Newsletter title

March 2013

In This Edition

Docent Reorientation

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

About thirty-two docents attended the reorientation on Saturday, 2 March 2013. Anita Springer called the meeting to order at 10 a.m. and got down to business by asking that we each stand and introduce ourselves to each other, round-robin. Anita continued by announcing plenty of open days on the March calender in need of a docent to open the Visitor’s Center.

Since the February 23rd meeting was canceled due to inclement weather, another meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 30 with the Bob Hamilton road-show. Those interested should let Anita know of their intention to attend.

Bartelsville recruitment is scheduled for 7 p.m. on April 4 in the public library. New docent on-the-job-training is set for the last two Saturdays in April.

Anita introduced Harvey Payne, who needed no introduction. Harvey thanked Ann Whitehorn for the cookies and coffee, and Anita for the cinnamon rolls.

Harvey said that the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Docent Program continues to be well-regarded. It continues to generate many positive comments from inspired visitors.

Oil and gas prospecting on the preserve is undoing a lot of the good work of the last twenty years; The Nature Conservancy has no control over sub-surface exploration. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing require a much larger working area on the surface, about the size of a softball field. Whereas during the last two decades, The Nature Conservancy has been removing abandoned wellheads and power lines, and supporting development of soil remediation technology that resulted in the Research Station, the new prospecting has brought an additional ten miles of power lines needed to run the pumps, damage to the surface around the boreholes and large increases in tanker traffic on the county roads. Due to the nature of the oil and gas bearing rock large volumes of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas must be flared, which results in toxic residues and light that attracts endangered species to their deaths.

Hydrogen sulfide gas is extremely toxic. In small quantities it smells like rotten eggs. In the quantities coming up from the bottom of the wells it overpowers the sense of smell and can kill in a matter of moments. All oil and gas workers are issued with H2S detectors to warn of dangerous concentrations of gas. The Nature Conservancy has provided staff with detectors to wear when they are working out on the preserve. Harvey said that production of the new wells seems to decline rapidly. He has heard of amounts as low as ten barrels per day. As exploration becomes uneconomic it should deter new activity.

Oil and gas extraction is destroying the landscape due to ineffective regulation. Osage County is ranked as the worst in the Americas. For another view of the situation see The Energy Debate We Aren’t Having and Is Natural Gas Just as Polluting as Coal?.

Wind energy south and east of Shidler and near Grainola is causing fragmentation of the landscape. The Greater Prairie Chicken will avoid areas with tall structures like turbine towers that it has evolved to associate with predators. When Harvey was young the Greater Prairie Chicken was an abundant species until a change in range management practice homogenized the landscape with annual spring burning that destroyed the habitat necessary to the life-cycle of the bird. Now the open praire will be dotted with turbine towers, leading to to further degredation.

The preserve has endured two bad years of drought. Last year was the worst in recorded history. Despite this and thanks to Nature Conservancy stewardship the preserve has prospered, helped by the pond deepening program last year. Harvey said that Google Earth shows the preserve noticeably greener than its immediate surroundings. Drought reduces the number of calves born each year as the cows won’t produce when they are stressed by less nutritious grasses. Fortunately, under Bob Hamilton’s guidance the preserve has done well despite the lack of enough water; the 400ft elevation difference across the preserve helps to buffer the adverse effects. Shortage of water is going to be increasingly contentious, as the decade-old feud between Oklahoma and Texas indicates.

Bob Hamilton and Harvey are planning some good quality docent hikes. On Saturday, May 18, there will be a birding hike starting at 7 a.m. followed by a wildflower hike at 9:30 a.m. that will be led, hopefully, by docent experts.

Before yielding to Anita, Harvey answered questions.

The Greater Prairie Chicken lek survey revealed reduced numbers last year. April is the big month for the bird when the males strut their stuff. If you are on the preserve early in the morning, you may hear them booming, which sounds like blowing across the open top of an empty Coke bottle.

There have been no new land purchases.

Like the prairie chickens who seek insects attracted by new-growth vegetation, bison depend on burns to provide nutritious grass.

After round-up, culled bison are sold by sealed bid to the highest bidder. Bidders buy in lots. Bulls are culled after six and a half years and go to meat production. Cows are culled after ten and half years and are still capable of breeding. Bison are only provided supplemental salt and mineral licks, otherwise they subsist entirely on what they forage from the preserve.

