the

Lahontan Audubon Society •

Pelican
P.O. Box 2304 • Reno, Nevada 89505 • www.nevadaaudubon.org • 775-324-BIRD

Mission statement: To preserve and improve the remaining habitat of birds and other wildlife, restore historical habitat, and educate
the public, with emphasis on children, providing vision to all about our unique Nevada environments.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY MONTHLY MEETINGS

2010 Date: Fourth Tuesday of the month
Time: Social at 6:30 p.m. Program starts at 7 p.m.
Location: South Valleys Library
vol. 47, no. 3 15650A Wedge Parkway, Reno
Exterior door, west side of building
Inside This Issue Directions to South Valleys Library: Take Hwy 395 to the Mt. Rose Hwy. Head
west on the Mt. Rose Hwy and take the first right turn onto Wedge Parkway, just
1 Monthly Meetings past Raley’s shopping center. Go about one mile on Wedge Parkway and look for
the boldly designed, mustard yellow library on the right. Carpooling is encouraged.
2 Ask a Birder
January 26 – Pat Kelly & Elmer Bull – Marsh Conditions at Carson Lake
3 Birds and More and Pasture and Progress Toward Transfer of Ownership
Carson Lake, south of Fallon, has long been one of the favorite spots for
4 LAS News
birders and is part of the Lahontan Valley Wetlands Important Bird Area.
5 Field Trips Thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds use this area for breeding and for
migration stopover. The land has been under federal ownership for years, but
5 The Avid Birder it will soon be transferred to the State of Nevada. Pat Kelly, Wildlife Area
Manager, and Elmer Bull, Wildlife Staff Specialist (both with the Nevada
6 Birds in Town Department of Wildlife), will first describe what has been done this year with
marsh management at Carson Lake, then discuss what has been done, and
7 LAS Sales/ what remains to be done, in order for the land transfer to take place.
Membership
February 23 – Tom Howell – Birding in Malawi and Zambia
Submissions for the March/April issue Tom and Ann Howell will recap their seventh trip to Africa in November
are due February 1, 2010 2008, which included Malawi and Zambia. Malawi is a relatively unknown
tourist attraction for most Americans travelling to Africa, but European
The Pelican may be viewed on the LAS
birders know Malawi very well, especially the British. The two main stops
website at www.nevadaaudubon.org,
click on the Newsletter tab. in Malawi included Liwonde National Park (Mvuu Wilderness Lodge) in the
south and the Nyika Plateau (Chelinda Camp) in the north. The trip finished
up with four days at Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park (Mfuwe Lodge).
Besides the requisite bird life, there will be plenty of other wildlife photos
included in the presentation.

The Pelican 1
ASK A BIRDER
LASBirdBrain@gmail.com
Dear Bird Brain
Often, when I’m on a birding trip, I’ll
hear the trip leader say “There’s a buteo
in that tree.” Then we all look and see
a hawk. Why does the leader say buteo
instead of hawk?
Thank you,
Wondering in Washoe
Dear Wondering,
Your confusion is
understandable, but
the explanation is
relatively simple
(I hope). The word
buteo refers to a
general category of hawks, as does
another term you might have heard:
“accipiter.” The buteo hawks (or simply,
buteos) are the hawks with the large,
bulky bodies and broad, rounded wings
and short tails. A good example is our
Red-tailed Hawk (the most common
buteo in North America). A good way to
recognize a buteo when it’s perched is to
look at its wings and tail. In buteos the
wing tips usually do not extend much
past the tip of the tail. The buteos are also
the hawks you see soaring up high while
hunting. Accipiters, on the other hand
(such as a Cooper’s Hawk), have a long
tail with many parallel bands, and the tail
extends way beyond the tips of the wings
when the bird is perched. Accipiters have
more slender bodies than buteos, and
short, rounded wings. They generally
don’t soar, flying instead with a flap,
flap, flap, glide pattern. They often perch
quietly in a tree or shrub waiting to attack
a small bird or mammal. Anyone who has
bird feeders in their yard has probably
seen a Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned Hawk
coming after the birds at the feeder at one
time or another.
In our area the most common buteos
are the Red-tailed Hawk, Rough-legged
Hawk (a winter resident), Ferruginous
Hawk, and Swainson’s Hawk (a spring
and summer breeder). The accipiters
include the Cooper’s Hawk, the almost
identical Sharp-shinned Hawk, and
the larger of the three, the Northern
Goshawk. All of them are called
“raptors,” a general term for all hawks,
eagles, falcons, and kites. Yes, eagles are
a type of hawk too, as
are falcons and kites,
but that’s a topic for
some other confused
birder’s question!
Happy Birding,
The Bird Brain
Photo of a Red-tailed
Hawk by Alan Gubanich
Do you have a question about birds
or birding in northern Nevada? If
so, please email the LAS Bird Brain
at LASBirdBrain@gmail.com. Your
question might be selected for the next
issue of The Pelican. And remember,
the only silly question is the one that
isn’t asked!
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
LAS has the positions of President,
Trustee Seat #3, Communications
Chair, and Conservation Chair avail-
able for any members who are interested
in serving our organization. There is also
room for volunteers to serve on the Edu-
cation Committee. If any of these sound
like something you’d be interested in,
please contact Alan Gubanich at
aag@unr.nevada.edu or 775-857-0191.
Also, Connie Douglas, who is respon-
sible for the distribution of The Pelican,
has expressed the need for assistance
with each issue. If you would be inter-
ested in volunteering a few hours of your
time to assist Connie, please contact her
at 775-425-1305. Thanks!
Donors
American Avocet $50 - $99
Debra Zalmana
Nancy Santos
Tina Nappe
Karla Joost Harrison
Mountain Bluebird $20 - $49
Don and Lynn Harriiman
Ralph Hoke
Jim Gallagher
Other:
Jay and Jan Meierdierck generously
donated over fifty bird-related art
items to LAS.

