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The Limpkin Times
Apalachee Audubon Society Mission Statement:
Protection of the environment through education,
appreciation and conservation.
April 2021
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Photo by Rob Diaz de Villegas, WFSU-TV
President's Message
Dear Friends,
Thirty-eight people turned out to clean up Lake Elberta Park last Saturday. They included 18 ESP (Environmental Service Program) students from FSU, 1 Global Peace Exchange student from FSU, 1 Master Gardener, 9 AAS members and various other conscientious volunteers. The event was planned by our FAMU Environmental Policy student intern, Cierra Nelson, WFSU’s intern from SAIL High School, Chloe Thompson, and our FSU Sustainability Fellow, Sarah Calzada. Rob Diaz de Villegas, WFSU-TV producer, gathered footage of volunteers in action as well as wildlife that calls Lake Elberta home.
It is depressing to see how much trash accumulates in this lake and other water bodies around town. Most of the litter comes through the storm water drainage system rather than from park users. The GIS map below, developed by our past FSU Sustainability Fellows, shows the entry points for the water that runs into Lake Elberta. The lake drains a wide area from downtown to Gaines Street and the FSU stadium area. Volunteer Don Morrow said the most common items that he picked up were plastic straws, plastic bottle tops, plastic bottles, plastic condiment containers from fast food places, broken up Styrofoam, chip bags (snack size) and plasticized paper wrist bands from bars. He also found a possum skull.
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Photo by Alexis Chavez
It is sad to focus my binoculars on a beautiful wood stork on the peninsula and have it surrounded by trash. Our group did a good job cleaning up the peninsula and edges of the lake, though they had to stay far away from nesting geese. Don inadvertently got too close to one nest and was charged by an angry Canada goose. Jody Walthall and Nelson Ball filled a 16-foot canoe with litter collected from places that were unreachable by foot. Chris Thompson (Chloe’s Dad) created his own extra-long pole rake to grab harder to reach trash. A total of 37 large garbage bags were filled by our volunteers.
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Photo by Kathleen Carr
The real tragedy is that plastic items break down into smaller and smaller pieces eventually becoming microplastics that continue to move along the drainage system all the way to the Gulf. In the short term, we can organize clean-ups like this event. We also plan to lobby our city commissioners to explore the option of installing grates across the entry points for storm water runoff to Lake Elberta. Ultimately it is up to each of us to just say no to single-use plastic items.
The good news is that there were many young people involved in this event. They brought their own reusable water bottles. No one brought bottled water. It gives me hope to see this younger generation actively involved in conservation and environmental activism. We all need to push restaurants and bottlers away from plastic and Styrofoam.
I hope you will attend our April zoom program with Nicole Jackson, environmental educator and co-organizer of Black Birders Week, who will offer her perspective on how to involve others, especially people of color, in nature. Finally, I encourage you to read the always-inspiring words of Don Morrow in his essay, Why We Bird.
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Sincerely,
Donna Legare
President, Apalachee Audubon
In this issue:
Chapter Programs
Birdability
On Maintaining Hope
Why We Bird
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April Zoom Program: Fixing to Take Flight: Soaring Above Limits
Nichole Jackson
Thursday, April 15, 2021
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST VIA Zoom
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A nature enthusiast, avid bird watcher and Cleveland, Ohio native, Nicole is an alumna of the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University. There she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Education and Interpretation (2011). She is an environmental educator who has worked for various non-profits implementing programs across for the past decade in Central Ohio focused on conservation, gardening, green jobs, and outdoor recreation
Her main goal as an educator is to help people of color find access to local resources that connect them to fun nature experiences and become environmental stewards. Nicole is always looking for opportunities to learn something new and help others see the brilliance and lessons of the natural world around them.
Some of her recent roles include Natural Leader of the Children & Nature Network, a member of the National Parks Conservation Association's Next Generation Advisory Council, co-organizer of Black Birders Week and founder of Black in National Parks Week. During this presentation, Nicole will highlight the work she is doing to inspire environmental educators and professionals to think outside of the box so they can create a more inclusive environment and better connect diverse audiences to the natural world around them.
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May Zoom Program: Nature as an Inspiration for Writing (and other thoughts)
Jeff VanderMeer
Thursday, May 20, 2021
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST VIA Zoom
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Jeff VanderMeer’s New York Times-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy has been translated into over 35 languages. The first novel, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and Shirley Jackson Award, and was made into a movie by Paramount in 2018. Recent works include Dead Astronauts, Borne (a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award), The Strange Bird. These novels, set in the Borne universe, are being developed for TV by AMC and continue to explore themes related to the environment, animals, and our future. Current work includes A Peculiar Peril (FSG Kids) and Hummingbird Salamander (MCD/FSG), which has been optioned by Netflix and Michael Sugar (Anonymous Content). Called “the weird Thoreau” by The New Yorker, VanderMeer frequently speaks about issues related to climate change and storytelling. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife Ann, cat Neo, and a yard full of native plants.
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One of the many beauties of birding is that it is a passion anyone can enjoy, but it isn’t always easy for some. Birdability, a new-nonprofit, is on a mission to make birding more inclusive by removing barriers to access for birders with mobility challenges, blindness or low vision, intellectual or developmental disabilities, mental illness, hearing impairments, and other health concerns.
