Newsletter title

February 2012

In This Edition

Docent Reorientation

—Anita Springer

Docent reorientation will be held on Feb 18th and on Feb 25th at the Research Station. I hope that the two different dates will give everyone a chance to put this on their schedule. We welcome anyone who would want to attend both days. On Feb 18th, Harvey Payne will update us on Nature Conservancy projects, we will also get news from Brady Allred of his Bison GPS project and from Torre Hovick on his Prairie Chicken GPS project. On Feb 25th, we will have an full update from Bob Hamilton regarding the preserve and from Nancy Hatfield regarding other Nature Conservancy projects. As always, bring a lunch. Morning refreshments and drinks will be provided.

Please let me know which session or both you will be attending, so that we can have enough handouts for everyone. For those I have already heard from, thank you very much. I so look forward to seeing everyone.

The Nature Conservancy Spring Hike Schedule

—George Pierson

The Nature Conservancy Spring Hike schedule is available on the Oklahoma section of the web-site. Follow this link→

Docent Liability Release

—Kay Krebbs

It is once again time to sign the docent liability release form. The 2012 version is available for download at this link↵ and is posted on the docent website.

Please sign and send to me at the address at the bottom of the form. Alternatively, you can deliver the completed form when you attend one of the reorientation days.

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Roadside Cleanup

—Dennis Bires

Tallgrass Docents and friends are invited to participate in the first roadside cleanup of the year on Saturday, March 3, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Report to the Visitor’s Center at 10:00 for equipment and instructions. Bring a lunch for the noon lunch break. In the event of soggy weather, check the Events Page on the Docent Website that day for possible rescheduling. The forces of litter don’t let up over the winter, so neither can we. Thanks.

Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes Carolinus)

—Nicholas Del Grosso

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Male

This is the punk rocker of the woodpecker world. He certainly attracts attention with his iridescent red forehead, crown and nape and the red wash over a dove gray belly. His wings and back are finely barred with a zebra like pattern. The female is less garish; with the red occurring only on the nape. This bird has a length of about nine inches and is easily distinguished from other woodpecker species.

On the Tallgrass Prairie you can easily find this bird along wooded creeks and streams foraging for a wide variety of fruit, mast, seeds and arboreal arthropods. The males tend to forage on the trunks of trees, while the females concentrate their foraging on tree limbs. In addition to this vegetarian diet the bird has a taste for meat, feeding on small or young vertebrate prey. These birds on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve are year round residents. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a foraging generalist and does well in both wilderness and urban settings. I have seen it many times while birding at the Preserve and also at the feeder in my back yard. It has a particular fondness for suet and black oil sunflower seeds. The Red-bellied Woodpecker takes advantage of the tools in its environment. I have often seen this bird take a sunflower seed from the feeder and fly to a nearby tree and wedge the seed in a depression in the trunk to aid in cracking the shell by hammering it with its bill.

It will eat tree frogs, fish scavenged from the shore and nestlings and eggs from American Redstarts, Carolina Chickadees, Downey and Hairy Woodpeckers and Wrens. Small prey are swallowed whole while larger prey are killed by thrashing against trees or pecking, and then torn to pieces before swallowing. Studies have shown about 69-percent of the Red-belly’s diet is vegetable while about 31-percent is animal matter.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker has the typical undulating woodpecker flight. It will often launch itself from a perch dropping several feet before beginning to beat its wings. The Red-headed Woodpecker is similar in size, but the coloration is so distinctive it can’t be confused with the Red-bellied Woodpecker, while the Northern flicker is larger and a more buff color with a red rape on the males. A sure way to identify this similar bird is to look for the white rump patch and you will never misidentify a Flicker for a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is not very territorial; however it will vigorously defend a 9-meter area around its nest site. Its foraging area generally depends on habitat quality and no specific size has been determined. Like other woodpeckers territorial calls and drumming are used to signal other Red-bellied Woodpeckers that this is their territory. Both sexes will perform this defense normally from a high perch. This display will often result in neighboring Red-bellied Woodpeckers responding with a similar defense which would result in a cacophony of calls and drumming in the area.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, Male