SUBSCRIPTIONS WHERE TO WRITE:

The Pelican is the official newsletter of the Lahontan Audubon
Society and is published six times annually. Subscriptions are
paid for as part of the dues of LAS or the National Audubon
Society. LAS welcomes gifts, donations, and bequests in gen-
eral, or gifts in honor or memory of relatives and friends. Such
donations will be used as specified or, if unspecified, will be
used to support LAS education and conservation projects. All
donations are tax deductible.
Keep conservation to the forefront. Write your elected officials and
tell them how you feel:
Senator Harry Reid Senator John Ensign
400 S. Virginia St. #902 400 S. Virginia St. #738
Reno, NV 89501 Reno, NV 89501
Toll-free: 1-866-736-7343 Reno phone: 775-686-5770
Representative Dean Heller Governor Jim Gibbons
400 S. Virginia St. #502 101 N. Carson St.
Reno, NV 89501 Carson City, NV 89710
Reno phone: 775-686-5760 775-684-5670

2 The Pelican
BIRDS AND MORE
Kathy Oakes 775-747-5446 oakesy@sbcglobal.net
BRRR How Do Birds Keep Warm in
Winter?
Birds are warm-blooded and maintain their
body temperatures at or above 104 deg-
rees F, much higher than the outside winter
temperatures. How do they survive such
cold conditions?
As you may have guessed, feathers play
a major role in keeping birds warm. Many
birds that winter in northern climes put on
extra feathers for the winter, including more
insulating down feathers. By fluffing their
feathers, birds create many tiny spaces that
trap air and drastically reduce heat loss.
During cold nights, birds reduce heat loss
by tucking their un-insulated bills into their
shoulder feathers.
But how do birds keep from losing heat
from those skinny bare feet and legs? They
accomplish this with a slick adaptation
called countercurrent heat exchange. In
birds, the arteries and veins in their legs are
interwoven close together to facilitate heat
exchange. Cold blood returning in the veins
from the feet picks up heat via conductance
from the warm arterial blood coming from
the body core. Thus, when arterial blood
reaches the feet, it is cool so it doesn’t lose
much heat to the cold exterior; and venous
blood reaching the body core has been
warmed by salvaging heat from the arterial
blood, helping maintain the bird’s core heat.
This explains why those geese can happily
walk on the ice on Virginia Lake.
Keeping warm uses up lots of energy, and
birds must eat high quality food every day
to survive. An interesting study showed
that wintering chickadees put on fat each
day only to burn it off keeping warm at
night. Individual chickadees collected at
dusk averaged seven percent body fat, but
those collected in the early morning showed
less than three percent fat. To conserve
energy overnight, chickadees may allow
their body temperatures to drop by as much
as 20 degrees F lower than their normal
daytime temperature. A main source of high
energy food for birds in winter is seeds, but
also (surprisingly) insects. Woodpeckers “Winter Birds” photographed by Alan Gubanich
excavate inactive insects from tree bark
and wood, and wintering kinglets and
chickadees have been shown to glean
frozen caterpillars and other insects from Birds & Books
branches of evergreens.
Cold winter nights are a special challenge, LAS Birds & Books is a flock of readers
and most birds roost in protected sleeping interested in nature, especially birds and
quarters. Dense evergreen shrubs and birding. The group meets in Reno on the
conifer trees provide valuable nightly roost third Tuesday of the month from 7:00-8:30
sites for birds such as jays, finches, quail, p.m. at Sundance Bookstore, 1155 W. 4th
and doves. Birds such as woodpeckers, Street, #106-Keystone Square Shopping
wrens, and nuthatches sleep in tree cavities Center. You are encouraged to attend a
much like the ones they nest in. Many meeting to see if this group is for you or to
birds are known to huddle for warmth in contact Kenn Rohrs at karohrs@charter.net
communal roosts. Up to a dozen Pygmy or 775-849-9530 for more information. For
Nuthatches have been found huddled in a a complete schedule and brief description
tree cavity. Kinglets and chickadees often of the selected books, go to the LAS
huddle together on conifer branches for website www.nevadaaudubon.org and
warmth. A study of kinglets showed that check the Birds & Books section of the
two birds huddled together reduced their Meetings page.
heat loss by almost one-fourth, and that
three huddled reduced their heat loss by January 19, 2010
over one-third. In Search of Nature by Edward O. Wilson,
For those interested in reading more Laura Southworth (Illustrator)
about strategies of wintering birds (as well
as other animals), Winter World by Bernd February 16, 2010
Heinrich is an excellent book to curl up Waiting for Aphrodite: A Journey Into the
with this winter, preferably by a roaring fire Time Before Bones by Sue Hubbell
and maybe with a hot buttered rum!

Bird Photos Needed for the March 2010 Meeting

If you missed the Bird ID Panel last March, you missed one of the highlights of the season. You won’t want to miss it this year! Members
of the audience said they learned so much and had so much fun that they want to do it again. So, our panel of “experts” has agreed to
return on March 23 and once again try to identify the birds in photos submitted by you, our LAS members. If you have any decent (or
relatively decent) photos of birds that you’d like to submit (either digital or 35 mm slides), send them to Alan Gubanich at aag@unr.
nevada.edu (or call him at 857-0191). As he did last year, Alan will compile them into a PowerPoint presentation and show them to the
panel one by one. Then we will all sit back and once again see if our local experts can agree on the species identification, and explain why
they think as they do. Here’s another chance for all of us to learn some of the secrets of bird ID.
NOTE: Here are the rules for photo submissions.
Members of last year’s audience and the panel members all agree that they would prefer to NOT have photos of exotic or non-native
birds. Please confine your submissions to species that would normally be found in the Nevada/California area (or at least be common to
most of North America). The plan is to make the evening a good learning session for those of us who would like to discover the “secrets”
of bird ID. Also, photos of difficult species are definitely in demand! Otherwise, how would we improve our birding skills?
If you submit any photos, please accompany them with your name and a date and location for each photo. If you don’t know exact details,
approximations are okay (e.g., late April on the northern CA coast; or, early February about 30 miles north of Las Vegas; etc.). And don’t
forget to mark your calendars and join us on March 23 for another fun night!

