April 2023 |
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Inside this issue:
- What's New
- Upcoming Events
- New & Noteworthy
- Audubon Newhall Preserve
- Feathers Through Our Lenses
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Members and Friends of Hilton Head Audubon,
April and May in the Lowcountry are spectacular and we have amazing events for everyone, of any ability, to get you outside, moving and making a difference! Up for a hike? Sign up for a field trip to Bear Island, Webb Wildlife Mangement Area, and Harris Neck NWR. Or, stay close to home and join fellow birdwatchers in Sun City or at the home of President Kay Grinnell for a stationary "birdability" field trip.
Join us in celebrating Earth Day. Be inspired by our awesome volunteers who are great stewards of Newhall and our coastlines, some of whom, are featured in the April issue of Local Life!
But first to take care of some business.
Board of Directors Elections Members, keep an eye out for an email the week of April 10 containing instructions on how to vote for the board slate of directors. All members of HHIAS are eligible to vote. On the ballot for a two-year term are Karen Penale, Hilton Klein and Rosemary Staples. The new Board begins its service in May.
Look for us in the April Issue of Local Life! Hilton Head Audubon and its members are featured in the current, April "Bird" issue of Local Life magazine. Look for our insightful interviews and birdfantastic fashion spread as well as a rich trove of information on everything regarding birds and our verdant natural environment. Thank you, Local Life, for bringing a spotlight to our mission (and passion). Click here to view the digital edition.
Be Enchanted: Join a “Birdability” Tour Innovative and enchanting new “birdability” birdwatching tours at Pinckney Island Wildlife Refuge are now being offered free of charge. They are designed for mobility challenged individuals — or anyone who would rather ride to one of the Lowcountry’s most beautiful natural theaters instead of walking a mile to reach it. Tours take place each Tuesday through May 16, 2023 from 8:30am – 10am.
This partnership between the Friends of the Savannah Coastal Wildlife Refuges and Hilton Head Audubon offers an opportunity to ride a 15-seat electric shuttle with a bird guide to look for both migrating birds and nesting egrets and herons present during the spring on Pinckney Island. Passengers do not have to leave the shuttle during the tour. The golf cart was purchased to expand accessibility at Pinckney thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry. Guests may bring their own binoculars or use those provided. You must be registered to participate. Register here
April Meeting Tuesday, April 11, 2023 2:30-4:00pm Riley Egger, Land, Water & Wildlife Project Manager, South Carolina Coastal Conservation League
Topic: Balancing Bliss on our Beaches
Riley will be discussing our role in protecting coastal birds, and the management challenges in balancing human and wildlife happiness and health. The same places that humans like to go to are the same places wildlife, like coastal birds, need for their survival. Come join the conversation as she discusses our seabird sanctuaries, regulations and policy, and on-the-ground efforts to strike that balance.
A native Texan, Riley came to the Conservation League in 2020. She previously worked at the Southern Environmental Law Center where she focused on regional clean water campaigns for two years. Before relocating to the Lowcountry, she earned a B.S. in Ecology, Evolution, and Animal Behavior at the University of Texas at Austin. The Conservation League work to protect the health of the natural resources of the South Carolina coastal plain and ensure a high quality of life for all of the people who live here. You can read about their extensive projects and successes here. Our monthly meetings are held at the Coastal Discovery Museum on the second Tuesday of each month, from 2:30 – 4 pm. The public is welcome. No registration is necessary Join us on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22
Lucky Rooster SocialAudubon members and guests are invited to join us from 4- 6 pm on the enclosed patio at LuckyRooster, 841 William Hilton Pkwy Unit A. (If it rains, our event is still on!) Meet our board members and volunteers, and learn about how you can join us to help promote the awareness and appreciation of nature, preserve and protect wildlife and natural ecosystems, and to encourage responsible environmental stewardship. Admission is free, though you are responsible for any beverages and nibbles you order. You must register here to attend. See you there! Earth Day Beach Clean Up Hilton Head Audubon has teamed up with the Lowcountry Tri Delt Alumni for this year’s Outside Foundation’s Earth Day Beach Clean Upat Fish Haul Beach. Join this fun and easy way to help our birds! We need volunteers! Sign up for the beach sweep. Lead a bird or nature walk during the Beach Clean Up. This is a great opportunity to show people not so familiar with our beach birds and environment how amazing they are! To read more about the beach sweep, visit out website here.Save Your Empty T-Paper and Paper Towel Rolls for Us!Hilton Head Audubon is collaborating with Historical Mitchelville Freedom Park's Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday, June 17, 2023 to highlight the historical significance of birds and nature in the Gullah culture. We will be leading bird walks, educating the public about birds there and teaching children how to make birdfeeders from T-paper and Paper Towel Rolls. (Yes, birds like them!) You can bring your clean, discarded rolls to our monthly meetings and to our Lucky Rooster Social. Save that June 17 date, too. We are looking for volunteers to help in our booth, and with kids' activities and tours. If you are interested in helping out please send an email with your interest to: hhiaudubon@hiltonheadaudubon.org. More on this exciting project in upcoming emails and our May Ecobon. Happy Birding! Your Hilton Head Audubon Board and Committee Members.