Pair bonds form any time from late winter to early spring. Like other woodpeckers the act of selecting and excavating a nest site establishes and solidifies the pair bond. The pair bond usually last about seven months. The male will be faithful during this time, devoting himself to his pair mate and nestlings. These birds are typically solitary for the remainder of the year only coming together during the breeding season. The European Starling will displace a Red-bellied Woodpecker from its nesting cavity and in areas where they are present this can significantly reduce breeding success for the woodpecker. Nesting normally starts in March or April. Typically it will only nest once but double brooding has been documented. It will re-nest if a cavity is usurped. In fact there is documented evidence that when a Starling took over its nest cavity it usurped the cavity of a nearby Downey nesting pair. The clutch size is four smooth white eggs, with one egg laid each day over a four day period. Both sexes will incubate the eggs over a 12 day period, with incubation starting after the last egg is laid. Males tend to incubate the eggs at night and both sexes are very attentive not leaving the nest until relieved. Once the eggs hatch the shells will remain in the nest or be discarded at the base of the tree. Once the eggs hatch both parents are kept busy feeding the young. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is not a very good housekeeper and the nest quickly becomes unsanitary. The hatchlings fledge between 24-27 days. The parents will care for the fledglings for five weeks with the fledglings divided up evenly between the parents. At the end of this time the male will typically drive the fledglings from his territory.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker has a host of predators, which include Coopers and Sharp-shinned Hawks, Black Rat Snakes, Flying Squirrels and Cats. While Red-headed Woodpeckers and Starlings will predate on its eggs and Pileated Woodpeckers will prey on the nestlings. The Red-bellied Woodpecker will aggressively defend its nest but is not always successful.

During the Great Backyard Bird Count in 2011 there where 204 Red-bellied Woodpeckers sighted statewide in Oklahoma. The 2011 Christmas Bird Count at the Tallgrass Prairie observed 24 individuals with the 10 year average being 25. This bird is not listed as a bird of concern, like other generalist it is doing well and can survive in urban environments. Look for this bird while hiking along Sand Creek and other heavily wooded waterways on the Tallgrass Prairie.

Hear the sounds of the Red-bellied Woodpecker by following this link→.

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)

—George Pierson

Female Black Swallowtail by George Pierson

Oklahoma’s official state butterfly is the black swallowtail. There are nine species of swallowtails in the state. Five of these (pipevine, zebra, black, giant and Eastern tiger) are found at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. They are some of the largest butterflies in the United States. The black swallowtail has a wingspan between 2 3/8 inches to 4 inches. They have two bands of yellow spots on the upper surface of the wings. On females the dots are much smaller than on males. Both males and females have blue on the upperside of the hindwing, with females being much brighter. There is also a single yellow spot on the leading edge of the forewing. On the underside of the hindwing both males and females have two rows of orange spots with one extra spot ahead of the two rows. Females lay their eggs on plants in the parsley family such as Queen Anne’s lace, dill and fennel. They fly from spring to fall and are very common in Oklahoma. Males patrol on hilltops for females, so a good place to find them at the preserve is on the short trail at the top of the hill. Adult nectar sources include many plants common to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve such as thistle and milkweed.

Male Black Swallowtail by George Pierson

Urban Foxes

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

I often see foxes in Tulsa during the early morning hours; they appear to be thriving. Once I came upon a vixen with five cubs down by the river. This month past, a colleague of mine made a video of a pair of foxes that spent several hours on the hillside outside our office window. We rarely have a chance to see foxes socializing as we do in this three-minute video.

Though unrelated to the Preserve, it is of interest as we encroach on what was once habitat for a variety of animals. Apparently, foxes can do well living in our suburban environment. Anecdotal evidence indicates more sightings of foxes now than in the past.

I was in a house in England this month, overlooking a Sight of Special Scientific Interest on the east end of Hayling Island, where I saw a fox in gorse watching some pigeons, as you can see in the picture reproduced here.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Snowy Owl

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

As with foxes, one doesn’t often have the chance to see a snowy owl up close as I did when visiting some friends for lunch. These incidents demonstrate the benefit of having a camera handy. Again, this isn’t related to the Preserve yet is too interesting not to put in the newsletter for your enjoyment.

Caspar was found as a chick with a genetically deformed wing and would have died if not taken into care. She was named Caspar before being discovered to be female and lives in an aviary in the garden of the house you see in the video. I was quite moved by her beauty. Caspar requires careful handling as her claws won’t let go once they take hold, hence the falconry gauntlets worn by her caretaker. She is fed mice and chicks and isn’t ready to eat until after she regurgitates the pellet of her last meal.

Caspar the Snowy Owl

Docent Coverage Of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Last year was a seven-year record for keeping the Visitor’s Center open. The chart below shows our performance since the Docent Work Schedule became available on-line.

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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2002—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2002
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1996—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1996
1995—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1995

Selected Topics Index

This persistent index of selected topics should make finding articles of interest easier. The list will grow as I move further into the past and it will grow as I add interesting topics from each new newsletter. Iris McPherson lent me the paper copies of the newsletter from the very early years of the docent program; I ran them through a scanner equipped with a document feeder, saving them as PDF files, then added them to Back Issues section above. Let me know of any dead links that you discover. Also, please lend me any paper copies of the newsletter that are missing so that I can scan and add them to the list of back issues.

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.