Newsletter title

June 2013

In This Edition

Docent Birding Hike

—Caroline Johnson

May 18th: The insistently incessant call of dick-dick-cissels buzzed under overcast skies as fifteen birdwatchers set out from Preserve Headquarters at 7:15 a.m.

A great blue heron had already been spotted overhead and wild turkeys had been heard earlier in nearby woods. Pileated woodpeckers, barred owls, chuck-will’s-widows and bobwhites were heard too but not seen.

Leader Rusty Johnson reported that the morning hike produced a list of more than fifty birds, including the blue-gray gnatcatcher, common yellowthroat, indigo bunting, field sparrow, summer tanager, American redstart, Bell’s vireo and northern parula, plus the usual suspects. Conspicuously absent were hawks and kingfishers.

The prize-of-the-day came near the top of the ridge: a female blue grosbeak and a pair of orchard orioles, all in the same tree. A family of scissor-tailed flycatchers swooped in and out of treetops nearby.

The wildflower prize went to a half-dozen prairie iris in bloom, a luminescent blue reminiscent of spiderwort.

A birder from Norman reported, in very accurate detail, a Louisiana waterthrush along the creek, however fellow travelers were unable to confirm her sighting. The group also included birdwatchers from Edmond, Broken Arrow, Bartlesville, Nelogoney and Tulsa.

A post-hike highlight came for Rusty and Caroline Johnson when they watched as the dandelions seemed to come alive — several dozen American goldfinches playing in the lawn east of headquarters.

Western Slender Glass Lizard

—George Neurohr

Saturday, 25 May: This western slender glass lizard was sunning itself on the road in to the Visitor’s Center from the south, about half way from the South entrance. It was about 24 inches long.

Western Slender Glass Lizard

Prairie Watching: Field Trips

—Dwight Thomas, Ph.D.

Three Field Trips to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve:

On Thursday, May 16, 2013, we were expecting an elementary school group from Catoosa to arrive for their annual Tallgrass Prairie field trip. We were prepared to talk with the group about the prairie and the Preserve and accompany them on a tour of the trails. But, when I arrived at the Visitor’s Center at 9:00 a.m., a school-bus-load of highschool students with their teacher from Checotah was already present. There were 16 members of an Environmental Science Class, and they had come to learn about the prairie. I talked with them about the prairie and the Preserve and pointed out plants, birds, insects, and prairie features to them as we walked along all of the trails. They were interested but not overly enthusiastic, but remember they were teenagers who had ridden on a school bus for three hours, yet having a smaller group allowed me to feel that I had connected with the entire group and provided them with a good prairie experience.

Checotah tour group by Dwight Thomas

Then, about 40 students, 20 parents, and one teacher from Catoosa Elementary School arrived for their scheduled field trip at about 11:00 a.m. in a chartered bus and a fleet of parent cars. First they split into small groups and cycled between the Visitor’s Center and the Restrooms. This kept Anita, Ann, and me busy for a good while. We completely sold out of candy suckers. Then they had lunch on the Bunkhouse porch. I was the designated Docent Field Trip Leader, so after lunch, I spoke to the group about the Preserve — telling them about the Bison, the prairie plants, the Nature Conservancy and its purposes and management practices.

We started out for the hiking trails to see the prairie up close. It takes a while for a group of 60 to get anywhere, but eventually we reached the trail head. The sky was mostly cloudy and the temperature was in the 70s. There was almost no wind, so it felt muggy and warm.

My first objective was for this group, as with the Checotah group, was to see the bottomland forest along the creek and learn what plants and animals lived there and why there was forested land in the prairie. Then, of course, the second objective was to see the open prairie and learn why it was a grassland and how we work to keep it a grassland. We took the opportunity to talk about the variety of plants and look closely at those that were in bloom at the time — at least, I talked with the members of the group that stayed close enough to hear and observe. Unfortunately, the group was so large, that a large contingent remained a long distance away. However, there were five fifth graders, four boys and a one girl, who stuck with me like glue; I believe these five had a very good learning experience. They looked closely at every plant, bird, and insect that I pointed out and even pointed out ones they saw to each other and to me. They were eager to see and learn. I had a great time with them. I hoped the ones who were not close were still getting a good experience, but with so large a group, there wasn’t much I could do about it. They especially liked the part of the long trail where there are springs and bridges and rock ledges. They relished climbing the steep parts of the trail. We eventually returned to the Visitor’s Center, where they entertained themselves in the Bunkhouse yard until it was time for them to leave.

