Whooping cranes are endangered, with fewer than 500 left in the wild. They also are spectacular, with wingspans exceeding 7 feet, white bodies and striking red-black-and-white heads. In addition to being a hunter, Richards apparently is a naturalist, too. He knew immediately what he was seeing and called the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) office in Neosho with the news.

Whooping cranes - courtesy US FWS file photo by Laura Erickson

Jeff Cantrell, a conservation education consultant for the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) hurried to the site and was stunned to find an adult crane and a juvenile fitted with a leg band and a radio transmitter. The two birds were feeding contentedly in a crop field amid Canada geese and crows.

“I got to watch them for an hour or so and share the observations with some avid and budding birders in the area,” said Cantrell. “What a wonderful opportunity for everyone. We witnessed lots of fascinating parental behavior, foraging, and some hopping/dancing almost. When they flew off in the mid-morning they finally called for us. It was truly a heart-stirring moment.”

Whooping crane sightings have been a rarity in Missouri for more than a century. MDC has records of two separate sightings of a single bird at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in 1958, a pair in Jackson County in 1970 and another single bird at Stockton Lake in 1996. The most recent sighting was of a group of four to eight whooping cranes mixed in with a flock of sandhill cranes in Bates County in October 2010.

MDC asks that anyone who sees a whooping crane report it to the nearest MDC office.

(Jo note: I’ve been to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, (Port Aransas, TX, near Corpus Christi) where these huge birds hang out. Even if you’re not a birder, they are very impressive. Take one of the boat tours if you are ever down there.)

The bird, a Laysan albatross named Wisdom, was spotted a few weeks ago with a chick by John Klavitter, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and the deputy manager of the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

The bird has worn out 5 bird bands since she was first banded by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Chandler Robbins in 1956 as she incubated an egg. Chandler rediscovered Wisdom in 2001. In 1956, he estimated Wisdom to be at least 5 years old then since this is the earliest age at which these birds breed, though they more typically breed at 8 or 9. This means Wisdom is likely to be in her early sixties.

“She looks great,” said Bruce Peterjohn, the chief of the North American Bird Banding Program at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md. “And she is now the oldest wild bird documented in the 90-year history of our USGS-FWS and Canadian bird banding program,” he added. “To know that she can still successfully raise young at age 60-plus, that is beyond words. While the process of banding a bird has not changed greatly during the past century, the information provided by birds marked with a simple numbered metal band has transformed our knowledge of birds.”

Wisdom has likely raised at least 30 to 35 chicks during her breeding life, though the number may well be higher because experienced parents tend to be better parents than younger breeders. Albatross lay only one egg a year, and it takes about that long to incubate and raise the chick. After years in which they have successfully raised and fledged a chick, the parents may take the occasional next year off from parenting. Klavitter said that Wisdom also nested in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Since adult albatross mate for life, with both parents raising the young, it makes one wonder if Wisdom has had the same partner all these years or not.

Almost as amazing as being a parent at 60 is the number of miles this bird has likely logged – about 50,000 miles a year as an adult – which means that Wisdom has flown at least 2 to 3 million miles since she was first banded. Or, to put it another way, that’s 4 to 6 trips from the Earth to the Moon and back again with plenty of miles to spare.

———

Owl Prowl at Alley Spring March 19

Ranger Bill O’Donnell asked Jo to announce his first Owl Prowl after recent knee surgery, on March 19, 7 p.m. leaving from Alley Mill, 6 miles west of Eminence on Hwy. 106, in Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

Screech Owl at Night

This Owl Prowl is open to the public. Wear warm clothes (this early in the season, temperatures drop rapidly) and bring a working flashlight with new batteries. A lot of the time will be spent in the dark, but you may need the light for walking. Bill assured Jo that nearly anyone can keep up with him on this hike as he takes his healed knee for a night time trial on woods trails. For further information, call 573-323-4236 or 573-858-3297, ext 23.

A school bus rumbled past a few days later and the noise sent the owls flying back and forth over their snow-covered lane southwest of Warrensburg in Johnson County.

These short-eared owls made an unusual visit to a farm in Johnson County, Mo. Photos courtesy of Amy Prewitt.