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Joining HHIAS or renewing your membership is easy, click here to complete the online forms. Please consider a contribution beyond the basic annual membership level to support our mission. A reminder that Gift memberships are available for purchase, click here.
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DonationsHilton Head Audubon accepts donations online, using Venmo, or by mailing a check. Donations can also be made in honor or memory of someone by following the instruction on the form. Donate online. Donate by mail.Donate by Venmo. If you have Venmo, scan the Venmo QR code or go onto the Venmo app and find us by typing “HHI Audubon Society” or “@HHIAudubon”. We use our donations to support: advocacy regarding conservation/birding in our region, providing birding education programs to area schools, maintaining and interpreting through signage and tours of the Audubon Newhall Preserve, managing the annual Christmas Bird Count, actively participating in regional Citizen Science programs, and increasing awareness about local conservation projects or concerns.
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Events |
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Our monthly meetings are held at 2:30 on the second Tuesday of each Month at The Coastal Discovery Museum's Sea Island Room. Newhall work days take place on the second Saturday of the month.
To view all upcoming events in a calendar format, click here.
Newhall Work Day Saturday May 13 , 2023 To learn more, click here.
April Meeting Featuring Riley Egger of the Coastal Conservation League. Tuesday, April 11, 2023 To learn more click here.
Earth Day Beach Clean Up Day Join us on the morning of April 22 to help Clean Up Fish Haul Beach. To signup for the beach sweep click here.
Earth Day Social Event Join us at The Lucky Rooster on April 22 from 4-6pm. Admission is free but you must register - click here to attend.
May Meeting - Picnic and Birding at Jarvis Creek Park Come and join us Tuesday May 9th for our end of the season get together. This year we are planning afternoon bird walks - for beginning birders, led by Kay Grinnell, and for experienced birders led by expert birder Sarah Gustafson.Since it will still be early May, the chances of seeing some of our migrating warblers will still be fairly good. Bird walks will begin at 5 o’clock and our meeting and dinner will follow about 6 o'clock. Registration will be necessary, and friends and family are welcome to join you. We are asking you to bring a covered dish to share, Audubon will provide fried chicken, sodas and eating implements. You are encouraged to bring folding chairs; we have rented all three pavilions, but seating is limited. Costs will be $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for children under 12. Children under 3 are free. Hope to see you there! To signup click here. |
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Historic Mitchelville Juneteenth Collaboration with USCB Students by Patty Kappmeyer In January, National Audubon awarded HHIAS an Audubon in Action grant to collaborate with Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (HMFP) — the Civil War-era site of the first self-governed town of formerly enslaved people in the United States — to:
- Attract and engage members of the local and greater community in conservation and birding and;
- Create, share and promote educational content about the history of birding and nature in the Gullah culture which has existed on Hilton Head Island and at HMFP;
- Connect with a broader, more diverse set of people to have ongoing conversations about conservation and birding.
This lead to HHIAS's collaboration with USC-Beaufort through their Student Connected program that inspires students across all disciplines by offering opportunities for fieldwork, research, internships, and service learning with local partners.
Students in Associate Professor of English, Sarah Swofford's professional writing class are researching the topic of birds and nature in Gullah culture during the Mitchelville era and preparing content and interactive materials to be unveiled at the Juneteenth Celebration.
Hilton Head Audubon Board members Sarah Gustafon and Patty Kappmeyer visited the classroom to introduce students to Hilton Head Audubon, the grant objectives and our desired outcomes. As part of the experience, students took an inspirational field trip to Mitchelville where they met Joyce Wright, Director of Programs and Interpretation, Historic Mitchelville.
Student, LeAnna Kelly, shared her thoughts so eloquanlty: "We can read and write all we want about history and this is a great opportunity to learn about people and places we weren’t ourselves able to experience, but there’s still a sense of disconnect [in classroom work]. The work we’re doing with Mitchellville and the Audubon Society is a far more greater experience and here’s why: alongside the material we’re writing and the product our audience will be able to read, those who attends the Juneteenth Celebration are going to be able to connect with the history around them. How amazing is it that we got to experience history today and so many others will get to make those REAL connections at the Juneteenth Celebration.
My point I’m trying to make is that I’m still thinking about our visit long after it ended. I think focusing on the celebration itself is so important, but maybe we should think about some of the materials we create catering toward our audience after they’ve left… providing material to keep them thinking and questioning the history of Mitchelville. Even something like a reminder of a bird they may have seen while at the celebration could keep the curiosity in Mitchelville’s history alive and going."