The Pelican 3
LAS NEWS
Thanks to Our Volunteers and
Especially Karen Kish: For those
of you who missed our November
meeting, you missed a great talk by
Chris Briggs on hawk morphs, and
you missed the annual LAS Thank You
Tribute to all of our Volunteers who
worked so hard over the last year. Alan
Gubanich, LAS’s Vice President and
temporary Acting President, gave a fun
slide presentation featuring our many
LAS volunteers. Notable among the
volunteers was Karen Kish, LAS’s Past
President, who was honored with LAS’s
gift of a beautiful framed photograph of
a young magpie (photographed by Bob
Goodman). The photo bore a plaque on
the frame and was signed on the back by
as many LAS members as there was room
for their personal notes.
Karen spent countless hours serving
as LAS President for many years (more
than any of us could remember). Karen
represented LAS at events during the
legislative sessions to promote LAS and
our conservation mission; volunteered
tirelessly for functions such as Spring
Wings, Eagles and Agriculture, and other
events at which she manned our display
booth to “get the word out” about LAS;
and spent scores of hours coordinating
with National Audubon about many
LAS projects and functions. This is not
to mention the many, many hours Karen
spent organizing files, materials, and the
agenda for the LAS Board Meetings,
which, along with her judiciously wielded
gavel, helped to focus our meetings and
Karen Kish (left) and Bob Goodman (right). Photo by
Alan Gubanich
saved the Board of Trustees many hours
by keeping the Board “on mission.”
Then there’s the huge effort she put into
the Annual Planning Retreats and in
compiling our Chapter’s Annual Report
to National Audubon. On behalf of the
Board and of all of LAS, Thank You Karen
for all your hard work. And don’t make
yourself scarce. We’d love to still have
you involved in LAS activities, even if it’s
just as a rested, stress-free bird watcher!
Early Thanks for the 2009 Fall
Fund Drive: Even with the still shaky
economy, your responses to our annual
Autumn Fund Drive have been very
generous. Your contributions will help
LAS greatly to further our mission of
conservation and education. The full roster
of acknowledgments will appear in our
March-April 2010 issue. Thank you so
much for caring about and supporting our
organization.
13th Annual Great Backyard Bird
Count: The next Great Backyard Bird
Count (GBBC) takes place this year
from Friday, February 12 through
Monday, February 15, 2010. The
GBBC is an annual event co-hosted
by the National Audubon Society and
Cornell Lab of Ornithology that invites
bird watchers across the country to
count birds over four days. All ages
and skill levels are welcome to count.
Count anywhere: in your backyard,
school yard, park, or nature area. You
can count for as little as 15 minutes on
one day, or you can count for as long as
you like each day of the event. It’s free,
fun, and easy. No fees or registration are
required. For details on the activity, and
for instructions for online reporting,
please visit www.birdsource.org/gbbc/
howto.html.
During last year’s count, participants
turned in more than 93,600 checklists on-
line; 619 species were recorded and over
11.5 million individual birds were count-
ed. According to the Cornell Lab of Orni-
thology, each year the GBBC provides the
most detailed real-time snapshot of bird
distribution across North America of any
monitoring project, and helps to show how
birds are responding to changing weather
patterns, available food sources, and other
factors. The GBBC is Citizen Science at
its most valuable. So count those birds and
make your contribution to our nation’s or-
nithological knowledge.
- Kathy Oakes, Acting
Communication Chair

LAS Vision Statement

You have no doubt seen the LAS Mission Statement: “To preserve and improve the remaining habitat of birds and other wildlife,
restore historical habitat, and educate the public, with emphasis on children, providing vision to all about our unique Nevada
environments.” A Mission Statement answers the questions; “Why does our organization exist?”, “What values will guide us?”
A new Vision Statement was recently adopted by the LAS Board of Directors to open all of our eyes to what is possible for LAS over
the next 10 years. A Vision Statement is more encompassing than a Mission Statement and answers the question, “What will success
look like?” In other words, a Vision Statement should be consistent with the values of LAS and should challenge and inspire us to
achieve our mission. The Board crafted the Vision Statement to create a mental picture that is charged with the emotion that can serve
to inspire and energize us all. We want this Vision Statement to stretch our expectations and aspirations for LAS and maybe help each
of us to jump out of our comfort zone a little and become more involved in the future. So, without further adieu, let us introduce the
new LAS Vision Statement:
“We envision that, in 2020, the Lahontan Audubon Society will be widely recognized as the most effective and admired
educational, birding, and conservation resource promoting the value of protecting Nevada’s birds and native ecosystems as
important components of the earth’s life support system.”
So, there you have it. Now, let’s roll up our collective sleeves and make LAS the “most effective and admired educational, birding and
conservation resource…”.
Board of Directors

