CHANGED IN THE WIND AT THE AUDUBON

By Herb Fibel

There are major changes in direction and focus occurring within your Audubon Society.  One of these has to do with a change in how your National Audubon dues are divided up.  The major source of funds for our chapter over the years has been the receipt of a dues share from National Audubon Society.  For as long as this writer has been a member, National Audubon sent the chapters $5.50 a year for each member recruited and retained by National Audubon Society, and $15.00 for each new member recruited by the chapter.  National Audubon maintains that it is losing money under this arrangement, for a number of reasons, the most important of which, it claims, is that it costs more than what National Audubon is getting out of it for each new member National Audubon recruits.  Additionally, National Audubon admits that its membership recruitment efforts have not been particularly successful over the

past ten years in comparison to those of other national environmental organizations.  In fact, during this period, there has been a net loss in National Audubon membership. The new dues share plan is extremely complicated, but, essentially, the $5.50 a year is being reduced to $1.34, roughly a quarter of what it was formerly.  However, the chapters will receive more for locally recruited members.  Since the ratio of locally recruited members to nationally recruited members in our chapter and in most others is around one in ten, local chapters will have to recruit more than ten times as many new members as they are recruiting now, just to keep the annual dues share amount equal to what it was previously.  In real terms this means that whereas the chapter recruited maybe 200 new members each year, it would have to recruit close to 2,000!

Because of a hue and cry from the local chapters, this change is being phased in over a

three or four year period.  At this moment it is difficult to gage the impact of this change, but we can already anticipate that this is going to put a major squeeze on our annual income projections.  It also means that each of us is going to have to become an Audubon Society salesperson.  Additionally, we are going to have to come up with other fundraising ideas in order to offset this loss.

Over and above the cost of publishing and distributing the Cactus Wren-dition, our expenses are even now relatively minor.  It would be extremely difficult to cut them back much further.  So, one of the major challenges your board is going to have to meet over the next several years and beyond is to reduce the cost of publication and distribution of the Cactus Wren-dition to an amount that is about equal to the reduced dues share that we will be receiving from National Audubon.

This is only one of a number of changes in direction by National Audubon.  I will be discussing other changes in future articles.

	“At this moment it is difficult to gauge the impact of this change, but we can already anticipate that this is going to put a major squeeze on our annual income projections.”

 

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GUNNISON SAGE GROUSE LEK
(RECENTLY SPLIT FORM ‘SAGE GROUSE’)

By Bud Johnson

The sunrise was just getting serious when the ‘ugly birder’ arrived.  You know the ones they never follow directions like “always stay behind the leader so you do not spook the birds”, or “let others have a turn after you have seen the bird in the scope so all can see it before it leaves”.  Somehow they do not believe etiquette rules applies to them.  Since the Gunnison Sage Grouse lek site was off the main road, the ugly birder must have seen the directions to the site and read the instructions for ones behavior at the lek:

DO NOT ARRIVE ANY LATER THAN AN HOUR BEFORE SUNRISE.

DO NOT GET OUT OF YOUR CAR, WHICH WILL SERVE AS A BLIND.

DO NOT TURN ON ANY LIGHTS.

DO NOT MAKE NOISE.

As you may have guessed it by now, the ugly birder arrived late, pulled up next to me and proceeded to set up his scope outside the car.  Of course opening the door of the car turned on the interior light and the door was very noisy.  By then the dozen or so Grouse had enough and flew off the lek.  The 3 males and 8 females miraculously flew right over the half dozen assembled cars.  One male flew right over my vehicle at such a low flight path that I instinctively ducked.  It was like a B52 on final.  There was some poetic justice since the ugly birder was bent over adjusting his tripod and did not see the birds!

If you want to add the nearby Gunnison Sage Grouse to your list, there are several good references available and the Gunnison, CO Chamber of Commerce is very helpful.  The bird is illustrated in the National Geographic Field guide.  There are also great photographs in the August 2000 issue of ‘Birding’ plus interesting reading on the reasons for splitting the species from the other, somewhat larger, Sage Grouse.  This species was once found in Arizona but habitat loss from over grazing has extirpated them.

A Southwest Airline sale on flights to Albuquerque from Phoenix for $30 precipitated my trip.  One can drive from Phoenix to Gunnison, but it is quite a bit shorter to rent a car in Albuquerque or Denver.  The car rental company had some problem with my compact car reservation so they substituted a bright red Grand Cherokee Jeep with full time 4 wheel drive.  The jeep came in handy going up over Monarch pass at 11,300-foot elevation and during the snowstorm we encountered in Taos.  The 1400 miles we put on the vehicle was through some beautiful New Mexico and Colorado countryside.

We went over the bridge by Taos that is very high above the Rio Grande.  We also checked out the Black Canyon of the

Gunnison National Park that is west of Gunnison.  On the trip we saw over a hundred deer, 50 antelope and a dozen elk.  The only realistic time to see the Grouse is when they are performing at the lek.  This is during late March to early May with the peak activity in mid April.  The figure below shows the lek area and directions to the site.  It is suggested that one makes a trial run the day before to ensure the performance area can be found in the morning before sunrise.

A similar approach of going out early was taken a few years ago to see the Prairie Chicken lek by Roswell, NM.  A cock and a couple of hens were at the lek in the afternoon so the trip in the dark the next morning was not really needed.  Of course, seeing the birds displaying is well worth the price of admission before dawn.

Looking for Gallinaceous birds seems to bring out all sorts of serendipity.  In trying for the larger Sage Grouse a few years ago, a before sunrise start was made from Susanville, in northern CA.  Late arrival had precluded checking out the site in the daylight, but upon leaving the Motel, a string of cars was noted heading in the direction of the lek.  Since it was too early for a funeral, the line of cars was followed.  It turned out to be an Audubon field trip going to see the Sage Grouse lek!

There are several Motels in Gunnison, some good eateries and a museum that features railroad memorabilia.  On the way to Gunnison, we passed through Santa Fe and Taos, NM, plus Antonito, CO.  The latter is one end of the Cumbres, NM to Antonito, CO narrow gauge railroad that goes over a 10,000-foot pass.  This is a great train ride, but takes a day for the round trip. 

The species is under consideration for listing as endangered and the sooner you go the more likely that you can get to see this colorful bird on the dancing grounds.  Just watch out for the ugly birder.  Now is not too early to plan having Gunnison Sage Grouse for Easter 2002. 

The Chamber provided for free a nice pamphlet on the grouse, a great area activity book, a map and directions to the lek, an order blank for more maps and material in the area, and a sheet on a guide service that could include the sage grouse.

Gunnison Country Chamber of Commerce,

PO Box 36; Gunnison, CO 81230;

 http://gunnisonchamber.com (970) 641-1501

Gunnison Sage Grouse web site:

Bureau of Land Management (970) 641-0471

Colorado Division of Wildlife (970) 641-0088

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