Catoosa tour group by Dwight Thomas

On Saturday, May 18, 2013, we had the long awaited Butterfly Count, Bird Walk, and Wildflower Walk. I was scheduled to lead the Wildflower Walk, so I don’t know what happened on the Butterfly Count or the Bird Walk except that they saw lots of birds and didn’t see many butterflies. Perhaps, someone else will relate what they saw and experienced on those tours. [See Caroline Johnson’s report above. Editor.] I hope they saw the Turkey Vultures sitting on the gate posts at the far end of the long trail that seemed to be evaluating us for potential food value; they were there on Thursday and Saturday.

But let me tell you about the Wildflower Walk. The sky was mostly cloudy, the wind was blowing a fairly strong breeze from the South, the humidity was high, and the temperature was in the upper 70s. There were about forty participants, which included members of digital photography clubs from Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The numbers and variety of cameras, lenses, and tripods was impressive. Again this was a large group, which made it difficult to speak to all of them as we walked, so we stopped frequently to allow everyone to catch up. This was certainly a different kind of group from the school groups we had on Thursday. One predictable difference was that where the trail had water over it from a hillside seep, the students just splashed through the water, while the adults tried to walk around it.

Prairie Iris by Dwight Thomas

A number of these participants were very interested in the plants and asked discerning questions such as Why do these Spiderworts that are growing side-by-side have different colored flowers — light blue, dark blue, and light purple? Answering a question like this in the field is dangerous because the answer involves understanding the plants’ biochemistry and genetics. So I tried to keep the answer short and circumspect with the colors could be a response to genetic variation, or it could be due to slight differences in the environment of each plant.

Death Camus by Dwight Thomas

A large part of the group was only interested in photographing the prairie, and they were following their own agenda. Still, it was interesting to point out a particular plant, and immediately have fifteen cameras taking pictures of it. By the time, we had covered the trails, this group looked hot and tired, but we had lots of comments that they had really enjoyed and learned from the tour.

Wildflower Tour by Dwight Thomas

On all three of these field trips, we saw a large number of Spring prairie plants in bloom. The species that stood out were the Prairie Iris, Nemastylis geminiflora Nutt. and the Death Camus, Zigadenus nuttallii (Gray) S. Wats. I had never seen either of them in such abundance. The Prairie Iris formed a colorful carpet in places, and the Death Camus rose above the surrounding plants in regal splendor. Some of the other species we saw in bloom were: Spiderwort, Wood Sorrel, False Wild Indigo, Verbena, Poppy Mallow, Prairie Parsley, Daisy Fleabane, and Blue Toadflax. Green Milkweed, and Prairie Larkspur were almost in bloom. The Jack-in-the-Pulpit looked like it had given up on flowering this year.

Wildflower Tour Group by Dwight Thomas

The participants on all three tours were great, and I think they learned something about the prairie and the preserve. No one was injured or became ill; there was one constant complainer, one who looked like a heart attack in the making, and a few ticks showed up for the feast. The trails were in good condition, and the wildflowers lived up to our high expectations. But as good as the prairie was on these two days, I couldn’t keep from telling the groups that the prairie wildflowers could be even more spectacular in the Summer and the Fall, and they needed to come back again for those showings. I had a great time leading these tours, and I certainly learned more about what the trails had to offer; one reconnaissance tour and three group tours provided me with a crash course. Give me a few days rest, and I will be ready to do it all again to see the ever-changing prairie up close and to meet new groups. I am sure that there must be lots of school groups and adult groups out there that we can educate and inspire.

Rangeland Management

—George Neurohr

The Editor asked me to contribute some material to the news letter, so I thought I should introduce myself. My name is George Neurohr. I completed my docent training March 31, 2007. My wife Karen and I moved to Stillwater in December, 2005, from Poteau in LeFlore County, OK, where we lived for 21 years, raising two sons who graduated from OSU. In Poteau I managed a river bottom cattle ranch for beef production, but was also interested in maintaining healthy white-tail deer and wild turkey populations, along with all the other wildlife associated with a river-bottom forest and pasture ranch. Karen taught high school English and became the Library Director at Carl Albert State College. We moved to Stillwater when Karen accepted the job of Assessment Librarian at Edmon Low Library, OSU, and I took a job as Public Health Specialist at the Payne County Health Department. I was looking for something to keep me connected with range management. My wife had met Pat Jaynes at the library and Pat and Iris McPherson were recruiting new docents. I started reading about the Nature Conservancy buying the Chapman-Barnard Ranch, stocking it with bison, and using fire with grazing to preserve the diversity of the Tallgrass Prairie in 1993, so I was interested. When I attended the recruitment meeting at the public library Pat and Iris sold me on becoming a docent.