Dwight Christian hung up his spurs to retire this year. He will be missed.

Harvey yielded to Anita.

Anita said that we will need to sign a liability release form on our first day at the Visitor’s Center this year or download the liability release form, sign and return to the address on the form.

If your contact information has changed in the last year, please send a revision to Anita.

Anita announced the retirement of docents Doris Mayfield and Bill Reinhart. Through the years, Doris took care of the nature exhibits in the Visitor’s Center and, for ten years, Bill wrote the Across the Fence series for the Pawhuska Journal-Capital newspaper; you can find Bill's legacy here.

We stopped for lunch at 11:40 a.m. and reconvened at 12:30 p.m. when Anita introduced Katie Hawk who is the The Nature Conservancy Communications Director from the office in Oklahoma City. Katie has a background in journalism.

Katie gave a slide presentation overview of Oklahoma Chapter preserve locations. The Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma has eleven preserves; the first five listed below are staffed full-time.

  1. Tallgrass Prairie Preserve
  2. Four Canyon Preserve
  3. Pontotoc Ridge Preserve:
  4. Oka’ Yanahli Preserve
  5. J. T. Nickel Family Nature & Wildlife Preserve
  6. Twin Caves Preserve
  7. Black Mesa Preserve
  8. Cucumber Creek Preserve
  9. Boehler Seeps and Sandhills Preserve
  10. Keystone Ancient Forest Preserve
  11. Twin Caves Preserve

Oklahoma has over 90,000 acres under conservation management, inluding easements, across eight ecoregions that represent one of the most biologically diverse areas in North America.

  1. Central Shortgrass Prairie
  2. Southern Shortgrass Prairie
  3. Central Mixed-grass Prairie
  4. Crosstimbers & Southern Tallgrass Prairie
  5. Osage Plains Flint Hills Prairie
  6. Ozark plateau
  7. Ouachita Mountains
  8. Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain

Katie yielded to Anita who asked Dwight Thomas to talk about signing-up to staff the Visitor’s Center.

Anita closed the meeting at 1:45 p.m.

Prairie Road Crew: April 20

—Dennis Bires

Wet weather dampened the turnout for our March 9 Prairie Road Crew Work Day at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, so we are giving interested Docents and friends another chance to help make the county roads look their best this spring. On Saturday, April 20, a day when no rain is forecast, we will clear off the remaining half of the winter accumulation of roadside litter. Just meet at the Visitor’s Center at 10:00 a.m. for equipment, or commence gathering trash at your favorite spot if you bring your own. Don’t forget to bring lunch for the noon break on the Bunkhouse porch. Work will end at 3:00 p.m. Thanks!

Trumpeter Swans

—Rusty Johnson

As I was leaving the re-orientation program I saw two trumpeter swans on the large pond on the Bison Loop. Here is a photo of them as they left the pond.

Trumpeter Swans by Rusty Johnson

Prairie Watching: Coyotes

—Dwight Thomas

I was on my way to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve on a cool, windy, gray day in March (March 9, 2013 to be precise), driving northward on the county road out of Pawhuska. The landscape was still a winter scene although the temperature was nearly 60°F. Just south of the preserve, I was startled to see two dead coyotes hanging on the fence alongside the county road. This scene prompted some memories and provoked some questions.

First, the memories: When I was growing up on an Oklahoma farm, there was a bounty on coyotes. They were considered pests, and the county paid for evidence that the coyotes had been killed. Lot’s of boys trapped coyotes for the bounty. The coyotes were plentiful and could be heard at night in large numbers barking and howling. It was common to see dead coyotes hanging from fences; sometimes there were many carcasses along a single fence line. There was also an annual coyote hunt that was a major several-day event with coyote hunting at night and visiting and playing during the day. It was like a large family reunion held at a remote rural location. Hundreds of people would attend. I remember that my Mother’s Farm Club would always set up a kitchen in a tent and sell food to the hunters and revelers.

Second, the questions: Are coyotes as plentiful today as they were then? Are people still encouraged to kill coyotes? Why are dead coyotes hung on fences?

