Newsletter title

August 2011

In This Edition

Oklahoma Chapter, 25th Anniversary

—Anita Springer

The Oklahoma Chapter of the Nature Conservancy is celebrating 25 years in Oklahoma this year. A festival is planned for Sunday, September 18, 2011 from 2-5 p.m., that will be held at the 5 Oaks Lodge in Jenks, Oklahoma. Anyone who can assist with greeting visitors, handing out information, guiding visitors to the exhibits or in any other way, please call the festival chairwoman, Teresa Mandevill, either on her mobile phone 214-914-5893 or on her home number 918-266-1480; you can also call Nancy Hatfield at The Nature Conservancy office, 918-585-1117.

Docent Recognition Luncheon

—Anita Springer

The date for the Docent Recognition Luncheon has been set for 12:00 p.m. on October 15th at the Research Station on the Preserve. It is time again to recognize all those who have passed a milestone this year as well as those who are consistently there month after month, year after year. Hope everyone is ready for another home cooked meal. We will definitely need RSVP’s so that we will know how much food to prepare. Please feel free to bring a guest (hopefully a future docent). This is one of the few times that we gather as a group and I always enjoy visiting with everyone.

Bison Roundup

—Anita Springer

I know roundup seems awfully far off, but I wanted to give you a heads-up on the date. Docent Day at Roundup this year is scheduled for November 5th. We will meet at the Visitor’s Center at 1:00 p.m. and go to the corrals as a group. Please feel free to invite a guest (again, hopefully a future docent). If you have never been to the bison working, I encourage you to come. It is the only chance we get to be that close and personal with these big guys/gals. Currently, the schedule is as follows:

Common Nighthawk

—Nicholas Del Grosso

Common Nighthawk perched

The Name of the Common Nighthawk is misleading because this bird is not a raptor. This name probably originated because of its resemblance to the smaller hawks in flight. However, it subsists entirely on a diet of flying insects and belongs to a group of birds commonly called Goatsuckers or Nightjars. Both these names were given to this bird by homesick European settlers who compared the Nighthawk to the Nightjar of their homelands. In England and Scotland the Nightjar was commonly called a Goatsucker because it was erroneously believed to suck milk from the teats of goats with its large mouth. The name Goatsucker is still applied to the order and family, but it is not used to designate the species. Another common name for the Nighthawk is Bat or Bull Bat because of its erratic flight which sometimes resembles the flight of this mammal. Who hasn’t seen this bird on a spring or summer evening hawking for insects around ball-field lights? Many times watching the bird was more interesting than the child’s ballgame.

The Common Nighthawk is yet another neotropical visitor from South America. It usually arrives in Oklahoma between April 16 and May 15. It shows up at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve towards the end of this period depending on the spring temperatures. It arrives late on the breeding grounds because it must wait until the temperatures are warm enough for flying insects to take wing.

The females will begin arriving at the breeding grounds a few days before the males, but when the males arrive the show begins. The male Nighthawk puts on a dramatic booming displayclick the link to hear the Nighthawk in action. He will fly at a moderate height, and then dive straight towards the ground. About six feet from the ground he pulls out of the dive and flexes his wings downward; this causes the air to rush through his wingtips making a deep booming sound. This is followed by the male landing near the female with his tail spread like a fan and moving it from side to side, his throat is puffed out displaying his large white patch. All this occurs while he is uttering guttural croaking noises. The female may not accept the male immediately and this may result in short pursuit flights. Eventually the courtship will end with mating.

The Nighthawk is a bird of open country. It prefers to nest in open prairie, burned over woodland, fields and rock outcrops. This bird is well adapted to man’s changing environment and can be found nesting on flat gravel roofs and asphalt parking lots. This neotropical is not very colorful, its plumage is adapted to make it inconspicuous while it is on the ground. The adults have brown feathers mixed with black; it has gray and white patterning on the upper parts and breast.

Common Nighthawk flying

The Common Nighthawk has long black wings which reveal white wing bars towards the tips when in flight. The tail is dark with white barring and the under parts are white with black bars.

These field marks are only visible when the bird is in flight. The adult male has a white throat patch while the adult female has a light brown throat. These are visible while the bird is at rest and are good field marks to remember. The Common Nighthawk is 8-9 inches long from the tip of its bill to the tip of its tail. It has a wingspan of 21-22 inches. This bird’s conservation status is listed as one of least concern.