4 The Pelican
FIELD TRIPS
Christiane Omer 775-354-2634 happycpo@aol.com
We have four exciting trips coming up in January and February.
To see more about Field Trips and the Trip Reports go to
www.nevadaaudubon.org and select the Reports: Trips & Events
tab on the left.
Saturday, January 16 (alternate snow day, January 23)
Annual Dipper Day, Reno Area
Time: 8:00 a.m.
Leader: Jim Eidel, 775-841-6543
This popular annual trip offers a unique opportunity to hear and
observe the elusive but vocal American Dipper. You will be
introduced to a bird species specialized in living a semi-aquatic
life in swift mountain streams and rivers. From their nictitating
membrane (third eyelid), large oil glands, dense plumage, and
unique underwater foraging techniques, this bird species is truly a
“water ouzel.” The trip will also offer the opportunity to observe
other bird species residing along the Truckee River corridor.
Meet in the main Rancho San Rafael parking lot in front of
the Wilber D. May Arboretum at 8:00 a.m. Please be prepared for
snow (boots, jackets, gloves, etc.) and bring a bag lunch, or money
to buy lunch, as we will wind up at Donner if time permits.
Saturday, January 30
The Great Reno Caper
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Leader: Dennis Serdehely, 775-771-1575, birders@att.net
Come join us for…The Great Reno Caper! This wonderful winter
trip is confined to the Reno City Limits and includes such birding
hot spots as Rancho San Rafael Park, Oxbow Nature Study Area,
Virginia Lake, Rosewood Estates, and others. Meet at the north
end of Virginia Lake at 9:00 a.m. This is a full day trip so please
dress warmly, and bring a bag lunch, binoculars, and a scope if
you have one.
THE AVID BIRDER
Kenn Rohrs 775-849-9530 karohrs@charter.net
Recently I had the pleasure of reading two new books about
falconry: Falcon Fever: A Falconer in the Twenty-First Century by
Tim Gallagher and Lift by Rebecca K. O’Connor. Both books are
memoirs with the authors describing how birds, especially the art
of falconry, captured their heart and soul. Both of these books are
enjoyable and informative reads.
Gallagher, who is also the author of The Grail Bird, the
fascinating story of the hunt for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker,
explores present-day falconry, sharing interesting details and facts
relating to training techniques, language, and rituals regarding this
very interesting sport. I particularly liked Gallagher’s creative short
and snappy history of falconry. Using his own life, especially his
difficult childhood, the author tells about his life-long passion for
falconry. I most enjoyed Gallagher’s story of naming his peregrine
falcon, Macduff, the Shakespearian character who killed Macbeth.
What a name for a falcon! What a falcon – Macduff!
The Pelican 5
Sunday, February 7
Raptors in the Nile Valley
Time: 8:30 a.m.
Leaders: Debbie and Randy Pontius, 775-273-3642,
deborahpontius@gmail.com
The Nile Valley/Big Meadows surrounding Lovelock annually
posts the highest raptor numbers for the Great Basin Bird
Observatory’s (GBBO) Winter Raptor Count. Hawks, falcons,
Great Horned, Barn and Burrowing Owls, and Golden Eagles are
possible. We will view the vast communal raptor/heron roost, and
search out any offspring of our late resident white Red-tailed Hawk
who passed on two springs ago. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Chevron
(coffee, restaurant, bathrooms, and snacks available) off exit 106
in Lovelock. If leaving Reno, leave at 7:00 a.m. It takes about 1.5
hours from Reno to Lovelock. Contact Debbie or Randy to confirm
attendance and get further directions. Plan for lunch at a local
Mexican restaurant, but you are welcome to bring a bag lunch. We
will end at about 2:00 p.m. Scopes are helpful.
Saturday, February 13
Riverview Park, Carson River
