JUlY, 2012 Gene Howard, Editor, eugenefhoward@bellsouth.net
Volume 41, No. 4
JULY MEETING: The Augusta-Aiken Audubon Society will meet on Thursday, July, 12 at 7:00 PM. The meeting location is the North Augusta Community Center, located at 495 Brookside Ave. in North Augusta, SC. The public is invited to all meetings, programs, and field trips sponsored by Augusta-Aiken Audubon.
PROGRAM: Lois Stacey, our incoming President, is renowned for being able to identify living thing with wings. One particular area of expertise is Dragonflies and Damselflies. She will present An Introduction to Odes ( short for the order Odonata) - a basic program describing the life history of dragonflies and damselflies and how to identify some of the more common ones in the CSRA.
An evening with an endangered species. Join us for an evening of observ ing the endangered wood storks at the Silver Bluff Audubon Center near Jackson, South Carolina. Participants will enjoy a sampling of wines and Hors D’oeuvres following the Wood Stork viewing.
Saturday, August 4, 2012. 6:00PM – 9:00 P.M. $40.00 per person. Reservations are required. Call (803) 471-0291. Proceeds benefit the Silver Bluff Audubon Center. 4542 Silver bluff Rd. Jackson, SC 29831
Augusta-Aiken Audubon's field trips are open at no charge to all chapter members and the public. We encourage everyone to come out and join us! Some tips to make the trips more comfortable: bring a hat, sunscreen, insect repellent, and drinking water. Sturdy walking shoes are recommended as is having raingear nearby. Morning trips during the winter usually begin at 9 a.m. and end around noon; warmer weather trips generally begin at 8 a.m. and end around 11 a.m. If you have questions about a field trip, please contact the listed field trip leader.
July 14, Saturday. North American Butterfly Count. All day but you may come for either the morning 9-12 or afternoon-1-5pm parts. There are 2 teams. The Georgia team will meet at Phinizy Swamp at 9am in the parking area. We will eat at a fast food restaurant about noon and then go to Merry Ponds and Lover’s Lane in the afternoon. The S.C. team will meet at Silver Bluff Education building at 9am. Paul Koehler will lead. More details later. You do not have to be an experienced butterfly expert to help. Spotters are needed as well.
July 21, Saturday. Lover’s Lane. 8-11am. Meet at Popeyes to carpool to Lover’s lane. We will search for nesting birds such as Indigo and Painted Buntings. Anne Waters and Lois Stacey lead.
July 28, Saturday. Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, SC. Meet at 9am at the entrance to the Laurel Hill wildlife drive at the refuge. We will drive the wildlife drive loop and perhaps hike to a pond on the main highway. We will be looking for Purple Gallinules who nest here. There should be large young at this time of year. We will also be looking for Swallow-tailed Kites. Bring a lunch and we will eat in one of the shady hammock areas. We will spend all of our time at the refuge and will not be going into Savannah. Anne Waters and Lois Stacey lead. Note date change from August 4.
August 18, Saturday. Silver Bluff Stork Ponds and Kite Fields South of SRS. We will meet at the stork ponds at 8am and bird the lowered ponds there, viewing the storks (hopefully). Then about 10 am we will drive south through SRS to a field just beyond where Swallow-tailed Kites are usually seen. They catch insects over these grassy fields and are quite a sight to see. Anne Waters and Lois Stacey lead.
Nine herpetology-minded persons met at the H. Odell Weeks Center in Aiken for the start of a tour of frogging hotspots in Aiken County. The evening was cool for June and largely bug-free.
We started at the nearby Carolina Bay/drainage pond, but heard nothing, probably because it was still light out. We also stopped at the Edisto River (cricket frogs, green tree frogs), and various ponds along Hwys 4 and 302 (carpenter frogs, green frogs southern toads). Although most of our stops were at ponds, we also visited the East Pine Log Road Exxon gas station to listen to a chorus of squirrel tree frogs and a few eastern narrow mouth toads.
For our final stop, we returned to the Carolina bay to hear a chorus of bullfrogs.
We managed eight species this time, leaving room for improvement the next time we try this. Doug and Alice Walker
The name of this State Park has been changed to Aiken State Natural Area. 12 people enjoyed beautiful weather on the June 16th field trip to this interesting area. It was a Wings & Things field trip and we had a lot of things with wings. 39 of them were bird species.
Most notable among the birds were : Red-headed Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebes, a Hooded Warbler feeding a baby, Yellow-throated and Black and White Warblers. A pair of Prothonotary Warblers had a nest in a tree cavity and the male was bringing food. Purple Martins were over the pond and 2 Mississippi Kites soared above.
We had 28 different species of damsel & dragonflies. Many were new to most of us and Lois was patient to teach us how to identify them. Many of us also got some photos of them. Some of the more unusual that we saw were some Black-shouldered Spiny-legs & a huge Dragonhunter who hunts and eats other dragonflies. Most colorful were the Golden-winged Skimmers and the smaller Amberwings which are both orange. The 2 Burgundy Bluet damselflies who were hooked laying eggs together were neat to watch and then there was the Double-ringed Pennant male who is blue and only the female has the double-rings. We ended with 2 more new ones for me, the Bar-winged Skimmer and Yellow-sided Skimmer hanging around in a seep filled with sphagnum moss.
The main pond here is spring fed so we were able to watch some fish as well as turtles under the water. Those were some of the “things” mentioned in the field trip title. Other “things” were some small toadlets (Southern Toads) that people caught so we could have a close look. Someone also caught a cricket frog. Very small. There were also 7 types of butterflies seen, the most unusual being the Southern Pearleye.
At noon we gathered at a picnic area to eat lunch, then continued our explorations until about 3pm. The weather was so lovely and since most of the park is shady, it was cool. High for the day was only 84 which is unusual for June. Anne Waters.
Audubon’s Project Puffin is pleased to announce that through a new partnership with philanthropic media organization Explore.org. and other project supporters, two high definition puffin cams are now streaming real time video from Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge, located twenty miles off of Rockland, Maine. These are the first high definition puffin cams to stream video to the Internet. Both cams may be viewed on-line from 7AM until 8PM. There is a Puffin Loafing Ledge Cam and a Puffin Burrow Cam. There is also an Osprey nest cam and other interesting streaming videos at Puffin Cams
Augusta-Aiken Audubon Society
4542 Silver Bluff Rd.
Jackson, SC 29831
Phone: 803-471-0291
A-AAS Elected Officers 2010-2012
President: Doug Walker, 803-649-5929
Vice-President: Ken Badke, 706-855-1955
Secretary: Nancy Demko, 803-648-7973
Treasurer: Gerald May, 706-860-3249
A-AAS Web Site: http://augustaaikenaudubon.org/
