EARTHSTAR. Programs. November To be decided NEWSLETTER OF THE MACOMB AUDUBON SOCIETY. October 3, 2016, 7:00pm Katie McGlashen: The Call of the Wild

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1 EARTHSTAR NEWSLETTER OF THE MACOMB AUDUBON SOCIETY Volume 42 number 4, July, August 2016 Programs July 11, 2016, 6:30pm Summer Potluck Picnic at Stony Creek Metropark Our annual summer picnic will again be held at Stony Creek Metropark. This feast will feature delicious, delectable and mouthwatering treats. This is always one of everyone s favorite events of the year. Bring your own place setting, a beverage of your choice and a dish to pass. If time permits, we will walk and look for bluebirds, scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings and other avian friends. See you there! August 1, 2016, 7:00pm Ice Cream Social at Lake St. Clair Metropark Ice cream and friends is there a better way to spend a hot August evening? Bring your own bowl, spoon and a topping to share along with your sweet tooth! September 12, 2016, 7:00pm Annual Bonfire at Lake St. Clair Metropark Grab your lawn chair, roasting forks, hot dogs/buns, s mores fixin s and a beverage and join us for a fun evening around the fire! Bring a potluck dessert to share if you would like. Mustard and Catsup will be provided. In the event of rain, we ll move inside the nature center and put a fire in the fireplace! Bring a friend! October 3, 2016, 7:00pm Katie McGlashen: The Call of the Wild From the bugle of an elk, to the sweet song of a bird to the howl of a wolf, nature is noisy! Join DNR Park Interpreter Katie McGlashen as she shows us how and why animals communicate. After the discussion, join in the cacophony as we play a wildlife calling game or two and make some great memories together! Katie is the Park Interpreter at the Gerald E. Eddy Discovery Center in the Waterloo State Recreation Area and loves to connect park visitors with Michigan s fantastic natural resources! November To be decided

Macomb Audubon Society The Macomb Audubon Society is a chapter of the Michigan Audubon society. Meetings are normally held the first Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Sterling Heights Senior Center located on the N.

2 Macomb Audubon Society The Macomb Audubon Society is a chapter of the Michigan Audubon society. Meetings are normally held the first Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Sterling Heights Senior Center located on the N.E.side of Utica Rd. east of Van Dyke and South of 18 mile Rd. Events of the Society are open to the public. The mission of the Macomb Audubon Society is to:.promote interest in the world of nature and to aid in the conservation of natural resources. Provide an outlet for nature activities via field trips. Provide an opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and experience through lectures, films, discussions and newsletters. Aid organizations that provide people of all ages with opportunities to experience these above given objectives. People can support our efforts by becoming members. To become a member, complete the form on the inside back cover. Members receive this newsletter, the Earthstar. Earthstar Deadline We appreciate relevant information or articles of interest to the Macomb Audubon membership for review for publicaton in the Earthstar. If you have material that you wish to submit, please send it by the 12 th of the preceding month to: Bill Clark North Ave Macomb MI wtclark1@comcast.net Earthstar is published bimonthly.by the Macomb Audubon Society, a non-profit educational organization. June 19, It is Fathers Day and Summer is definitely here. The birds are still singing, the ducks and geese are busy raising there young and some species of birds are already working on their second brood for the season. It is amazing how fast some species grow and become self sufficient or should I say they are out on their own. Not so sure about the self sufficient part as reality is that far more birds die during the first twelve months of the year than actually live long enough to see their first birthday. This is true throughout the animal kingdom. There is a law of nature that states "All organisms (both plants and animals) produce far more offspring than are ever intended to survive." A bullfrog may lay up to 20,000 eggs at a time in order to have one or two survive long enough to grow up and lay their own eggs. The other 19,998 are food for other animals or simply die and decompose and provide nutrients for the plants that will become food for other tadpoles and other water creatures. Bullfrogs and green frogs lay eggs one summer and find the tadpoles metamorphosing into hopping animals with four legs the following summer. Last week I had the pleasure of doing a Pond Ecology program for a school and in the pond sample were green frog tadpoles with four legs and a tail, some had three legs and a tail. The back legs always develop first and then the left front leg, followed finally by the right front leg. It is always the left front leg first because the left leg emerges from a hole on the left side through which the tadpole breaths by pumping water over its gills. On the right side there is no such hole. The right leg emerges by the repeated rubbing of the elbow back and forth under the skin until the leg finally pops out. At the same time that one year old green frog tadpoles were finally getting their four legs the 10 week old tadpoles of spring peepers were getting theirs. From a jelly egg, to a tadpole, to a frog in 10 weeks is almost mind boggling. Most years in Michigan turtles start laying their eggs in late May and finish by Mid-June. This year they seem to be running late. So far as of June 19th I have observed mostly painted turtles laying their eggs and only a couple of snapping turtles doing so. I know that the snapping turtles have not reached their peak yet because I have not yet found any nests dug up and destroyed by raccoons or skunks. When they raid a nest they leave the egg shells on the surface. Many times I have had people comment on finding the egg shells on the surface and they often assume that this is the result of the babies hatching out and leaving the shells behind. This is not the case. The turtles lay their eggs in late spring and early summer and the young do not hatch out until September or October and they leave the shells under the ground. Some go immediately to the water while other spend their first winter under ground and emerge in the spring. Nature is amazing. Go out and enjoy. Randy Baker

Meetings are held the first Monday of most months at 7:00 PM at the

Barbour Thank You to the following members who brought snacks to the

Barb Baldinger, Tammy Hooton, Bill Clark.

