April 2019 - May 2019 The Internet Site for Environmental Information in Oklahoma Vol. 7, No. 5.

Celebrate Earth Month

Photo from Facebook

The Vigil for Earth will be held

each Monday through April, from

12:15 to 12:30 p.m., at the same

location, across from Penn Square

Mall, sponsored by The Peace

House in Oklahoma City

and endorsed by OCC’s

Environmental Committee.

On Monday, April 22, an Earth

Day Parade and Student Festi-

val are planned from 2 to 5 p.m.

on the OU South Oval. For a

complete OU Earth Month events,

visit the website. http://ou.edu/

cas/earthmonthatou.

or see Page 8.

The Tulsa’s Earth Day Festival will be held on Saturday, April 20, sponsored by the Tulsa Earth Coa-lition and Oklahoma Sierra Club. Featured speaker will be Michael Brune, National Executive Director of Sierra Club, the nation’s largest environmental organization. The free Tulsa Earth Day event will take place at in the Tulsa Arts District in Tulsa on Sunday, April 22 from noon to 9:30 p.m.

Join Sequoyah State Park (Hulbert, OK) on Earth

Day (April 20, 2019 11:00 AM-1:00 PM) to help keep

the park beautiful and enjoyable for all.

Pick up trash while exploring the great outdoors --

hike, walk along roadways and explore camping loops.

Enjoy a pleasant evening commemorating Earth Day at the Heart in

the Park Labyrinth at Centennial Park in downtown Tonkawa.

This family-friendly celebration promises a myriad of activities includ-ing live music, food vendors, kid’s crafts and an art exhibition. This Earth Day celebration will be capstoned by two exciting events in-

cluding a pet fashion show, Deck the Dog and the Trashion Fashion, For more information: recycled/reusable fashion exhibition. https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.23843/event.22403

Reaves Park

Norman, Sunday

April 28, 2019

See Poster on Page 7.

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An environmental education newsletter for the citizens of Oklahoma sponsored by the Department of Biology at Oklahoma City University. Items appearing in this newslet-ter do not necessarily reflect the opinions or endorsement of the sponsoring organization. Editor: Beth Landon blandon@okcu.edu

Please send any submissions to The EnvironMentor Newsletter or The Calendar to: Environmentor@okcu.edu Published bimonthly each year. The next deadline is May 20, 2019. If you wish to receive an email announcing when a new issue has been uploaded, please send an email to Environmentor@okcu.edu.

Download your EnvironMentor Newsletter in pdf form from: http://www.okcu.edu/environmentor

Visit The EnvironMentor Calendar at http://www.okcu.edu/environmentor/ Scroll down from The Newsletters. Regularly updated as information becomes available.

In this issue ...

Celebrate Earth Month in Oklahoma! Cover

Editorial Page 2

Not an Endorsement, but ... 2

Quiz!! Quiz!! Quiz!! 2

Golden Algae and Fish Kills 3

OK City Zoo Supports Turtle Research in Belize 3

Virtual Spring BioBlitz! In Oklahoma 4

Mushroom Identification 4

Pollinator Backyard Activity Guide 5

Oklahoma Gardening’s School Garden Contest 5

Do Your Part(y) For the Planet 6

Earth Day in Reaves Park Norman 7

Earth Month @ OU 2019 8

Red Slough Birding Convention 9

Conserve Water With a Rain Barrel 10

Citizen Science Day 2019 10

OKC Waterway Cleanup Event! 10

ScienceFest 2019 11

Blue Thumb Newsletters 11

Riverology 101 11

Selenite at the Salt Plains 12

Wildcare Foundation 12

The Lost Cricket Project 12

Forest Science Needs New Editor 12

Party For the Planet 13

World Turtle Day 2019 13

Oklahoma 2019 Travel Guide 13

Wetlands Mapper 13

Grazing Management for Healthy Soil - Healthy Food 14

WildCare Baby Shower 15

OKC Garden Fest 16

A Pecos Bill Tall Tale 17-18

Green Words for All Ages 19

Upcoming Events at the Hackberry Flat Center 20

Sustainable Bioenergy Workshop 21

Monarchs in the Park -- Save the Date 22

The EnvironMentor on Facebook 23

QuikLIST 23

Calendar Form 24

Not an Endorsement , but ...

