Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society
Chartered by the National Audubon Society since 1974
Serving southeastern Wyoming Audubon members
Flyer
April 2015
Officers and Committee Chairs
Barb Gorges, President, Programs
634-0463, [email protected]
Dennis Saville, Secretary
632-1602, [email protected]
Donna Kassel, Corresponding Secretary
634-6481
Chuck Seniawski, Treasurer, Webmaster
638-6519, [email protected]
Mark Gorges, Newsletter, Membership
634-0463, [email protected]
Art Anderson, Important Bird Areas
638-1286
Elizabeth Thums, Historian, Field Trips
Greg Johnson, Bird Compiler, Checklist
634-1056, [email protected]
Susan Parkins, Member at Large
Jack Palma, Audubon Rockies Board
[email protected]
The CHPAS Flyer is published monthly as a
benefit of chapter membership. Submissions
are welcome. The current issue is available
online at http://home.lonetree.com/
audubon.
Please become a CHPAS member
Send $12 and your name and mailing address to the chapter. Include your email address to get your newsletter digitally
to save resources and see the photos in color.
All chapter memberships expire Sept. 1. Any
membership dues sent in after May 1 will
pertain to the remainder of the current year
and all of the following year.
Cheyenne-High Plains Audubon Soc.
P.O. Box 2502
Cheyenne, WY 82003-2502
http://home.lonetree.com/audubon
If you would like to join the National Audubon Society, send $20 to NAS, PO
Box 422250, Palm Coast, FL 32142-2250.
Add the code C4ZZ53OZ and the $20 will be
returned to CHPAS.
Wyobirds e-list - Subscribe, post and/or
read interesting sightings: http://
home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/waHOME.exe?A0=WYOBIRDS.
April 21— "Keeping track of our
climate" —Nolan Doesken
7 p.m. in the Cottonwood Room at the Laramie
County Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave.
Ever wonder how climatologists know if
we're getting warmer or colder, hotter or drier?
Nolan Doesken will describe where all of our
weather data come from and how climatologists
track local and national patterns and trends. He will also talk about his
favorite project -- CoCoRaHS (the Community Collaborative Rain,
Hail and Snow network) -- where citizens anywhere in the country can
help track storms. Climate data may sound boring -- but it's far from it!
Come and find out for yourself.
Nolan Doesken is the State Climatologist at the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He has been
tracking Rocky Mountain climate for nearly 40 years with a particular
interest in local precipitation. After the Fort Collins flood of 1997, he
helped start the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network (CoCoRaHS) which has now spread nationwide and to Canada.
April 25— Field trip:
Pawnee Grasslands
Leave at 8 a.m. from the
parking lot in Lions Park south of
the Children’s Village (next to the
Old Community House). Car
pooling may be available.
We will head southeast,
about a 1.5 hour-drive.
The trip is open-ended so
if you bring your own transportation, you are welcome to leave at any
time. Bring lunch, water. Please call Field Trip Chair Elizabeth Thums,
649-2477, if you want notice of any changes in plans due to weather.
May 9— Beginning Birding Class at Lions Park
Meet at 8 a.m. in the Children’s Village. Free, open to the public of all
ages. There will be a very quick introduction to the park’s most noticeable birds and there will be binoculars, if you need them, then a walk
around the park for the next two hours. Joining us will be families taking part in Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Forever Wild Families, so we would love to have all of you regulars to help introduce the
beginners to birdwatching.
At 10 a.m., back in the Children’s Village, CHPAS member Dennis
Saville will present birding tips and an overview of resources to help
you identify birds and learn more about them.
Additional calendar dates
April 21—Dinner with speaker
The 2015 BioBlitz will bring together scientists and the public
to survey for every type of organism we can find in the area within 24
We will be meeting our guest speaker, Nolan Doesken, hours. Teams of scientists, teachers, volunteers, environmental educators,
at 5 p.m. at Anong’s Thai Cuisine, 620 Central Ave. If you would and community members join forces to find, identify, and learn about as
like to join us, please call Mark at 634-0463.
many local plant, insect and animal species as possible. Additional information is coming soon.
April 28—CHPAS Board Meeting
7 p.m. Gorges home. Call 634-0463 if you’re coming.
May 8—Cheyenne Country Club Survey
7 a.m. Contact Chuck if you wish to take part or be on his email
notice list: 638-6519, [email protected]. Birdwatchers of all skill levels
welcome.
May 16—Big Day Bird Count
6 a.m. beginning at Lions Park and continuing to other Cheyenne birding hotspots. More info next newsletter.