I have always been interested in nature. It fascinates me to see the way everything is connected. I earned my degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science, along with the requirements for the Pre-veterinary Medicine, at Texas A&M University in 1974. I thought I might go back and try for Vet. School, but I got a job on a ranch in Montana as a cowboy working horseback in some nice country north of Billings. The good horses, cattle, hunting and fishing were too much and I never went back to school. In 1980 I was working as a division foreman on a large ranch in northern New Mexico. The management of the ranch sent some of us to a different kind of school where I learned about the importance of diversity and intact natural systems to maintain a healthy rangeland along with economic and environmental sustainability. It was The School for Sustainable Agriculture taught by Alan Savory and Stan Parsons from what is now Zimbabwe, Africa. They taught us about reproducing the conditions that made the natural grasslands of the world so productive. Water cycle, mineral cycle, and energy flow need to be optimized using the tools of grazing, herd impact, fire, succession, and rest or time to achieve the desired production from native vegetation and related organisms.

Most ranchers are trying to be economically sustainable, getting the most production off the land in a saleable form. In many cases modern agriculture turns to monoculture management, using artificial methods to alter natural succession of the plants and animals on the land. A lot of ranchers in the south and east plant Bermuda grass and fescue pasture because they can be grazed hard and all they have to do, if there is adequate precipitation, is to keep applying fertilizer and herbicide to it. This prevents natural succession of the plants and many animals that would survive naturally. Excess growth is cut for hay or mowed down to allow for new growth. As the costs go up, it becomes more difficult to make this high-input pasture management work financially, but many don’t know another way to maintain the productivity of their pasture.

In bluestem country, ranchers have learned that big bluestem will do good if it is grazed hard early in the growing season and rested at the end of the growing season, allowing it to go to seed and then in the late winter to early spring burn off the dormant material to stimulate the new grass growth. Some will then use herbicide to prevent competition from broadleaf plants that come in where grass plants may have been damaged. This management produces a lot of grass for beef production, but it reduces the species diversity by altering natural succession and it reduces the moisture holding capacity of the soil by not leaving any leaf litter. The stocking rates are usually high, so herd impact and grazing do some good, but it is usually spread out over a large area, except when the cattle are bunched up for some reason.

The importance of increasing the leaf litter, manure, urine, time between grazing, hoof impact, and fire on the soil that was present on the world’s grasslands before elimination of large predators and the elimination or confinement of large grazing herds has, in general, not been recognized. Today, people are the predators and can influence herd impact through herding techniques and or fencing; this is being accomplished worldwide on many grazing operations today. Herd impact and time are two tools usually lacking in many rangeland and pasture plans, evidenced by capped soil and then erosion.

I don’t have scientific data to show this to be the case, but my observations while managing grazing operations in New Mexico and Southeast Oklahoma, combined with the results of other ranchers using the same management techniques showed me that improvements in forage for livestock and wildlife can be obtained along with species diversity through use of grazing, fire and herd impact.

We can see the success of the patch-burning and grazing on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in maintaining species diversity through influencing natural succession on the land. On today’s rangelands, management is necessary to maintain the landscape. Even in remote areas, people have influenced the country by altering the landscapes and life in many ways. The Nature Conservancy and Management of The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve are increasing awareness of the need for sustainable management of the land through the use of natural tools.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)

—Nicholas DelGrosso

Yellow-billed Cuckoo is more often heard than seen. The staccato ka ka ka ka ka kow kow kow rings through the woodland and puts one on notice that there are Cuckoos in the area, but finding them is another matter. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a secretive bird for its size. You would think that a medium sized bird, about the size of a Blue Jay, would be easy to spot. However, believe me it is no easy task to put one of these birds in your view finder. It’s the opposite of trying to find a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher that is always flitting around easy to see because of their movement and hard to take a picture of because of the same attribute. But the Cuckoo is likely to freeze in the canopy, so if you see it, it’s easy to take a picture, but the problem is no movement, which makes it hard to find. Cuckoo habitat preference, hunting method, coloration and defense mechanisms make it difficult to spot.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo by Nicholas DelGrosso

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo prefers open woodlands with large canopy trees. They are often found along or near streams, rivers and lakes. When hunting it often stays motionless in the canopy watching for the slightest movement, when they see their insect or invertebrate prey they pounce.

