Oh, the places you’ll go. Oh, the birds that you’ll see.

     A recent, hot, midsummer Sunday in the Valentine area offered nice looks at Burrowing Owl, Upland Sandpiper, Grasshopper Sparrow and many other species.  Just think what the birding will be like in late September.

     Dave Heidt, who deserves thanks from all of us for organizing the meeting, has lined up three excellent field-trip leaders—himself, Mark Brogie and Lanny Randolph. Here’s what Dave had to say as this issue was going to press about their plans:

    “I checked with Mark and he will be able to do a field trip this fall.  He plans on hitting the river canyons in the Sparks area (East of Valentine).

     “I have not talked to Lanny recently, but he had originally thought of leading one around the fish hatchery and the refuge.

     “I am planning on scouting the area the weekend before the meeting and will either lead one into Keya Paha county or will hit MerrittReservoir/McKelvie National Forest/Two-mile Lake.”
         
      You can sign up for (or skip) three meals—Friday dinner (pizza and pop); Saturday lunch (turkey sandwich, chips, cookie and drink) and Saturday dinner (lasagna, salad and cheesecake). All other meals are “on your own.” We won’t have a dinner program Friday night. On Saturday, we’ll have a membership meeting to vote on the bylaws changes that were spelled out in the last newsletter. We will also have a presentation titled “Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary ? 35 years of conservation in Nebraska.” The presenter described it this way:

     “When you hear the word’s Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary, the first thing that comes to mind is Sandhill Cranes. Kent Skaggs, the sanctuary’s current office manager, will bring us up to speed on developments at this vitally important staging area along the Platte River. He will discuss the sanctuary’s history and update us on its current management practices, educational programs, and ecotourism and volunteer opportunities.”

     Our venue is the Holiday Inn Express, which is on Route 20 as you enter Valentine from the East. I’ve stayed there recently and can attest that it’s a nice enough hotel. But there are other options, including a Super 8, a Comfort Inn and several locally owned motels. A Google search on “motels Valentine Nebraska”
lists ten.
 
 
 

2008 NEBRASKA LIST REPORT (125 species or more)
Click here to see the county list report.
 
 

By Neal Ratzlaff

The year is 1950.  Harry Truman is president. The Korean War begins and the first Peanuts cartoon strip appears.  Color TV, DNA, Disneyland, McDonald’s, Elvis and NASA have not yet arrived on the American scene. This same year a young woman, Mary Lou Hanson, began her first of 59 consecutive terms as NOU
Custodian/Librarian.    
       
A life-long resident of Lincoln, Mary Lou is no stranger to the UNL campus, frequenting it since her student days at Teacher’s College High School which was located there.  In fact, she never left, continuing her work as a volunteer on campus to this very day.  She graduated from UNL with an undergraduate degree in Business Administration, but biological science requirements necessary for
degree fulfillment stimulated her interest in Biology, Botany and, particularly, Zoology.  

So, immediately after graduation Mary Lou started working on her Masters Degree in Zoology with a major in Parasitology.  In 1948, this newly minted masters program graduate took a position as Assistant Curator of Zoology at the Nebraska State Museum.  At that time the Museum was already the repository for the NOU and
correspondence naturally came to Morrill Hall where Mary Lou worked.  It should, then, be no surprise that the name of this new NOU member came up as a candidate for the position when the existing Custodian announced he was leaving Lincoln.
       
Mary Lou’s rather emphatic statement that her knowledge of birds was VERY limited suggests that intangible qualifications other than knowledge, including “alive and breathing” and most important of all, “willing” were as important then as they are today.

Realizing the position of Librarian made her an actual officer in NOU, she set upon a course of serious bird study. She recalls spending the winter practically memorizing Peterson’s Field Guide so she would be up to speed by the time of the spring meeting.  Acquiring field skills was another challenge.  An invitation to join the University Place Bird Club allowed her to begin working on them.  An additional opportunity came in the early 1950’s when she was invited to help organize the new, NOU sponsored
Lincoln Audubon Naturalist’s Club, which conducted monthly or bimonthly field trips.

Birding was not the only opportunity which presented itself.  A gentleman by the name of Bud Pritchard happened to be President of the club at the same time Mary Lou was the Secretary.  Here a fine friendship was born and Bud and Mary Lou were married in 1956.  Both were active in the birding community in Lincoln, and for several years they served as the coordinators of the Lincoln Christmas Bird Count.

In 1960 Mary Lou left the State Museum to become a Research Assistant in the UNL Department of Zoology. Her research took her on extended trips to Hawaii, South Africa and to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography for trips along the Pacific Coast of North and South America.  Shorter ones, scattered from 1960-94, took her to Europe, Eastern Europe including Russia, and Australia to study and collect
parasites, specifically trematodes (flatworms) of marine fishes.

