The Headwaters Chapter members are sorting up Monarchs and More! Focus Project duties with the hopes of having flourishing wayside pollinator stations scattered across the valley to show off in August.
One of the more daunting tasks is falling on HMN member Gail Napora as she lays out an assortment of sign possibilities for the five different site groups to choose from. Permanent signage at each of the spots will offer an educational component to the projects as well as recognition for the partnerships established in this year long effort.
Read more about the signs and team picks in Sandy and Gail’s notes on the Monarchs and More! Project meeting in late January here: M&M! Rally Notes.
So far three of the five groups are favoring a monarch themed sign offering bright colors and contrasts to catch the eye. The sign wording will be consistent between the five signs and is being finalized. The signs will each sport location-specific partner logos as well as a QR code linking to a page on this website that will host updated information about the plight of the monarchs and the many functions and importance of pollinator-supporting efforts.
Thanks to Gail for all her creative energy and time toward our project signage!
– Adrie, February 2015
Find some online resources to help choose useful plants and identify other site needs here.
Project Update and Work Day Plans from Jason Hallacher on August 31, 2015:
The gardens are looking amazing at the lake so far. The Black-eyed Susan’s are blooming and numerous pollinator species have already been spotted. We have a few unwanted species popping up that need to be removed (the neighboring landowners are not fond of the velvet leaf and poke weed). In attempt to make everyone happy I have formed the Lake Shenandoah Pollinator Garden Partnership so the adjacent landowners have an outlet to voice any concerns. I have planned a work day to kick off this partnership and hope that you can join us on September 12th. We will be meeting in the lake’s parking lot at 8AM. I will bring a trailer to dispose of all the unwanted vegetation. Let me know if you can make it. Thanks!
Jason Hallacher
Assistant Fisheries Biologist
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
517 Lee Highway Verona, VA 24482
540-248-9385 – Office
Jason.Hallacher[at]dgif.virginia.gov
Photo credit: VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
Jason Hallacher is a fisheries biologist with the VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and married to HMN Courtney Hallacher. He is making time among his fish-related duties to take on a pollinator supporting project at Lake Shenandoah.
Aligning closely with many of the goals of the HMN Monarchs and More! 2014/2015 Focus Project, creating a signed pollinator trail along sections of the current trail around Lake Shenandoah has the potential of turning mowed grass into diverse wildlife habitat that additionally could improve the water quality of runoff from these areas. Providing educational and research opportunities and a chance for HMNs to work with one of our sponsoring agencies are more perks of the project.
Although financing and implementation skills will likely all be available within the department, Jason reached out to our chapter at our January 15, 2015, board meeting so we could be aware of the project and help out where we have interest and expertise.
Our project Committee Chair Sandy Greene is turning any HMN work on this into an approved volunteer project. Foreseeable needs include regularly scheduled workdays to remove non-native woody invasives like autumn olive, assistance with trail maintenance and input into sign designs.
Several hundred people a day may visit Lake Shenandoah to fish or recreate. … Lake Shenandoah is well-fertilized, in the middle of several groomed neighborhoods, and a native habitat would be a great thing to interpret and model for their lawn maintenance. – HMN Project Committee Chair Sandy Greene
Lake Shenandoah and the perimeter trail are owned and maintained by VDGIF and therefore require access permits or a “valid Virginia hunting, freshwater fishing, or trapping license, or a current Virginia boat registration” to use. Purchasing an annual hunting/fishing license costs the same as an annual pass at $23 but offers some matching federal funds to the department.
… the total garden area equals 0.75 acres. … we are planning on using 3-4 interpretive signs. They will be focused on Pollinators / Wildflowers, Riparian Buffers, Terrestrial Animals, and possibly Urban Gardens. … We plan to get started this spring. – Project Coordinator Jason Hallacher
Check out the persuasive Power Point presentation Jason shared with the HMN board in January: click on the first image to launch it:
As of early 2015, the Headwaters Master Naturalists’ 2014/2015 Focus Project, Monarchs and More!, is taking shape to include five Pollinator Waystations spread over most of our service area.
We have webpages for each project site to document progress with notes and photos. Click on the highlighted names above to access these sites.
A big “Show and Tell” meeting was held on January 29, 2015, at Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church: Bring your drawings, dimensions, team and partners, plant wish list, sign parameters and needs. This is the big meeting to make our Monarch Waysides glorious! – Sandy Greene [Sandy’s notes from this meeting are here: M&M! Rally Notes]
Find some online resources to help choose useful plants and identify other site needs here.
Small Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii minima) brood
The Augusta Bird Club conducted its first Christmas Bird Count (CBC) for this season on December 14th. This is our club’s 48th year of participation. Eight teams, consisting of 31 club members, were out in the field for a total of 60.25 hours with total miles by car being 635.5 and 10.75 miles by foot.
