South Mountain Airs
The Newsletter of the South Mountain Audubon Society
January - March 2015, Volume XXXVIX #1 – The E-mail Edition

In Memoriam: Laura Hershey - A Good-bye to a Long-standing Audubon Member
Laura Hershey passed away on Nov. 21, 2014. She and her husband Baird were early members of the South Mountain Audubon Society. Laura and Baird opened their home every February to our members for the annual Owl Prowl. Many of us have great memories of seeing a Great Horned Owl on the nest as well as spotting Barred Owls in the pines.

A few years after Baird passed away, Laura decided it was too much work to have a lot of people come into her home but she continued to host our annual August picnic even when she was too ill to join us. Before Ralph and I became involved with SMAS (21 years ago), I know the Hershey’s and many other members enjoyed going on overnight field trips to NJ, DE, MD and VA. Laura and Baird were great naturalists and shared their knowledge with their family and friends. They are and will continue to be missed.

CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT RESULTS SUMMARY

The SMAS Annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) encompassing Gettysburg and surrounding areas was held
on Saturday December 20th, 2014. About thirty individuals participated in the field and / or on their property
and at their bird feeders.

81 different species of birds were seen totaling 9275 individual birds. A summary sheet of the count is attached
to this email, listing each species with the number seen on the count. (If you are receiving hard copy via the US
Postal Service mail, the summary is the last page of this newsletter.)

UPCOMING SMAS PROGRAMS & PRESENTATIONS

Unless indicated otherwise, all SMAS Program Presentations are held at the Adams County Agricultural
Resource Center, 670 Old Harrisburg Road, Gettysburg, PA at 7:30 PM. A room number for the SMAS meeting
will be posted on the front lobby entry inner door.

We’ve posted the information on our total activities’ schedule at the end of this edition.

UPCOMING MONTHLY PROGRAMS

Please note that January begins a new calendar year for SMAS and at the January regular public meeting, we
vote on, and elect, new and returning Board members and Directors At Large for those positions which are at
term and need to be filled.

All SMAS members are welcome to run for the positions needing filling. For those not currently a member, but
interested in volunteering, it only takes a minute or two to become a club member.

January 12th - The Beauty of the Neotropics Through Nature Photography

The Beauty of the Neotropics: Enjoy the warmth and the color of the Neotropics with photographs taken in the
Dominican Republic, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and Venezuela. Linette Mansberger will present her pictures of
many species of birds - including brilliantly feathered hummingbirds, quetzals, and tanagers – along with some
reptiles, mammals, amphibians, and insects, as she shares her love of nature and the beauty of these countries.
Linette is a current and active South Mountain Audubon Society member and has served in various positions on
the SMAS Board. She is currently serving as the SMAS Secretary.

Monday March 9th - To Be Announced

UPCOMING SMAS FIELD TRIPS

Contact Mike O'Brien, Field Trip Chair, as necessary for more information on all Field Trips, the annual
Christmas Bird Count and the Spring Migration Count: 717.642.6676 Res / maddogobrien@gmail.com E-mail.
Please let the Leader know in advance if you plan to attend any field trip, especially if you plan to go direct.
Trips are subject to weathering out, especially in the colder months, or otherwise being changed. In addition, if
we have only one or two known attendees, we may cancel or reschedule a given field trip. We cannot alert you
unless we hear from you.

Thursday January 29th - “Antietam National Battlefield”

We will visit the Antietam National Battlefield at Sharpsburg, MD. We hope to see resident birds as well as
overwintering migrant species. Bring binoculars, appropriate clothing per the weather (multiple layers are
suggested) and snacks / drinks as per personal needs. Facilities available. Call the leader at 717.642.6676 as
needed / for additional info. Meet at leader’s house, Mike O’Brien, #231 Carroll’s Tract Rd, Fairfield, PA at 8 AM with return by 2 to 3 PM.

Directions follow:
The field trip will leave from the trip leaders home at #231 Carroll's Tract Road, a Tee intersection with PA Rte
#116, at the Fairfield Post Office. #231 is about a half mile down Carroll's Tract Road on the right, the second
driveway on the right after crossing the intersection with Bullfrog Road and Mt. Hope Road; the house sets back
several hundred feet from the driveway entrance. There is no mailbox. A standard green fire sign with 231 on it
is attached to the lower trunk of a small tree where you turn in. Immediately beyond the driveway is a mail box
displaying Sugarloaf Lane for the next house, which also sets well back.

Wednesday March 11th - “Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area”

The Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, located on the Lebanon-Lancaster County line about one mile south of Kleinfeltersville, is a tract owned by the Pennsylvania Game Commission for the protection, propagation, management, preservation and controlled harvest of wildlife. Per the PA Game Commission, this area of more than 5,000 acres provides habitat for waterfowl, forest and farmland wildlife species, and includes a 40 acre shallow lake and 70 acres of impoundments. The area is a stopover for massive numbers of migrating Snow Geese and Tundra Swans as well as numerous other waterfowl, land birds and eagles as well as containing many resident species.