UNL became a center for Marine Parisitology during the tenure of Dr. Harold W. Manter, a widely known and respected authority.  In 1970 Mary Lou returned to the State Museum when she and Dr. Manter founded a new division of Parasitology there.  When Dr. Manter died in 1972, Mary Lou became Professor and Curator of
Parasitology and founded the Harold W. Manter Lab of Parasitology which grew into an international center.  In 1981 it was designated as one of only three National Resource Centers for Parasitology. During her tenure three Henry Baldwin Ward Medalists were students in Parasitology and in the Lab.  The Ward is the American Society of Parasitologists highest honor. Mary Lou retired in 1994 but has been a volunteer at the Manter Lab ever since.  She continues as the Lab’s full-time Librarian and Curator Emeritus.

Bud Pritchard was an artist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for 25 years until his death in 1975.  His wildlife art appeared regularly in the NG&PC publication, Nebraskaland, and his portrait of a pair of Hooded Mergansers was the winner of the 1968-9 Federal Duck Stamp competition.   In 2006, the State Museum held a retrospective of Bud’s work, and when it closed all of his work was sent to the UNL archives by invitation.

Mary Lou’s career accomplishments are even more remarkable when one considers they occurred at a time that was not an easy one for a professional woman. She was never able to obtain a doctorate in the Zoology Department because its policy did not allow for female candidates.  Recognition of her achievements finally occurred in 2002 when Mary Lou was given an Honorary Doctorate in Zoology, the first time a
doctorate was given to anyone who had come up through the staff.  

This past spring Mary Lou retired from the NOU Librarian’s position after serving 59 years in this capacity, a record not likely to be broken any time soon.  Perhaps there will be a little more time to pursue interests in literature (non-fiction and the classics), current events, music and Welsh history and culture, the latter acquired when she struck up that “fine friendship” with a gentleman of Welsh ancestry named Bud.

Mary Lou wishes to express her appreciation to all NOU members who have contributed material to the NOU library/archives and volunteered from time to time for library maintenance projects.  She is especially appreciative of the major assistance and support of fellow NOU member Thomas Labedz, Collections Manager of the State Museum’s Zoology Division, the actual site where the Library is housed.  His active involvement in processing incoming material and maintaining the Library have been invaluable.    
 
 
 

Minutes of May 16, 2009 Annual Meeting: Lanny Randolph called the meeting to order.
Betty Grenon gave the treasurer's report. Don Paseka reported the nominations committee
(Don, Helen Hughson and Neal Ratzlaff) nominated Urban Lehner - President; Nancy
Leonard - Vice President; Janis Paseka - Editor, Bird Review; Steve Lamphere - Director;
Anita Breckbill - Librarian. The slate was elected. Urban reported on the fall 2009
meeting. It’s in Valentine, September 25-27, not the dates listed in the spring
newsletter. Dave Heidt reported the spring 2010 meeting will be in Chadron, May 14-16.
Wayne Mollhoff gave an update on BB Atlas project. There was no new business and the
meeting was adjourned. (Minutes by Steve Lamphere, filling in for the secretary.)
 
 

BOOK CORNER

Linda R. Brown reviews Return to Warden’s Grove: Science, Desire and the Lives
of Sparrows, by Christopher Norment. (2008, University of Iowa Press):

Thomas Labedz recommended this book, telling me it was about the author’s study of
Harris’s Sparrows.  I was excited.  I like Harris’s Sparrows. Each year in late winter
they spend a couple weeks in my back yard in Lincoln, seeking shelter in the brush pile,
scratching for seeds and whistling their plaintive whistles.  I expected something like
a dissertation but held out hope for the immediacy of a George Sutton-type account of
these beautiful sparrows.

 It is probably telling that Professor Norment did not specify “Harris’s Sparrows” in
the title of this book. Only about a third of it shares direct information on Harris’s
Sparrows. Much of this book deals with the author’s personal questions about what his
time on the study grounds meant to him. The rest invites the reader to follow the
migration of the Harris’s Sparrows as we journey north from Kansas with the author
and his assistant for a typical field season in the Northwest Territories.  

In this effort, I believe the author succeeds in giving us an intuitive feel for the
“jiz” of the breeding habitat for Harris’s Sparrows. We are introduced into the harsh
conditions the birds and researchers encounter as we follow the aircraft carrying
Norment and his assistant into Warden’s Grove for an ice landing on the Thelon River,
followed by discovery that bears have wrecked the refuge cabin.  

Despite initial anxiety over possible bear encounters and worries about his PhD. study
design, the author soon reconnects with the peace he has always found in the wild.  We
come to understand that he craves and takes comfort in isolation. In fact, the author
suggests that he chose to study Harris’s Sparrows because they happened to be in a space
where he wanted to be, a space without human conflict.  It seems as if he needed to be
away from people so that he had time to think, to confront big questions about both
science and his personal life, and to reconnect with his joy.  I would wish such a
process for every PhD candidate.  