“The bus driver had to stop a couple of times coming down the lane because he was afraid he was going to hit them,” Matt Owsley said.  “It was spectacular.”

Short-eared owls are open-country, grassland birds.  They are somewhat unusual in the state, said Brad Jacobs, ornithologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. A few pairs may nest in Missouri each spring. But short-eared owls are usually mostly seen in winter as migrants from northern states, Canada or the Arctic.

“They’ve been there at our place the last three years,” Owsley said, “but never in these numbers.”

He estimates they often saw 10 to 15 owls roosting in their trees, maybe more than 20 during the peak when deep snow and bitter cold embraced the countryside. One day he drove down the lane and there was an owl sitting on almost every fence post.

Short-eared owls become communal in winter and roost together for protection and warmth, Jacobs said. For example, the Hi Lonesome Prairie Conservation Area near Cole Camp, in some winters attracts about 40 short-eared owls to a roost site.

The owls can roost on the ground. But after heavy snows they will roost in trees. The trees in the Owsley yard are near cattle pastures and a large Conservation Reserve Program field with native prairie grasses.

Unlike other owls, short-ears prefer open country over woods, and they do not hunt at night but prefer to hunt in the early morning or late afternoon. Their mainly eat rodents such as mice and rats found in fields and meadows.

“The last two winters have been incredible for seeing Short-eared owls,” Jacobs said. “That’s because we’ve had a peak cycle in rodents. They move around to wherever the peak numbers are.”

Two short-eared owls each claim a fence post at the Owsley farm near Chilhowee, Mo.

Short-eared owls are graceful in flight, he said, with a wing spans three feet or more. They are a medium-sized owl standing 13 to 17 inches tall and weighing about a pound. The owl’s name comes from two tufts of feathers that sometimes stand up on the head, but those are not ears and not connected with hearing.

As snow melted away this week, the owls dispersed somewhat at the Owsley farm. But on Wednesday, six to eight Short-ears could be seen gliding low over the ground in search or prey or simply resting on the grass in a pasture.

Often when they owls visit Missouri in winter they stay in brush or cedar trees out of sight, Jacobs said.
   “Most people never see them,” he said.

But the Owsley family has enjoyed an owl show they’ll long remember, with souvenirs, as the ground under the cedar trees is littered with gray “pellets” of undigested mice hair and bones. Sometimes the short-eared owls from the Arctic show little fear of humans, Jacobs said, thus the family’s close-up view.

“I pulled up in the driveway near the trees sometimes and just sat there,” Deanna Owsley said, “me looking at them and them looking at me.”

— Bill Graham
Bill Graham is media specialist for the Missouri
Department of Conservation at the
Gorman Discovery Center in Kansas City

Photo copyright C. Wiggins. Used with permission.

Nature note: when the eastern bluebirds start looking for nest sites, spring cannot be far behind. Please hurry, Spring. We’re about wintered out around here! – Jo

Ruffed grouse are native to Missouri, located at the southwestern edge of the species’ historic range. Habitat destruction and unregulated market hunting largely eliminated them from Missouri forests by the 1930s. This is the first time in more than 25 years there will be no ruffed grouse hunting season. However, the Missouri Department of Conservation says that does not necessarily mean ruffed grouse hunting is gone forever.

The Conservation Department launched a successful ruffed grouse restoration program in 1959, and Missouri had its first modern hunting season in 1983. Grouse numbers remain low in spite of repeated attempts to reintroduce grouse in areas with suitable habitat as late as 1994. The Conservation Department and the Ruffed Grouse Society are seeking a source of grouse to resume reintroduction work.

“It didn’t make sense to have people hunting grouse if we were going to be bringing them in from other states to try to build the population,” said Wildlife Division Chief DeeCee Darrow. “Our grouse numbers are so low right now that very few hunters pursue them, and very few are taken each year. This is probably a good time to pause and regroup.”
(MDC news release. Grouse photo by Jim Rathert.)

In a ruling late last week, the Environmental Protection agency said it did not have the jurisdiction to ban lead ammunition under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Subchapter IV, Lead Exposure Reduction is the general legislation under which lead hazard and lead abatement rules and regulations resulted in the phaseout of leaded gasoline, and lead paint for interior use.