Two ‘owling’ teams set forth in the wee hours of the morning. In addition to garnering a few owls (Barn, Screech and Great Horned), we were treated to an additional wonder of the night, the Geminid meteor shower. It was a beautiful stellar icing to the cake! With sunrise and beautiful clear, blue skies showing themselves, we knew it was too beautiful of a day for great birding!!! Where was some bad weather to bring in more birds!?!?
Male American kestrel. Photo by Greg Hume.
What unfolded for the day gave us 75 species with some interesting sightings and a few records for the day including Cackling Geese (4th record), a Merlin (5th record), four Barn Owls that tied the 2011 and 1971 records and high counts for Common Merganser (6), Red-shouldered Hawk (14), American Kestrel (36) and Winter Wren (9). Totally absent for the day was a sighting of a Bald Eagle… none were to be had! We had an additional 7 species for the count week. The cumulative number of species for the Augusta CBC is 134 with 66 being the average.
Last year there were over 2,400 count circles with 1,863 in the U.S. but it continues to expand in North and South America. If you have an interest in locations and numbers, all of the data eventually will be available on the Audubon website. For example, last year at a particular circle in Ecuador, they logged in a dazzling number of 531 species!!!
The CBC runs from December 14th to January 5th every year. The Waynesboro CBC was held on Saturday, January 3rd. I am pleased and proud that our club continues to have dedicated members willing to participate in the annual CBCs.
– Penny Warren, President, Augusta Bird Club, January 2015
From the Rockingham Bird Club‘s January 2015 Newsletter, The Goldfinch Gazette as distributed on January 3, 2015:
We do not have all the data from the CBC available, but a few notes struck me. Although we had no Snowy Owl this year, for the first time since 1995, we had a Barn Owl! We even counted two of them somewhat near each other. This marks the first year that we ever had Barn, Barred, Eastern Screech and Great Horned Owls in the same count day. Kevin Shank’s family of Union Springs snagged our first Ruffed Grouse since 2007. A Merlin, a Peregrine Falcon and a Loggerhead Shrike rounded out some very nice birds. Count week birds included continuing Eurasian Collared Dove (Mount Solon) and Green Heron, a very unusual find for the season, reported by Karen Shank on Nazarene Church Rd.
Thanks to all who were able to contribute directly and to those for helping facilitate this labor of love.
As the Headwaters Chapter’s 2014/2015 Focus Project, Monarchs and More! hopes to be a meaningful and timely set of yearlong projects that engage all members of the chapter in the stewardship of public lands to protect and/or create helpful perennial habitat to boost the declining populations of Monarch butterflies and other pollinators. We will work with partners to create or identify “Monarch Waystations” in at least five public areas across Augusta and Rockingham Counties. Potential partners include park and other public land staff, the Virginia Native Plant Society, The Natural Garden, the JMU arboretum already hosting a Monarch Waystation, … your friends and neighbors!
Interpreting the areas with signage will be an important part of public education outreach.
Our project will culminate with a chapter-hosted “migration” tour on August 15, 2015, to visit each of these areas!
Where can you help out?
Here are some of our proposed locations to explore and a chapter member to contact about each:
Natural Chimneys: Kelly Rourke
Staunton, considering the Frontier Culture Museum and/or Montgomery Park: Kathy Romig
Bridgewater, considering Cook’s Creek Arboretum: RoxAnna Theiss
Also planned are a plants/seeds team and an educational outreach materials team to support the planting projects. Earth Day Staunton, Blacks Run CleanUp Day in Harrisonburg, and Riverfest in Waynesboro will all serve as public education opportunities to champion protected, native, pollinator-friendly plantings to support ecological diversity and land and water health, using the Monarch as a poster child.
Click above to access Gail’s You Tube video of Monarch metamorphosis.
Monarch Waystation Planning Panel
The Headwaters Chapter’s Annual Meeting on November 1st at Buckhill Farm featured a Monarch Waystation Planning Panel with Chris Bowlen, of the Virginia Native Plant Society and a VA Master Naturalist, and Gail Napora, writer, artist and all-round Monarch master and champion. They offered advice on Monarch requirements and natural history, and suitable plants and plant management for our sites and will both continue to serve as ready resources to help guide our projects.
Funding
At their September meeting, the Headwaters Master Naturalists Board allocated $60 per project site toward signage or other needs for a total of $300. A 50/50 raffle and book sale at the Annual Meeting brought in additional funds. The Waynesboro Woman’s Club has offered some funds through award money they received last year for a monarch awareness project. Not least, we may creatively challenge ourselves to find ways of partnering and sharing to develop the projects without a lot of cash.
Headwaters members can find more project details and sign up opportunities on the VMN VMS site.
Have ideas to make this project GREAT? Contact Sandy Greene! greenes104[at]aol.com
A Monarchs and More! Project Update is here with links to pages for each project site.
So far three of the five groups are favoring a monarch themed sign offering bright colors and contrasts to catch the eye. The sign wording will be consistent between the five signs and is being finalized. The signs will each sport location-specific partner logos as well as a QR code linking to a page on this website that will host updated information about the plight of the monarchs and the many functions and importance of pollinator-supporting efforts.
