For the third year in a row, Central Kentucky Audubon Society participated in FUSION--"For Unity and Service in our Neighborhoods"--the University of Kentucky student day of volunteerism.  This year, CKAS requested students to help assemble and paint forty more Prothonotary Warbler nest tubes. We knew this would be a daunting task since the work needed to be completed in three hours. Adding to the challenge: a minor setback when the absent-minded project leader and CKAS President realized he had forgotten the 13/16" drill bit and had to run out and get one. Luckily, Loren Taylor, KFDWR avian biologist who developed the tube design and helped with the assembly project, was able to keep things rolling and entertain the students with stories about birds in Tony's absence. In the end, the students lived up to the task! In record time, they assembled and painted all forty tubes. In fact, Loren mused that the paint jobs the students did was "perhaps the best camouflage" she'd ever seen on PROW tubes. See pictures below.

This, of course, throws down a gauntlet. CKAS still has 144 more 8" tubes which could be assembled into PROW nest boxes for KDFWR distribution. We will need to purchase a few more parts, but we feel this is a worthwile project: Prothonotary Warblers rank a 14 on the State of North America's Birds Report, putting them on the "Watch List." Building more tubes is an opportunity for CKAS to do some easy good for threatened local birds. The reports from our first 100 tubes indicate a 35% acceptance rate by PROWs, even though some boxes got installed late in the season. In some areas like the Ballard WMA, Prothonotary Warblers took up residence in 62% of the placed tubes. Loren expects the acceptance rate to be even higher next year since PROWs exhibit very high site fidelity. She's already heard from several of the WMA managers who are excited by the project and anxious to participate again next year, many who have requested she install more nest tubes. So can CKAS build out the remaining 144 tubes in an upcoming project and camouflage them nearly as well as the students did? Time will tell... We're thinking this will be a good November or December CKAS event (after the mosquito season). Watch future newsletters for more info.

Recently, some members of the Central Kentucky Audubon Society Board began discussing a somewhat ambitious goal for next year: A bird walk in each of the ten counties we represent. Over the past few months, we've paid attention to who attends our regular walks -- and we have been pleasantly surprised to have been joined on far-from-Lexington walks by birdwatchers from the local areas who we usually don't usually see in Fayette County. So we plan to make a conscientious effort to schedule walks in counties we have not traditionally done so. If you live in one of our counties where you can't remember there ever being a walk, we want to hear from you since we could use your help selecting good birding locations. Additionally, as we schedule more walks, we will eventually need a few more walk leaders. So look for some "Bird Walk Leader Classes" toward the start of next year (even some outside Fayette County) where we'll discuss planning, orchestrating, and reporting data from bird walks. It doesn't take an expert to run a bird walk; you don't even need to be an extrovert. You just need a place, a few like-minded friends, and a desire to find some birds, rare or otherwise.