The Birdability website has tons of resources that include guidance on access considerations, inclusive language, adaptive birding equipment, and much more. They have also partnered with National Audubon to create the Birdability Map – a crowd-sourced map where users can submit and view accessibility of trails all over the United States and beyond. To submit a trail and comments, simply click the ‘Submit a Birdability Site Review’ under the Birdability Map tab.
We at Apalachee Audubon are passionate about making birding inclusive, safe, and enjoyable for everyone. The next time you are out at your favorite birding hotspot, we highly encourage you to take just a few extra moments to make note of the accessibility features highlighted in the Birdability Map. And if you see an ADA violation, please contact the appropriate authority. Check out the website for simple ways you can be more inclusive the next time you are out birding. Together, we can build a stronger, more inclusive birding community.
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On Maintaining Hope
Board member Howard Kessler recommends reading this article from the New York Times. It explores the concept of maintaining hope through connecting with Nature in your own garden.
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Photo by Karen Willes
by Don Morrow
There are almost as many reasons to watch birds as there are birders. Even if you can’t identify them, you can watch birds simply for their wonder and beauty. A flock of hundreds of American White Pelicans swirling against the backdrop of a clear blue sky is breathtaking. Common Yellowthroats and Scarlet Tanagers are stunning even without a name. Some people find fascination in studying and understanding birds; going beyond simple identification to learn the details of plumage, migration and life history. Some birders are consumed and nurtured by the competitive urge to have the highest lists and to chase rarities, while others are satisfied with watching whatever they happen across and have no desire or need to go any further. Most people have a mix of motivations for watching birds at different times and there is no bad reason to watch birds, nor is there a right way or a wrong way to do so.
For me, birding is a great organizing principle: If you go out in pursuit of birds, you will experience life. There will always be something new and previously unseen. Looking for birds has caused me to get up for sunrises that I would have slept through and to stay out for sunsets that I would have missed. I’ve watched clouds play with light to create skyscapes with shifting palettes of colors that have no given names and that may exist for only an instant. I have seen fog create a half-seen world that faded in and out of the gray murk.
In pursuit of nightbirds I have seen star-spattered skies, meteor showers and moonsets. I’ve watched lightning turn clouds into Chinese lanterns. I have heard deafening choruses of frogs, the moan and clatter of wind playing through the trees, the grunts of alligators and odd, mysterious and somewhat concerning splashes and crashes in the darkness. I’ve even heard the calls of nightbirds; trills, cackles, hisses and hoots.
In pursuit of birds, I’ve gone to places that I would not otherwise have gone. I have sought out seabirds on the Pacific Ocean, where I’ve been dazzled by sunlight playing fractal games on the pulsating, living surface of the sea and seen thirty-ton whales leap from the water. I’ve trudged through the North Woods in winter as silver dollar-sized snowflakes slowly filtered down. I’ve dodged the thorns of cholla and ocotillo in the deserts of Southern Arizona while searching for Verdin and Pyrrhuloxia. I have walked along tropical beaches in summer watching lines of Brown Pelicans skim the wavetops and stood sea watch in winter on the rocky North Atlantic coast watching for Razorbills and Harlequin Ducks. I’ve climbed windy mountain ridges to look for migrating hawks and waited in the stillness of wooded valleys hoping to hear the flute-like call of a Wood Thrush.
In pursuit of birds, I have been witness to the constant struggle for life, as Forster’s Terns and Ospreys plunge-dive for fish, as American Kestrels snatch dragonflies in mid-flight and as Bald Eagles grab coots off the surface of a winter pond. I’ve catalogued the birds feeding on Sweetgum seeds, Cabbage Palm berries and the fruit of Winged Sumac. I once spent a productive hour observing a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher build a nest out of lichens and spider webs, and I have watched an owlet attempt its first flight.
In pursuit of birds, I have seen murmurations of Tree Swallows rising out of a cattail marsh, twisting shifting dark clouds full of life, and seen the sky whitened by masses of migrating Snow Geese. I’ve been on a barrier island as a fallout of Spring migrants dropped in after an overnight flight across the Gulf and I have listened to the bugling of thousands of Sandhill Cranes on a Florida prairie in mid-winter as they settled in for the night.
Along the way I have been distracted by the beauty of dragonflies, butterflies and beetles. I’ve watched a bobcat hunt for rails in a salt marsh and a trio of otters engaged in a game of aquatic tag. I’ve listened to a howling chorus of coyotes in the night and seen the sudden violent eruption of an alligator ambushing an unwary Snowy Egret.
If you pursue birds, you will necessarily expose yourself to extremes of land and weather. You will wander through forest, swamp, prairie, canyonland, mountain slope and urban fringe; you will shiver in snow, sweat in summer heat, get lost in the fog, bask in sunshine and be drenched in rain.
If you pursue birds, you will find yourself rising early and finishing late.
If you pursue birds, you will see things that you have never seen before every time you go out; unforeseen and unexpected behaviors, previously unseen species, ephemeral colors and exotic landscapes.
If you pursue birds, you may find yourself in the company of people who share your passion, but may not speak your language.
If you pursue birds, you may sometimes find yourself cold, wet, hungry, tired and miserable, but at the same time oddly satisfied.
Tomorrow, I will get up early and head out once again. I’ll listen for owls before first light while I wait for the dawn chorus and morning flight. My goal will be to find birds and I’ll probably be successful. It’s not that hard. However, along with the birds I will find other things that I was not seeking. I don’t know what they will be, only that there will always be something new.
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