Norment thinks deeply and often expresses himself almost poetically.  I particularly
related to his consideration of “killing”.  It reminded me that as a beginning bird-bander,
I dreamed that I returned to check the nets and found one net had acted as a Hangman’s
Noose for five migrating clay-colored sparrows.  That nightmare stayed with me, always
reminding me of the tiny lives I was interrupting, even if only for just a few minutes.  
Conversely, I admit to being fascinated by the dead birds we hold in the white specimen
cabinets at Nebraska’s State Museum.

Still, like Norment, I too have wondered whether this work of “collecting” for the cause
of science can be justified. Considering this book to be an opening into the mind of a
person who is attempting to do research, I recommend Return to Warden’s Grove, Science,
Desire and the Lives of Sparrows to anyone planning field research as part of a Masters
or PhD program. This book is now part of the NOU archives.
 
 

NEBRASKA ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION
VALENTINE FALL CONFERENCE
SEPT 25 - 27, 2009
 

Location:       Holiday Inn Express/Niobrara River Lodge
                803 East Highway 20
                Valentine, NE
                402-376-3000

Motel rooms:   $85.00 plus tax for 4-person capacity
                Mention NOU for “convention” rate
                Call 1-877-376-3003 to reserve rooms

Only Friday & Saturday dinners & Saturday box lunch planned; all other meals on your own.

                                                            # People              Payment

Fees include all taxes and gratuities.

Sept 25 - Friday Dinner     Pizza/pop         $ 5.00        _________          _________

Sept 26 - Subway Sack Lunch
 Turkey sandwich, chips, cookie & drink       $ 6.00        _________           _________

Sept 26 - Saturday Dinner                     $13.00        _________           _________
 Lasagna, salad, cheesecake

Registration per person                       $ 5.00        _________           _________
 

Total enclosed with this form:                               ________          ________
 

Please indicate any special dietary requirements.

Deadline:  September 18 2009
 

NAME(S) ____________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS  ___________________________________________________________________
CITY, STATE, ZIP ____________________________________________________________
TELEPHONE # _______________________ E-MAIL ADDRESS _______________________    
 
 

Make checks payable to NOU and mail with the registration form to:
 Betty Grenon
 1409 Childs Road East
 Bellevue, NE 68005    
         (402-731-2383)
 

E-mail addresses have been altered so that spammers cannot steal them easily.
To use them, replace the (at) with the @ symbol.
                                                                   
…………………………………………………………………………………………
President and Newsletter Editor:
Urban Lehner, 15526 Pierce Cir., Omaha NE 68144 Phone: (402) 301-6143
Email address: urbanity(at)hotmail.com

Vice President:
Nancy Leonard, 15526 Pierce Cir., Omaha NE 68144    (402) 301-6143
neleonard(at)gmail.com

Secretary:
Kevin Poague, 379 So. 46th Street, Lincoln NE, 68510    (402) 570-6851
kpoague(at)neb.rr.com

Treasurer:
Betty Grenon, 1409 Childs Rd. E., Bellevue NE 68005    (402) 731-2383
grenon925(at)aol.com

Directors:
Steve Lamphere, 3101 Washington St., Apt. 98, Bellevue, NE 68005    (402) 291-9149
kingfisher65(at)aol.com

Kathy DeLara, 170188 Spring Creek Rd., Mitchell, NE 69357    (308) 632-3047
renosmom(at)charter.net

Roland Barth, 4002 Hunters Cove, Omaha, NE 68123    (402) 292-6291
rebarth(at)cox.net

Past Presidents:
Lanny Randolph, 2028 34th Road, Minden, NE 68959   (308) 216-0427  snowbunting(at)rcom-ne.com

David Heidt, 1703 Hilltop, Norfolk, NE 68701   (402) 371-3412   daveh(at)northeast.edu
 

Editor of The Nebraska Bird Review:
Janis Paseka, 1585 Co. Rd. 14 Blvd., Ames NE 68621
(402) 727-9229
paseka76(at)gmail.com

Librarian:
Anita Breckbill, 3237 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68503
(402) 438-1300
abreckbill1(at)unl.edu

Seasonal bird report compiler:
Ross Silcock, P.O. Box 57, Tabor, IA 51653
(712) 629-5865
silcock(at)rosssilcock.com

Breeding Bird Atlas and Nest Records Committee:
Wayne Mollhoff, 2354 Euclid St, Ashland, NE 68003
(402) 944-2840
wmollhoff(at)netscape.net

Records Committee Chairman:
Mark A. Brogie, 508 Seeley, Box 316, Creighton, NE 68729
(402) 358-5675
mbrogie(at)esu1.org

Nebraska Birding Trails    http://www.NebraskaBirdingTrails.com

NOU Website    http://RIP.physics.UNK.edu/NOU