CAS Events Listings

Wild Haven Work Day

Weather permitting we will be burning several brush piles. This job may include dragging brush a short distance from brush piles to the burn site.

Contact: David Neely

February Membership Meeting: Mark Glenshaw, “Forest Park Owls: Mating, Nesting and Owlets”

Mark H.X. Glenshaw is an award-winning naturalist who has closely observed and documented the lives of Great Horned Owls in Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri since December 2005.  Mark’s talk, “Forest Park Owls: Mating, Nesting and Owlets”, will share what Mark has been able to observe and document of the owls’ breeding cycle including: mating, nest selection, feeding of the owlets, fledging and gradual maturation of owlets, and the dispersal of the owlets.  The program uses many of his photos and videos to illustrate these amazing behaviors of these beautiful birds.

Contact: buckinghame@missouri.edu

First Friday Bird Hike: 3M Wetlands

First Friday Fun! Join the Columbia Audubon Society for a bird walk. This walk is open to anyone who enjoys birds, and beginners are encouraged to attend. We will walk at the 3M Wetland Trail, just off the MKT Trail near Forum Blvd. We’ll meet at the Songbird Station parking lot (map) at 8 a.m. sharp and then drive down the hill to park near the wetlands (less than a 5 min. drive). We’ll enjoy all the Missouri birds in this natural, lush landscape. The walk is about 1.75 miles on a level, gravel trail. Waterproof shoes are recommended, but not required. After our walk, we’ll return to Songbird Station by 11 a.m. and enjoy coffee and donuts.

Contact: To be announced at a later date

Heron Rookery Count at Gans Creek Recreation Area

We will do our annual trip to the Heron Rookery to count returning birds and the number of nests available.  We have kept records of their return for the past 11 years, always on March 15. This field trip has been dubbed the “Ides of March” trip. The beginner mountain bike trail is complete in part of the area we usually bird. There are over 50 new trees that have been planted along it, and it has opened up access to some wooded areas.  We will continue to bird a part of the park that the trail covers and occasionally use the trail to access the wooded areas. We will not be birding the area of the proposed intermediate mountain bike trail.

We will also bird the tree line between GCRA and Gans Creek Wilderness Area, the wooded area that leads down to the rookery, the mixed woods and open field areas that border the cross-country course, and wherever the call of birds leads us.

Most of the ~2 mile walk is on wide grassy paths. However, access to the active rookery is via an overgrown path that descends a steep hillside. If you are not able to navigate this terrain, you can continue to bird while others go down and back.

Meet in the Gans Creek Recreation Area parking lot at 8:00 a.m. The park is on the south side of E Gans Creek Road, about 1 mile west of the US 63 Discovery Parkway exit. Click for a map.

Contact: Louise Flenner, lflenner@hotmail.com / (573) 268-7468

March Membership Meeting — Talk by Tim Scherrer: War Pigeon! Missouri’s role in the training of pigeons and pigeoneers in WWII

Neosho, Missouri found itself the home to Camp Crowder, a US Army Signal Corps replacement training center, built in 1942. In 1943, the Army Signal Pigeon Corps moved from New Jersey to Missouri and began operations. Camp Crowder became the training and breeding home to the pigeon corps. Several of the ten Signal Pigeon Companies the Army created in WWII were built and training at Camp Crowder. In 1946 the pigeons moved back to New Jersey, leaving an unusual history in the Missouri base that has long been forgotten.

The presentation covers the Pigeon Corps from 1917-1957, with an emphasis on the training program at Camp Crowder. It also covers the unusual field formation of the Signal Pigeon Company, the only Army formation capable of self-sustaining its own staffing due to breeding of birds. Stories of hero birds are also told. The program survived through the Korean War and was disbanded in 1957, 40 years after its creation.

Tim Scherrer, a native of Quincy, Illinois, earned both his B.A. and M.A. in History from Truman State University, where he was also named a Distinguished Military Graduate in the Army ROTC program. He also pursued additional study at University of Missouri–Columbia.

Scherrer has held a range of educational and leadership roles, including work at Truman State University, teaching Military Science and Military History at the University of Missouri–Columbia, and serving as Director of College Placement/Counseling and Instructor of American and Military History at Missouri Military Academy. He currently serves as Dean of Academics at Father Tolton Catholic High School in Columbia, Missouri.

A retired Lieutenant Colonel, Scherrer served 28 years in the United States Army Reserve as a Military Intelligence Officer. His honors include the Knowlton Award (2015) and induction into Truman State’s Army ROTC Hall of Fame. He curently resides in Columbia, Missouri.

Contact: buckinghame@missouri.edu

First Friday Bird Hike: 3M Wetlands

First Friday Fun! Join the Columbia Audubon Society for a bird walk. This walk is open to anyone who enjoys birds, and beginners are encouraged to attend. We will walk at the 3M Wetland Trail, just off the MKT Trail near Forum Blvd. We’ll meet at the Songbird Station parking lot (map) at 8 a.m. sharp and then drive down the hill to park near the wetlands (less than a 5 min. drive). We’ll enjoy all the Missouri birds in this natural, lush landscape. The walk is about 1.75 miles on a level, gravel trail. Waterproof shoes are recommended, but not required. After our walk, we’ll return to Songbird Station by 11 a.m. and enjoy coffee and donuts.

Contact: Lottie Bushman, lottie.bushmann@gmail.com