A portion of the petition which would also ban lead fishing sinkers, and other lead-weighted fishing tackle is still under consideration as of Sept. 2.

EPA had been requested by The Center of Biological Diversity, the Association of Avian Veterinarians, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Project Gutpile and the American Bird Conservancy to enact such a ban. Lead shot is already controlled in waterfowl hunting. These groups petitioned for a general ban contending that “the lead components of bullets, shotgun pellets, fishing weights and lures pose an unreasonable risk of injury to human and wildlife health and the environment.”

The petition was filed on August 3, according to an AP story filed August 28.

Opinion on both sides of this ruling seems more heated than usual on the Net. What do Traveler readers think?

—

Jim Rathert

Nature photographer Jim Rathert will headline the Missouri Bluebird Conference Sept 24-25 in the Cedar City Room at the North Jefferson City Multipurpose Building in Jefferson City. Anyone interested in Missouri’s colorful state bird is welcome to attend.

Rathert is the retired wildlife photographer for the Missouri Conservationist magazine. He is a founding Board Member for the Missouri Bluebird Society and an esteemed birder.

Other Conference Programs & Highlights:

• Nest box styles and designs for a variety of cavity-nesting birds.
  

  Bluebird pair. Jim Rathert photo

• Feeding and growing  mealworms for  bluebirds.
• A “Bluebird Blog.”
• Bird Walk on the nearby Katy Trail , led by the River Bluffs Audubon Society
• Field Trip led by Jim Rathert to “The Bubbler,” the focal point of the Memorial Park Wild Bird Garden in Jefferson City.
• Complimentary Program entitled “Bluebirding for Everyone” presented at 6 p.m., Friday , Sept. 24, by Steve Garr, president of the Missouri Bluebird Society and former president of the North American Bluebird Society. There is no charge to attend this program, held in the same location as the conference on Saturday.

The conference fee includes admittance to all events for the day, and also includes lunch and a free bluebird information packet created by the Missouri Bluebird Society.

Go to www.birds-i-view.biz for directions, details, and to print out a conference registration form.  Registration is required for attendance at the Saturday, Sept. 25 conference and events.

Call 573-634-6482 for directions only.  Call Steve or Regina Garr at 573-638-2473 with questions

EPA sued over Missouri streams.

The Coalition for the Environment, a St. Louis based environmental activist group, had been working with EPA and Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources to enact water quality standards for 150,000 miles of Missouri streams for five years. It seems their patience has given out.

It was just a short mental slide to the efforts to put or prevent a new casino at the Missouri-Mississippi confluence…an area which agencies, sportsmen and environmentalists have worked long and hard to retain in a natural state for fishing, birding and other outdoor recreation. www.savetheconfluence.org

Save the Confluence is a coalition of outdoors organizations from duck hunters to bird watchers, from the Conservation Federation of Missouri to the Sierra Club and local churches, one group being for preservation and recreational use of natural resources, and the other being primarily against the expansion of gambling in Missouri.

Natural resource issues sometimes make strange bedfellows between groups you wouldn’t think had anything in common, and adversaries of groups you think had natural like-minded interests. Too often, emotional appeals are used on issues which actually need clear-minded thought, since few things in this world are entirely good or bad, black or white, or sometimes entirely clear, even to us. Actions on other issues, however well thought out and totally rational, often die for lack of any emotional force powering them.

Traveler tries to steer a middle ground, keeping the best interests of the resources and the people in mind. Feel free to tell us how you think we are doing.

Jo just couldn’t pass up this one from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, since the story managed to combine Jimmy Buffett, Gulf oily bird rescue, and most importantly, something called a SWAT (Shallow Water Attention Terminal) boat. SWAT boats, it seems, are built on a flat hull, and are designed to draft only 8-10 inches of water carrying a 40 HP motor through shoreline marshes. Their purpose is to serve as a workstation for people monitoring and cleaning oily birds or doing research on oil damaged wildlife. Buffett got involved bankrolling the project because the crews for the first boat came from the University of Southern Mississippi, his alma mater, and well– because he’s Jimmy Buffett. He’s apparently donated one of the boats (designed and built for the Gulf crisis) to the friends organization of a shoreline Wildlife Refuge in Alabama.