On any number of occasions, I have seen coyotes on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Usually, I see only a quick scurry into the grass or brush. They look healthy and hearty. Although seeing coyotes is not uncommon, I have never been able to get a good photograph of one. I also have seen an abundance of coyote scat along the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Hiking trail. This leads me to believe that coyotes are relatively common on the preserve.

I searched on the Internet for information on coyote populations and population trends. I also searched for coyote bounties and fence-hanging practices. I found that coyotes are still being killed as pests in large numbers, but the populations are still growing and expanding, even into urban areas. There are no bounties paid for coyotes in Oklahoma today, but it is always open season. The only restriction is that night-hunting with lights and dogs is prohibited. Hanging dead coyotes on fences is an old practice with several apparent reasons: the dead coyotes were thought to drive living coyotes away; the practice was a method of proving the number of coyotes killed; but the main reason seems to be the hunter wanting to show off his kills.

Anyway, coyotes are an integral part of the prairie ecosystem, and they seem to be doing well.

Coyotes by Dwight Thomas

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

—Nicholas Del Grosso

The general rule about any warbler is that they are neotropical migrants. A Neotropical migrant is a bird that winters in the tropics and spends its summers in North America. But there is an exception to every rule and the Yellow-rumped Warbler is a big exception to this rule.

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a short distance migrant. It spends its summers in Canada, Alaska and across the northern tier of the United States. It arrives on its wintering grounds in the southern United States and Central America in the fall. In Oklahoma you can start looking for this common wood warbler in October and it will brighten up the winter woods until the end of April. While they are here in Oklahoma they wear a subdued palette of streaked pale brown with a bright yellow rump and some yellow flashes on the sides.

The sheer numbers of this bird are impressive as they fill the trees and shrubs along creeks and lakes looking for food. During the fall and winter the Yellow-rumped Warbler eats a great number of fruits, especially bayberry and wax myrtle. Its winter menu also includes juniper berries, poison ivy, poison oak, greenbrier, grapes, Virginia creeper, and dogwood. They will also eat wild seeds such as goldenrod. During the winter months circumstance makes it necessary for the Yellow-runped Warbler to subsist on a vegetable diet.

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Male

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is divided into two sub species. The birds we see in Oklahoma and the eastern part of the United States are the eastern race of the Yellow-rumped Warbler. This bird is also called the Myrtle Warbler. It gets its name from its preferred winter food, wax myrtle. These fat-filled fruits pump it full of energy and aid it to survive harsh winter temperatures. The Yellow-rumped Warbler is the only bird able to digest these waxy fruits.

During the winter these birds can often be found in large flocks, sometimes numbering into the hundreds. As you walk through the open woods and shrubby habitat that they prefer, your first indication of their presence will be the sound of their distinctive sharp metallic chek. In Oklahoma look for this bird in open areas with fruiting shrubs or scattered trees, streamside woodlands, open pine and pine-oak forests. Once you hear this sound look for the flushing birds in the mid-story of the trees. Their bright yellow patch at the base of their tail will be highly visible as they fly off. This yellow rump or butter-butt is a clear field mark identifying this bird.

The western race of the Yellow-rumped Warbler is the Audubon Warbler. The only physical difference between the two sub-species is that the Audubons have a yellow throat, while the Myrtle’s throat is white. The Audubon Warbler is found in the western United States from the Rockies to the Pacific. You might see an accidental Audubon in the Panhandle of Oklahoma, but it would be extremely rare at the Tallgrass Prairie. On the other hand, if you look for the Myrtle Warbler in the appropriate habitat at the Preserve it is there to be found. The 2012-13 Christmas bird-count spotted 20 of these winter warblers. However, the fifteen year average is only 12.

The Yellow-rump Warbler is a winter food opportunist. They tend to stay in a food-rich area for days at a time, but they always remain in a state of migratory readiness throughout the entire winter. This means that they accumulate fat stores and stay in a state of readiness to migrate when food supplies dwindle. When this happens they take off on nocturnal migratory flights in search of more hospitable spots that can supply their needs.

