The air was filled with the flight of woodpeckers, flickers and sapsuckers Monday night when the Perry Lions Club heard a presentation from Lion Ray Harden.
Of woodpeckers, there are 23 species found in the U.S. and 239 species worldwide, Harden told the Lions.
The downy woodpecker and the hairy woodpecker are Iowa’s most commonly seen species, he said. The 2021 Christmas Bird County numbered 101 downy woodpeckers in Dallas County and 21 hairy woodpeckers.
Harden said that he and Margaret Harden have traveled to the Arkansas swamps in search of the ivory-billed woodpecker, which is believed to be extinct, but claims about sightings continue to crop up.
Enjoying Harden’s presentation were fellow Lions Gary Becker, President Richard Hoesing, Lou Hoger, Jim McCauley, Dr. Harlyn McGuire, Dave Summerson and Mike Wilson. Harden said he will soon deliver a similar presentation before the Des Moines Chapter of the Audubon Society.
The Perry Lions also welcomed their newest member at Monday’s meeting in Carme Staker, the sister of Lawrence Bice, who recently transferred her membership to Perry.
Oh my goodness, I was so blessed back when I was 12. It was the early summer of 1967 when I spent a week at the old YMCA camp not far from Agency, Iowa. Gladys Black was netting and banding birds at Camp Arrowhead that week. The path our camp counselors took us on to see her was no easy one even for preteen kids. I’d seen my share of robins, cardinals and blue jays growing up in Ottumwa, but I had no idea Iowa had such colorful and exotic-looking birds as Gladys showed us. The goldfinch she captured was impressive enough, but she had a couple of teeny, tiny birds to show us as she banded them. For the life of me, I don’t recall the species, but we kids were amazed. If no one else remembers who Gladys was, I’m sure Ray Harden does.
I digress here, but we kids missed the entire Arab-Israeli 6-Day War. I remember them counting us all and marching us out on a country road in case they had to find a way to get us to our folks or have them pick us up. Tensions were high, and World War III was a distinct possibility then. It hadn’t been quite five years since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Talk about bad timing, my Boy Scout troop was encamped at Lake Wapello a couple years later, and we completely missed the first moon landing of Apollo 11.
Our Turkey Vultures need this kind of love too.
Yes, Nick, I remember Gladys Black. I remember her newspaper columns, and I have her book. She fought the Iowa Legislature for many years, trying to block dove hunting. It was allowed after she died. RH
Yes, Ray. She was a tough old bird herself.