June 13-14—Audubon Rockies BioBlitz
Heart Mountain Preserve, Cody —see the website at :
http://wyomingbiodiversity.org/index.php?cID=643
July 10-13—NAS Convention —Leesburg, Virginia
July 11-12—Field trip: Rocky Mountain National
Park
Rocky Mountain National Park is celebrating its 100th
anniversary this year. This will be a one-to-two day trip. We’ll
bird in the park and along Trail Ridge Road on our way to spending the night at Grandby so that we can bird the Windy Gap
Wildlife Viewing Area and some other hotspots west of the park
the next morning. Contact Elizabeth Thums for more information, 649-2477.
President’s Message: Habitat Hero workshop a success!
By Barb Gorges, 634-0463, [email protected]
100 people attended the Habitat
Hero workshop, including the presenters. Only a few people registered were
unable to come at the last minute. Everyone on the waiting list was given a
chance to attend.
Susan J. Tweit, plant biologist
and award-winning author, http://susanjtweit.com, from Salida,
Colorado, explained the importance of providing wildlife habitat,
especially for beleaguered bees and butterflies, in our own yards.
And especially with native plants. Also a landscape
designer, she explained how wildscaping is similar to
landscaping, but emphasizes layers of vegetation, water features, and native plants suited to the native wildlife.
Jane Dorn, co-author with her husband, Robert Dorn, of “Growing Native Plants of the Rocky
Mountain Area,” gave a rundown of plants from the
book that are best suited to our high plains in southeastern Wyoming.
Jamie Weiss, Habitat Hero program coordi-
nator for Audubon Rockies made a short presentation and invited
everyone to consider applying for recognition as a Habitat Hero
this fall when applications will be accepted.
Clint Bassett, water conservation specialist for the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities explained where Cheyenne water
comes from (some piped through a couple mountain ranges!) and
was part of the afternoon panel that looked at specific yards and
how they might be wildscaped.
I’d like to thank the folks on the organizing committee
with me: chair Mark Gorges, Jane Dorn, Jack Palma, Jamie
Weiss, and our partners from Laramie County Master Gardeners,
Jennifer Wolfe and Michelle Bohanan.
Be a Habitat Hero: Waterwise Wildscaping resources
“Growing Native Plants of the
Rocky Mountain Area,” by Robert D. Dorn
and Jane L. Dorn, is available at
www.lulu.com as a print-on-demand book.
Plans are underway to make it available
digitally, as a disk. It has color photos of
500 native plants and information on how
to grow them, and how to garden for wildlife.
Native Plants for High Plains Habitats - Jane and Robert Dorn prepared this
list of 114 trees, shrubs, annuals and perennial flowers and grasses for the Habitat
Hero workshop held in Cheyenne March
2015. It includes description and availability notes for each species. Find the link at
our chapter website: http://
home.lonetree.com/audubon/.
Wyoming Wildscape – This is a
Wyoming Game and Fish Department publication written and updated this spring by
non-game bird biologist Andrea Orabona.
It has specific gardening instructions and a
plant list. Later in the summer of 2015,
printed copies are to be available through
WGFD. The link is also on the CHPAS
website.
The Habitat Hero program, managed by Audubon Rockies, has a website,
www.HabHero.org, with a wide variety of
information, including how to apply for
recognition for your garden. The application season usually opens late summer.
Mountains and Plains, The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes
do State University, an expert on Yellowstone’s ecology.
Ecology is the study of how
geology, climate, fauna and flora interact
within an area, but rather than writing a
textbook, this book is written for all of
us who work or recreate in the Wyoming
Dennis Knight was the sole aulandscape and want to know more about
thor of the first edition of “Mountains and
what is going on.
Plains, The Ecology of Wyoming LandThere have been a lot of changscapes,” published in 1994. Now Universies in the last 20 years, a lot of new stoty of Wyoming professor emeritus, this
ries: pine beetles, re-introduced wolves,
time he enlisted the help of three colsage-grouse issues.
leagues for the second edition that came
At the related website,
out at the end of 2014: George Jones, assowww.mountainsandplains.net , you can
ciate director of the Wyoming Natural
ask questions and check for updates.
Diversity Database at UW (where the
The book can be ordered from
book’s royalties are going); William
major booksellers. The Wyoming State
Reiners, professor emeritus, UW; and Wil- Museum store is carrying it.
liam Romme, professor emeritus, ColoraMountains and Plains, The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes, second edition, by Dennis H. Knight, George P. Jones, William A.
Reiners, William H. Romme, c. 2014, Yale
University. Published by Yale University
Press with assistance from the University of
Wyoming Biodiversity Institute. Softcover,
404 pages, $45.
Colorado Front Range field trip March 21 sunny and bird-full
By Mark Gorges
Starting at Rawhide Power
Plant and ending at Fossil
Creek Reservoir and Open
Space, 36 species were seen by
the 11 people on the field trip.
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Redhead
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Downy Woodpecker
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Horned Lark
Mountain Bluebird
Scoping out birds at Rawhide Reservoir overlook. Photo byMark
Gorges.
