By Janis Paseka
The 2001 NOU Spring meeting will be held at Camp Calvin Crest, a year round camp-conference-re-treat center located on a 250-acre site on the south side of the Platte River, 5 miles southwest of Fremont.
It is situated high on a bluff over-looking the river and is surrounded by upland woods, predominantly bur oak. Trails leading through the woods to the river below suggest good birding is to be expected on the premises in addition to our field trip destinations.
Mr. Mark Orsag is an Assistant Professor of Russian and European history at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, but he is better known to area birders as the chief hawk counter at Hitchcock Nature Area Hawkwatch in Pottawattamie County, in Western Iowa. Hitchcock is not far from Omaha, and some of our members have participated in the Hawkwatch there. Mr. Orsag will tell us about the fall 2000 season at Hitchcock, in which over 8300 raptors and vultures of 19 different species were logged, and about the raptor migration in general.
Mr. Joe Gubanyi, Assistant Professor of biology at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, has just concluded a study on bird use of riparian habitat along the lower Platte and Missouri Rivers. His presentation will focus specifically on the impact of deer popu- lations on this habitat. It is especially good to have Mr. Gubanyi speak to us again, since his study area encompasses some of our field trip destinations for the weekend.
Friday, May 18
4:00 pm Registration begins at Proett Conference Center
6:30 pm Dinner - Dining Hall
7:30 pm Speaker: Mark Orsag on the Hitchcock Hawkwatch and migration patterns of raptors
8:30 pm Executive Board Meeting
Saturday, May 19
6:00 am Breakfast - Dining Hall
7:00 am Field Trips leave
8:00 am Late breakfast available for those not going on field trips
12:00 noon Lunch in the Dining Hall for those remaining at Calvin Crest
(You may request a sack lunch if you plan to be out on a field trip at noon)
3:30 pm Speaker: Joe Gubanyi on the impact of deer populations on bird
habitat along the lower Platte and Missouri Rivers
4:30 pm Annual NOU Business Meeting and Election of Officers (all
members should be present)
6:00 pm Banquet - Dining Hall
7:00 pm Speaker - David Rintoul: 'Getting Fat on the Platte'
Sunday, May 20
6:00 am Breakfast - Dining Hall
7:00 am Field Trips leave
8:00 am Late breakfast available
12:00 noon Sunday Dinner - Dining Hall
12:45 pm Weekend Species Tally
1:00 pm Adjourn
The Registration Form for this Spring Meeting is included in this Newsletter. The sooner you get your registration turned in to Jan Uttecht the easier it is for us to get estimates of how many people are going to be attending the banquet, field trips, staying in which lodging accommodations, etc. We would like you to complete registration by May 4th since we have to let the managers at Calvin Crest know how many people we are expecting. This meeting promises to have exciting birding, good food, comfortable accommodations, informative speakers and a friendly and sociable environment. Since we will still be in the prime of passerine migration maybe we will spot a Dendroica castanea, Dendroica fusca, Ammospiza caudacuta or a Caprimulgus vociferous (not a passerine). Hope to see most of you at Calvin Crest May 18-20. The Registration Form is on the inside of the last page of this Newsletter.
By Clem Klaphake
A Nominating Committee was appointed in early March to select either a
new candidate or re-nominate a current officer. The committee members were Betty
Grenon, Alice Kenitz, and Sandy Kovanda. The following are the nominated
candidates to be voted on by the general membership at the Spring Meeting
May 19:
President - Janis Paseka 1585 Co. Rd 14 Blvd, Ames, NE (402)727-9229
Vice-president - Alice Kenitz 190648 Co. Rd 22, Gering, NE (308)436-2959
Treasurer - Jan Uttecht Box 823 Stanton, NE 68779 (402)439-2114
Secretary - Mitzi Fox Rte. 2 Box 36, Albion, NE (402)395-2395
Director - Betty Grenon 1409 Childs Rd E., Bellevue, NE (402)731-2383
In addition to voting on the above nominations for offices NOU members
will be asked to approve the following two items;
1. The chair of the Records Committee was added to the Board of Directors
two years ago, but one part of the by-laws was not changed to reflect this.
You will be asked to vote on the following change: The current wording from
Article IX, Section 2 reads: "At any meeting of the Board of Directors a
majority shall constitute a quorum, but any actions taken shall require approval
by a majority of the eleven authorized members of the Board."
By adding the chair of the Records Committee the Board now has twelve
members. With the memberships approval the new wording should read: "....a majority
of the twelve authorized members of the Board."
2. Joel Jorgensen has served the maximum of two three year terms on the Records Committee. We will ask the membership to give approval to Joel serving one additional year at this time.
By Clem Klaphake
It isn't too early to mark your calendars for the annual Fall Field Days which will again be held at Halsey this year on September 28-30. Last year Steve Dinsmore did a great job organizing this event at the Cedar Point/Lake McConaughy area. Prior to last year we usually have met at Halsey in mid- October. A number of NOU members have indicated that an earlier date would be better for bird migration. However, Halsey usually has standing reservations for most of September. I was able to move our date up about 2-3 weeks from when we usually have been there. More information regarding this event will be forth coming this summer
Change is always with us. It is ubiquitous. As nature observers we are reminded of this every time we look around us. The following essay written by Hal Borland appeared in Audubon magazine in 1991 and I would like to share it with you again as we approach the month of May:
THERE IS THE TEMPTATION to say, as May spreads the leaves and opens the blossoms, that spring has come again just as it has come for untold eons. But the fact is that no two springs are exactly alike. Man contrives machines that turn out countless duplicates; but nature is not a machine. Change is the one constant in this living world, the essential element of life.
We go to the meadow to pick violets, but there are only a few where they were profuse a year ago; this year they are at their best a hundred yards away. We look for wild columbine on the rocky ledge, but the ledge itself has been split and diminished by winter's frost. We walk beside the familiar brook and see that the spate has filled one cove with silt, widened another. We cut across an abandoned hillside pasture, all grass five years ago, now dotted with seedling pines, a new woodland in the making.
Bloodroot still blooms beside the old stone wall, and anemones. But the wall itself is tumbling and briars begin to overgrow the stones. Field mouse and chipmunk that sheltered there have had to find new homes. The ever- shifting balance has been changed again. The winds plant thistles and milkweed, the birds plant briars and wild grapes, the squirrels plant oaks.
Change, constant, unending change within the framework of the familiar, the enduring. Another May, another spring, eternal but unlike any other spring that ever was.
By Loren Padelford
The United States Geological Survey sponsors the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), an annual event that surveys breeding bird populations throughout North America. Nebraska has 46 BBS routes of which several are available and in need of an observer. The survey route takes only about four hours to complete and is run once, any day in the month of June, beginning 30 minutes before sunrise. The route is 24.5 miles long with a stop every half-mile. At each three minute stop the observer counts all birds seen or heard within a quarter-mile radius.
It works better when two people can do the route, one to be the observer and the other to be the time keeper and record the birds seen at each stop. Observers should be able to identify birds by sight and recognize common birds by song. Expenses associated with running the routes are tax deductible. If you are interested or know someone who may be interested, please contact Loren Padelford, 1405 Little John Rd., Bellevue, NE 68005, (402)292-5556, { HYPERLINK "mailto:lpdlfrd@juno.com" }lpdlfrd@juno.com.
BBS routes are fun to do and you can feel confident that you are contributing to our knowledge about birds. Many researchers use the information gathered by observers on BBS routes.
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Make checks payable to the Nebraska Ornithologist's Union and return with this form to: JAN UTTECHT BOX 823 STANTON, NE 68779