Bulletin Board

Tiadaghton Audubon Society's 20-January meeting will feature a presentation by Royal Draper of Draper's Super Bee Apiaries located near Jackson Summit, here in Tioga County. Royal will tell us about honeybees and their long-term relationship with humans and about "all of the amazing products and services they provide us". He will also talk briefly about his family's honey business and his experience as a beekeeper. Draper's Apiaries have been in business since 1974, when Royal's grandfather first started keeping bees as part of his self-sufficient farm. He soon created a thriving business, producing 60,000-110,000 pounds of honey annually with sales throughout the world, including to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Sweden. The family business even supplied honey to the White House for 20 years. Royal says that at one time they had a thousand hives, but scaled back the numbers to 240 because of the difficulties in finding good help. He hopes that as the next generation of Drapers gets older, they will be able to help out, making it possible to increase the number of hives to a thousand again.

Bees play a vital role in the environment and in the human food-supply system, but in the last few years they have faced precipitous declines. Beekeepers have been reporting slow declines of stocks for many years for reasons that are not entirely clear, and then in early 2007, unprecedentedly high die-offs (30-70% of hives) of European honey bee colonies took place in the U.S. and Québec. Research has so far failed to determine what has caused this, but the weight of evidence leans toward a combination of various contributing factors rather than a single pathogen or poison.

Please join us for this informative presentation January 20 at 7:30 PM at the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center at 134 Main Street next to the Green Free Library in Wellsboro. There will also be a business meeting at 6:30. Anyone who wishes to attend would be more than welcome.

Eagle Survey On 9 January Phil Krajewski and Gary Tyson started a new eagle survey route between Ansonia and Tiadaghton along the Pine Creek Rail Trail. Although surveys have been conducted in the past along most of Pine Creek from about 4.5 miles north of Blackwell (to a bald eagle's nest near Pine Island Run/Steel Hollow that has been active since 1987) to Jersey Shore in the south, the gorge (Important Bird Area #28) has not been regularly covered during winter surveys. Three adult bald eagles were seen in this new section-- a pair near the well-known nest at Darling Run and a third adult; and five adults were reported in the section between Jersey Shore and Blackwell. The survey program is coordinated locally by Cecil Houser (formerly of the PA Fish and Boat Commission) and statewide by Doug Gross, a biologist who works for the PA Game Commission. Thanks are due to DCNR and the Bureau of Forestry for providing a driver and truck equipped with chains for the trip down Pine Creek. Special thanks are also due to Jim Losinger, the forest ranger who did the driving and pointed out many of the places where eagles are most often seen.

110th Christmas Bird Count. The weather was a little bit kinder here in Tioga County for this year's annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count held on 19 December (PAMA circle). Nevertheless, most of this year's 17 participants felt that they did not see as many individual birds or species as they have seen in the past. The count is a one-day event that takes place throughout the United States and draws as many as 55,000 volunteers. Count data is used to detect trends in the bird population as well as to monitor ecosystem health. The CBC is the nation's longest running database for natural history information. The local count is sponsored by the Tiadaghton Audubon Society of Tioga and Potter Counties (www.tiaudubon.org) and takes place within a 177-square-mile circle, 12 miles in diameter, with its center in Whitneyville and with Mansfield and Wellsboro on its periphery, thus including Tioga-Hammond Lakes, Marsh Creek and the Muck, Nessmuck Lake, and the area just north of Arnot. A total of 5,244 individual birds were counted, comprising 45 species. The total count was actually higher than in most years, last year being an exception because of the large number of migrating Canada geese that happened to pass over the area on the day of the count. The species number was down, though, from an average number of about 50. Highlights include a peregrine falcon, a northern mockingbird (these are not often seen this far north), 3 rough-legged hawks, 3 great-horned owls, and 111 wild turkeys. Although most lakes and streams were frozen, there were many patches of open water this year, resulting in the sightings of 2 lesser scaup and a bufflehead. Almost all observers saw red-bellied woodpeckers, which are another species of milder climes that have started to move north. The most abundant species seen was the European starling with a count of 1,818 followed by American crows with a count of 490. The brown-headed cowbird count was high at 402, which is not particularly encouraging because of their parasitic breeding habits. Missing this year were sightings of northern birds such as pine siskins, snow buntings, redpolls, and evening grosbeaks. However, local residents will be happy to hear that there were plenty of eastern bluebirds --37, and some may be surprised to hear that 9 robins were reported. Participants this year included Larry Biddison, Arlene Brown, Larry Brown, Martha Copp, John Erich, Rich Faber, Charlotte Goldsmith, Jeff Holbrook, Phil Krajweski, Sue Lyons, Joan Mason, Ken Meyer, Lori Redell, Nancy Redell, Gary Tyson (compiler), Ann Vayansky, and Beth Walker.

Upcoming Programs: The January meeting will feature a presentation by Royal Draper about bees, hives, and their importance for the environment; in February chapter president Phil Krajewski and Steve McCarthy will talk about solar energy and how you may be able to use it; in March there will be a special presentation on mushrooms by Bill Russell; April will feature a program on bird and wildlife photography by Gary Tyson in cooperation with the Grand Canyon Photo Club; and in May we will hold our annual picnic and spring bird count.

Great Backyard Bird Count. For those who missed out on the Christmas Bird Count, there is another big event coming up on 12 February. Bird watchers coast to coast are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010. Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers of all levels of birding experience to count birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges.

Each checklist submitted by these "citizen scientists" helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn more about how the birds are doing—and how to protect them. Last year, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent's largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.

“Taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to get outside with family and friends, have fun, and help birds—all at the same time. Anyone who can identify even a few species can provide important information that enables scientists to learn more about how the environment is changing and how that affects our conservation priorities,” said Audubon Education Vice President, Judy Braus. “Everyone who participates in the GBBC—families, teachers, and young people—will get a chance to hone their observation skills, learn more about birds, and make a great contribution to the future!” Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from novice bird watchers to experts. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their sightings online at www.birdcount.org. One 2009 participant said, “Thank you for the opportunity to participate in citizen science. I have had my eyes opened to a whole new interest and I love it!” For more information about the GBBC, visit the website at www.birdcount.org. Or contact the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at (800) 843-2473 or (outside the U.S., call (607) 254-2473) or gbbc@cornell.edu, or Audubon at citizenscience@audubon.org or (215) 355-9588, Ext 16.

Gallery

Gallery Instructions: You can watch the gallery slideshow here, but for full-size images, click on Tiadaghton Audubon Photostream/Tiadaghton Audubon's Photos (this will take you to the Flickr site), then click on the slideshow icon in the upper right-hand corner. If the images are too large, click options and uncheck the embiggen box.

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