American Robin
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Before leaving Lions Park in
the morning, we also saw:
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
Cheyenne Country Club survey results for March 27
By Chuck Seniawski
Four people, including Richard
Gilbert, Jerry Johnson and Mark Gorges,
spent an hour and a half and saw 21 species (plus 2 other taxa). It was 44 degrees,
breezy, mostly a clear sky.
Canada Goose 32
American Wigeon 1
Mallard 12
Ring-necked Duck 4
Lesser Scaup 20
Great Blue Heron 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Coot 2
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 2
Eurasian Collared-Dove 5
Black-billed Magpie 3
American Crow 7
Tree Swallow 1 (seen only in silhouette,
but clearly had a square tail and swallowlike behavior as it flew)
Mountain Chickadee 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 4
American Robin 3
European Starling 7
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 2
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) 1
Dark-eyed Junco (Pink-sided) 3
Red-winged Blackbird 9
Great-tailed Grackle 3
House Sparrow 4
Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society
P.O. Box 2502
Cheyenne, WY 82003
Choose from a litany of native plants suited to our High Plains
From a list prepared
by Jane and Robert Dorn. See
the list, including scientific
names, plant descriptions and
commercial availability at
http://home.lonetree.com/
audubon/HabHero/
LandscapingwithnativeplantsDorn&Dorn.pdf.
Coniferous Trees
White Fir
White Spruce
Black Hills Spruce
Colorado Blue Spruce
Rocky Mtn. Bristlecone Pine
Pinyon Pine
Limber Pine
Ponderosa Pine
Rocky Mountain Juniper
Deciduous Trees
Bigtooth Maple
Boxelder
Common Hackberry
Green Ash
Lanceleaf Cottonwood
Narrowleaf Cottonwood
Plains Cottonwood
Quaking Aspen
Gambel Oak
Rocky Mountain White Oak
Bur Oak
Mossycup Oak
New Mexico Locust
Peachleaf Willow
Large Shrubs, 10’ to 20’ tall
Rocky Mountain Maple
Western Serviceberry
Curlleaf Mountainmahogany
Wild Mockorange
Wild Plum
Western Chokecherry
Threeleaf Sumac
Skunkbush Sumac
Lemonade Sumac
Smooth Sumac
Nannyberry
Medium to Short Shrubs, up
to 10’ tall
Leadplant
Greenleaf Manzanita
Green Manzanita
Bearberry
Kinnikinnick
Silver Sagebrush
Big Sagebrush
Shrubby Primrose
Sundrops
Fendler Ceanothus
Littleleaf Mountainmahogany
Fernbush
Redosier Dogwood
Rubber Rabbitbrush
Apacheplume
New Mexico Privet
Mountainspray
Cliffbush
Cliff Jamesia
Waxflower
Common Juniper
Ground Juniper
Creeping Juniper
Rug Juniper
Winterfat
Shrubby Cinquefoil
Littleleaf Mockorange
Western Sandcherry
Bitterbrush
Antelope Bitterbrush
Golden Currant
Yellow Currant
Wax Currant
Boulder Raspberry
Thimbleberry
Canadian Buffaloberry
Russet Buffaloberry
Non-woody Perennials and
Annuals
Sand Verbena
Yarrow
Bluestar
Plains Pussytoes
Low Everlasting
Western Columbine
Annual Prickly Poppy
Fringed Sage
Orange Butterflyweed
Orange Milkweed
Chocolate Flower
Winecups
Purple Poppymallow
Purple Beeplant
Purple Prairie Clover
Hoary Spinyaster
Purple Coneflower
Hummingbird Flower
Firechalice
Ovalleaf Buckwheat
Cushion Wild Buckwheat
Sulphur Flower
Spotted Joepyeweed
Common Blanketflower
James Cranesbill
Annual Sunflower
Maximilian Sunflower
Bush Morningglory
Scarlet Gilia
Prairie Blazingstar
Tansyleaf Spinyaster
Tenpetal Blazingstar
Horsemint
Wild Bergamot
Basin Butterweed
Narrowleaf Penstemon
Sidebells Penstemon
Bush Penstemon
Phlox Penstemon
Eaton Penstemon
Firecracker Penstemon
Hairy Penstemon
Largeflower Penstemon
Palmer Penstemon
Beakflowered Penstemon
Rocky Mountain Penstemon
Mexican Hat
Prairie Coneflower
Blackeyed Susan
Narrowleaf Butterweed
Broom Groundsel
Soft Goldenrod
Western Spiderwort
Yucca
Spanish Bayonet
Desert Paperflower
Golden-flowered Prairie Zinnia
Grasses
Indian Ricegrass
Big Bluestem
Sideoats Grama
Blue Grama
Buffalo Grass
Prairie Sandreed
Basin Wildrye
Giant Wildrye
Western Wheatgrass
Bluebunch Wheatgrass
Idaho Fescue
Switchgrass
Little Bluestem