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Leader: Nancy Santos, 775-884-1570, nancylas@att.net
This is the tenth annual Riverview Park winter bird trip. We
will explore wetland, sagebrush, and riparian habitats on an
approximately one-mile easy loop trail. The total number of
species observed during the past five years is 35. Some of our
more memorable species included a large flock (200+) of Pinyon
Jays, Belted Kingfisher, Black-crowned Night Heron, Cedar
Waxwing, and a close-up view of a Bald Eagle. I hope you can join
us this year. Meet at 9:00 a.m. in the Riverview Park parking lot.
Riverview Park is located at the east end of East 5th Street, adjacent
to the Carson River. Please contact Nancy if you plan to attend so
she can plan for additional trip leaders accordingly.
O’Connor, well known in the parrot community for her book
A Parrot for Life: Raising and Training the Perfect Parrot
Companion, writes about her falconry experiences. Her love of
her birds, red-tails, merlins, goshawks, and peregrines infuses
her well-written and interesting story. She has been a falconer for
approximately 10 years and in this memoir she shares her very
personal experiences. She does not hesitate to explore and share
her feelings about her birds and their prey. Kim Barnes, on the
back cover of the book, describes O’Connor’s story: “Lift is not
simply the story of one woman’s desire to understand and control
her world through the art of falconry – it is a story of holding on, of
letting go, of recognizing and allowing the competing forces in our
lives to sustain and shape us.”
Both of these books should appeal to bird lovers as well as
anyone who has struggled to overcome a difficult childhood and
anyone who’s ever struggled to master a new challenge.
Birds in Town
Alan Wallace wallacealan@sbcglobal.net
A straight-through reading of the many October and November
bird sightings nicely captured the flow from migration into the
winter season. Early October brought comments about “very
few ducks,” followed in November by news of “lots of ducks”
(especially Redheads) as waterfowl arrived for the winter.
Buffleheads and Hooded Mergansers began to appear on
area ponds, and the occasional Snow, Greater White-fronted,
and Cackling Goose could be found in the rapidly expanding
ocean of Canada Geese. In early October, you could still see
a few Barn, Tree, and Violet-green Swallows and Anna’s
and Rufous Hummingbirds. In late November, by contrast,
you were more likely to see or hear Spotted Towhees, Cedar
Waxwings, Ruby- and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-
rumped Warblers, and Hermit Thrushes, not to mention
the appropriately seasonal Wild Turkeys (not the ones in the
freezer) if you were in Baker. As usual, Cooper’s and Sharp-
shinned Hawks returned to their feeding grounds, namely
our yards, to partake of the grain-fed bounty and, on occasion,
take baths in the water that we dutifully
provided. The Western Meadowlarks
in Washoe Valley shifted from the
open fields of summer to Steve Ting’s
feeders, making for unusual additions to
his yard birds.
Amidst the departing summer birds
and arriving winter birds were a few
good vagrants. A White-throated
Sparrow showed up in Reno, and a
second joined a Harris’s Sparrow
and more common White-crowned
Sparrows in Baker, with the trio
missing a Golden-crowned Sparrow Lesser Goldfinches enjoying lunch. Photograph
for a clean sweep of the Zonotrichia by Ed Oakes.
genus. Golden-crowneds, however,
could be found with the white-crowneds in western Nevada.
Despite migration waning in early October, a Yellow-breasted
Chat lingered in Carson City, and Black-throated Gray
and Orange-crowned Warblers trickled through northern
Nevada towns. Woodpeckers, including Hairy and Downy
Woodpeckers, Red-breasted Sapsuckers, and Northern