Considering the Yellow-billed Cuckoo’s muted colors, it is a striking bird. The back is a dull brown, but the wings when spread are a rufous color. The underside is white; it has a long tail with two rows of four to six large white circles on the underside. Its bill is medium size and has a slightly downward curve, with a black upper mandible and a yellow to orange lower mandible. It also has a striking yellow eye ring. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is zygodactlyous — it has four toes, the middle two points forward and the outer two points backward.

Female Yellow-billed Cuckoos are slightly larger than the males and juveniles look like the adults, however they have a less distinct under tail pattern.

There are two recognized subspecies of Coccyzus americanus: Coccyzus americanus americanus, the eastern version, and Coccyzus americanus occidentalis, its western counterpart. The difference between these two subspecies is a larger tail, wings and bill length in the western subspecies. Here in Oklahoma we are home to the eastern subspecies. The western subspecies is a candidate for the endangered species list, but has not yet been listed, the eastern subspecies is listed as a species of least concern, but because of habitat loss it is declining across its range.

The Yellow-billed cuckoo breeds throughout eastern North America, southeast Canada, northern Mexico and the Greater Antilles. Here in Oklahoma it can be found across the state in suitable habitat. In Osage County you can start looking for this bird in April and it will remain here through the first week of September. When I participated in Cornell’s Birds in Forested Areas I monitored a patch of woods along Sand Creek near the hiking trail and with patience I was able to spot a nesting pair of Cuckoos. They tend to be more vocal when they have a brood and there is a lot of coming and going as they ferry insects to the nest. These birds winter in Peru, Bolivia, and northern Argentina.

Yellow-billed Cuckoos have a varied diet. They forage in the dense shrubs and trees and can catch insects in flight. Their diet consists of insects, especially tent caterpillars and cicadas; however they also eat lizards, tree frogs, eggs from other birds and berries. The Yellow-billed cuckoos around my house make a dent in my gray tree frog population.

Breeding season starts in May, and most authorities feel that the Yellow-billed Cuckoo is monogamous. Breeding pairs form in May or June and they do not typically double brood. Both the male and female build a nest made of twigs and lined with roots and dried leaves. The female lays 1-5 light blue eggs which hatch in 9 to 11 days. Both parents incubate the eggs. The young are naked and helpless when born and are unable to move or feed themselves, but they develop quickly and by 7-9 days they are ready to leave the nest and can fly by day 21. While in the nest the parents are tidy nest keepers picking up and removing fecal sacs from the nest. The male will usually provide for the first fledgling and the female takes care of the rest.

Unlike the European Cuckoos the Yellow-billed Cuckoo is not an obligate nest parasitizer, however it will opportunistically lay eggs in the nests of other Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Black-billed Cuckoos, American Robins, Gray Catbirds and Wood Thrushes. So both intraspecfic and interspecfic brood parasitism can occur.

During the first week of September the Yellow-billed Cuckoo will gather in flocks to migrate, they are nocturnal migrants. They are not very vocal during migration; however this bird is called the Rain Bird because folklore says you can always hear a Yellow-billed Cuckoo before a storm.

In Osage County Red-shouldered Hawks are a threat because they tend to nest in the same habitat as the Cuckoo, but other raptors also pose a potential problem. Nestlings and eggs are eaten by Black Racers, Blue Jays and Grackles. The parents will defend a nest from such intruders or they will make an attempt to lure the predator away.

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is one of three Cuckoos in Oklahoma; the other two are the Black-billed Cuckoo and the Greater Roadrunner. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a fun bird to listen too and watch if you can find it.

Visitor Counts

—Iris McPherson

Visitor history

Since I am behind a few months, I think it will be easier to show the results in two tables. The first table will be showing the number of visitors broken down in the usual manner for the first 4 months of the year. The second table will show how the total number/month relates to the same month in each of the years 2006 — 2013.

Visitor history

We seem to be having a very good number of visitors. Just be sure you ask if they would sign the guest register, and you can assure them that we will not be sending them anything. We just ask for their state or country — not their address. The numbers give us an idea of how many people come from the various states and countries. From the looks of the bison and the prairie I don’t think anyone is going to be disappointed with what they get to see. Keep up the good work.

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.