Note from the President

Our January Membership meeting was on the 17th. We had 15 members attend the presentation put on by local Biologist, Ben West, who works for USGS here in Columbia. His research focuses on the effects of oil spills on migratory birds and he gave a great presentation on which birds were most affected by the

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February Meeting with Mark Glenshaw on How to Find an Owl in your Neighborhood

Mark Glenshaw is widely known for his work on owls in Forest Park in St. Louis. He will be speaking at the February membership meeting Feb. 21, 7pm at Boone Electric Cooperative (1413 Rangeline) in the Amp Room. See the full lising in the Events calendar. Do you ever see or hear an owl in

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Field Trip News & Notes

Updates from the field trip co-coordinators: Seeking a ride-share coordinator It’s come to our attention that evening field trips and meetings may pose a barrier for those uncomfortable with driving at night. With board approval, we’re looking to set up a way for people in this situation to arrange a ride to field trips or

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Missouri River Bird Observatory’s Winter Webinar February Series

The Missouri River Bird Observatory (https://mrbo.org) (MRBO) Winter Learning Series Webinars continue with topics of conservation concern in Missouri. Join MRBO for the webinars every Monday in February at 6:30 p.m. CST. February 5 – Rare Insects of Missouri and Their Conservation with Steve Buback, Missouri Department of Conservation Insects are the most diverse and

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Former CAS President Dick Luecke dies at 93

Dick Luecke served as a Board Member on CAS between 1977-1980, and served as President in 1976-1977. He was remembered by longtime CAS members as being “a kind man and a good birder.” The following is the obituary that ran in the Missourian in January.   Richard H. Luecke, age 93 of Columbia, Missouri, passed

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Save the Date: 2024 Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative Conference: A 20 Year Retrospective

In 2004, CAS was a founding member of the Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative, an organization dedicated to all wild bird conservation. As a step-down organization from the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, MoBCI plays an important role in habitat improvement in Missouri, as well as larger role working to protect birds throughout their life cycle.

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Grasslands Summit 2024: April 9-11 in Jefferson City

CAS is an affiliate organization with the Conservation Federation of Missouri and also with the Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative. CAS pledged a 200$ to MoBCI who offered a challenge grant to other MoBCI affiliates to serve as an official sponsor of the Grasslands Summit. MoBCI, with the help of CAS, will be listed as a

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Note from the President

Happy New Year! I hope you are able to get out and do some first of the year birding today. We want to first thank you all for your generous donations to CoMoGives this year! We reached and even exceeded our goal of $10,000, ending the campaign with $10,470.00 all with loving donations from our

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Summary of 2023 Christmas Bird Count

The 2023 Columbia Christmas Bird Count was held on Saturday December 16. Early birders faced light rain, but temperatures were mild and we persevered to generate a species list of 99 species. This list exceeded totals of 86 and 88 for the previous ‘covid years’ and was the highest tally since 102 species were seen

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January Membership Meeting: Oil Spill Impacts to Birds

The Effects of Oil Spills on Birds Parts of talk: • Two major oil spills that affected birds (Exxon-Valdez and Deepwater Horizon) • What kinds of birds are affected by oil spills? • How does oil affect birds? • Who is involved after an oil spill occurs and how do they help birds? • Initial

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It was a Hot Time at the CANS Prescribed Burn

When last we spoke (December 1st CHAT), we were waiting for the final step before the CANS prescribed burn, waiting for the weather conditions to coincide with the carefully designed “Burn Plan.” John Timmermann’s call came late afternoon December 13th: “Tomorrow is looking good for a burn.” The following morning, Bill Mees and John Besser

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Note from the President

Last year at this time, I wrote about a Columbia resident that had 2 Rufous Hummingbirds at their feeder. As far as I know, that didn’t happen again this year. But, we do have a Limpkin, and as of November 29th it’s still present at Twin Lakes Recreation Area off of off Chapel Hill! It

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Light My Fire: Prescribed Burn at CANS Prairie

The weather is colder. Grasses, wildflowers and forbs are turning brown and drying out. A small dusting of the “white stuff” confirms it. It might be time to conduct a prescribed fire. That is the future for the prairie at Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary. Columbia Audubon Society has contracted with John Timmermann who specializes in

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CoMoGives Underway!

