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The Limpkin Times
Apalachee Audubon Society Mission Statement:
Protecting the rich biodiversity of the Florida Panhandle through education, appreciation, and conservation.
February 2023
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In this Issue:
Sat. Feb. 18, Wildlife-friendly Yard Tour
Get Funding for your Project: Ben Fusaro Conservation Grant
Chapter Program
- Thurs. February 16, Florida Young Birders Club Takes Flight (Zoom)
Chapter Outings
- Sat. Feb. 11, Birding Social at Bear Creek Educational Forest
- Sun. Feb. 19, Guided Aucilla River Paddle with Peter Kleinhenz
Events of Interest
- Thurs. Feb. 2, Native Plant Society program, A History of Florida Land Conservation
- Tues. Feb 21, Sierra Club program, Northwest Sentinel Landscape
- Feb. 17-20, Great Backyard Bird Count
More Purple Martin Gourds at Lake Elberta
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Christian Watson-Kerr and James Carr planting trees at Governor’s Park for Arbor Day 2023. AAS provided 20 trees, funded by a Plants for Birds grant from Florida Power and Light. The rest of the grant will provide an interpretive sign and seeds to create wildflower gardens at the park. Other AAS volunteers that day: Donna Legare, Cindy and Charlie Baisden, and Kathleen Carr
President's Message
Correction: My apologies to our CLI student and Intern, Christian Watson-Kerr, I totally messed up his last name in the January newsletter. It’s been corrected in the online version of the newsletter.
Youth Birding: Getting kids outside to learn about birds is a terrific way to engage them with nature and encourage their interest in conservation. That’s what has inspired Jim McGinity to start the Florida Young Birders Club. I hope you can join our Zoom meeting this month to learn more about it and discuss possibilities for local youth involvement.
February Fundraising: February is our annual Wildlife-friendly Yards Tour fundraiser. While we hope you are able to participate, if you are unable to, please consider making a donation to support our activities and projects, such as putting together loaner backpacks with binoculars and bird guides to donate to our public libraries. You can donate via PayPal on our donation webpage or mail a check to:
Apalachee Audubon Society
PO Box 1237
Tallahassee FL 32302-1237
Get your Project Funded: Do you have a small conservation project in mind, or know someone, an organization, or school who’s looking to plant trees or a pollinator garden, or install some bird nest boxes? Then apply for a $500 grant via our Ben Fusaro Conservation Grant! We’ve extended this year's application submission deadline to March 15. Check out the article below and visit the webpage to learn about last year’s award recipients.
White Wagtail Update: Tallahassee’s mega-rarity has been sighted at Lake Elberta Park as recently as January 29, even after a day of heavy rain. Expectations are that it will migrate back to its nesting grounds soon. Check out our White Wagtail blog for updates.
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Sincerely,
Kathleen Carr
President, Apalachee Audubon
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Water features are not only beautiful, but are an essential resource for birds and other wildlife. Photo is from the 2022 yards tour, taken by Kathleen Carr.
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Wildlife Friendly Yards Tour
February 18, 2023 — 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Join us for our 15th Annual Wildlife-friendly Yards Tour and fundraiser to benefit Apalachee Audubon. We invite you to take a self-guided tour of four local yards that are wildlife havens. Each yard has unique features to attract a variety of birds and other wildlife such as wintering hummingbirds, orioles, tanagers, and goldfinches, as well as our year-round residents. This year, we have our usual wide variety of sizes and features from our yard hosts, plus some new ideas for inspiration for your own wildlife-friendly yard.
Tickets are still only $10 and go on sale January 28 at the following locations:
Native Nurseries
1661 Centerville Road
Tallahassee, FL 32308
(850)386-8882
Wild Birds Unlimited
2098 Thomasville Road
Tallahassee, FL 32308
(850) 576-0002
|  | Native plant pollinator garden at the Jefferson County UF/IFAS Extension Office, one of the two 2022 grant recipients. Photo by Kathleen Carr | 2023 Ben Fusaro Conservation Grant | |
Application period: January 1 – March 15. NOTE: This year’s deadline has been extended from February 15 to March 15.
Grant amount: up to $500
For more information and a link to the Conservation Grant Application Rubric, please visit the grant webpage.
Learn about the 2022 grant recipients.
Grant overview: The Big Bend is one of the most biodiverse regions in the country, nestled among pristine longleaf pine forests, expansive coastal marshes, diverse carnivorous plant bogs and savannas, untamed rivers, and stately hardwood forests. The mission of Apalachee Audubon society is to protect birds and their habitats through education, appreciation, and conservation, and we are proud to serve the communities inhabiting these rich ecosystems. We are excited to offer an annual conservation grant to help grassroots efforts that align with our mission. This includes individuals or groups wishing to conduct local scientific research, habitat improvement, and environmental education/outreach.
Eligible Applicants: Any individual or group wishing to conduct bird-related research, habitat improvement projects, environmental education/outreach, and community engagement within Leon, Jefferson, Wakulla, Gadsden, Liberty and Franklin counties.
