2013 - 2014 MEETINGS

PRAS meets monthly September - May

Our next meeting is April 17, 2014

Please join the Peace River Audubon Society on April 17 to hear Mary McMurray, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, conduct a presentation on the Colonial Bird Nesting Monitoring and Protection Program within the Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves. The Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves are comprised of five contiguous aquatic preserves within the greater Charlotte Harbor estuary complex. The preserves are the Lemon Bay Aquatic Preserve in the north, to Cape Haze Aquatic Preserve and Gasparilla Sound - Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserve, to Matlacha Pass Aquatic Preserve and Pine Island Sound Aquatic Preserve in the south. The focus of the presentation will include highlighting the objectives, study area, methods, data collection and analysis, and importance of the program. The meeting will be held at the First Alliance Church located at 20444 Midway Blvd, Port Charlotte, FL 33952. Doors open at 6:30 PM.

Mary McMurray majored in Marine Science and graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2007. She began working at Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves as an Environmental Specialist  in January 2008. She has been involved in the Colonial Bird Nesting Monitoring and Protection Program since 2008 when DEP began conducting monthly surveys  on rookery islands. Their data is published annually in the South Florida Wading Bird Report.

Please call Jim Knoy at 303 868 8337 if you have any questions.

Meeting Location

FIRST ALLIANCE CHURCH

MIDWAY BLVD & GREEN ST – PORT CHARLOTTE

Doors open at 6:30 and the meeting begins at 7PM.

DIRECTIONS TO MEETING SITE

From Highway 41, drive to Midway Blvd., then east on Midway for less than ¼ mile, turning left (north) for a short distance on Green St., then right into the church's main parking lot. Our meetings will be held in the Church's Cafe which is located at the far end of the main parking lot. Parking is also available near the main entrance to the Café.

From I-75 , exit onto King's Highway, south to Midway Blvd., then west a few miles to the last church (First Alliance) on the right just before the junction of Midway and Highway 41.

The Peace River Audubon Society Scholarship for Environmental Studies

Scholarship deadline has been extended until April 21, 2014

The purpose of this award is to encourage students to pursue a degree in environmental studies. Funds may be used for the educational institution's tuition, books, upplies and equipment, or technical materials. College students with professional goals to pursue science, biology, envionmental education, or wildlife conservation will be given preference and are invited to apply.

Click here for more information.

2014 PRAS BANQUET - SILENT AUCTION SPONSORS

The Members of Peace River Audubon Society thank the following Merchants for their generous contribution to our 2014 Silent Auction.

Babcock Wilderness Adventures

Beyond the Sea

Bobcat Trail Golf Club

Burnt Store Grille

Charles Sobczak

Charlotte Stone Crabs (Ripken) Baseball

Dr. Jerome A. Jackson

Edison & Ford Winter Estates

Florida Everblades Hockey Club

Heron Creek Golf & Country Club

Historic Bok Sanctuary

Imaginarium Science Center

Kennedy Space Center

King Fisher Fleet Cruise

Kings Gate Country Club

Lion Country Safari

Monkey Jungle

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium

Naples Botanical Garden

Naples Princess Cruises

Naples Zoo

Nav-A-Gator Riverboat Tours

Opus Restaurant

Outback Steak House

Pinch-A-Penny Pool Patio & Spa

Port Charlotte Golf Club

Portofino Restaurant

Riverwood Golf Club

Sarasota National

Sea World Adventure Park

St. Andrews South Golf Club

Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo

The Cove Bistro

The Florida Aquarium

Twin Isles Country Club

Walt Disney World

Worden Farms

Wrigley's Tennis

Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment

The Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment, which will appear as Amendment 1 on the November 4, 2014 ballot, dedicates funding for water and land conservation, management and restoration by amending the state constitution.  Amendment 1 sets aside one-third (33 percent) of Florida's existing documentary stamp tax revenues (paid when real estate is sold) and guarantees that these funds can be used only for conservation purposes, such as managing existing water protection and conservation lands, protecting lands that are critical for water supply, restoring degraded natural systems and acquiring conservation and recreation lands.

Peace River Audubon Society supported the petition drive which resulted in Amendment 1 being placed on the November 4, 2014 ballot. It will be up to the citizens of Florida to pass this very important Amendment.

The answers to frequently asked questions will be found on the following website: http://voteyeson1fl.org/sections/page/faq

Important Video from Audubon Florida

Tips for Successful Wildlife Photography

As you know, breeding season gets off to an early start in Florida—and where there are adult birds in showy breeding plumage and adorable chicks clamoring to be fed, wildlife photographers are sure to follow. While many of us enjoy glimpses into the secret lives of birds, we don't often think about the ecological risks involved in taking wildlife photos.

Each year, Audubon biologists, wardens, and volunteers spend countless hours educating photographers who have approached nesting birds on our sanctuaries too closely—disrupting their natural behaviors and threatening the birds' health and the safety of their chicks. Many photographers just don't realize what the impacts can be…and unfortunately a small, harmful minority care more about killer photographs than the birds.

