TULSA SCISSORTAIL - Tulsa Audubon Society

TULSA
SCISSORTAIL
TULSA
AUDUBON
SOCIETY
NEWSLETTER
VOL. LXXI, NO. 1
FALL 2009
Kathy tam
editor
From the President
including working at the new Ray Harral
Nature Center in Broken Arrow, as well
President’s Message
as returning to Oxley for more habitat
improvement.
Visit
The TAS Board has had another busy www.tulsaaudubon.org for more details
summer, and we have planned another on the program.
exciting slate of monthly programs, field
trips and other events.
TogetherGreen Innovation Grant.
Another aspect of the TogetherGreen
Party Time! TAS is celebrating its 75th program is called the Innovations Grant
anniversary this year! We’re not quite program. The Oklahoma Audubon
sure yet what we will be doing to cele- Council has applied to for this grant to
brate, but keep an eye out for an an- fund our Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation work (primarily fence marking)
nouncement.
and Important Bird Areas program. I’m
TogetherGreen Volunteer Days. Tulsa pleased to announce that we did receive
Audubon has again been selected for a $20,000 grant, and part of that will be
another $7,000 grant to participate again used to hire Eric Back (our current
this year in National Audubon’s To- “volunteer” IBA coordinator) to implegetherGreen Volunteer Days program. ment the LPC fence marking program.
This is a program funded by Toyota to
provide opportunities to get more people Purple Martins. Our second annual
involved in conservation activities. We Purple Martin Roost Watch was another
will be holding seven volunteer activities, great success. Close to 100 people
Winter Activities
October
20 Tue. Society Meeting. Breeding Bitterns and
Rails in
Oklahoma: Contradictions and Current Trends
with
Eric Beck. Eric is the director of Oklahoma’s
Important Bird Area program. He will share his
knowledge of this elusive family of birds.
23-25 Oklahoma Ornithological Society fall
meeting at
Northeastern State at Tahlequah. Contact:
Rebecca Renfro, relore7@aol.com, 918-3334875.
25 Sun. Bird Seed Sale. John Kennington, 918809-6325.
31-1 Field Trip. Salt Plains NWR for cranes and
waterfowl.
Leader: Cyndie Browning, 918-994-6865,
Bureoswainsoni@yahoo.com
November
gathered on the roof of the downtown
Doubletree Hotel to watch several hundred thousand martins converge on
downtown Tulsa as the gathered in their
annual night roost. Several folks came
from out of state to watch the spectacle,
and stayed overnight, providing an economic benefit to downtown Tulsa. About
15 of us ate dinner at the hotel. Channel
8 covered the event for their 10:00 p.m.
newscast.
Bird Seed Sale. We will be holding our
annual Bird Seed Sale again this year.
The pick-up day this year will be on Sunday, October 25. (I have other commitments each Saturday in October.) If you
would like a printed order form call John
Kennington at 9180809-6325, or you
can again place your order on-line at
www.tulsaaudubon.org.
December
5 Sat. Field Trip. Mid-to-late afternoon trip to
look for hawks and owls. For meeting time and
8 Sun Together Green Volunteer Day. 1 p.m. to place, call Jo Loyd 918-835-2946,
5 p.m. at the new Ray Harral Nature Center in
jo.loyd@sbcglobal.net
Broken Arrow to plant native plants, install bluebird boxes and perform trail maintenance. Dinner 15 Tue. Society Meeting. “Annual Christmas
will be provided. John Kennington 918-809-6325. Show and Tell Party.” Attendees are invited to
bring stories, slides, artifacts, or digital images
17 Tue. Society Meeting. . Bats of Oklahoma
(about 10-15) on any subject of general interest
with Dr. Bill Caire. Dr. Caire is a manmmologist (birds, flowers, travel, etc.) to share with the
with the University of Central Oklahoma’s Selgroup. Members bring treats to share. Digital
man Living
images should be on CD or flash drive. Gail StoLaboratory. He will share his knowledge of our
rey, 918-742-2684, gailstorey@sbcglobal.net
only flying mammal.
19 Sat. Christmas Bird Count. Tulsa Audubon
21 Sat. Field Trip. Sequoyah NWR and StraySociety will be participating in the National
horn Landing at Lake Tenkiller for wintering
Audubon Society’s 110th consecutive count. To