For this issue is on Page 4

Quiz!! Quiz!! Quiz!!

This bird was probably just passing

through on its way north. It likes to mi-

grate at night which may be a clue to its

name.

For more information and a treat, find the

answer to this quiz on Page 9.

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“Golden algae is a microbial organism

often associated with fish kills. But

even when golden algae blooms aren’t

large enough to cause major fish die

offs, they can still negatively impact the

amount of zooplankton available for

fish to eat. Golden algae were first rec-

orded in Oklahoma’s Red River in

2001 and the Canadian River in 2003.”

From the Department of Wildlife Conservation:

The Oklahoma City Zoo is Supporting a Turtle Research Project in Belize

http://www.bfreebz.org/hcrc/

why-save-the-hicatee/

To read the entire article click on the URL below:

https://www.okczoo.org/blog/posts/conservation-update-

field-report-from-okc-zoo-supported-turtle-research-project-

in-belize?fbclid=IwAR2FXngCGKrg1XUQ64N-

tSSe_HswvJ_bfondskT48nVJOFLoUSiUgDKxQHw

“Elyse [Ellsworth] is capturing wild

hicatee and placing radio-

transmitters on them to track their

movements. … Ellsworth’s project

focuses on a spatial ecology study

and assessment of the Hicatee

Conservation and Research Cen-

ter (HCRC) captive breeding and

hatchling head-start program in

two major watersheds in Belize.”

From BFREE this is the Central American River

Turtle (Dermatemys mawii aka Hicatee).

For more information about the Hicatee from the Belize Foundation for Research

and Environmental Education click on the URL below:

1 micrometer (um) = 0.001 millimeter (mm)

(Prymnesium parvum)

Read about Golden Algae on the ODWC website:

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/fishing/ans/golden-alga

There is even more information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/water/environconcerns/hab/ga/

4

Locating and identifying Oklahoma's plant and animal life with four weeks of fun challenges.

Project requirements

Observations in this project must meet the fol-lowing criteria:

Taxa All Taxa

Location Oklahoma, US

Users Any

Quality Grade Research Grade

Needs ID

Casual

Media Type Any

Dates April 1 to May 1

Establishment Any

For more information and to upload your ob-

servations, click on the URL below:

Not an Endorsement , but ...

We encourage posts from anyone in Texas,

Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

*Anyone outside of those states please make

sure you note where you found your speci-

men.

(This is group knowledge

your questions are not just for admins

mushroom identification is up to the whole

group.)

For the identification of all mushrooms com-

mon and rare, edible and poisonous. Everyone

who is interested In learning or teaching about

mushrooms, so that everyone who wants ac-

cess to the information can have it. Take pic-

tures, post them, then we can all have a nice

time learning about them.

Learn proper etiquette to identify, harvest, eat,

preserve, and propagate mushrooms, and

much more!

This is meant for mushrooms only, and has no

room for disrespect, so please be respectful

constantly.

I bid you good mushroom hunting!!

South Central

United States

Mushroom

Identification

Oklahoma CropMAP A New Crop Information System for Oklahoma

https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/

cropmap/oklahoma/default.html

Lots of cool info! The map also gives

the latitude and longitude of Oklahoma.

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/spring-virtual-

bioblitz-ok-2019?tab=about

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Pollinator Backyard Activity Guide Check out this and other activity guides at : https://www.neefusa.org/resource/pollinator-backyard-

activity-guide?fbclid=IwAR12LNuqAI9r7oyB90pE6TQNupc4rr-KQ7_nnmrV_w_F4z9bijSd-QNDcBo

Oklahoma Gardening’s

School Garden Contest

Oklahoma Gardening is here to announce our School Garden Contest!