Audubon Florida has recently made several short outreach videos.  The most recent one (the third in the series) presents some important guidelines for wildlife photographers.  As more and more people enjoy the ease and immediate gratification of digital photography it is important to set boundaries to protect the birds. 

Please take a moment to watch this new video from Audubon Florida: http://youtu.be/aIAfP12jTNQ .

The Amazing Life of a Tiny Shorebird, Sanderling # VM0

by Bill Dunson

One of the most remarkable things that a naturalist can learn is how individual animals live their lives. We often see birds in large flocks or alone, yet we cannot know anything about them as individuals. Yet through banding programs using markers which are visible, it is possible to follow the lives of birds without capturing and damaging them, except for the initial capture. I have always opposed the capture and marking of birds unless there is a very specific need for the information which justifies the adverse impact of the capture process. However there is a very strong justification for marking shorebirds which are often undergoing population declines. If we know exactly where they spend their time, there is a greater likelihood of success in protecting these habitats.

On Christmas day I was out doing what I enjoy most, hiking and observing nature, specifically on the beach at Knight/Palm Island. Over a two hour period I observed about 640 individuals of 34 species of birds, feeding and resting along the shore. One of the most interesting observations I made was finding a banded sanderling, a small shorebird about 8 inches long and weighing only 2 ounces. You will see in the photos I took that there was a metal band on the lower right leg and a green flag engraved with a code, VM0, on the upper right leg. The bird was healthy and feeding in the surf zone as is their habit. Since I was fortunate enough to get a decent photo of the flag, I was able to enter the information into a web site ( www.bandedbirds.org ) and determine where it was originally banded and whether it had been seen since then.

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To my amazement this tiny waif is at least 5 1/2 years old since it was banded originally on 5/15/2007 at Cooks Beach-North, New Jersey. It has been subsequently been re`sighted eight times in two locations during the fall, winter and spring. It apparently spends the winter on Knight Island, Florida, and migrates through Mispillion Harbor, Delaware (see map) on the way to its breeding grounds in the high Arctic. I find several aspects of this quite incredible. First that a tiny bird can live this long and survive five years of round trips between the Arctic, Delaware/New Jersey and Florida, and be spotted and identified repeatedly. The chances of this seem quite implausible yet there are photos to document three of these sightings. It is also impressive that this individual has chosen to return to the same locations during the winter and its long distance spring migration. In other words it is a "snow-bird" with a specific known location in two places. This tiny bird presumably knows the surroundings well and is able to return exactly to them year after year. We can only surmise that it also has specific breeding grounds somewhere along the coastal tundra of the high Arctic that it returns to year after year.

There are many things about nature that evoke wonder, but just thinking about this tiny shorebird surviving the many hazards of its life and completing this perilous journey up and down the eastern coast of North America leaves me absolutely amazed. There is something about knowing this bird (#VM0) personally that makes a big difference in the appreciation of its remarkable life journey and I hope will help we humans to provide better protection for these tiny specks of life. Let's be better stewards of the beaches, shores and mudflats for all of these life forms that share the planet with us.


Bill Dunson is a biologist and professor emeritus of Penn State University. He lives in the Englewood, FL area part-time, and leads walks at Wildflower Preserve and often joins our PRAS walks.

PRAS NEWSLETTER IS NOW ELECTRONIC

Beginning last season, the PRAS White Bird newsletter is all electronic. Costs for printing and mailing have become too burdensome and we are doing our part to reduce unnecessary resource use when possible. Click here to get a monthly reminder of the publishing of the newsletter by signing up for our newsletter email group.

Attend Meetings and Learn

Pennington Park Wednesday Workdays

• Did you know that the Audubon Pennington Park in Port Charlotte is maintained by PRAS?
• Did you know that Brazilian pepper, carrotweed and air potatoes have been invading the beautiful habitat?
• Did you know that every Wednesday at 8AM our volunteers meet to maintain the park?

Well, if the above is news to you - you're missing out on a wonderful opportunity to enjoy birding AND make a diference in our community.

If you'd like to help maintain the park, please meet at the park entrance on Wednesdays mornings at 8 AM. The entrance is off Alton between Peachland and Midway Blvds - approx. 1 1/2 miles west of Kings Highway.

PRAS College Scholarship Fund

The Peace River Audubon Society College Scholarship Fund is an endowed fund to support an advanced college undergraduate environmental studies major residing in Charlotte or Desoto Counties. Our goal for the fund is $30,000 and we are making progress with every fundraising effort to meet that goal. Once the goal is attained, the interest earned will support yearly scholarships. If you would like to donate to this fund please contact our Treasurer, Jim Comfort at 941-505-0206.

If you would like to take advantage of the tax benefits for planned giving options by leaving a legacy through a bequest in your Will or through a gift annuity in yours or someone else's memory please contact your attorney or financial advisor. Your gift will support our work while meeting your own personal needs for income, retirement planning, and tax savings.

We need your help and expertise - Get involved in PRAS today