new birds arriving soon from places further south and more landowners showing interest in getting involved, the prospects of this project look promising. If you are interested in getting involved with the project, please contact Peter Kleinhenz at pnkleinhenz@gmail.com.

The forest next door: Take a hike on trails of the Leon County Park System

By Donna Legare

Since the pandemic, my husband, Jody, and I have been exploring new places to hike. We enjoy walking through fields and forests botanizing and observing nature in all its forms while getting fresh air and exercise.

Native swamp azalea in full fall color, sporting flower buds, at the St. Marks River Headwaters Greenway

I am thankful to live in an area of the country where there are so many forested areas. It makes me appreciate the ecosystem services that these forests provide. They protect water quality and supply, conserve soil, sequester carbon, purify air, provide habitat for wildlife and places for people to relax and be with nature.

You may be surprised to learn that there are some forests right here in Leon County that are under the management of the Leon County Parks and Recreation Department.

I have been walking the Miccosukee Greenway for years but had never heard of the Fred George Greenway Park or the St. Marks Headwaters Greenway until I contacted Leigh Davis, Director of Leon County Parks and Recreation, to ask her to speak at Apalachee Audubon Society’s January program meeting on Zoom.

She will present a program called "The Forests of the Leon County Park System." The Zoom program takes place on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021 from 7-8 p.m. The program is free, but registration is required: https://bit.ly/3ngFbjq

Davis will share information about existing and planned trails and boardwalks in some of the forested parks under her management. She will familiarize us with her department and how it works. Davis’ public service career spans two and half decades and includes over 15 years with Leon County.

The St. Marks River Headwaters Greenway

Jody and I have been exploring some of the trails of these forests. We were greeted one cool December morning by a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker as we started along the trail at the St. Marks Headwaters Greenway. This 755-acre park at the corner of Buck Lake Road and Baum Road, which opened in 2018, consists of old fields reverting to a mixed pine/hardwood forest as well as an intact bottomland hardwood forest.

Both forest types protect the headwaters of the St. Marks River, designated as an Outstanding Florida Water. Approximately 5000 feet of the upper waters of the St. Marks River flow through the park. I look forward to learning more about this and other forested parks in the care of our Leon County Parks and Recreation Department.

The approximately 3 miles of trails are not marked. I took a photo of the trail map at the kiosk in the parking area so we could find our way around. I would recommend taking some of the spur trails that are not on the map that take you to the wetlands that are the beginnings of the St. Marks River.

Interpretive sign found along Miccosukee Greenway informs trail users about a rare forest community.

Visit during the winter; we tried hiking here last summer, but the mosquitos ran us out. The County plans to open more of the park to hiking trails, a boardwalk and overlook which will allow access to the wetlands.

One of our favorite woodlands is found along the Miccosukee Greenway, closest to the Crump Road entrance.

The trail will lead to a Miccosukee Road crossing and you will eventually come to an informative sign on the right side of the trail. The sign describes a now rare community of trees on 45.6 acres called the North Florida Red Oak Woods. It was once a common type of upland forest on the Red Hills of North Florida, but much was converted to farmland and now housing developments.

It is dominated by shortleaf pine, mockernut hickory, post oak, southern red oak, and black oak. Other trees include loblolly pine, rusty blackhaw, Chickasaw plum, black gum, dogwood, water oak, laurel oak, basswood, sweetgum, sassafras, white oak, sugar berry, red buckeye, Florida chinquapin, fringe tree, hawthorn, southern crab apple, red mulberry, wax myrtle, black cherry, and winged sumac.

A splash of fall color in a mixed pine/hardwood forest.

This type of forest evolved with periodic fires. Prescribed burning is recommended for its management, otherwise the shade and leaf litter produced by young hardwood trees will eliminate the once abundant herbaceous ground cover and the forest will become a more common oak/hickory forest.

At Fred George Greenway Park at Fred George Road and Capital Circle Northwest, there are two miles of hiking trails on 160 acres with parking, restrooms and playing fields on another 15 acres. We mostly explored a section of giant live oaks that leads down to a wetland where a small stream flows into a sinkhole, disappearing under a pile of logs into the aquifer.

Fred George Greenway was established in 2016 to protect this and another sinkhole and the aquifer below them. The forest protects the quality of the water ensuring cleaner water in our aquifer. We also noticed evidence of prescribed burning on the longleaf pine uplands. I want to return to see the huge cypress trees that somehow escaped harvest years ago.

More well-known are the Miccosukee Canopy Road Greenway (503 acres) and the J.R. Alford Greenway (874 acres) located at the end of Pedrick Road. This is a great park for bike riding as there are 17.5 miles of trail. It is a mixture of open pasture and forested woodlands. I enjoy the slower pace of walking especially during the fall wildflower season where there are many pollinators and other insects to observe.

Birders Ann and Don Morrow reported a flock of 50 blue grosbeaks in trees at the edge of an open field in late September. As Ann and Don approached, the bright blue males and less colorful females flew across the field, enabling the count. Bring your binoculars if you visit this park. One trail leads to the spectacular pedestrian bridge that connects this greenway to the Lafayette Heritage Trail.

Building your eBirding Skills to Help Birds

November 19, 2020 Program Webinar

Click to view webinar on YouTube (program starts about 7 minutes into the video)

eBird is one of the largest biodiversity-related science databases and has become a staple of birders worldwide. Users upload checklists of birds, explore sightings, keep track of their life lists, and much more. eBird is also used in conservation, helping scientists understand species' distributions, habitat use, and abundances.

In this webinar, Peter Kleinhenz and Heather Levy discuss what everyone from the beginner birder to the expert needs to know to successfully utilize eBird and provide direct examples of how eBird has informed science. There will be opportunities to win prizes for those that participate!

Program Speakers

Heather Levy

Board Director, Apalachee Audubon Society

For Heather, one of the most attractive qualities of birding is its inherent ability to bring nature into even the most urban of areas. Through that first attraction, whether it be charismatic behavior or striking plumage, Heather believe that people become more mindful of the environment and the intricate and interconnected role that individual plays within the larger ecosystem. The more aware people become about our surrounding environment, the more they value it and work to conserve it.

levy.heather789@gmail.com

Peter Kleinhenz

Board Director & Past-President, Apalachee Audubon Society

Nothing inspires Peter like nature. For his entire life, he has been seeking nature out every chance he gets. Throughout his exploration, Peter has been struck by the harsh reality that so much of the natural world is disappearing. Peter devoted his life to telling others about the natural world, hoping to inspire them to care enough about it to protect it.

pnkleinhenz@gmail.com