The Common Nighthawk can easily be confused with both the Chuck-wills-widow and the Whip-poor-will when it is at rest. The two important things to remember when making a positive identification are: (1) Only the Common Nighthawk has visible white wing bars when in flight and (2) Where was the bird spotted? If it is in open country it is most likely a Common Nighthawk. If in doubt flush the bird and look for the white wing bars. Both the Whip-poor-will and Chuck-wills-widow are birds of deciduous and mixed woodlands.

The Common Nighthawks do not build nests, they will lay their eggs directly on the bare ground.

Common Nighthawk Eggs

The eggs color varies from pale cream white to cream olive buff and olive gray. The female will incubate the eggs for about twenty days. The Common Nighthawk is monogamous and the mated pair will raise one to two broods of rwo eggs each season. When the chicks hatch both parents will feed the young birds until they fledge in about twenty days.

A good place on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve to check for these birds at either dawn or dusk is at Blacklands. The pictures shown were taken there. Whenever I leave my shift at the Gift Shop, I swing around the back side of the Bison Loop and catch five to seven birds perched on the iron fences by the cattle pens.

Common Nighthawks are insectivores and help to control many flying pests. They typically eat locusts, flying ants, carpenter ants, beetles, grasshoppers, plant lice, moths and mosquitoes. The United States Biological Survey has conducted tests on the stomachs of 87 Nighthawks and they have determined that 25-percent of the total food eaten is comprised of ants. The number of ants found ranged from 200 to 1,800 individuals. In addition to these ants most stomachs also contained 300 to 500 mosquitoes, and a smaller number of locusts and grasshoppers.

As the nights grow cooler in late August and September the southward migration begins. They move silently south usually at dusk. They will fly in small groups at 200 feet or more seeking out river valleys to follow south. As Yogi Berra once said, You can observe a lot just by watching, but in the case of the Common Nighthawk you need to know where and when to watch.

Cichorium intybus With Your Coffee?

—Van Vives

Chicory

Anyone from south Louisiana is very familiar with Cichorium intybus, also known as chicory. One can still find a mixture of coffee and chicory on the grocery shelves and in some restaurants. Some find that it gives a stronger taste than pure coffee. During World War II, coffee became hard to get and it was diluted with the roasted, ground chicory roots. This is not anything new. In the seventeenth century chicory was used as a coffee substitute. In ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman times it was used as a medicine, herb, vegetable, and salad plant. It is said that chicory is a gentle and effective tonic to increase the flow of bile and to treat gallstones.

Not many people know that it grows in Oklahoma. I came upon a patch of it along a country road, but not knowing what it was. Later I identified it. It is an attractive plant with blue flowers 1½ inches across. The petals have five notches at the tips. The plant is branched and hairy with ridges along the stem. If the stem is cut it exudes a milky sap.

It is not native to Oklahoma. It is native to Europe and was introduced to the U.S. Chicory plants are usually found along roadsides.

Best Little Prairie in Switzerland

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Best little prairie in Switzerland

Van Vives shared this photograph of the best little prairie in Switzerland, sent to him by Achilles Schnetzer. I imagine Big Bluestem to be stalking the Alps like Triffids, ably abetted by Little Bluestem in getting the gentle Swiss folk lost in the undergrowth of tall grass, so that they have to yodel for help.

For those of you who don’t know Achilles, see the October 2010 edition of the Newsletter.

Wind Farming

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Recent news stories report that a proposal to build 150-megawatts of wind power has been approved by the Osage County Board of Adjustment. The project will erect 94 wind turbines on land zoned for agriculture west of Pawhuska, near the town of Burbank on both sides of Highway 60 that is designated a scenic byway. Ford Drummond of the Drummond Ranch opposes the project, as does the Osage Nation who own the below-ground mineral rights. The Osage are confident that they can obtain an injunction in federal court to prevent construction. As usual, money motivates: tax credits to the construction consortium, lease income to the landowners, and tax revenue to the nearby communities are involved.

Docent Coverage Of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Open every day for two months in a row! Can we score a hat-trick in August.

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.