Dedicated to creating a greater awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the interrelatedness of all Michigan’s wild places and wildlife and the need for stewardship.
A NOTE FROM OUR PRESIDENT Join Us
ATOUR JUNE MEETING!
Ice Cream Social, Annual Meeting and Bird Walk at Fenner Nature Center
Thursday June 1 - 7:00pm
Lansing
Join CAAS members and guests for a quick annual meeting to approve new board members, followed by ice cream and a walk around Fenner. We will meet at the tables near the parking lot.
Bathroom facilities are available at Fenner.
The walk will be easy, with the possibility of muddy uneven trails depending on the weather. If the weather is poor, (sustained rain or high winds) we will cancel the walk.
Please check your email or our Facebook page for weather cancellations.
Our 2023-2024 Program year will begin next September. If you have ideas for speakers or field trips, please email us at caascallnote@gmail.com or let a board member know.
We need you.
The Capital Area Audubon society would not be around if it weren't for amazing volunteers and community members. People who are passionate about birds, nature, creating connections with like-minded people and sharing that passion with our local community.
Our board helps to steer the direction of the club, plan programs, organize meetings, contact potential speakers, contribute to community events and more. Board members can serve in a role that best fits their personality and interests.
Right now we have two open seats on our board and a number of roles to fill. If you would be interested in serving, please reach out or ask any of our current board members for more information. Board member terms are three years, and meetings are scheduled quarterly.
If you are not interested in serving in an official capacity, we are also
AN APPRECIATION
This spring marks forty-five years since Liz and I first joined the Capital Area Audubon Society. During that time we have seen many members come and go. But throughout, the one person who has always been actively involved has been Lee Laylin.
I’m not sure when Lee first joined CAAS but it must have been at least 15 years before us. Lee has always been very active in the club serving as president and board member, organizing field trips, joining in
looking for someone to help with the Call Note.
I have enjoyed working on the newsletter each month to share relevant bird-related articles and opportunities with all of you, but as my family life is getting busier, the added time dedicated to the Call Note has added quite a bit of stress. The Call Note is emailed each month September through June.
I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing summer and find time to enjoy the birdlife here in Michigan and anywhere you chose to travel.
Our family has already celebrated the Chickadee nestlings fledging at the end of May and have a Robin and Cardinal family well on the way.
See you all at Fenner on Thursday and hope you join us for another year of programs again next September!
Sincerely,
Kristy Taylor, CAAS Board Presidentproducing quilts to be raffled by WPBO, hosting the CBC tallies for many, many years and along with Roger providing ice cream for the June meetings. I'm sure others could add to this list.
Lee and Roger celebrated their ninetieth birthdays this past fall. When you see Lee, please take the time to thank her for all she has done for CAAS.
- Sam Febba1
SUMMER EVENTS
Check our Facebook page for more summer events!
Iosco Natural Area Nature Walk
Saturday, June 3 - 11am
Iosco Road, near the S. Osborn/Iosco intersection, Dansville, MI
Join in the celebration of National Trails Day for a guided family friendly hike through Mid-Michigan Land Conservancy's Iosco Natural Area. This hike will take you through mature beechmaple forest and will showcase the new trail system created by our wonderful volunteers. This event is free and open to the public. Difficulty is low-moderate and distance will be just over one mile.
Kirtland's Warbler Festival
Saturday, June 3, 7am - 4pm
CRAF Center, 606 Lake Street, Roscommon, MI
Enjoy habitat and birding tours, art, family activities, artwork, prize drawings and more in Roscommon during the Kirtland Warbler Festival!
Seven Ponds Tour Opportunity -
Seven Ponds Nature Center is a nonprofit located in Lapeer County. We are committed to environmental education and connecting people with nature. As such, we organize and lead a few birding field tours each year, providing small group, high quality birding experiences in unique locations around the United States.
The next tour is in October and will explore the amazing birds and scenery that surrounds Las Vegas, Nevada. Just outside the city limits lie pine-forested alpine peaks, golden stands of aspen, red rock canyons, Joshua tree forests, deserts and grasslands, wetlands and riparian corridors, and vast Lake Mead. Within Las Vegas, large city parks act as an oasis and concentrate dozens of species of birds. We'll take all this in from one convenient base of operations in Las Vegas - which means no need to unpack and pack several times during the tour. The tour is nearly all-inclusiveguide services, lodging, ground transportation, and all meals are included. One spot remains availablehttps://sevenponds.org/field-tours/
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Ebird report by Ian DaviesThere are some days that feel too good to be true, waking dreams filled with birds. Today was one of those days.
A river of a quarter-million warblers. 12 hours. A dozen or so of us were able to witness this incredible spectacle today in Tadoussac, Quebec, a spectacle that has only happened at this magnitude once before at the exact same place on 28 May 2018
Today started with cautiously high hopes, as the Tadoussac regulars had been eyeing this day since the weekend: southwest winds overnight (tailwinds good for migration), combined with a big cold front arriving right around dawn, bringing rain, strong northwest winds, and colder temperatures the same setup that has resulted in flights of tens or hundreds of thousands of birds in past Mays. Despite the hope, you never know what will happen until you’re out there.
The first couple hours of daylight featured drizzle and strong winds, and not many birds until about 6:45, when the rain became more light and intermittent. The trickle of warblers began to expand across the sky, increasing to 100 birds per minute, then 500 birds/minute by 7:30. The Tadoussac river of warblers had begun.