waterfowl.. Leader: Jana Singletary, 918-296join a team, contact Jo Loyd 918-835-2946,
9629,
jo.loyd@sbcglobal.net
JsSingletary@sbcglobal.net
TAS Together Green Event
November 8 Sun Together Green Volunteer Day. 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the new Ray Harral Nature Center in
Broken Arrow to plant native plants, install bluebird boxes and perform trail maintenance. Dinner will be provided. John Kennington 918-809-6325. Come on down and volunteer.
Migration of the Cranes
By John David McQuaig
Join us on our trek to find the cranes at the Great Salt Plains NWR. October 31 and November 1 Contact Leader:
Cyndie Browning, 918-994-6865, Bureoswainsoni@yahoo.com if you plan to attend.
TULSA AUDUBON SOCIETY OFFICERS : President - John Kennington Vice-President - Gail Storey Secretary - Anita
Mitchel Treasurer - Mary Jackson Recorder - Paul Ribitzki Directors: Jay Pruett, Jim Mitchell, Gary Siftar, Martin
Brown, Kathy Tam, Bob Germany
TAS Website: www.tulsaaudubon.org
“Tulsa Scissortail” is the quarterly newsletter of the Tulsa Audubon Society, a chapter of the National Audubon Society,
P.O. Box 2476, Tulsa, OK 74101. As the “Scissortail” newsletter goes to the printer two weeks before the date of issue, the editor
needs items for that issue at least a week before going to press (For Summer 2009, that will be early June). We are always looking
for a good nature story.
e-mail: buckskinhawk@hotmail.com Kathy Tam, Editor
Recorder's Report
RaritySpecies
R
Pine Warbler
R
Least Bittern
H
Monk Parakeet
O
Pine Siskin
O
Swainson's Hawk
R
Black Vulture
O
Olive-sided Flycatcher
O
Alder Flycatcher
R
Piping Plover
R
Pine Warbler
Recorder: Paul Ribitzki, e-mail: lribitzki@juno.com
Date
Count County
06/02/09
1
Osage
06/09/09
1
Tulsa
07/04/09
8
Tulsa
07/04/09
1
Pawnee
07/07/09
1
Wash.
07/21/09
1
Tulsa
08/01/09
1
Tulsa
08/08/09
1
Tulsa
08/09/09
1
Tulsa
08/25/09
1
Tulsa
Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson,
by Elizabeth J. Rosenthal (Lyons Press, 2008)
Location
Walnut Creek State Park
Sperry, Osage Trail
Tulsa, S 12th St & Vandalia
Lake Keystone area residence
Vera Rd
West Tulsa Co
Tulsa, Oxley North Woods
Tulsa, Oxley North Woods
Tulsa, Lake Yahola
Keystone Dam area
Observer(s)
Tuesday Morning Birders
Tuesday Morning Birders
K Bowery
P Ribitzki
Tuesday Morning Birders
Tuesday Morning Birders
T Mitchell,B Carrell
B Carrell
B Carrell
Tuesday Morning Birders
Reviewed by Brandon Scott for the Tulsa Scissortail
Roger Tory Peterson was a self-described obsessive birder, indicating both his great strength and weakness in his field. His concentration on birding was total and his obsession for birds often caused him difficulties in getting along with his fellow human beings. Rosenthal's biography brings
out both aspects of his personality.
He is best known as the inventor of the modern bird field guide. Before Peterson, field guides were nearly non-existent, and the ones that did exist
tended to be verbose, contained no pictures, and were not handy to carry into the field. Peterson's innovations cleverly remedied these issues. His
guide fit easily in the pocket so it could be carried in the field. It contained black and white drawings, but only four color plates, and unfortunately, the plates did not always appear alongside their corresponding birds. Nonetheless, the field guide included one of the most important innovations ever created for such how-to guides: the so-called "Peterson System" of identifying field marks in which arrows pointed to the distinguishing marks on each species. Peterson worked out such identifying marks for every bird in his Field Guide to Birds (1934) and again later A
Field Guide to Western Birds (1941). Along with the pictorial guide, Peterson developed concise, descriptive prose descriptions for each bird, the
clarity of which has never been equaled. Before Peterson, accurate identification in the field was considered difficult-to-impossible, but with the
invention of modern binoculars (a story still not told) and the Peterson field guide, the modern birding experience had arrived. No longer did a
birder need a shotgun in order to identify the "bird in the hand."