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Alex DeBear
Our February and March programs will be taking place via Zoom. The April program will be hybrid, in person and Zoom. Registration is required for Zoom participants. Register early for any or all of our programs and you will receive a meeting reminder 24 hours before the meeting.
Florida Young Birders Club Takes Flight
with Jim McGinity and Alex DeBear
Thursday, Febuary 16, 2023
Program: 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Register for this program at the following link:
Zoom Registration Link: https://bit.ly/3Lm7U2S
When was the last time you saw a birder under the age of 18 on one of the birding outings that you have been on? Most Audubon chapters around the country are interested in attracting younger birders to help keep the chapter (and hobby) going into the future. But they seem to have limited success attracting and retaining young birders into their group. Following the model set forth by the Black Swamp Bird Observatory with the Ohio Young Birders Club, Jim McGinity started up the Florida Young Birders Club - Tampa Bay.
In 2020, this exciting new club for birders ages 9 - 17 began to take shape in the Tampa Bay Area. Within the next year, he connected with two other chapter leaders in the Orlando and St. Augustine areas that were starting up similar programs. The group has now grown to have three chapters, created a youth advisory group and aligned itself with the Florida Ornithological Society. Come hear about the beginning of an exciting, new venture to serve young birders throughout Florida from the founder and one of the young birders.
Read about our speakers or get information about upcoming programs.
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January Field Trip participants at Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park
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Please use the sign up email link to register for each outing so we can keep you updated with any last minute changes. Be sure to include your mobile phone number in your email. Thank you!
Saturday, February 11, 2023, 8:30 - 10:30 AM
Birding Social at Bear Creek Educational Forest
Sign up for this trip
Sunday, February 19, 2023, 9 AM - 3:00 PM
Guided River Paddle with Peter Kleinhenz, Down the Aucilla River
Sign up for this trip
Save the Date
Saturday, March 11, 2023, 9:00 - 11:00 AM
Family-friendly and Beginners -- Birding Social at Lake Elberta Park
Sign up for this trip
Sunday, March 19, 2023, Guided trip with Juli deGrummond.
Location TBA
Sign up for this trip
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You can bird anywhere for the Great Backyard Bird Count, including your neighborhood or favorite parks, like Lafayette Heritage Trail Park featured here. Photo by Kathleen Carr
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Great Backyard Bird Count
This month you can celebrate birds by participating in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, February 17–20, 2023, when people around the world spend up to 4 days observing and reporting the birds in their yards and favorite places.
Connect to birds, to nature, and with each other. Birds are everywhere, all the time, doing fascinating things. The Great Backyard Bird Count uses eBird, one of the world’s largest nature databases. It stores more than 100 million bird sightings contributed each year and is used by professionals for science and conservation. Contribute to eBird and become a citizen scientist.
New to the Great Backyard Bird Count or to using eBird? Go to the GBBC webpage How to Participate for options for entering your bird lists. Learn more and get answers to your questions at this month’s webinar.
Join Q&A Webinar
Wednesday, February 15, 1:00-2:00 PM, EST
During a live Q&A session, experts from Audubon, Birds Canada, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will share their tips for making birdwatching easier and more enjoyable for people of all ages and abilities. Get your questions answered about bird ID, counting birds, and more–you’ll leave confident and ready to be part of this fun event!
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More Purple Martin Gourds at Lake Elberta
| We’ve added another array of Purple Martins gourds at Lake Elberta! This one holds 16 gourds which greatly expands the nesting options for the birds when they return from South America. The original array holds 8 gourds, so the birds will have 24 gourds to choose from now. Our thanks to Dr. Fred Vroom for allowing us to remove multiple arrays from his property, and Jody Walthall and the staff of Native Nurseries for digging them out and installing this array. Photo by Kathleen Carr | |
Land Acknowledgement Statement
Apalachee Audubon acknowledges that the region it serves is located on the ancestral and traditional homelands of the Apalachee Indians of the Talimali Band, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. We pay respect to the resiliency of their tribal members, past and present, and to all Indigenous peoples. We encourage all to learn about the significance of Indigenous peoples in this region and throughout this continent.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS: 2022-2023
Officers:
President: Kathleen Carr
Vice President: VACANT
Treasurer: Harvey Goldman
Secretary: James Carr
Directors:
Cindy Baisden
Charlie Baisden
Caleb Crow
Howard Kessler
Peter Kleinhenz
Heather Levy
Rob Williams
STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Conservation Peter Kleinhenz
Education Bryan Danford
Field Trips Heather Levy
Membership VACANT
Program VACANT
Publications and Publicity Kathleen Carr
+ Newsletter Chris Grossman
+ Web Team Elizabeth Georges, Kathleen Carr
+ Annual Report (President)
OTHER COMMITTEES & CHAPTER ACTIVITIES
Bookkeeper Adrienne Ruhl
Birdathon Harvey Goldman
History Caleb Crow, Karen Wensing
September Coastal Cleanup Donna Legare
Wildlife-Friendly Yards Tour Tammy Brown
Lake Elberta Park Alexis Smith
Volunteer Coordinator VACANT
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