Daily Archives: May 6, 2015

Fight the bite: Tips to prevent tick bites, tick-borne disease

Spring and summer are hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking seasons. It is also the time of year when ticks are out. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) remind those spending time outdoors to take precautions to avoid tick bites.

In 2014, 212 cases of tick-borne diseases including ehrlichiosis; anaplasmosis; spotted fever rickettsiosis, also known as Rocky Mountain spotted fever; tularemia; and Lyme disease were reported in Kansas, and 75 of those patients required hospitalization. Kansans are encouraged to follow these steps to prevent tick bites: Dress, DEET, Avoid and Check.

DRESS: Wear protective clothing when practical (long sleeves and pants). Clothing should be light-colored to make ticks more visible. When hiking, wear a long-sleeved shirt tucked into pants, long pants tucked into high socks and over-the-ankle shoes to keep ticks out. Products containing permethrin, which kills ticks rather than merely repelling them, can be applied to clothing and equipment but not directly to skin. Garments must be allowed to dry thoroughly before wearing. Clothing and tents pre-treated with permethrin are available, and the protection can remain active through several washings. Be sure to follow label directions.

DEET: Insect repellents also reduce the risk of being bitten. When outdoors, use insect repellant containing 20 percent to 30 percent DEET on exposed skin and clothing for protection that lasts up to several hours. Follow the directions on the label. Other repellents registered by the Environmental Protection Agency can be found at http://cfpub.epa.gov/oppref/insect/.

AVOID: Ticks are usually found on vegetation close to the ground. In addition to regular mowing, avoid wooded or bushy areas with tall grass and leaf litter and walk in the center of trails.

CHECK: Check yourself at least every two hours for ticks when outside for extended periods of time. Pay special attention to areas in and around your hair, ears, armpits, groin, navel and backs of the knees. Promptly remove a tick if one is found. The sooner a tick is removed, the less chance it will transmit a disease to its host. If you find a tick, grasp the tick with tweezers as close to the skin as possible and slowly pull it straight out. Do not crush or puncture the tick and try to avoid touching the tick with your bare hands. Thoroughly disinfect the bite area and wash your hands immediately after removal. Be sure to also examine pets and gear, as ticks can ride into the home on animals, coats, backpacks and blankets, etc.

Symptoms of tickborne disease can include any unusual rash and unexplained flu-like symptoms, including fever, severe headaches, body aches and dizziness. Prompt treatment with antibiotics can prevent serious illness or even death. See your doctor immediately if you have been bitten by a tick and experience any of these symptoms.

For more information about tick-borne diseases, visit cdc.gov/ticks/resources/Hunterfactsheet.pdf and cdc.gov/ticks/diseases/.

Mountain Men event at Maxwell Wildlife Refuge May 9

If tradition, self-reliance, hard work, and the great outdoors are all things that ring true for you, The Friends of Maxwell Wildlife Refuge invite you to attend their Mountain Men Days At Maxwell May 9 from 10 a.m – 4 p.m. Celebrating the history of the American mountain man, the one-day event will draw visitors from across the state to learn about and celebrate activities such as primitive camping, blacksmithing, flint knapping, trading, and more. The refuge is located at 2565 Pueblo Road, Canton and gate entry fees will be waived the day of the event.

Food will also be available, as well as buffalo tours on the prairie every hour, courtesy of the Friends of Maxwell.

Maxwell Wildlife Refuge is located six miles north of Canton, in the very southeastern tip of the scenic Smoky Hills, an area of large rolling hills. It is the only location in Kansas where public herds of both bison and elk can be viewed in a native prairie environment.

For information, contact Betty Schmidt at (620) 628-4455, or by e-mail at [email protected].

Switchgrass dubbed most popular mountain bike trail in Kansas

Singletracks.com, an online website for outdoor enthusiasts that centers around camping, hiking, skiing, and mountain biking, recently came out with a list of the Most Popular Mountain Bike Trails for 2015 and Switchgrass Trail at Wilson State Park in Russell County took the lead for Kansas.

Open year-round in the Hell Creek area of the Park, Switchgrass Trail is nearly 24 miles of biking paradise. Awarded the “Epic” designation by the International Mountain Bicycling Association in 2012, Switchgrass Trail has consistently proved to be a trail worth visiting.

Rated as moderate to easy, Switchgrass Trail can be enjoyed by the whole family, especially when taking shorter “green” sections such as the EZ loop, or utilizing the trail’s intermediate “blue” paths. For experienced bikers, technically difficult sections of the trail also exist, including “black” sections that consist of rocky terrain, sandy areas, elevated paths, and steep drops.

Apart from the wide variety of loops and paths within Switchgrass Trail suited to bikers of all skill levels, the area also boasts incredible wildlife viewing opportunities, and the beautiful 9,000-acre Wilson Reservoir.

For more information on Wilson State Park’s Switchgrass Trail, contact the Wilson State Park office at (785) 658-2465.

Singletracks compiled the list by taking into consideration a given trail’s average reviewer rating, total number of reviews, number of Singletracks members who have ridden the trail, and number of Singletracks members who want to ride the trail.

To see Singletracks’ complete review of Switchgrass Trail, including the list of top trails for other states, visit www.singletracks.com.

