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Letters to the Editor

Submissions reflect readers’ opinions and may be edited for length and clarity. Email Magazine@mdc.mo.gov or write to us:

Missouri Conservationist
PO Box 180
Jefferson City, MO 65102

Ovenbird Nest

In your Wild Guide [July, Page 32] article on the ovenbird, it would have been nice to include a picture of their nests. They do have an unusual nest that looks like an outdoor oven, thus the reason for their name.

Larry Brunner, St. Charles

Path Less Paddled

Thank you for the article The Path Less Paddled [July, Page 10] and the beautiful photographs of just a few of the wonderful streams we have in Missouri.

Sadly, the water quality in many of our streams and the habitat for the aquatic life in them are threatened by trash, pesticides, chemical runoffs, and a number of other senseless abuses. As so eloquently stated by the late Missouri conservationist Leonard Hall in his 1958 book Stars Upstream, “wilderness is a resource which can shrink but never grow. The pressure increases daily on these resources.” Hall firmly believed that we are stewards of the land with the responsibility to preserve it from that juggernaut called progress, “which takes no account of natural values.”

Dudley McCarter, Creve Coeur

Vultures

Like the author, I have always had a special admiration for turkey vultures [Beyond the ‘Ugly,’ August, Page 16]. Way back in the spring of 1954 when I was 12, I found three eggs under an overhanging ledge deep in the woods. When I went back days later, a turkey vulture flew from there and I found three snow white turkey vultures, cute as could be.

I went back every chance I got and as they were getting their feathers, the “cute” was wearing off. The last time I went there, they vomited everything up, which I believe was their way of making sure I didn’t get too close as it smelled terrible.

However, looking back, I still have many fond memories of those little white turkey vultures and the year I watched them.

Thomas Thurman, via email

What a great article in the August edition of the Missouri Conservationist. Vultures are a great species of the raptor family. Last year we saw a group of five flying over the house. What an experience. One year we saw two fighting over a piece of prey right across the street. Amazing and beautiful creatures!

Larry and Barbara Biondo, via email

Clarification

In July’s Nature Lab [Page 4] on karst fen surveys, the statement was made that the “karst fen soils will become the first organic soils to be formally described in Missouri.” Since then, we’ve learned that in the early 1980s another organic soil type was described for a small area in Stoddard County. Karst fen soils, however, are the first organic soils to be formally described for the Ozark ecoregion of Missouri.