So what does this have to do with Southeast Missouri?
Let’s see…8-10 inch draft and 40 horse motor…marshes…um…swamps…let the imagining begin!

****
Unified Command Wildlife Recovery Efforts to Benefit from Specialized Boat
Donated by Dragonfly Boatworks, Entertainer Jimmy Buffett

GULF SHORES, Ala. – Today, Alabama Unified Command’s efforts to recover
wildlife along the Gulf Coast were enhanced with the donation of a special
boat from singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

The popular entertainer has donated a boat to help recover oil-soaked
wildlife. The boat, built by Dragonfly Boatworks in Vero Beach, Fla., was
designed specifically to navigate the shallow waters and marshes of the
Gulf Coast to retrieve injured wildlife.

The boat will play an important role in the efforts of Alabama Unified
Command to ensure that local wildlife are rescued and transported to
rehabilitation centers.

The vessel was given to the Friends of the Bon Secour National Wildlife
Refuge, a non-profit organization that supports Bon Secour National
Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is located in coastal Alabama and is managed
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Alabama Unified Command is excited to be working with the local community
to do all we can to address the needs of wildlife affected by the oil
spill,” said Pete Benjamin, a Fish and Wildlife employee with Mobile
Wildlife Operations. “This new asset will improve our efforts to rescue
wildlife and ensure that animals are cared for and rehabilitated.”

“We are going to ensure the boat is provided to the wildlife recovery
teams, which will patrol the shallow areas around Bon Secour and Grand Bay
National Wildlife Refuges along with other sensitive places,” said Ralph
Gilges, President of the Friends of Bon Secour NWR.

Shallow Water Attention Terminal (S.W.A.T.) boats are built on a flat hull
and operate in waters as shallow as 8-10 inches. This particular boat was
designed by Mark Castlow and Jimbo Meador, co-owners of Dragonfly
Boatworks, who recognized the need for a boat with the ability to operate
in shallow waters and marshy areas.

“The folks from Dragonfly Boatworks are thrilled to help: I’m excited we
have a relationship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and that the
boat will be used for what it was intended,” said co-owner Jimbo Meador.

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge Manager Jereme Phillips lauded the
duo.

“Castlow and Meador recognized a need, identified a solution, and made it
happen with the help of Jimmy Buffett,” said Phillips. “Friends of Bon
Secour National Wildlife Refuge, our refuge support group, closed the loop
to facilitate the donation by accepting the boat on behalf of the Refuge.
We are immensely grateful to Mr. Buffett for his gift and concern for our
treasured wildlife.”

The Dragonfly co-owners have been working nonstop for weeks to modify a
popular design for shallow-draft fishing boats, literally turning them
into mobile triage wards for oiled wildlife. Designed specifically with
wildlife rescue in mind, it has a canopy to protect workers and birds from
the sun and a table to make it easier to examine wildlife. The boat also
has a misting system to provide further cooling and is equipped with Wi-Fi
and video cameras to enable remote viewing of the rescue operations.

The boat is scheduled to begin wildlife recovery operations during the
week of July 19.
Greg Vergari, wildlife recovery operations coordinator, will be selecting
a two-person crew trained for the safe recovery of injured wildlife. The
crew will follow standard wildlife rescue protocol, which quickly
transports recovered animals to nearby treatment centers.

“The S.W.A.T boat will be added to the fleet of 14 wildlife recovery
boats, and it will work initially around our local national wildlife
refuges,” stated Vergari. “The crew can inspect habitat conditions for oil
contamination while they search for injured wildlife.”

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge is one of Alabama’s best-kept secrets
and protects a variety of habitats. For more information on Bon Secour,
log on to: http://www.fws.gov/bonsecour/.
For information about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill response effort and the
Unified Command, please visit www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com.