NRCS extends comment period for Agricultural Conservation

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Jason Weller recently announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will extend the deadline to provide public comment on the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program’s (ACEP) interim rule until May 28, 2015.

“We extended the comment period for the ACEP rule to give our partners, landowners, and the public additional time to comment on a rule that will be used to implement USDA’s premier conservation easement program on private agricultural lands,” Weller said.

ACEP is designed to help landowners protect working agricultural lands and wetlands.  The 2014 Farm Bill consolidated three previous conservation easement programs into ACEP to make it easier for diverse agricultural landowners to fully benefit from conservation initiatives.

NRCS administers ACEP, a voluntary program created in the 2014 Farm Bill to protect and restore critical wetlands on private and tribal lands through the wetland reserve easement component. ACEP also encourages farmers, ranchers, and non-industrial private forest landowners to keep their private and tribal land in agricultural use through the agricultural land easement component. ACEP also conserves grasslands, including rangeland, pastureland, and shrubland.

The official notice of the proposed ACEP interim rule can be found in the Federal Register. The original deadline date to submit public comments on the ACEP interim rule was Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Electronic comments must be submitted through regulations.gov during the 30-day extended comment period.  Comments also can be hand carried or mailed to Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. NRCS-2014-0011, Regulatory and Agency Policy Team, Strategic Planning and Accountability, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Building 1-1112D, Beltsville, MD 20705.

To learn about ACEP and other technical and financial assistance available through NRCS conservation programs, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/GetStarted or your local USDA Service Center.

Here’s why Easter eggs (and most regular eggs too) are oval-shaped instead of just round spheres

By eNature

This is the time of year when eggs are turning up everywhere— in Easter baskets for many, not too mention in bird nests across the country too.

With all these eggs around, it’s easy to take them for granted.

While we tend to not talk much about bird nests at eNature.com because we just don’t want to encourage folks to disturb nesting birds, eggs are actually very specialized objects and full of remarkable stories.

For instance, ever wonder why birds lay eggs of different colors and shapes?

There’s a good reason for just about everything we encounter in nature and, as you’d expect, eggs are no exception.

American robin eggs are blue to blend with natural surrounds. © George Harrison

Why are do eggs come in colors?  Birds’ eggs are colored for protective reasons. The parent birds that incubate them are not always on the nest covering them and at those times the eggs are exposed to predators. The colors, speckles or spots on them are camouflage. This also explains why birds that nest in cavities often lay all white eggs. They can’t be seen even when the parent birds are not sitting on them.

Why do the shapes of bird eggs vary? Again, to protect them. Birds that nest on cliffs, such as many seabirds, tend to have eggs that are smaller at one end than at the other. This is to make them roll in a circle and less likely to fall off the cliff. Birds with rounder eggs usually build deep nests that keep them from rolling out.

How do baby birds hatch? They have a so-called “egg tooth” on the top of their upper mandible, which cuts through the egg shell when it is time for them to come out. The egg tooth falls off soon after hatching.

Why do the eggs in a nest often all hatch at about the same time? Because most birds lay an egg a day, but do not begin incubating them until the last egg is laid. One notable exception is the barn owl, which begins incubation with the laying of the first egg. That’s why the youngsters in a brood range in size and age from the oldest to the youngest.

And What About Jelly Beans? As for jelly-beans and their shape… they too have evolved.  According to at least one cultural historian, jelly beans appear to have become more egg-shaped and less bean-shaped over the years as the candy, thought to have first been created around the time of the Civil War, has become more associated with Easter and children’s Easter baskets.

Have a favorite fact or anecdote about nesting birds you’d like to share?

Are your local birds singing through the night? Here’s a list of the likely culprits

By eNature

Is something (or someone) keeping you awake these spring nights?  Waking you up before sunrise?

Many questions come to eNature about night birds calling and other weird and incessant noises in the dark.  It seems that there’s a lot of activity taking place when most of us expect our birds to be resting.

So what’s going on?  And who’s making all that noise in the dark?

Depending on the kinds of calls, and you location in North America, they could be any of at least four bird species.

Whip-poor-wills and their relatives are famous for calling their names, over and over again, sometime into the thousands of times without stopping. Unless you like to fall to sleep to the call of the whip-poor-will, it can become annoying.

Northern Mockingbirds are well known night callers, especially if there is a full moon. Enthusiastic mockingbirds can stay up ALL night, mimicking every bird song in the book as well as other sounds such bells, whistles, and sirens. These are birds that can try the patience of the most committed bird-lover!

If the call is coming from a wetland, it is probably one of the two night-herons, the Black-crowned or Yellow-crowned. They make squawks and cackles, and sometimes scary noises that will wake the heaviest sleeper.

Owls make another kind of noise in the night, which can range from the hooting of great horned owls to the whinnyings of screech-owls.

All of these birds are protected by state and federal laws, and nothing can or should be done to disturb them, not matter how annoying they are. The best solution is to either enjoy them, or to put plugs in your ears.

This advice may not help you get through the day at work..  but most of us prefer to think of those late night sounds as the glorious sound of spring.

Are you hearing your local birds’ and their squawks, chirps or cackles in the night?

We always love to hear your stories!

To listen to these bird calls and many others, please visit the Birding Audio feature. »

And be sure to use the Local Guides to find out which birds are in your neighborhood »