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April 2011

In This Edition

Docents’ Workday: Return to Florence Jones Homestead

—Dennis Bires

On Saturday, April 30, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., interested docents will return to the Florence Jones homestead, also known as the Buck Ranch, near the southern boundary of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, for another work day. Last spring a large crew of volunteers rounded up debris around the house and barn, and began removing fences. This year docents will attack the remaining ranch fencing.

What to bring: lunch, water, sunscreen, work gloves, tough work clothes and footwear, and any tools that might be useful, like pliers, wire cutters, T-post puller, etc.

Veterans of last year’s project will be amazed at the job Preserve staff have done to return the old homestead site to a state of nature. They will be challenged even to find the precise location of the old ranch house, barn, chicken coops, and railroad boxcar that stood there only months ago. See the May 2010 issue for a report of our last visit.

During the lunch break, the volunteer crew will take a stroll to the nearby John Joseph Mathews cabin, where the Osage historian, novelist, and Tribal Council member wrote his endearing memoir, Talking To the Moon, among other works.

There are two options for meeting at the Preserve on April 30: assemble at the Visitor’s Center at 10:00 a.m. to caravan to the work site, or meet at 10:15 a.m. at the gate on the west side of the road from Pawhuska just a couple of hundred feet south of the cattle guard at the south entance to the Preserve.

White-crowned Sparrow

—Nicholas Del Grosso

Eastern White-crowned Sparrow by Nick Del Grosso

This is another Canadian snowbird who flies south every fall to milder climes. It breeds during the summer in sub-arctic and alpine areas in Alaska and Canada, but it winters in the United States. The White-crowned Sparrow travels between 1,600 to 2,000 miles to arrive at its wintering grounds. It migrates in short 200 mile hops, replenishing its fat supplies along the way. Researchers have discovered the White-crowned Sparrow to be capable of staying awake for as long as two weeks during migration.

There are five sub-species of the White-crowned Sparrow and they differ from each other in terms of the types of habitat that they occupy. The five subspecies are the Eastern White-crowned, Gambel’s White-crown, the Mountain White-crown, Nuttail’s White-crown and the Puget Sound White-crown. The only two likely to be seen in Oklahoma are the Eastern and Gambel’s White-crown. East of the 90th parallel you will only find the Eastern White-crown; between the 90th and 105th parallels you will find both the Eastern and Gambel’s White-crown. To distinguish between the two you have to look at the lore (that area of the head between the eye and the bill) and the bill. The Gambel’s will have pale lores and an orange bill, while the Eastern has a pinkish bill and dark lores. The other three subspecies are not likely to be seen in Oklahoma. The Nuttail’s White-crown resides year round in central California, while the Puget Sound White-crown winters along the coast from Oregon to southern California; finally, the Mountain White crown winters in Mexico.

You should start seeing the White-crown around October 1st; it will stay in Oklahoma until the middle of May. Oklahoma is at the northern edge of its winter range with the majority of the interior birds wintering in Texas and New Mexico.

Gambel’s White-crowned Sparrow by Nick Del Grosso

The White-crowned Sparrow is hard to miss. It is between 6 to 7 inches in length and although it is a pale gray bird, the contrasting white and black stripes on its head make it very conspicuous; the head seems to shout See Me. The three white stripes are very bright and are made even more visible by the two contrasting black stripes. Coloration on the males and females are the same. The juveniles will have three gray stripes separated by two brown stripes. I saw the birds pictured here foraging below my feeder in a flock of about 12 birds containing both Eastern and Gambel’s White-crowns. In fact both these subspecies will inter-breed.

On its wintering ground it can be found foraging for seeds on the bare or grassy ground bordering tangles or brush near edge habitat. This is a generalist, taking advantage of what food is available. In the winter they are principally seed eaters, while in the spring and summer they will eat insects, seeds, buds, grass and fruit.

It is not afraid of man and readily comes to feeders. However, it is more likely to forage on the ground for seeds dropped from the feeder. Typically its feeding pattern is on the ground hopping about or scratching vigorously with both feet. When feeding in the leaf litter it will hop backwards exposing the earth and almost instantly hop forward to the bare spot to eat what is exposed. I have seen them feeding on the ground below my feeder and if interrupted they tend to fly to the top of waist level bushes to eye the disturbance. They are very funny when bothered because they will crane their necks for a better look at the problem. They normally stay in flocks of 10-20 while on their wintering grounds. While foraging they will tolerate Harris and House Sparrows but they tend to chase Junco’s away from where they are feeding.

You can find the White-crowned Sparrow at the Tallgrass Prairie on the edge of brushy areas. The two I saw during the 2010 Christmas Bird Count where in a pasture near a spring seeping from a rock cliff outcrop covered by small trees, brush and old growth. The Backyard Bird Count tallied 346 White-crowns in Oklahoma. From a conservation standpoint this is not a bird of concern. It is abundant and does well in captivity and for that reason it is well studied. It is an interesting bird to watch so, look for it at the Prairie and it will be time well spent.

Click on this link to hear the song of the White-crowned Sparrow discussed in a Bird Note podcast.

Boomer Sooner

—Van Vives

I got this email today (3/26/11) and thought we might put it in the Newsletter. I don’t have any hope that we will find the owner, but it is an interesting item. Must belong to an Okie transplant to Calilfornia.

I found a brass belt buckle that depicts The Run, stating it was the most thrilling event in Oklahaoma’s history, dated 04-22-85. on the back there is a space that depicts 1981-073 (I believe, difficult to read) so it appears the belt was given to the winner of some sort of event that you all conduct once a year (or more). Can you help me find the owner of this belt buckle? It is really quite nice.

Law Offices of Mary C. Polansky-Gravatt
Mary C. Polansky-Gravatt, Esq.
164 Maple St., Suite 5,
Auburn, CA 95603
TEL: 530-823-2600
FAX: 530-823-7100

Docent Coverage Of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

We have declined compared with this time last year.

Docent Coverage of Season Days

 

Other Places to Visit

Here we provide some links to other places worth visiting.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Visitor’s Center Latitude & Longitude

Here is the latitude and longitude of the Visitor’s Center that you can give to visitors for entry into their GPS navigation device.

Kiosk Maintenance

The manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning the touch-screen recommend use of a soft dry cloth only. This proved inadequate for smeared fingerprints. Soft-paper kitchen towels work well, slightly damp with a small drop of soft handsoap. Application of a dry kichen towel removes any residual moisture.

Over time, a matter of several weeks continuous operation, I have noticed that calibration of the touch-screen drifts away from the initial set-point. If you notice that the cursor isn’t under your finger when you touch the screen then restart the kiosk by unplugging it from the wall, waiting a few moments and then re-inserting the power plug. It will restart and recalibrate.

This link points to the complete Kiosk Maintenance Manual.

Back Issues

Some printed back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to February 2009, can be found in the two green and one blue-black zip-binders, stored in the Perspex rack by the file cabinet in the office of the Visitor’s Center.

All back issues are available electronically via the links shown below. All newsletters prior to December 2007 are available in Portable Document Format (PDF), which means that you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer to read these files. All newsletters from December 2007 onwards are in HTML format that is easily read using your web-browser.

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Newsletter Publication

Deadline for submission of articles for inclusion in the newsletter is the 10th of each month. Publication date is on the 15th. All docents, Nature Conservancy staff, university scientists, philosophers, and historians are welcome to submit articles and pictures about the various preserves in Oklahoma, but of course the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in particular.