Updated 1/23/08

Announcements

Prescott Audubon Society Environmental Scholarship (1/08)
New Rare Bird Hotline (1/12/07)
Make money for Wild at Heart (Burrowing Owl Program) (10/29/06)
*Audio Tapes from the 2005 Urban Wildlife Symposium & Expo are available at http://www.UrbanWildlifeAZ.com (2/1/06)
*Defenders of Wildlife (http://www.defenders.org) has published a story about Wild At Heart and burrowing owls in their February Wildlife eNews newsletter (3/06)
*Thank You to IBA Monitoring Volunteers (11/05)
*Audubon Adventures - What a Deal! (9/05)
*Prescott Bird Rehabilitator (9/05)
*Volunteers needed for Education Committee (9/05)
*Aluminum Cans - Roy the Recycler!
*More Recycling - copier and printer cartridges (1/21/05)
*Make your Purchases Count for PAS! Register your Safeway card
*Tee Shirts for Sale (9/02)
*Replace your paper copy of Wingtips with an E-copy
*Mohave County Folks
*New Native Plant Guide Helps Save Water (8/01)
*Birders Exchange (2/01)

eScrip is a program where people can designate up to three organizations, that contribute to childrens’ education, to receive money from your purchases. Prescott Audubon Society is registered as a qualifying organization to receive this benefit to help us support our educational projects. When you register your Safeway card, debit card, and/or credit card, every time you use any of those cards at a participating store, that store will donate a percentage of your purchase to PAS (and up to two other participating organizations - such as Highlands Center).

Some of the stores which are participating in this eScrip program are: Safeway, New Frontiers, Office Max, Wild Oats, Chevron, Coco’s, Eddie Bauer, Working Assets Long Distance, Payless ShoeSource, Spiegel (online shopping), Big 5 Sporting Goods, Carl’s Jr., Budget Rent A Car, and more. Merchants are being added all the time.

Your organization will receive a consolidated report showing the amount contributed in your name. Most of our Board Members have sign up material (their phone numbers are on the last page of this newsletter) and you can also sign up at our General Meetings. Roy Houser has been coordinating this program for us. You can contact him at 445-7212.

If you have access to a computer, you can sign up online at www.escrip.com

For $41.50 ($35 for the kit and $6.50 for the postage) YOU can sponsor an Audubon Adventure classroom, and guarantee that 25 to 32 youngsters will deepen their understanding of the natural world. The tabloid-style newspapers each student receives will feature: TURTLES and TORTOISES, SPIDERS, WATERBIRDS, DRAGONFLIES and DAMSELFLIES.

The teacher becomes a full Audubon member and will receive a classroom resources guide with background information on each newspaper topic with detailed lesson plans, tips for outdoor study, hands-on-activities, research material, and more.

Where else can you get better returns on your Audubon investment? Donations may be directed to PAS, P.O. Box 4156, Prescott, AZ 86302. Please put “Audubon Adventures” on your check’s memo line. Any amount is appreciated. If you have questions, please call Kathy Wingert, 445-5062.

We would like to tell you about a new, effortless way you can support Wild At Heart (Raptor rehabilitation in Arizona) as you go about your daily life.

Wild At Heart just signed up with GoodSearch.com, a search engine company. They will donate approximately one cent to Wild At Heart for each Internet search you do using their site. While that doesn’t sound like much, it can add up over a year’s time. The site is powered by Yahoo so you get high-quality search results. All you need to do is go to www.GoodSearch.com, enter Wild At Heart in the “Who do you GoodSearch for” box and click Verify. Wild At Heart's name will appear in the box. That's it! After that, just use the GoodSearch.com site for your Internet searches. The site will remember your choice of Wild At Heart each time you return.

If you choose to use the GoodSearch.com site, please use it honestly. They risk being removed from the site if, in GoodSearch.com's opinion, fraudulent searches are performed in order to unjustifiably raise the amount of money earned for Wild At Heart.

New PAS Rare Bird Hotline

Sue Burk

PAS has initiated a rare bird email hotline using Yahoo groups. When members of this group see a rare bird they post an email that is sent to all other members. Description of the bird(s) and the location of where they may be seen are included. Those interested in taking advantage of this hotline information should send an email to: burkstsu@cableone.net

In reply you will receive an invitation to join the group, including information on what criteria are used for posting a "rare" bird sighting, etc. This hotline does not replace the sightings catalogued by Bob Thomen or DeeDee Delorenzo and posted in each Wingtips, but rather makes quick alerts about rare birds in the Prescott area available to members .

Prescott Audubon Society Environmental Scholarship

Graduating seniors from any of the Quad-City Area (Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, Dewey-Humbolt and vicinity) high schools may apply for the Prescott Audubon Society Environmental Scholarship.

One scholarship of $1000 will be awarded to a deserving student whose career plans are directed toward environmental conservation (e.g., conservation biology, wildlife or fisheries management, resource ecology, restoration ecology, environmental policy, environmental law, ecosystem management, environmental education, environmental journalism, or the like). The scholarship applicant must have applied to an institution of higher learning in a degree program that will enable him/her to make a difference with respect to important conservation issues.

Application Process:

1. Personal data: Name, Address, Phone Number, E-mail Address.

2. Official transcript showing completed high school course work up to the time of application.

3. Two letters of reference from faculty or other responsible adults knowledgeable about

the applicant’s academic and extracurricular work, especially as it may be relevant

to conservation interests.

4. One short essay (500-1000 words)

Your educational goals: Describe your academic plans that will allow you to make a positive difference in the conservation field you choose. Is there anything special about the college or university you will attend that will give you the tools and skills you seek? Please describe activities that you have been involved in that have increased your knowledge of conservation. Why have you chosen this field of study?