This flight continued at 300-500 birds/minute until about 9:20, at which point the rain dropped significantly, and the flood gates opened, as many as 1345 warblers/minute raging past in a torrent of flight calls and glowing songbirds. Birds were everywhere, below eye level, flying between people, pouring through the bushes, landing on the sand, and one Cape May Warbler even tried to land on my arm. A Red-eyed Vireo flew into someone. It was madness.
For the next four hours, tens of thousands of warblers raced past, sometimes inches off of the sand. For one period of time, the rate of warblers was 80,000/hour similar to many points of the record day in 2018.
The most common species of warbler was Bay-breasted, with an estimated 1 in 3 birds being of this species, followed by significant numbers of
Cape May, Yellow-rumped, and Tennessee all around 1 in 5. At one point, one branch in an isolated tree had 9 Cape May and 6 Bay-breasted Warblers on it. This was not unusual today.
With so many individual birds, there are also always some oddities most notably a Summer Tanager and a Redshouldered Hawk, the tanager a first for the location and apparent 2nd for the county, and the Red-shouldered the first for the location since 1992 (second ever), and apparent 7th for the county. There were also significant numbers of Evening Grosbeaks, American Pipits, Horned Larks, and Cedar Waxwings large flocks that would cut through the river of warblers including the all-time high count for the location of Evening Grosbeak.
As always, these massive events require balancing the need to document what is happening with the desire to just bask in the greatest avian spectacle I’m aware of. We tried our best, knowing that any method is imperfect, and all we can do is try.
We arrived at total numbers of birds by estimating the rate of movement, since there is a constant ‘flow’ of birds moving to the southwest. Rate estimates were made by counting the number of individuals passing the count location in a one-minute period. Multiple observers would work to count the full sky (e.g., one person count towards the river, one inland, done in this list by Jessé and Ian), and those counts would be combined for a oneminute rate estimate. These counts were repeated every 10-20 minutes throughout the day. The counts are then used to interpolate counts between the timed counts (e.g., a count at 9:30 would be used to estimate numbers of birds moving between 9:25 and 9:35, where your next count at 9:40 would be used to count between 9:35-9:45).
Rate counts were combined with our best estimates of warbler species composition from the field experience throughout the day.
Species-specific numbers and comments are in the checklist. The estimated total number of warblers (rounded to nearest 500) is 258,500. This appears to be the second-highest total number of warblers recorded anywhere in a single day.
Full checklist available at -
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AMAZING MIGRATION DAY ON EBIRD
https://ebird.org/checklist/S139153079
CAAS MEMBERSHIP
Support community programs with your CAAS Membership. Your membership supports programs in our community and monthly meetings Sept through June.
Memberships run the length of the program year, September to August.
SEPTEMBER 2024 - AUGUST 2025
Membership Categories
Individual $15.00
Family $20.00
Contributing $30.00
Sustaining $50.00
Donor $100.00
To sign up and pay online, visitcapitalareaaudubon.org
If you would like to mail your membership form and payment, please mail toCAAS, PO Box 22065, Lansing, MI 48910
CALL NOTE
Published monthly
September through June by the Capital Area Audubon Society PO Box 22065, Lansing MI 48909. Deadline for submissions: 20th of the month.
2022-2023 CAAS Officers
President Kristy Taylor
Vice President Patricia Deventer
Secretary Nick Segerson
Treasurer Michael Caterino
Membership Richard Yarsevich
Editor & Facebook Kristy Taylor
Publicity & Hospitality Sandra Conn
Field Trip Coordinator
Program Coordinator Patricia Deventer
Historian Barb Andersen
Website Sandra Conn
2022-2023 CAAS Board of Directors
Michael Caterino
Sandra Conn
Patricia Deventer
Susan Elbin
Barb Andersen
Nick Segerson
Kristy Taylor
Richard Yarsevich
OPEN SEAT
caaudubon@gmail.com
capitalareaaudubon.org
facebook.com/capitalareaaudubon
KIRTLAND'S WARBLER FOR STATE BIRD?
If you love the uniqueness and beauty of Michigan's rarest warbler, consider supporting a change to the Michigan State Bird.
Members of the Kirtland's Warbler Alliance and volunteers met with various members of the Michigan House of Representatives on April 19 to talk about Kirtland's Warbler conservation efforts. They'll be going back to Lansing soon to talk to members of the Senate
If you live in Michigan, they would love it if you could drop your legislator a line to let them know that you support HB 4229, legislation that would make the Kirtland's Warbler Michigan's State Bird. If you need help identifying your legislator, email director@kirtlandswarbler.org and they can help you find your district, the name of your legislator and their contact information.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU FIND A BABY BIRD
I found a baby bird. What should I do?”
This may be the most frequently asked bird-related question in spring and early summer. So what is the answer?
If the baby bird is fully feathered and hopping around, it is probably a fledgling. This means the bird has recently left the nest and probably can’t fly well, but is almost certainly doing just fine with parents close by. Please don’t intervene! Watch from a distance and you will likely see the parents come in to feed and care for the youngster.
If the baby bird has little to no feathers and is not capable of moving about, it may be a nestling that has fallen from the nest. In this case, you may gently place the bird back in its nest, which should be nearby. The parents will return
If the baby bird is sick, injured, or orphaned (and you have observed the situation to be certain that this is the case), get in touch with a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in your
area. (Search online or download the app - Animal Help Now to find a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in your area.)
If the baby bird has been in contact with a pet, like a dog or a cat, contact a wildlife rehabilitator. Domestic animals can carry bacteria in their mouths that can kill the baby bird, even if it seems to be doing ok.
Just remember: In most cases, the baby bird you’ve encountered is perfectly healthy and under the watchful eye of caring parents. Please leave it alone!
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