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The Limpkin Times
Apalachee Audubon Society Mission Statement:
Protecting the rich biodiversity of the Florida Panhandle through education, appreciation, and conservation.
June 2022
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Bicyclists checking out the activity around the Purple Martin nests at Lake Elberta during the Birding by Bike May event. Nearly a dozen people pedaled from Smokey Hollow through Cascades Park, and to Lake Elberta, stopping to bird along the way. Photo by Kathleen Carr.
In this Issue:
June 12 Birding Social at Okeeheepkee Prairie Park
Pineview Elementary Wrap-up, by Donna Legare
An Audubon Adventure, by Cierra J. Nelson
Is Pinky Back? A Brief History of Flamingos at St. Marks NWR, by Don Morrow
Birding by Bike, May Special Event, by Nelson Ball
President's Message
Summer is here and nesting season in our yard has peaked. Over the past two months, I’ve seen 10 species of baby or immature birds, including our first nest of Eastern Bluebirds! Another five species that we hear on a daily basis have likely nested nearby as well. See apalachee.org for a blog article with more about my backyard birds, and an observation of remarkable behavior by a pair of Brown Thrashers when they encounter a snake!
It is a quiet time for chapter activities, but we’re planning to continue our birding socials on the second Sunday of the month throughout the summer months. Check our website and social media for locations and times for those, and we’ll keep you updated through this newsletter.
Our annual election is running late this year, but will take place online in June. Meanwhile, I’d like to thank our outgoing Secretary and Directors for their extraordinary service over the years: Nelson Ball, Tallulah Biletzskov, Donna Legare, Heather Levy, and Norma Skaggs. See my blog article on apalachee.org to learn more about their accomplishments as well as other volunteers and board members.
The election for the chapter's Board of Directors, will be conducted through a voting webpage in June, which should be available in early June. The goal of this election will be to confirm the slate of officers and directors being presented, but there will be an option for disapproving the slate or individuals up for election or re-election. The webpage will have information about the candidates and will be available ONLY to active members (as of April 2022) of the National Audubon Society (NAS), through which our chapter membership is derived. The election webpage link will be sent ONLY to email addresses registered with National Audubon. If you are a current member, but do not receive emails from NAS or aren’t certain if they have your email address, please email [email protected] and you will be registered to vote online once your membership status has been confirmed.
The deadline for voting is June 20.
Here are the officers and directors we will be voting on:
Kathleen Carr, President
VACANT, Vice President
Jim Carr, Secretary (New)
Harvey Goldman, Treasurer
Directors
New:
Charles Baisden
Cindy Baisden
The following board members are serving the second year of their term.
Caleb Crow
Howard Kessler
Peter Kleinhenz
Rob Williams
Sincerely,
Kathleen Carr
President, Apalachee Audubon
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Okeeheepkee Prairie Park
Chapter Birding Social at Okeeheepkee Prairie Park
Sunday, June 12, 2022 8:30 - 10:30 AM ET
1294 Fuller Rd, Tallahassee, FL 32303
Meet in the parking lot at 8:30, or later in the park. Join us for a leisurely stroll along the half-mile paved trail encircling the pond at this 26-acre park. It’s a short trail, but the park boasts a total of 149 species on eBird, so we’ll likely see some birds! Might be some nesting birds and juveniles out and about. Visit the eBird page and discover what you might expect to see.
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Nests created by students at Pineview Elementary. Photos by Donna Legare
Pineview Elementary Wrap-up
by Donna Legare
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After nearly two years of not meeting due to the pandemic, Our AAS volunteers resumed leading the Pineview Elementary After-school Bird Club in January of this year. For the last session, the 12 third grade students in the club learned about bird nesting. The children looked at a projection of an osprey nest and then looked at three previously used nests that had been removed from bird houses during general maintenance. They noted and discussed the differences between materials used by bluebirds, chickadees, and Carolina Wrens. They also described the American Robin's nest that they watched during the last session, when they were fortunate to watch a robin carrying a worm to its nestlings. The nest was attached to a light fixture on one of the school buildings.
After examining the real nests, the students zipped around a section of the campus dominated by oaks and pines. They collected natural materials and wove them into nests as photographed here.
Volunteer Betsy Sullivan ended the session by teaching them about the strength of eggs and demonstrated this by sitting a chicken egg, propped up by a liter soda bottle top, on the sidewalk and then piled heavy encyclopedias on top of the egg, adding one by one until there were 4 before the egg burst. The students loved it!