CoMoGives officially began on Giving Tuesday – November 28th and runs through December 31st. We are excited to be part of this annual online fundraising drive once again that helps local nonprofits raise money to help our community. In 2022, 117 donors contributed over $11,000 to CAS through CoMoGives. Our goal during this year’s campaign

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CAS Participating in CoMoGives Nov. 28-Dec. 31

Columbia Audubon Society is excited to announce our participation in the 2023 CoMoGives fundraising campaign for the 9th year running! This annual online fundraising drive for Mid-Missouri nonprofit organizations begins on the National Day of Giving – Tuesday, November 28th and runs through December 31st. 174 nonprofits are participating in CoMoGives this year and we

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Note from the President

We had our first meeting at our new location on October 19th. I received some feedback from those who could attend. Sounds like we need to invest in a microphone and some speakers. I’ll be working on that so that we have it set up for November’s meeting which is on THURSDAY the 16th. You’ve

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November CAS Meeting-Thursday Nov. 16 by Bill Palmer on Trap Cameras

CAS November meeting November 16, 7pm Boone Electric Community Bldg – Amp Room 1413 Rangeline St. TRAIL AND TRAP CAMERAS. Presented by Bill Palmer. Bill will explain how he uses remote cameras to capture otherwise impossible to get photographs of birds including hawks, eagles and warblers as well as mammals such as deer, coyotes, and

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Application Now Available for Hog Island Teacher Scholarships

The Columbia Audubon Society is accepting applications from mid-Missouri educators to attend a week long summer ecology or ornithology workshop at the National Audubon Society Camp on Hog Island in Maine. Scholarship recipients must be a teacher or nature educator working in Audrain, Boone, Cooper, Howard, Monroe, or Randolph counties. Each award covers tuition, room,

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Boone County Nature School Council House Dedication Address

The following is Bill Mees’ address at the dedication of the Council House at the Boone Count Nature School. The creation of the Council House was made possible by a generous donation from CAS. Several CAS members attended the dedication: Dave and Nancy Bedan, Lisa schenker, Lottie Bushmann and her husband, Jean Leonatti, June and

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New Benches at CANS

Students from Fairview Elementary School visit Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary on occasion. Students often run to secure a seat on single benches scattered along the trails. This year, Ilia Dimov, working to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, has helped alleviate the scramble for seats. Ilia, with the help of scouts from Troop 708, has

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Honeybees Pollinate and….

A previous issue of the CHAT presented the new trail-side interpretive pollinator sign. The first photos on the sign depict the European Honeybee as well as a typical white box bee hive. The honey bee was included for several reasons. Did you know, it is not a native insect. Early European colonists introduced the honeybee

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Note from the President

With our new season we are pleased to announce all of our accomplishments for the fiscal year of 2022 to 2023. We hope to see you at our October meeting with Edge Wade presenting on her beginning at birding and at some of our fieldtrips! Check the Events listing for all the great events we

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Band With Nature 2023: Call for Volunteers

Time really does fly. It was the fall of 2012 that Columbia Audubon Society sponsored the first field trip to Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary for second grade students. Since then, the field trip has grown each year until every Columbia Public Schools’ elementary school now participates. For those of you contemplating the numbers, that translates

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Save the Date! Grasslands Summit

The Columbia Audubon Society, a founding member of the Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative, will be donating 100$ after a CAS Board approval as a sponsorship match to MoBCI for the Conservation Federation of Missouri’s upcoming Grasslands Summit. CFM is partnering with MDC and NRCS to bring you the Missouri Grasslands Summit, a three day event

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Workdays at CANS to get ready for Prescribed Fire

October Workdays at CANS Prairie We need volunteers on two workdays in Early October to help prepare for a prescribed burn on the CANS prairie: Saturday October 7 — Seed Collection. We will collect native grass seed from the established prairie planting. This seed will be used to over- seed portions of the existing prairie

