by Jim Gast, President

November Zoom Program Features Mike Powell with the Greenbelt Land Trust

Please join us via Zoom for our next membership meeting and program at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, Nov. 18th. Mike Powell, Executive Director of the Greenbelt Land Trust of Mid-Missouri, will provide an update on Greenbelt projects, help us understand how land trusts work, and highlight ways that Columbia Audubon and GLT can work together. A Zoom link will be sent to members by email a few days before the meeting. We also hope to offer a field trip to one of the nature preserves owned by Greenbelt in conjunction with the November program—stay tuned.

 October Big Day

A big thank you to Songbird Station and to the people who shopped there on October 17th.  Songbird Station is donating $45.00 to Columbia Audubon as part of the October Big Day event. Worldwide, over 7,000 bird species were counted that day. For more information on the count, visit: https://www.birdingwire.com/releases/4227bd69-cf61-4f80-9180-b4764db6fc6b

 Eagle Bluffs Update

Just a reminder that all roads past the junction box at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area will be closed to non-waterfowl hunters starting November 7th except that the main road along the distribution channel will be open to non-hunters from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM daily. The road around the Buck and Katy pools and the loop road to pools 2, 3, and 4 will also be closed.

Nature School Hotspot

An eBird hotspot was set up for the Boone County Nature School. If you birded that area and used a personal location please merge your data with Three Creeks CA—Boone Co. Nature School, Boone, US-MO. This article gives instructions on how to do a merge: https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000850891-choosing-and-managing-locations-in-ebird#anchorMergeLocation

Patch in eBird

If you want to save a checklist for a particular location or combine two or more locations into one checklist, use the Patch function in eBird. Why would you want to combine two or more locations? A Conservation Area may be in more than one county (Duck Creek CA is in Bollinger, Stoddard and Wayne Counties) or a State Park may have more than one location (Rock Bridge Memorial State Park has seven hotspots).

To use the Patch, log into your account and go to the Explore page. The scroll down to and click Patch Totals. Select Add a Patch and give your Patch a name. In the Location box, add all your locations you want in your Patch. Be sure to save your Patch.

Help with Raptor Id

HawkWatch International provides two free resources to help with the identification of raptors.  The first is an app, available from both Google Play and Apple App Store, for your smart phone. It’s called Raptor ID. The second is a series of raptor identification videos found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk9tC5CPjTqTuajPPCARu1yf7Lw8tpREM .

Where’s the Beef (Farm)?

One of the interesting places I have birded in Boone County is the University of Missouri’s Beef Teaching Farm which is sandwiched between East Sugar Grove and Old Millers Roads. On the property, there are crop fields, pastures, buildings, ponds, and the tree-lined corridor of Gans Creek.

My favorite time to go is May when there is a strong chance to see Bobolinks, Western Kingbirds, Dickcissels and Yellow-headed blackbirds.

There have been 137 bird species recorded in eBird at this location including a Bald Eagle nest.  Although I have not seen it, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher has been reported. Twenty-one waterfowl species, fifteen sparrow species, twelve blackbird species and six warbler species appear on the eBird checklist https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L1305403&yr=all&m=.

Amazon Smile

If you shop on Amazon you might consider using Amazon Smile for your purchases.  Amazon donates (½%) of your purchase total to the charity of your choice, but you must log in at https://smile.amazon.com/gp/chpf/homepage?orig=%2F.  First time users will need to select a charity.