We want to see kids learning about gardening. So if you've attended a

contest in the past or if your child is involved in a school garden, we

would love for you to come check this out!

SUBMIT Information by MAY 24

Tell us: how many students are attending what type of plants you'd be showcasing the age group some photos of the project.

You can submit by emailing us: sociallyokg@okstate.edu

or through facebook messages. https://www.facebook.com/Oklahoma-School-Garden-Network-

244190922270770/

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2019 Schedule of Events

Saturday May 4th Registration - 5:30 p.m.-6:30pm

Dr Walt Frey-Welcome and Introductions- 6:30 p.m.

- 6:45 p.m.

Keynote Speaker - Dr. John Abbott- 6:45 p.m. - 7:45

p.m.

"The Wonders of Southern Africa and Madagascar "

Sunday May 5th Red Slough Tour 6:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

Little River NWR Tour 6:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m.

Lunch on your own 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Dragonfly Tour Red Slough 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Wildflower Tour 1:30 p.m.- 4:00 p.m.

Champion Tree Tour to LRNWR 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Dinner on your own time 5:00 p.m.- 6:30p.m.

Speaker- Dr. Chris Butler

"Working on the Rail Road: Yellow and Black Rail

Ecology"

6:30 p.m.- 7:30 p.m

Monday May 6th Red Slough Tour 6:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Little River NWR Tour 6:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

MCWA Tour 6:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Lunch on your own 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Dragonfly Tour Red Slough 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Wildflower Tour 1:30 p.m.- 4:00 p.m.

Champion Tree Tour to LRNWR 1:30 p.m.-5:00

p.m.

Dinner on us in the Red River Museum

Keynote Speaker - Dr. John Abbott -

7:45 p.m. - 8:45pm

"The Marvels of Insect Flight”

Tuesday May 7th Red Slough Tour 6:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

MCWA Tour 6:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

For information and to register:

http://www.redsloughconvention.com/

For an exhaustive list of birds you may find at Red

Slough, click on:

http://visitmccurtaincounty.com/parks/forests-

wetlands/red-slough/

Answer to Quiz! Quiz! Quiz!

Songs and Calls

Series of clear, musical phrases, each on a different pitch, consisting of a piping in-troductory note and a reedy tremolo. Call note a low tuck. Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver,

Martyn Stewart and others.

Click on the hyper-link below to hear the quiz bird: song #1 song #2 song #3 churt & veee calls way calls #1 way calls #2 juvenile call

For more information click below:

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/hermit-thrush

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Conserve water, help your garden by ordering

a discounted rain barrel by May 8

“The City of Oklahoma City and the Central Ok-lahoma Storm Water Alliance (COSWA) are of-fering discounted rain barrels for sale to encour-age residents to conserve water and reduce pol-lution.

You can buy the discounted rain barrels online at www.upcycle-products.com for $63.50 each. Click on “order forms” on the right side of the page and choose “Oklahoma Municipal Pro-gram.”

The deadline to order is May 8.”

All organizations interested in citizen

science, including museums, aquariums,

nature centers, governmental agencies,

universities, parks departments, and

more, are invited to participate in the

annual Citizen Science Day.

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4th and 5th grade students statewide are invited to participate in this annual event.

The event provides the opportunity for children to not only be exposed to, but become involved in, the sci-ences in a new and different setting = FUN!!

The stations use basic geology, biolo-gy, physical sciences, health and en-vironmental sciences to demonstrate how science impacts our everyday life. This teaching technique enhanc-es their curiosity for science and can also encourage better citizenship and stewardship of our environment.

ScienceFest is a positive contribution to the environ-mental education of Oklahoma’s students.

Monthly Blue Thumb

Newsletters

If you would like to be

added to our list and re-

ceive our monthly news-

letter, email us and let

us know at

What Is ScienceFest?

ScienceFest is a day of interactive activities with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) as they relate to environmental con-servation and alternative energies.

It is designed to foster scientific literacy while edu-cating children about protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and using alternative fuels and technologies.