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Draft Minutes from Sept. 26 CAS Board Meeting

CAS Board Meeting Minutes for Sept 26, 2023 Attending: Lori Turner, Judy Lincoln Eric Seamon, Lottie Bushmann, Lisa Schenker, Shelby Thomas, Greg Leonard, Eric Wood, John Besser, Bill Mees, Allison Vaughn, Jim Gast, Reed Gerdes Meeting called to order 6:03pm April minutes were approved after a spelling correction of MoBCI. Jim Gast moved, Eric Wood

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Note from the President

It’s the end of an era for Columbia Audubon Society. We have been holding our monthly meetings for decades at the Universalist Unitarian Church in their sanctuary. Earlier this year, they asked us to move our meetings to the basement meeting room. This got us thinking – should we consider moving to a more modern

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Summer at the Nature Areas

Summer means school is out, and there’s no homework. But for Columbia Audubon’s nature areas, summer is the growing season, the time when the work really begins at Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary and Wild Haven Nature Area.. Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary The deer exclosures erected in the late spring are already demonstrating the damage associated

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Coexisting with Great Blue Herons

Sometimes we can work together to provide for the preservation of birds and mitigate the effect of expanding human encroachment on their territory. I recently had a positive experience working with Parks and Rec Dept.in Columbia on their plan for a mountain bike trail at Gans Creek Recreation Area (GCRA). When the City acquired the

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Annual Picnic at Wild Haven: September 17

Columbia Audubon Society Open House Picnic will be held Sunday September 17th at Wild Haven Nature Area, 6900 E. O’Rear Road, 3-6:30 p.m. Columbia Audubon members, friends and neighbors are invited to stop by, starting at 3 p.m., to learn about chimney Swift roosting improvements recently completed at Wild Haven Nature Area as well as

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Birds in Big Numbers: Migratory Chimney Swift Roosts

Part four in an occasional series, Birds in Big Numbers Chimney Swifts are master flyers that spend virtually all daylight hours on the wing, fueling their flight with a diet of insects. As long-distance migrants, they spend the summer breeding season in North America and the winter in South America. Commonly described as “cigars with

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Thank You CAS, from Missouri Conservation Corps

Missouri Conservation Corps would like to thank the members of the Columbia Audubon Society for helping to coordinate and lead an educational bird hike in Columbia’s Kiwanis Park this spring. In May 2023, CAS president Lori Turner and members Eric and Joanna Reuter, Jim Gast, and John Besser organized and facilitated a bird hike and

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CAS participates in 19th Annual Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative Conference

On August 24-25, the Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative hosted its 19th annual conference at the Columbia Country Club. This year’s theme centered around conservation efforts in urban and suburban areas of Missouri and the Missouri Department of Conservation’s One Health Initiative, a focus on expanding conservation into underserved or otherwise compromised areas. Nature Areas Committee

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Eagle Bluffs Update from MDC and Area Manager

Hi all! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer – or at least finding some ways to survive the drought! I know our folks have already felt like they have had a long hot (and dry) summer and we are only half way through it. But, with it turning into July we thought it would

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Missouri Bird Conservation Initiative Conference in Columbia August 24-25

Registration is now live for the 2023 MoBCI Conference to be held Thursday-Friday August 24-25 at the Columbia Country Club. The theme this year is One Health: Community Conservation in Missouri, centered around MDC’s recent initiative to expand their conservation funding to urban and suburban areas. Registration can be found here.  Along that theme, this

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First Friday Bird Hikes in the News

The First Friday Bird Hikes at 3M continue to be very popular and in the news. On Friday, June 2, birders were joined by a KRCG reporter  who wrote the following article with a lot of great photos. See here

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Boone County Migratory Bird Count Results

Boone County, Missouri, birders have maintained the tradition of a spring migration count, although no state or national migration count currently exists. This countywide effort, which takes place on the traditional Big Day (second-Saturday in May), is an opportunity for many birders in the area to team up to find and count birds in their

