VOLUME 35, NUMBER 4 DECEMBER 2003

HOSPITALITY: Suva Bastin will be providing refreshments following the program.

BOARD MEETING: In the Sundquist Building biology conference room, D126 at 7:00 p.m..

CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT, Saturday, December 14. Gather at Shoneys at 6:00 a.m. See information below.

With the Christmas season soon upon us, it is time to think about buying presents for those with everything they need. I would like to suggest a unique and interesting gift this year - a puffin. This is the 30th anniversary of the National Audubon Society's Adopt-a-Puffin project. The Atlantic puffin was eliminated from the coastal islands of Maine in the late 1800s by hunting and invasive species on the islands such as rats. Atlantic puffins live on islands along the Newfoundland coast, but the number of islands has been greatly reduced which puts a large percentage of the puffin population at risk in cases of severe maritime storms. In order to spread out the puffin population and reestablish puffins on islands they had previously inhabited along the Maine coast, Project Puffin was started in 1973. Pufflings are taken from the Newfoundland populations and raised on these islands. Amazingly when puffins reach maturity at six weeks of age, they fly out to sea and live on the open water for 3-4 years. Then they will return to the island where they were raised to begin breeding. Project Puffin has and continues to successfully introduce puffins to coastal islands in Maine. If you would like to learn more about puffins or the project, or to adopt a puffin for a friend or relative, you can visit the National Audubon Society web site.

The November program was presented by Ed Warr of TWRA. It was a fascinating program about the pleasures and problems of raising and caring for homing pigeons. The program certainly gave me new appreciation for the amazing talents of pigeons. Imagine being driven hundreds of miles in the trunk of a car, then being released and told to find your way home without the help of a map, GPS, or being able

to ask others. Ed also brought many of his fine birds for us to see. This interesting program followed the annual potluck which was a great success with fine food and plenty of desserts.

Upcoming Programs:

December - Duane Rice of the Tennessee Bluebird Trails will of course discuss bluebirds and what each of us can do to improve bluebird habitat and numbers.

February - "High Altitude Foraging by Bats of Agricultural Insect Pests" by Dr. Gary McCracken, UT-Knoxville

December: no field trips scheduled

January, 3, 2004: annual Christmas bird count (details elsewhere in newsletter)

February 7, 2004: all day trip to see the eagles at Reelfoot Lake. Note: Kathy DeWein has secured the UT Martin research facility at Reelfoot for those choosing to stay overnight. Be sure to contact me by January 24 if you wish to reserve a space.

On Sunday, October 26 in spite of the drastic change in weather conditions nine enthusiastic members made the trip to Montgomery Bell State Park. The weather cooperated and participants enjoyed hikes through the woodland wonderlands. Suva Bastin and Barbara Wilbur led groups along the woodland trails discussing flora, fauna and ore pit remnants as they hiked. The afternoon culminated in the lodge dining room with everyone enjoying both the food and the fellowship.

For the first time since I began helping with the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC), we will count in January. Warioto Audubon will participate Saturday, January 3. This will be Warioto Audubon’s 33^nd year of CBCs. Visit the National Audubon web site <www.audubon.org> to learn more about the CBC.

Our chapter contributes to the CBC by identifying and counting birds in the Clarksville area between dawn to dusk on the selected day. You may also do owling in the wee hours if you are so motivated. Our count circle is a 15-mile radius centered near downtown, so your "owl prowl" records, "count week" records and observations on January 3 must all be within that area.

Please come join us! You are encouraged to participate whether you are an expert birder or not. Spotting and tallying birds in concert with a more experienced birder makes an important contribution to the success of the count, and it helps you learn more about the Clarksville-area winter birds. Of course, if you are an experienced birder you should be out there! It appears there is some correlation between the number of birders participating and the number of species counted, i.e., the more eyes, the better the results.

FIELD COUNTERS should meet at Shoney’s (2nd and Kraft Streets) at 6:00 a.m. where we will organize into groups that will count in assigned areas of the official count circle. At the end of the day (dusk) we will meet at the Biology Conference Room (D-125) of the Sundquist Science Building to enjoy a chili dinner and tally the day’s results. You can park behind Trahern near the fountain area and enter the building at the double doors facing the Trahern Art Building. Parking is also available in a gravel lot on Eighth Street.