Contacts:
Bonnie Strawser, USFWS, 252-216-8667
Denise Rowell, USFWS, 251-656-3490
Jimbo Meador, Dragonfly Boatworks, 251-610-0082

The initiative will be available in selected counties and parishes in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas.It is being offered to agricultural landowners, and people already involved in the Wetlands Restoration Program. In Missouri, the Bootheel counties, and a strip of counties along the western border and the Missouri River are eligible :  Bates, Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Cole, Cooper, Dunklin, Johnson, Lafayette, Mississippi, Moniteau, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Ripley, Saline, Scott, Stoddard and Vernon. Around $1.9 million, covering 150,000 acres was earmarked in the federal farm bill.

NRCS will improve habitat conditions and food sources for migratory birds likely to be impacted by the conditions in the Gulf of Mexico. This initiative will be delivered through two components: one component will be available on private agricultural lands and the second on Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) easement lands. NRCS will be working in cooperation with private landowners and other partners to establish habitat and food sources as well as improve the overall habitat management on participating lands.

If you think you might qualify, please contact the NRCS office serving your county. Look in the phone book under “U.S. Government, Department of Agriculture,” or access this website: http://offices.usda.gov/

Key Practices

Component 1:
Early Successional Habitat Establishment and Management (647)

Components 1 and 2:
Shallow Water Development and Management (646)
Wetland Wildlife Habitat Management (644)

Component 1

Agricultural Lands
Financial and technical assistance will be available to provide feeding, loafing and resting areas for migratory birds. NRCS intends to offer payment incentives to landowners willing to flood existing farmed wetlands, prior converted croplands, or other lands that can provide immediate habitat for these species. Rice fields are particularly suited for this initiative. Aquiculture farms (e.g., catfish and crayfish) that have been abandoned or that could be modified or managed to provide additional habitat are also a focus, since they can easily be flooded and manipulated.

Habitat Priority Areas
This component of the initiative applies to private agricultural lands within and adjacent to the Flyways that enter the Gulf of Mexico. Participating States have identified priority counties using aquaculture and rice field data, with the main focus being within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley and the Chenier Plain in Louisiana and Texas.

Component 2

WRP Easement Land
NRCS is primarily responsible for maintenance and management activities on land subject to a WRP easement, but may authorize the landowner or someone other than the landowner to perform the maintenance and management activities through a compatible use authorization, a landowner contract, a contribution agreement, or a Federal contract. NRCS has the authority to determine management actions necessary to meet the wildlife objectives of the easement. The initial WRP phase will focus on:

1. Addressing food habitat needs for species expected to be most significantly impacted by the oil spill that are likely to occur on WRP easements;
2. Providing habitat features that are appropriate for the target area;
3. Providing management that is not currently part of existing management regimes or improve the management of projects with existing infrastructure; and
4. Avoiding adverse impacts to existing wetland habitat on the easement area.

Habitat Priority Areas
NRCS has an inventory of WRP easement lands on which to develop moist soil management plans for the benefit of the target species. State Conservationists will determine whether they implement this initiative through a cooperative agreement with a partner, through contracts with the landowners, through Federal contract, or through a combination of these instruments. In addition to the habitat benefits realized during the contract period, NRCS anticipates a percentage of landowners will continue with the moist soil management beyond the length of the contract period. At the State level, NRCS will seek WRP landowners or partners who may be interested in managing or improving the management of the WRP lands.

Selection Criteria for Components 1 and 2

Projects will be selected based on the following criteria, listed in priority order. The point system for each habitat type will be established at the State level. Projects will only be evaluated against other offers in the same priority area:

1. Provide shallow water (0-4 inches depth) and mudflats for shorebirds (e.g. sandpipers, dowitchers) from July through October.
2. Provide shallow water on moist soils for early migrating waterfowl (e.g., blue-winged teal) from August through September.
3. Provide open, deep water habitats for overwintering diving ducks (e.g. scaup, redheads, canvasbacks) from October through March.
4. Provide shallow water (< 12” depth) on moist soils for overwintering dabbling ducks (e.g. mallards, pintails) from October through March.
5. Provide shallow water on moist soils for breeding and brood-rearing habitats for resident waterfowl (e.g. wood ducks, mottled ducks) and marsh birds from March through August.