The goal of ScienceFest is to set the national stand-ard for educating youth of the benefits of protecting our environment, conserving natural resources, and

using alternative en-ergies.

Educators plan a day packed with exciting exhibits, presenta-tions, and hands-on activities all devel-oped to show the im-portance of scientific applications in the environment.

ScienceFest 2019

Thursday, May 2, 2019

At

Oklahoma State Fair Park

Who should come and why?

bluethumb@conservation.ok.gov

Some of the most recent articles:

Healthy Soil - Healthy Water

Bug Collections End With a Bang!

Winter Stormwater Alert!

Are you a teacher or professor and want to learn all

about water quality, water conservation, and water-

sheds so that you can teach your classes? Well,

you're in luck! Blue Thumb is parterning with GRDA,

OSU Extension 4H, Ag in the Classroom, and the

Oklahoma Water Survey to host Riverology 101 this

summer! If you are interested in attending, please

click https://www.grda.com/riverology-101/. Early

bird ends June 30th. More information can be found

on the registration form.

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Saving the intricate fabric of life

… one thread at a time. The WildCare Foundation is a supporting organiza-

tion with the following mission:

“Our mission is to provide people a place to bring

native wildlife struggling to survive with the goal of

releasing healthy individuals back to nature.”

The homepage for the Foundation is:

http://www.wildcareoklahoma.org/

Part of what they do is to publish a quarterly newslet-

ter. The issue is available at the following URL:

The archive is available at this URL:

http://www.wildcareoklahoma.org/index.php?news

Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge

Selenite Digging

at the

“Pink sunrise, white surface, white almost as far as the horizon on the first official day of crystal digging at the Salt Plains National Wildlife Ref-uge. It was a cold Monday morning on the first day of

April and our idea was to catch the very first dig-

ger through the gate and onto this surreal 10,000

acre site, a huge salt flat near Cherokee, Okla-

homa. It’s home to wild birds and a unique crys-

tal that grows just beneath the surface.”

Read the rest of the article at:

https://kfor.com/2019/04/01/the-first-

crystal-digger-of-2019-at-the-salt-plains-

is-none-other-than-selenite-sam/

It’s open again: April 1 -- October 15

A citizen science program, called the

Lost Cricket Project, has been developed to help find new populations of the rare prairie mole cricket in Oklahoma. These recordings will help researchers determine the distribution of the prairie mole cricket throughout the state. Go to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation website to view a video about how to recognize the call of the prairie mole cricket and see the app where you can upload your own recordings to be part of this project. https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/…/citizen-

science-progra…

The Lost Cricket Project

Please join us for our annual Baby

Shower! See Page 15 for more info.

Qualified applicants may express interest in this posi-

tion by submitting the following materials by May 30,

2019.

A letter of interest detailing your experience with

publishing, reviewing, and authoring in scientific

journals.

A 500-700-word statement of vision as the Editor-

in-Chief of Forest Science

A completed application for and CV

For more information and an application see the fol-

lowing URL:

https://academic.oup.com/forestscience/pages/

forest_science_editor-in-chief_search

Application Requirements

13

https://www.fws.gov/wetlands/Data/Mapper.html?

utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&

utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=

This Wetlands Mapper, from the US Fish and

Wildlife Service, was found in the latest Okla-

homa Wetlands Program Bulletin. This Map-

per “integrates digital map data along with

other resource information to produce current

information on the status, extent, characteris-

tics and functions of wetlands, riparian, and

deepwater habi-

tats.” There is a

bit of training

needed to oper-

ate it properly,

but there is a

step=by-step

process with a

manual and a

video to help

you.