Flickers, continued to frequent the burned trees at Oxbow Park
in Reno, and White-headed Woodpeckers were regulars at
the Rohrs’ feeders in the Galena area (but, for some reason, the
Downys have been no-shows at their yard). On the waterfront,
single Bonaparte’s and Franklin’s Gulls made very brief
stops in Reno and Sparks, a few Herring Gulls mixed with
the other common gulls, and a Eurasian Wigeon made a
one-day stop at Virginia Lake in Reno, joining a large flock of
American Wigeons. The last column mentioned the rarity of
Phainopeplas in northern Nevada, so of course a male showed
up in Fallon to feed on bugs and berries, and a second male
foraged in the Russian olives in Tonopah, closer to but still
north of its normal range. Even farther afield in early October
6 The Pelican
were a Lawrence’s Goldfinch that joined a flock of Pine
Siskins and goldfinches in Battle Mountain, and two female
Lawrence’s in east-central Reno.
Jean Sherman noted one recent Dark-eyed Junco that was
notably larger – the size of a White-crowned Sparrow – than
the rest of the juncos. Males typically are a little larger than
females, and juncos (both males and females) that breed at
more northerly latitudes are larger, for various competition
and survival reasons (this is called Bergmann’s rule: the bigger
birds have a larger volume to surface area ratio and thus radiate
less heat). So, it’s possible that Jean’s big junco was a male
that originated farther north than the other males in her yard.
Size matters as well when it comes to raptors and prey. At the
Sparks Marina, Fred Peterson watched as a Red-tailed Hawk
and then a Prairie Falcon flew over the accumulated ducks
and gulls on the water. None of the waterfowl budged. Shortly
thereafter, a Golden Eagle flew over and the place erupted, so
the waterfowl clearly had a threshold for what they considered
to be safe versus life threatening.
For those of you in the Truckee
Meadows who have American and/
or Lesser Goldfinches at your feeders,
keep an eye out for bright color bands
on their legs. The folks at UNR are
trying to determine movement patterns
of goldfinches in the area (how far do
“your” goldfinches wander?) and if
feeders enhance winter survival or are a
detriment due to increased disease and
parasites. Their website (http://www.
swainson.org/Goldfinch.html) provides
more information, photos of banded
goldfinches, and a place to report any
color bands that you might see. This is a great way to provide
important data for their research, not to mention being a good
excuse for watching the goldfinches in your yard.
This year’s transition from migration into winter brought 129
species to northern Nevada towns and yards in October and
November. Contributors to this total included Carol & Mike
Amos, Mary Anderson, Jessi Brown, Alan de Queiroz,
Dennis Ghiglieri, Dave Gurney, Kirk Hardie, Nancy
Hoffman, Karen Kish, Ed Kurtz, Jacque Lowery, Sue Anne
Marshall, Diane McAllister, Martin Meyers, Don Molde,
Kathy Oakes, Andrea Oddo, Fred Petersen, Lois & Mark
Ports, Melissa Renfro & John Free, Melissa Robards,
Georgia & Kenn Rohrs, Nancy Santos, Greg Scyphers,
Dennis Serdehely, Jean Sherman, Rose Strickland, Steve
Ting, Jaime Trammel, Myra Ulvang, Frank Whitman,
Jim Woods, Dave Worley, and me. The deadline for the next
column is January 25. Send reports to 1050 Sumac St., Reno,
NV 89509 or wallacealan@sbcglobal.net, or post sightings on
the Nevada bird listserv. Good birding, and may the new year
bring a few new life birds into your field of view.
 LAS MEMBERSHIP/DONATION FORM
Lahontan Audubon Society Membership: All funds remain in the community. Members receive The Pelican
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Make check payable to Lahontan Audubon Society and mail this form to:
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LAS SALES FORM