5. Submission: All materials are to be typed and submitted to the Scholarship Committee of Prescott Audubon by Friday, April 11, 2008. Applications postmarked after this date will not be considered. Notification of awards will occur prior to the end of the current school year, and if the recipient’s school has a public awards ceremony, a representative of the Prescott Audubon Society will try to be present. Mail your application to: Prescott Audubon Society, Attention: Scholarship Committee, P.O. Box 4156, Prescott, AZ 86302.

Criteria for Evaluation: The quality of the student’s academic work, essay, and letters of recommendation will all be considered.

Requirements of Scholarship Recipient: The award must be used within two years of graduation from high school. At the end of the period of scholarship support, each successful scholarship recipient must submit a written essay of about 500 words describing his/her first academic year and progress toward studies in conservation. That essay, in full or part, may be published in Wingtips, the newsletter of the Prescott Audubon Society. The recipient is expected to attend one of the local meetings of the Prescott Audubon Society to give an in-person report.

The Mission of Prescott Audubon Society is to preserve and protect our environment for all who inhabit it. The society pursues these goals through education, fieldwork, social activities, and activism.

 

Thank You to IBA Monitoring
Volunteers!

To date 23 folks have signed up to assist with monitoring for our Watson/Willow Ecosystem Important Bird Area (IBA). This is great news! And, if you want to help, you can still sign up by contacting Karen O’Neil at 778-3018 or email her. The planning team is still working on establishing census points for the winter waterfowl, which will be our first monitoring effort and on the training component. We will let you know as soon as plans are firm.

Volunteers needed for Education Committee

Please contact Sharon Arnold to help with staffing an Audubon information table at various Prescott area events, judging science projects, curating the PAS lending library, or helping select the 1st PAS scholarship awarded to a graduating high school senior. 778-3958

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Prescott Bird Rehabilitator

Sondra Haile is a local bird rehabilitator. For information about what to do with injured birds that you find, call her at 443-1625.

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Tee Shirts for Sale

There will be an assortment of short-sleeved, long-sleeved, and scoop-necked tee shirts and some sweatshirts for sale at each program meeting. Available are shirts with the PAS logo within a border of the state of Arizona and some shirts with a soaring California condor that says “I came, I saw, I condored”. Short-sleeved and scoop-necked shirts are $12.00, long-sleeved shirts are $16.00, and sweatshirts are $18.00. Those with the condor design are $2.00 more each regardless of style. These make wonderful gifts. I have some friends who have ordered shirts, and they aren’t even birders! Bring your checkbook or cash! We don’t accept credit cards.

Help us save Paper and Printing Costs!

In order to save paper and printing costs, we would like to replace paper copies of Wingtips with e-copies for everyone who would like to, and are able to switch. Please email Penny if you would like to replace your paper copy of Wingtips with an e-copy. Be sure to enclose your e-mail address. If you don’t receive a reply within a week, assume that we didn’t receive your e-mail and send your request again.

If you request to receive an e-copy instead of your paper copy, you will receive an e-mail each issue (it will be before the paper copies are distributed) with a link to where you can download your copy. It will be in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format so you will need to have the reader for it. The reader can be downloaded and installed, free, from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

You will also have an advantage being on this mailing list because we can inform you of last minute changes such as we had in March with our General Meeting time. The Wingtips notification, each issue, and any last minute scheduling changes (which rarely happen) will be the only thing you will receive from this e-mail option.

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Simple Prescott Audubon Fundraiser

All types of copier and printer cartridges (except Epson) may now be turned in to Doug Iverson at each chapter meeting and will be recycled locally. Eric Moore, at Jay’s Bird Barn (located at Watters Nursery), and Sue and Henk at Birds Unlimited will also collect your ink cartridges at their stores. If you prefer, you may take them directly to thINK 4 ink, a local printing supply business at 237 W. Walker St., four blocks south of the square. Simply tell them to credit your recycled cartridges to the Prescott Audubon Society account.

Thanks for caring.

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Birders Exchange

The Birders Exchange is a joint project between Manomet Bird Observatory, American Birding Association, and other organizations. It has aided over 100 groups in 22 countries by providing donated items that are needed for field and conservation work in areas where these are difficult to obtain. They could use donations of the following equipment (in good working order): binoculars, scopes, tripods, cameras, lenses, accessories, banding equipment, mist nets, sleeping bags, tents, backpacks, field guides, ornithological textbooks, slide projectors. If you are upgrading or otherwise disposing of equipment, consider giving it to this project.

For more information, contact Birders Exchange, Manomet Bird Observatory, P.O. Bo x 1770, Manomet, MA 02345; 508-224-6521.

New Native Plant Guide Helps Save Water

Have you been thinking about landscaping with drought-tolerant native plants but just don't have the information you need to get started? Now you can obtain that information all in one comprehensive booklet. The Highlands Center for Natural History, nonprofit agency, is offering a new and inexpensive guide to drought-tolerant landscaping specifically for Central Arizona, published through a grant from the Arizona Native Plant Society. "Wildscaping, A Central Arizona Highlands Native Planting Guide" is an invaluable resource to homeowners, landscapers, and business owners seeking information on native trees, shrubs, grasses, wildflowers, and ground covers. This unique 48-page publication is available at local garden centers, including Garden Mart or Watter's in Prescott and Northern Arizona Tree Farms in Chino Valley. Or you can obtain the booklet and also membership information, by contacting the Highlands Center for Natural History at (520) 776-9550, fax (520) 776- 9530, or email highlands@cableone.net.

Mohave folks!

You have someone to report your unusual bird sightings to:

email or call DeeDee Delorenzo at 928-758-2707