Wetlands Mapper

Click

below:

2019 Oklahoma

Travel Guide

Start planning

your Oklahoma

vacation with the 2019 Oklahoma

Travel Guide. This year’s guide con-

tains nearly 200 pages of fascinating

museums, only-in-Oklahoma restaurants, stun-

ning state parks, Route 66 roadside attractions

and more, along with directories of attractions

and lodging. Packaged with the official state

map, it’s the perfect companion for all your Ok-

lahoma adventures.

https://www.travelok.com/brochures

Spring into action this Earth Day and learn how

you can help protect on our planet and its wild-

life, wild places. The Zoo’s Party for the Planet

is a family-fun Earth Day celebration featuring

live entertainment, Keeper Connections, inter-

active scavenger safari for kids, hands-on ac-

tivities and more.

http://www.holidayscalendar.com/

event/world-turtle-day/

How can you celebrate? Wear green clothing,

support your favorite turtle organization, edu-

cate yourself and others by watching documen-

taries (Nova or Nature) about turtles, draw/

paint turtles, or have a turtle-themed party.

Check out this article for more information:

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Please join us

for this unique fundraising event!

Tour the Golden Family

Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education

Center along with the outdoor

WildCare facility.

Visit with the WildCare staff, interns, and

volunteers to learn about wildlife re-

habilitation as you view native Ok-

lahoma wildlife in various

stages of recovery.

Please join us for our annual Baby Shower!

Saturday,

April 27th

2-5 pm

Our largest fundraising event, the annual Baby Shower, is a free event where

donations to support our mission are always

appreciated!

Interested in bringing a gift for our spring patients, but don’t know

what a baby skunk, orphaned squirrel, or infant raccoon would put

on a wish list?

Check out the Foundation newsletter for some ideas.

http://www.wildcareoklahoma.org/useruploads/files/Spring%

202019%20(incl%20updates%203-16-19).pdf

to bring native wildlife struggling to survive with the goal a non-profit 501 (c)3 organization funded solely by tax ex

7601 84th St Noble, OK 73068

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Participating in the OKC Garden Fest is a perfect way

to celebrate spring! Join us for this annual festival of

plants, gardens, and artists. Buy items for your garden

and home, ask the experts your planting questions,

enjoy some family fun activities and grab a yummy

bite to eat. Buy locally grown and made products! The

festival will offer perennials, annuals, native plants,

herbs, produce, florals, succulents, pollinator plants,

wines, and agriculturally-related

crafts. Activities for children will

also be offered and there is no

charge for attending and food trucks

will be on-site.

Vendors (to date):

4C Ag Service

A New Leaf Wood Turning

A1 Pet Emporium

BlueSTEM AgriLearning Center

Central Oklahoma Cactus and Succulent Society

Central Oklahoma Daylily Society

Chaos Cactus

City of OKC Parks and Recreation Dept.

CommonWealth Urban Farms

Confetti Tub Treats

Emerson South High School

Graham’s Jewelry Box

Henry’s Honey Bee Farm

Jenny Cracked Corn

Just Right Alpacas

Karen’s Cottage

Laughing Rabbit Soaps

Lucky Lulu Jewelry

May 11, 2019

9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Moonflower Face and Body

Mustang Creek Alpacas

No Grout About It – Mosaics by Kat

Okie Dirt

Oklahoma Contemporary

One World Tuition

Prairie Wind Nursery

Shale Creek Farm

Southern Plant Farm

Snow Tea

Squeeze Every Drop

Sustainable Beekeepers Guild

Tall Grass Prairie Soap

The Goat Farmers Wife

The Lotus Potter

The Zinnia Farmer Seed Company

Tinroof Studios Lampworked Glass and Jewelry

Wild Horse Canyon Farms

Wild Things Nursery

Location

Myriad Botanical Gardens & Crystal Bridge Tropical

Conservatory

301 W. Reno Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73102

Oklahoma City, OK

Phone: (405) 445-7080

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You probably know that Pecos Bill was a cowboy. Did you know that he settled down on a ranch near Fairview OK, back in the days soon after statehood?

Bill loved his cattle and horses, and he did all his own veternary doctoring. Whenever an animal got hurt or sick, he fixed them right up. He loved wild critters too. Whenever he found a broken-wing bird or a jackrabbit with an ear torn on that new-fangled barb wire, he took them in and nursed them along until they were fit to go free and wild again.