If you cannot join the outdoor group, you may still contribute by being a FEEDER COUNTER on January 3. Your feeder must be within the count circle. To be a feeder counter you need to do the following: (1) Record how much time you spend watching the feeder on December 14. (2) Record the largest number of individuals of a species seen at one time. For instance, if you see 3 cardinals at the feeder all at once, record "3." If later you see 2 cardinals at the feeder, your count remains "3.". However, if you look again and you count 5 cardinals at the feeder at once, your total count is now "5." (3) Call Sally Schiller at 387-4071 with your feeder results as soon as you can after the count. Sally will also answer any feeder count questions before the count date. Sally will forward the data to Debbie. Feeder counters are encouraged to join the post count dinner.

Debbie Hamilton is CBC coordinator again this year. If you have any questions or wish to help in any way with this special chapter event, please call Debbie at 645-8092.

Perhaps before you receive this newsletter, the Energy Bill that has come out of the house-senate conference committee will have been voted on. Let’s hope not. If it has not yet been voted on by the time you receive this newsletter, I urge you to contact your elected representatives and voice your strong disapproval of this legislation, because this one is a real loser. True, provisions for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve (ANWR) were taken out of the legislation early on, there is practically nothing else about it that does not seriously harm the environment. This is a bill that, essentially, was written by a few Republican house and senate committee members behind closed doors (closed to the press and public, but not to rich corporations) and is full of multibillion dollar pork for the fossil fuel and nuclear energy sectors, with a few crumbs to alternative renewable energy, and almost nothing for energy conservation. Because this is a conference committee bill, it cannot be amended, it must be voted up or down in its entirety. There are so many bad provisions in this bill it is pointless to try to list them here, but generally it emphasizes more of the same tired old energy policy promoting consumption of fossil fuels and will do nothing to improve our energy security and independence. It contains a plethora of provisions that compromise environmental protection for the sake of promoting domestic fossil fuel energy production, even though there simply is not enough domestic fossil fuel resource for this to make a difference. Thus, we will deplete America first and wreck our environment in the process, while charging taxpayers billions of dollars in handouts to wealthy corporations. Sadly, unless a strong public outcry develops quickly, this legislation is likely to pass, because the bill contains just enough pork in the form of ethanol production incentives to entice a few democratic senators from the mid west to not filibuster the whole bill.

IF YOU CALL - TALKING POINTS

Ask for the Senator's energy aide. Tell that person that you strongly oppose the energy bill, H.R. 6, that was made public on November 15. Note that:

It is a radical departure from any balanced approach to public land management in America;

Its anti-environmental provisions will endanger public health, clean water, and safe drinking water;

It attacks private property rights in the West and endangers the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers whose lands overlay public oil and gas deposits;

It threatens wildlife and wildlife habitat, along with wild land, cultural, historical and recreational values;

It effectively surrenders public lands that belong to all Americans to the profit-driven designs of big oil companies and simultaneously frees them from any obligation to comply with long-standing, sensible environmental safeguards;

It includes unconscionable subsidies, upwards of $20 billion, to big oil companies that are already the nation's wealthiest industrial sector; and

It does absolutely nothing to foster conservation, such as higher mileage standards for automobiles.

Passage of this bill will mark a very sad day in American democracy. It would essentially end the era of government of the people, by the people, and for the people; and begin the era of government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.

Please consider subscribing to the Bird Watcher’s Digest and/or the The Backyard Birds Newsletter. The Warioto Audubon Board endorsed our participation in this partnership as a fund-raiser. I have been reading Bird Watcher’s Digest for several years and enjoy the style and information. It is not as "technical" as some birding magazines (such as ABA) and is more specific to birds and bird habitat enhancement than our own Audubon Magazine.

Please let us know if you are willing to receive the Warioto Warbler via e-mail. Our membership is down and we cannot afford to continue mailing to lapsed members to keep out numbers up above 200. Let Debbie know via e-mail at ammonite@charter.net.