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Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area Updates

In a recent meeting with the Missouri Department of Conservation, Columbia Audubon learned that Eagle Bluffs CA will be providing regular updates on the status of the pumps. MDC has provided CAS and MBS with a lot of information that can be found in the link. See here

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Note from the President

I’m sorry if you had to miss our April presentation, Forest Park Owls: Hiding in Plain Site. Those in attendance listened as Mark H.X. Glenshaw told stories from his 18 years of studying the pair of Great Horned Owls in Forest Park that he lovingly named Charlie and Sarah. I don’t want to give any

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Nature Areas Notes

    Lots of activity at the two primary nature sanctuaries, CANS and Wild Haven. If you haven’t been out lately, wildflowers and migration are in full swing! At Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary (CANS): We have been watching the emergence of various seedlings on the west side of the creek, which was seeded in winter

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Details for the Migratory Bird Count May 13

Columbia Audubon Society will continue its tradition of doing a Boone County-wide Bird Count on the second Saturday of May). Our count will be held on the same day the ‘Global Big Day’ promoted by eBird, and all the data from the Boone County count will be entered into eBird, so participants will be able

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Council House construction continues at Nature School

The March issue of The CHAT informed you that construction had begun on the Boone County Nature School’s Council House.  At that time, the ground had been leveled and concrete forms identified the outline of the yet-to-be poured concrete floor. Today, there is more progress to report.  Photos taken April 26 show the structure nearing

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April Meeting Minutes-April 19

Columbia Audubon Society Board of Directors Meeting April 19, 2023  Meeting conducted at Unitarian Universalist Church Present: Lori Turner, Louise Flenner, Judy Lincoln, Eric Seaman, Lottie Bushmann, Jim Gast, John Besser, Shelby Thomas, Bill Mees Time called to order: 6:05 pm Treasurer’s Report Eric Seaman reports the Community foundation is one month behind in releasing

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Notice of Election

Notice of Election Pursuant to Article IV D section 2 of the by-laws, notice is given of an election for candidates for the board of directors to be held at the general meeting on Wednesday, April 19th, 2023. The meeting starts at 7:00 PM and will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia.

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Note from the President

Happy Spring! I hope everyone is getting out to see their first of the season birds. Frank and I have been busy moving into our forever home on just over 18 acres in Harrisburg. Our property has 2 creeks running through it and we have American Woodcocks in our backyard!! I plan on having field

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New Walking Tour at Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary

I recently became aware of the app PocketSights Tour Guide which allows universities, community organizations and individuals to create tour routes. The app uses GPS allow the user to follow a path while providing content and images about various points of interest. Since individuals can use the app for free, I designed a tour through

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Spring Field Trips and More

Spring is here, and migration is getting underway! A variety of CAS field trips and other community birding opportunities are coming up, so check out the offerings and mark your calendar.  As always, reminder notifications of CAS events go out by email; if you’re not already on the email list, be sure to sign up.

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Self-guided Moss Walk Popular with Wild Haven Visitors

If your best guess for the definition of “acrocarp” involves something about a gymnastically talented fish, then you should consider taking part in the recently developed self-guided moss walk at Wild Haven Nature Area. You’ll learn what an acrocarp actually is, but the walk isn’t about memorizing scientific jargon. Instead, it’s an opportunity to become

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Forest Park Owls: Hiding in Plain Sight by Mark H.X. Glenshaw-April Membership Meeting

The April membership meeting will be held April 19, 7pm at the Universalist Unitarian Church. Our presentation will be by Mark H.X. Glenshaw who is an award-winning naturalist who has closely observed and documented the lives of Great Horned Owls in Forest Park, a large urban park in St. Louis, Missouri, since December 2005.  Mark’s

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Columbia Audubon Society Young Birder Makes the News!

Local birder and Columbia Audubon Society friend Chelsea Mosteller made the CoMoKIDS section of the Columbia Missourian! See here for a link to an article about her recent project that will help young birders learn their birds!  

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