Professor Sarah Swofford summed up the experience: "This trip to Mitchelville was an amazing opportunity for my students to connect a place with the academic work they're doing as budding professional writers. They got to see, hear, and feel the natural world they're writing about, and the conversations we had with Sarah and Joyce Wright continue to shape their understanding of this project. This was a rare chance for us to step outside the classroom and really experience how the words we write are entangled with the experiences we're sharing. Several of my students don't have cars or have to budget gas money really carefully, so being able to take a bus together to Mitchelville made it possible for them all to participate equally. We're excited about this work we get to share with you!"
We look forward to sharing more of this collaboration soon! Please join us anddsave the date, Saturday June 17th for the Juneteenth Celebration at Historic Mitchelville Park on Hilton Head Island.
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Newhall Work Days by Bob Clemens Wow! Before we begin celebrating our great April Work Day, let’s lift accolades to Local Life Magazine for the April “Birdie Issue,” featuring several of our favorite people. Turn to page 50 for an introductory “Faces of Birding” collage with Sean Ryan of Wild Birds Unlimited, Patty Kappmeyer, Lynn Hodgson, and a photo of our Newhall Pond Pollinator Garden sign! But that’s just the “teaser!” Sean Ryan’s promo for birding and Wild Birds Unlimited begins on page 52. Then on Page 56 Patty Kappmeyer is featured with her camera and wading gear! Now we know how Patty gets those great photos we see on facebook! Turn to page 60 for an article about our favorite Newhall Vice-Chair and Tour Guide, Lynn Hodgson. Another photo was taken near the cypress knees on the west side of the Audubon Pond at Newhall.
But, wait! There’s more! Flip ahead to page 130 for the “Fashion & Feathers” article, with fashion photos of Coastal Discovery Museum’s Carlos Chacon and Newhall volunteer Jim Reynolds, as well as Audubon tech whiz, Shannon Wilkinson. Then on the next two pages, we have the four Rios siblings, Thaddaeus, Charlotte, Ava Elizabeth, and Nathanael, all of whom are regulars at Newhall Work days. Finally, turn the page for photos of Pollinator Gardener Mary Ellen Blankenship, Backup Newhall Tour Guide Rosemary Staples, and Newhall Deck Carpenter Steve Fishman. Wow! (Hope I didn’t miss anyone!) Now, we can celebrate a great April Work Day with our own photos! The group photo below shows Work Day Volunteers: David and Julia Buzzard, Co-Chair Jack Coleman, Sal Gioia, Kathy Kettel, Carrie Jones, Mary Ellen Blankenship, Vice-Chair Lynn Hodgson, Rios siblings Elizabeth and Nathanael, John Grobe, Tony Facenda, Karen Lucey, and Stephen Freniere. (As usual, your camera-shy Fearless Leader, Bob Clemens, is behind the lens!) Fifteen workers is the highest turnout in recent memory!
Fearless Leader, John Grobe, and Co-ChairJack Coleman
More “candids” were provided by Karen Lucey, and are captioned below. David and Julia Buzzard captained a crew with Jack Coleman, Karen Lucey, and Steve Freniere to repaint the Pocosin Boardwalk. We pause to thank John Grobe for literally months of work day pressure-washing to prep the Boardwalk surface. We also thank Steve Fishman who arranged for Lowe’s of Bluffton to donate paint supplies and two gallons of deck paint.
Julia Buzzard washing paint brushes.
Julia and Stephen painting the Pocosin boardwalk.
Karen Lucey wanted a candid photo of Fearless Leader.
David, Stephen, and Jack.
Lynn Hodgson, Carrie Jones, and Mary Ellen Blankenship, assisted by Kathy Kettel, Tony Facenda, and Elizabeth and Nathanael Rios, planted native plants and shrubs in the two pollinator gardens and in front of the pond aeration station. Sal Gioia, John Grobe, and Bob Clemens completed the work started last month in culling vegetation from around the Audubon Pond. We now have eight good-sized piles of debris, and will ask Sea Pines CSA to come and haul them away.
Our next work day will be Saturday May 13th, and we’ll add a second coat of paint to the Pocosin Boardwalk, reline the Parking Lot pollinator garden walkways with small logs, and trim our trails. RSVPs are not necessary, but helpful to rclemens318@gmail.com.
Finally (If you’ve read this far, we are very proud of you), we thank Lynn Hodgson and our Audubon “techies” who revised and updated the Newhall trail guides with for reprinting with funds from an ATAX grant facilitated by Treasurer Sarah Gustafson. Lynn corrected some errors and revised content, and we added QR codes for links to the digital trail guide, to donate with Venmo and to our Audubon membership form. A big thank you to our many, many Newhall Volunteers!!!s!!!
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March Sightings
Please enjoy these collages of bird activity photographed during the past month by our Facebook group members.
There are several ways to report bird sightings : use eBird, join the HHIAS Facebook group or Birding-Friends@google.com. If you would like to join the Birding-Friends google group please send an email requesting access to ecobon@hiltonheadaudubon.org. |
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