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Important Bird Areas of Nevada $19.95 $4.60 _____

Published by Lahontan Audubon Society, 2005

A Birding Guide to Reno and Beyond--Second Edition $10 $2 _____

Published by Lahontan Audubon Society, 2007

Nevada Birding Map--Second Edition $ 4 $1 _____

Published by Lahontan Audubon Society, 2007

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Make checks payable to Lahontan Audubon Society and mail with this form to:
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LAHONTAN AUDUBON SOCIETY

Officers President Vacant
Vice President Alan Gubanich aag@unr.nevada.edu 857-0191
Treasurer Jane Burnham jane.burnham@sbcglobal.net 677-4178
Recording Secretary Mary Jo Elpers mjelpers@aol.com 747-6270
Trustees Seat #1 to 2011 Dave Straley dbstraley@gmail.com 832-9222
Seat #2 to 2011 Gene Hansel renohansel@hotmail.com 354-2150
Seat #3 to 2012 Vacant
Seat #4 to 2011 Kathy Oakes oakesy@sbcglobal.net 747-5446
Seat #5 to 2012 Jacque Lowery wbureno@sbcglobal.net 853-1302
Seat #6 to 2010 Linda Badzioch lbadzioch@pyramid.net 851-8353
Seat #7 to 2010 Kenn Rohrs karohrs@charter.net 849-9530

IBA Director Robin Powell rpowell@audubon.org 247-2798

Committee Activity/Program Alan Gubanich aag@unr.nevada.edu 857-0191

Chairs Birding Classes Bob Goodman pandion36@aol..com 972-7848
Birds & Books Reading Group Kenn Rohrs karhors@charter.net 849-9530
Communications Vacant
Conservation Vacant
Education Alan Gubanich aag@unr.nevada.edu 857-0191
Field Trips Christiane Omer happycpo@aol.com 354-2634
Hospitality Linda Badzioch lbadzioch@pyramid.net 851-8353
LAS Sales Jane Burnham jane.burnham@sbcglobal.net 677-4178
Membership Kathy Oakes oakesy@sbcglobal.net 747-5446
Volunteer Coordination Gene Hansel renohansel@hotmail.com 354-2150

Publication and The Pelican Editor Jen Martin jensieb@gmail.com 742-2582
Information “Birds in Town” Alan Wallace wallacealan@sbcglobal.net 786-5755
LAS Info Line Jacque Lowery 324-BIRD
Web Master Steve Ting scting@charter.net 849-3725