To date, the various editions of the Field Guide to Birds and Field Guide to Western Birds have sold over ten million copies.
In addition to the birding field guides which, until the 4th edition (1980), were his sole creation, Peterson started a publishing empire of other field
guides employing the "Peterson System." He personally illustrated many of the books (e.g., Field Guide to Wildflowers with Margaret McKenny)
and was the general editor of others. These field guides opened nature to the average person and are a major genesis of the modern conservation
movement.
Along with his English friend James Fisher, he unintentionally started the "big year" phenomenon. Their 100 days of travel beginning in April
1953, around the periphery of North America, from Newfoundland to Florida to northern Mexico, up the west coast all the way to the Pribilof
Islands, were recorded in Wild America, a narrative that inspired a whole generation of nature travelers, such as Kenn Kaufman and others.
As you read Wild America, James Fisher comes off as the one (of the two men) you would most want as a companion. Peterson's obsessive personality manifested itself almost painfully in such activities as his meticulous planning for the trip. While his obsessiveness made Peterson a success as a publishing machine, as a human being it left much to be desired and therefore makes his biographer's task especially difficult. Surely,
you would want to accompany Peterson on a birding trip---witness his success as the "star" tour guide on the ship Lindblad Explorer---but you
might not want to live with him everyday. Accordingly, some important aspects of his biography are unpleasant to read. So, what is the biographer to do? Rosenthal lays bare these faults but does not probe into their psychological roots, so that it's not always clear which story the author is
telling: was Peterson a birding original or an obsessive personality? Rosenthal struggles between these two poles and fails to clearly answer the
question either way.
Near the end of his life (1996), Peterson struggled to bring out a new edition of his Field Guide to Birds, to challenge the rising competition from
newer field guides, and lamented that he never got around to becoming the great nature painter that he wanted to be. In the end, his obsessions
seem to have dominated his life. Nevertheless, he left behind a system for learning how to identify birds, plants, etc., that did not exist until he
invented it, and for that, he can be forgiven an abundance of shortcomings.
FALL2009
Nonprofit Organization
U.S. Postage Paid
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Permit No. 2195
Tulsa Audubon Society
P.O. Box 2476
Tulsa, OK 74101
NAS/TAS Introductory Membership Form
Membership in the National Audubon Society provides membership in
the Tulsa Audubon Society. Members receive six issues each of Audubon magazine and four issues of the Tulsa Scissortail.
The Mission of the Tulsa
Audubon Society
Name ___________________________________
Address__________________________________
City _____________________________________
To foster appreciation, enjoyment and stewardship of our natural world.
Zip _________ Phone ______________________
Email: ___________________________________
We work to achieve this in four ways

Please check:
__ $20 1 yr Introductory
__ $30 2 yr Introductory
__ $15 1 yr Student/Senior School/Grade: __________
__ Check enclosed, payable to: National Audubon Society
Please write T01/7XCH on your check
__ Please bill me
OR
TAS Local Membership
Local membership in the Tulsa Audubon Society includes four issues of
the Tulsa Scissortail.
__ $10 Local membership, check enclosed
payable to: Tulsa Audubon Society
Mail either to: Tulsa Audubon Society
P.O. Box 2476
Tulsa, OK 74101
Promote the conservation of wildlife and
the natural environment

Provide the opportunity for study and
observation of birds and all wildlife

Contribute to research in the fields of
conservation and ornithology by monetary
support and active participation

Educate the public on the need to protect
the environment, and to promote a better
public understanding of these natural resources