The Myrtle Warblers are the go-anywhere-do-anything warbler. While most of the 57 species of wood warblers in North America are skulking and shy, the Myrtles are just out there darting about conspicuously. I have spent hours watching them do acrobatics on the ends of thin twigs harvesting fruit right side up and upside down. Yellow-rumped Warblers flit through the canopies of trees as they forage, their flight is agile and swift as they call to each other as they change directions. They seem to have a real love for their flock members and enjoy their company.

In the spring this bird molts, changing its pale brown colors for a dazzling mix of bright yellow, charcoal gray and black, and bold white. When they arrive at the breeding grounds they are a different looking bird. You really owe it to yourself to see this transformation during the spring migration. Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis the change is stunning.

As the weather warms the Myrtles also change their diet and foraging tactics. With the gradual warming, insects become increasingly more abundant and you’re most likely to see these birds darting from their tree perches to catch a flying insect. During the late spring and summer the Myrtles act more like a flycatcher than a warbler. Their summer menu includes caterpillars and other larvae, leaf beetles, bark beetles, weevils, ants, scale insects, aphids, grasshoppers, caddis flies, crane flies, gnats and spiders. During this time of abundance they use two principle foraging techniques: (1) Sometimes they will cling to the bark surface to look for hidden insects like other warblers, (2) while at other times they will also frequently sit on an exposed limb and fly out to catch a passing insect.

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Female

Two general principles of eastern warbler watching to remember are: (1) If there are lots of them, they’re Myrtles; (2) if they are easy to see, they’re also Myrtles.

The Myrtle is a mid-sized warbler; it averages 4.7 to 5.9 inches long, with a wing span of 7.5 to 9.4 inches. If you think about it, this bird is about the size of a Black-capped Chickadee. The oldest known Yellow-rumped Warbler of the Myrtle race was 8 years 9 months old when it died, a long life for a little bird.

When it’s nest building time the Yellow-rumped Warbler likes evergreen trees for housekeeping purposes. The female builds a cup shaped nest from twigs, pine needles, grasses and rootlets. She will weave fine hair and feathers into the inner bowl in such a way that this soft material curls up and over the 4-5 eggs she places in the nest. Females do the nest construction, while the male encourages his mate in her task with song. This male activity gives real meaning to the phrase whistle while others work. It takes the female about 10 days to build her nest. She will place the nest on a horizontal branch of an evergreen from 4 to 50 feet in the air; this could be a hemlock, spruce, white cedar, pine, Douglas-fir, larch or tamarack. She incubates her eggs for 12 to 13 days and the young are brooded for an additional 10 to 14 days before they fledge. Because they migrate so early, they start drifting south in August, they only raise one brood each season. But this recruitment tactic has not hurt its population. The Yellow-rumped Warbler is the most common and widespread of the wood warblers. Their populations are stable or increasing. Yellow-rumped Warblers are among the most adaptable warbler. They are a star in whatever habitat they occupy. During the winter look for them at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in open woods or edge habitat. On those cold days in the field when you see that butter-butt on a flock of birds darting through the trees you will be reminded of warmer days when migratory songbirds fill the woods and grasslands and hold your attention.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

Visitor Counts

In December we had a total of 36 visitors. Of that number there were 32 visitors representing 11 states and 4 international visitors.

The table to the right displays the total count for December and the total for the year, with those in previous years. Counts for January, February, and March 2006 are unavailable and therefore excluded from the total.

Our 4401 total for the year was based on 4174 visitors from 48 states and the District of Columbia with the highest totals from Oklahoma (2472) followed by California (152), Kansas (149) and Texas (140). The missing two states were Vermont and Rhode Island. There were 227 international visitors from 40 countries lead by England (26), Germany (21) and Switzerland (19).

The low totals for the past two years are due in part to the very hot, dry weather that we had. Hopefully, 2013 will be somewhat cooler and wetter and more people will be interested in visiting the prairie. As always, be sure and ask people to sign the visitor’s book before they leave.

Docent Coverage Of Season Days

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

Docent Coverage of Season Days Docent Coverage of Season Days Summary

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.

2013January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2013
2012January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2012
2011January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2011
2010January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2010
2009January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2009
2008January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2008
2007January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2007
2006—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2006
2005January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2005
2004—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2004
2003—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December—2003
2002—January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2002
2001January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2001
2000January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December2000
1999January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1999
1998January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1998
1997January  February  March  April  May  June  July  August  September  October  November  December1997
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.