Bring binoculars, appropriate clothing per the weather including windy conditions (multiple layers are suggested), and snacks / drinks as per personal needs. Scopes are desirable if available. Mixed birding from vehicles on wildlife drive loop roads and some walking to include, if desired, about a quarter mile to viewing point on the lake area (and return). Facilities available. Meet at the parking lot area between CVS and Burger King (across road opposite Walmart) on US #30 near its intersection with US #15 at 8 AM (this is on the West side of the US #30 and #15 interchange). Contact the leader, Mike O’Brien at 717.642.6676, as needed / for additional info.

Accessing the SMAS Newsletter

A great feature of having the Newsletter on-line and receiving it via e-mail, is that you can always access a
misplaced or discarded issue at a future date. You can access the Newsletter in several ways.

First, if you do not routinely discard your emails or you retain selected items in your in-box or transfer them to a
saved information folder or similar, you can always access them at a future date on your own system.
Second, we archive the electronic edition on the internet at the following url: perch.es

Simply copy the url and paste it into your browser search box or just type it in (Clicking usually will not work).
The first header that appears is for the current (most recent) issue. In addition, there is a heading, by year, for
past quarterly issues which we archive on the site. We have put the past issues here since we started the
electronic edition.

Third, you can access it on the internet at the Yahoo.com Chat Group site, Adams County Nature Chat
(AdCoNaChat). Presence of the information on this site may lag the Newsletter somewhat.
We post our SMAS field trips, meeting dates and topics, special events like an annual picnic, annual luncheon,
and other club news on the calendar. There are directions uploaded to the files section for some areas we have
trips to, and also, we often upload the species list from completed field trips and Christmas Bird Counts on the
Files area.

You can access the AdCoNaChat web-site at the link provided below. This is the link to the home page and from there you can access posts and messages by members, the Calendar and Files section, and much more. Copy and paste the following url into your browser search box: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AdCoNaChat/

And, of course, per information above re the new SMAS Website, you can reference current & past issues there.

OTHER SMAS RELATED INFORMATION

Board Members Point of Contact Telephone Email address
President Deb Siefken 677-4830 siefkend@embarqmail.com
Vice-President Carole Simon 337-1662 carolesimon@embarqmail.com
Secretary Linette Mansberger 495-8137 lmcopperhead@aol.com
Treasurer Mike Bertram 352-7936 the2nomads@centurylink.net
Director At Large Nancy Locher 334-4768 nclocher@embarqmail.com
Director At Large Rusty Ryan 642-9293 rryan@adamscounty.us
Director At Large Cy Deitz 253-0297 sdeitz1630@comcast.net

Committee Chairs

Conservation Emily Cost 642-5840 emilycost@yahoo.com
Education Emily Cost 642-5840 emilycost@yahoo.com
Field Trips Mike O'Brien 642-6676 maddogobrien@gmail.com
Hospitality Vacant
Membership Mike O'Brien 642-6676 maddogobrien@gmail.com
Programs Bob Brandt 677-8323 brantownb@aol.com
Publicity Elizabeth Weller 339-8443 amazingheartfarm@comcast.net
Newsletter Mike O'Brien 642-6676 maddogobrien@gmail.com

SMAS Annual Schedule Information

Regular SMAS Monthly Program Meetings are held Jan / Mar / May / June / Sept / Oct / Nov.
Unless indicated otherwise, are all meetings are held on Mondays at 7:30 PM at the Adams County Agricultural
Center. Please see complete information at the beginning of this and every Newsletter in case there is any
variation by quarter. Please check individual programs in each issue in the event of a change in times and / or
venue.

Field Trips are normally held monthly in Jan / Feb / Mar / April / May / Jun / Sept / Oct / Nov. In December we
substitute the annual Christmas Bird Count for the monthly field trip.

Some of these monthly field trips traditionally repeat each year, such as the Christmas Bird Count and the Migration Count in May. We usually go to a nearby hawk watch site in late September or early October. The Annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is held by design between 14 Dec and 5 Jan. For SMAS, this is in lieu of a regular field trip. We schedule our SMAS CBC on the first available Saturday after 13 Dec. In the event of really bad weather, we may cancel and reschedule.

The Annual Luncheon has been traditionally held in April, in lieu of, the regular monthly meeting.

Our SMAS Annual Picnic and get together is held in August on the second Monday. This is “Bring A Dish” to
share and the kickoff is 5 PM with dinner at 6 PM. In addition to bringing a dish to share, attendees should bring
their own place setting materials. Drinks and some type of main dish(es) will be provided. See the summer
Newsletter edition for details on times and directions.

All meetings, field trips and other activities are subject to weathering out or other cancellation reasons. If you are
on our email list (receiving our Newsletters and other information) you will get an email notification as soon as
the decision is made. Otherwise, if there is some question based on the weather or some other issue, please
contact the field trip leader or someone from the list of Board Members / Committee Chairpersons applicable to your question(s).