Thanks to our volunteers who worked with the Bird Club this year – Betsy Sullivan, David Arnold, Donna Legare, Robin Will, Marney Richards, Peter Kleinhenz, Dara Miles-Wilson, and our fantastic FAMU intern Cierra Nelson.
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Cierra Nelson installing a bluebird nest box with another FAMU student at the Joe Budd Youth Conservation Center in Midway, Florida. |
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An Audubon Adventure
by Cierra J. Nelson
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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.
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.
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American Flamingo in the East River Pool at St. Marks NWR, May 26, 2022. Photo by Karen Willes
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Is Pinky Back? A Brief History of Flamingos at St. Marks NWR
by Don Morrow
Birds caught in the winds of a hurricane may seek shelter by staying within the calm eye of the hurricane, flying along within the eye to avoid the surrounding winds until the hurricane makes landfall and collapses. Typically, species that are entrained in a hurricane’s eye include seabirds: terns, gannets, frigatebirds and petrels. American Flamingos, though, are sometimes entrained by hurricanes and transported to the upper Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Michael developed in the Southwestern Caribbean in early October of 2018. It crossed the Western tip of Cuba and made landfall in the Florida panhandle at Mexico Beach. Three weeks later an American Flamingo was sighted at St. Marks NWR. This bird may have originated from the large Cuban flamingo population and would have spent three days entrained in Michael’s eye as it crossed the Gulf.
Hurricane-driven Flamingos have a long history of occurrence at St. Marks. In all previous flamingo sightings in the 1960s, 70s and 90s, flamingos had been discovered shortly after a hurricane made landfall. In all of the previous flamingo sightings, the flamingos disappeared after a short period. This flamingo, however, remained at the refuge through June of 2019.
A sighting in Tennessee shortly after the St. Marks flamingo disappeared was assumed by many to have been this bird. However, there had been sporadic reports with photos on non-birding sites like Facebook, of a flamingo West of here, which may have been one of two Pensacola flamingos that showed up after a 2017 hurricane, but soon disappeared. We can’t know for certain where the Tennessee bird came from. In any event, our flamingo had left St. Marks.
In December of 2019, a flamingo was again sighted at St. Marks and stayed through June of 2020. This flamingo was not associated with a hurricane and was assumed to be the Hurricane Michael flamingo. After it left, there were at least two flamingo reports in coastal Georgia NWRs over the following Summer that were presumed to be this bird.
In October of 2020 a flamingo was once again sighted at St. Marks and continued at the refuge through March of 2022. Neither this sighting nor the 2019 sighting was associated with a hurricane. We are only assuming that these three flamingo occurrences are the same bird and this site fidelity to the St. Marks refuge is a decidedly odd behavior for a flamingo, but its provenance as a naturally-occurring flamingo is widely accepted.
On Thursday (May 26, 2022) while scanning for birds on East River Pool at sunrise, I sighted an American Flamingo. I cannot tell for certain that this is the same flamingo, but it is pink like all of the birds in the previous three sightings.
There’s always something interesting going on at your local wildlife refuge.
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Promotional flyer for this year’s Birding by Bike event.
Birding by Bike, May Special Event
by Nelson Ball
Several months ago, the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department approached Apalachee Audubon Society about co-hosting a bicycling/birding event on May 22. The event was part of a month-long celebration of National Bike Month. Participants rode their bicycles and did some birding, stopping along the way as we encountered new species or particularly good views of our feathered friends. Eight participants joined me and Jacob Fortunas from the Planning Department on the ride.
Our group met at the Smokey Hollow Commemoration site that morning and we set out to see what we could find. We focused our efforts on Cascades Park, Lake Elberta Park, and the pathways in between the two. The route is very easy to bike and it provides great opportunities to see wildlife. With good weather on our side, and the help of our president Kathleen Carr and Board members Peter Kleinhenz and Heather Levy, we recorded 39 species at Lake Elberta Park, though a few species were seen before our group of cyclists arrived. I think we’d all agree that it was a success! All of our riders and volunteers had a good time—we even had some pedestrians at the park join us to look at birds with our binoculars and scope. Next time you head out for a ride, be sure to throw your binoculars on your shoulder, there’s a lot to see while you’re out pedaling.
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