One hot day in late spring, he was riding out near the Glass Mountains looking for a stray calf. A little wind was blowing, and he watched while a dust devil spun and spun itself into a whirlwind zig-zagging playful as a pup over the prairie. He saw it was growing into a baby tor-nado! It ripped leaves off of trees, it tore shin-gles off an old shack, and then as he watched, that fool young tornado flung herself against one of the Glass Mountains! She crashed and fell onto the glittering shards of gypsum at the foot of the mesa.

Well of course he felt sorry for her. He lifted that limp and exhausted windbag onto the horse's rump and took her home to one of his corrals.

All the rest of the summer he took care of her. He used an old telegraph pole for a splint. Fed her on tree branches and old barn doors until she was feeling fit and lively again. He even taught her to talk. You can do that, if you catch them young enough...

At last the day came: the geese were flying south. “My dear,” he said, “I think it's time for you to be on your way and rejoin your herd... flock... whatever.”

She objected, “But I can't leave until I've laid my eggs! My babies will need a nice sandy spot to hatch out next spring. Do you know of a place like that around here?”

Now Bill knew that this foolish young tornado had been by herself all summer. But then he thought of his hens, who laid their daily egg whether he had a rooster or not.

He thought. “I know just the place: the Great Salt Plains about 20 miles north of here. Sand for miles.”

So they headed north, he on horseback, she flitting eagerly overhead. Then he watched as she zig-zagged over that huge flat valley, piercing the white salt crust with the tip of her ovipositor dozens, hundreds of times. “Ain't nature wonderful?” he mused.

When she finished, she blew him a kiss – nearly tore his hat off – and headed south for the winter. He never saw her again.

But he worried about those eggs. The next spring and summer he returned to the Salt Plains whenever he could, but he never saw so much as a little dust devil. “Just as I thought,” he said, “those eggs couldn't have been fertile.” Finally, out of curiousity, he brought a shovel and dug down through the salt crust into the damp sand. And that 's where he found the crystals.

(Continued on Page )

A Pecos Bill

T

A

L

L

Tale

18

(Continued from Page )

They were flat rectangles, clear as glass but each one marked with a redbrown X pattern that some folks might call an hourglass, but Pecos Bill knew it was really twin tornadoes joined at the tip. Miner-als must have replaced the shell and contents of that tornado's eggs, the way minerals replace dino-saur bones in a fossil.

So now you know how the Great Salt Plains got its famous crystals, which are found nowhere else in the world. Thanks to Pecos Bill.

From The Earthteller,

Fran Stallings

Facts: Gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) forms selenite crystals in other parts of the world, but only in Oklaho-ma's Great Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge can you find “Hourglass Selenite” with red clay inclu-sions shaped like mirrored tornadoes. They were designated Oklahoma's State Crystal in 2005.

This area was once a shallow sea into which the eroding Rocky Mountains drained for millions of years. As the land lifted and the sea-water dried up, salts and minerals concentrated in the sandy bottom. Winter rains redissolve the minerals but as the sandy flats dry out, the crystals regrow in the sand while a fresh crust of white salt forms on top.

From April 1 to October 15, we can drive out onto marked areas of the salt flats and dig for these unique crystals. Dig gently by hand: they are fragile. But be careful, their edges are sharp enough to cut you! Because they are constantly reforming, we may take up to ten pounds of crystals apiece. But they may not be bought or sold.

Also, we must carefully stay within the designated areas so as not to disturb the nesting sites of many kinds of birds. Remember, this is a wildlife refuge. It's nice to know that our digging helps to feed the birds: brine flies breed in the water-filled holes we leave behind. And some birds nest on the dirt mounds of previous digging sites.

FACT Sources: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/salt_plains/visit/dig.html

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Salt_Plains/about/selenite.html

http://livingthecrystallife.com/digging-the-great-salt-plains/

For another article on selenite

crystals and the Great Salt

Plains National Wildlife Refuge

see Page 12 in this issue of

The EnvironMentor Newsletter.