3 Meetings are held the first Monday of most months at 7:00 PM at the Sterling Heights Senior Center located on the NE side of Utica Rd, east of Van Dyke and North Of 18 Mile Rd. Hanna Schauer, Wildlife Education Technician for the DNR talking to Laura Barbour Thank You to the following members who brought snacks to the meeting for May: Alice Forton, Kathy Muscillo. Barb Baldinger, Tammy Hooton, Bill Clark. June, Alice Forton, Tammy Hooton, Kathy Muscillo..The following members have made a donation at the contributor lever: David & Elaine McDonald, Patricia Lange, Barbara Walsh. Michigan s Reptiles

The Tomlinson Arboretum is a fairly new, 25 acre site, bounded by easements and nestled between residential subdivisions, It has a West Entrance at the end of 18 Mile Road just east of Garfield in

4 Randy s Trutle Pictures Audubon Newsletter Member Ray Glime, Chairperson of the Clinton Township Arboretum Committee, spoke at our May meeting to invite and encourage birders to visit the almost in your backyard Tomlinson Arboretum to help him to identify and document bird sightings toward wildlife recertification this year. The Tomlinson Arboretum is a fairly new, 25 acre site, bounded by easements and nestled between residential subdivisions, It has a West Entrance at the end of 18 Mile Road just east of Garfield in Clinton Township. The Committee with the help of many volunteers have been planting Michigan native trees and bushes, including a wildflower prairie, for the past 7 years. The wildflower prairie which is planted under the ITC transit power lines has been of particular interest to Ray since sighting nesting birds there last year. But please come and visit this quiet gem and see for yourself. Stroll awhile or sit on one of the benches. Ray hopes in particular that you will him at raymondglime@gmail.com and send him your sighting of any BIRDS or wildlife you may see, documented by the time, date, and place including a picture when possible to help the Tomlinson Arboretum renew its wildlife recertification this year. May 6, 2016

5 We re Proud Supporters of Macomb Audubon Society Lake St. Clair Nature Center Board Members & committee Chairs Sterling Heights Nature Center, President Randy Baker (810) Seven Ponds Nature Center, 1 st VP (Programs) Holly Vaughn Joswick Stony Creek Nature Center, 2 nd VP (Member Ship) Beverlee Babcock (586 ) Burgess Shadbush Nature Center, 3 rd VP (Field Trips) Colleen Traylor & Charles Smart Wild Life Recovery Association, Recording Secretary Laura Barbour (248) Michigan Nature Association, Corresponding Secretary Micki Smith (586) Six Rivers Regional Land Conservancy. Treasurer Cheryl McKeever (586) Michigan Audubon RRBO Committees Car Pool Coordinator Vacant For the best bird seed Christmas Bird Count Barb Baldinger (586) At the best prices Environmental & Conservation Vacant Uncle Luke s feed store Historian Michael Mroz (586) Livernois Hospitality (Refreshments) Betty Ebert & Alice Forton Troy Michigan Hospitality (Door Prizes) Denis & Laura Barbour Earthstar Newsletter Editor Bill Clark (586) To contact the Macomb Audubon Michigan Audubon Rep. Ray Lalonde Society by the address is Members-at-Large (2 positions) Vacant macombaudubon@gmail.com Newsletter Production, Mailing Denis & Laura Barbour To join the Macomb Audubon Seven Ponds Representative Paul Messing Mailing list please send an Web Editor Paul Messing To: macombaudubon-subscribe@ Volunteer Coordinator Vacant Yahoogroups.com Macomb Audubon Society Dues Please make checks payable to Macomb Audubon Society and send to: Beverlee Babcock Macomb Audubon Membership Pepper Tree Dr. Macomb Mi, Your name and the names of family members (Please Print) Family membership applies to family members living at the same address Address City State ZIP Phone New Member Renewal Check One Family Membership $20.00 Total Amount enclosed $ Individual Membership $15.00 Amount of donation over membership $ (optional) Student Membership $10.00 Contributor----up to $49.99 Senior single Membership $12.00 Supporter------$50 to $99.99 Senior couple Membership $15.00 Donor $100 and over (senior is over 60) Each year Macomb Audubon makes a membership list available to members. Check here if you wish to have your telephone number left off the list Address (optional) Check here to receive the Earthstar by only Check here if a Michigan Audubon member Check here if a National Audubon member I (we) are interested in becoming a Macomb Audubon volunteer. Please contact me

EARTHSTAR. Programs. There will be no July Meeting & the picnic has been Caneclled. NEWSLETTER OF THE MACOMB AUDUBON SOCIETY

EARTHSTAR. Programs. There will be no July Meeting & the picnic has been Caneclled. NEWSLETTER OF THE MACOMB AUDUBON SOCIETY EARTHSTAR NEWSLETTER OF THE MACOMB AUDUBON SOCIETY http://www.macombaudubon.org Volume 44 number 4, July - August 2017 Programs There will be no July Meeting & the picnic has been Caneclled. August 7,