STORY source: I invented this story to add interest to the selenite crystals I took to Japan last Novem-ber, as gifts for my storytelling colleagues there. The crystals were perfect as unique items from Ok-lahoma, but I worried that their sandy red clay ap-pearance might not appeal to my fastidious Japa-nese friends. However they loved the “tornado egg” story, and were reassured that these fossilized eggs would never hatch in their homes.

Photo from USFWS

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Green Words for All Ages

A Siege of Bitterns (2014) Won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel in 2015

A Pitying of Doves (2015)

A Cast of Falcons (2016)

A Shimmer of Hummingbirds (2017)

A Tiding of Magpies (2018)

As you can see from the poster, Steve

Burrows has a lot of writing to do and we

will have a lot of reading ahead!

Reviews by Sarah Markham

And not to leave the animals out ...

Have you ever wanted to know about what to call a

group of, say, pigs or otters? Pigs travel in a drove, but

otters? What about “how geese fly in a V-shape and

honk to encourage the leaders, and that sometimes

tens of thousand of flamingos meet up in one location.”

You might be able to check this book out of the library.

Chief Inspector Jejeune has the best per-

sonality for both a detective and a birder.

He is observant, quiet, and thoughtful --

personality quirks that frequently drive

those around him a bit crazy. But these

same quirks get results. In the past two

novels, Steve Burrows interleaves more

and more birder trips in the case of A

Shimmer of Hummingbirds around

South America and in A Tiding of Mag-

pies around Norwich in England. As en-

tertaining as the mystery is, these inter-

ludes are a welcome journey.

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10301 South Sunnylane Road

405-814-0006

http://

www.museumofosteology.org/

Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Saturday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Sunday 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.

On February 23, 2013 The EnvironMentor

dipped a toe into social media. We made

this decision because, at this time, there

are two to three months between issues of

the Newsletter. During this past gap an im-

portant event had an application deadline of

April 1st so an announcement went out

from Facebook. We won’t bother you with

anything trivial, so …

“Like” The Environmentor on

Facebook!!

QUIKList Oklahoma

Leopold Education Project

http://www.aldoleopold.org/Programs/lep.shtml

Type in Oklahoma

Oklahoma Blue Thumb

http://bluethumbok.com/

Oklahoma Blue Thumb Association

ok.bluethumb.association@gmail.com

Oklahoma Envirothon

http://www.oklaenvirothon.org/

Oklahoma Green Schools

http://www.okgreenschools.org/

Oklahoma Master Naturalists

https://okmasternaturalist.wixsite.com/website

Oklahoma Native Plant Society

http://oknativeplants.org/

Oklahoma Recycling Association (OKRA)

http://www.recycleok.org/okra/

As with all hyperlinks in The EnvironMentor

Newsletter, these are clickable.

Do you know an environmental group in Okla-

homa that should be listed. Send that infor-

mation to:

environmentor@okcu.edu

Project Learning Tree (PLT)

http://www.plt.org/

http://www.forestry.ok.gov/project-learning-tree

Project WET

(Water Education for Teachers)

http://www.bluethumbok.com/project-wet.html

Project WILD

http://www.projectwild.org/

24

To go directly to The Calendar click on:

http://www.okcu.edu/environmentor

Most people who remember The EnvironMentor Newsletter know that the pages at the end of the issue

were reserved for The Calendar. Being online has some great advantages. When you downloaded your

copy of the newsletter you may have noticed the box on the right side of the webpage. This is a conven-

ient listing of the next events from The Calendar. This will always be up-to-date because it happens au-

tomatically. For more information on the event just click on it and a window will open up with all the de-

tails. If you wish, you can access the rest of the calendar from the there.

To have your event posted to The Calendar, copy and paste the following list into an email, fill

in as much information as you wish, and send it to: Environmentor@okcu.edu

Title of your event:

Start Date and Time

End Date and Time

Location

Location Address

Contact Name

Contact Phone

Contact Email

Details in Narrative Form

Location Link

Event Link

Map Link

Please note: We are not able to publish for-profit information.