Meeting Minutes of May 2012 Cayuga Bird Club

The Cayuga Bird Club held its last meeting for the year on May 14. President Linda Orkin welcomed everyone and thanked Mary Patterson and Erica Evans for providing refreshments. Linda will bring cookies to the first meeting in September. She announced the dish-to-pass picnic on June 11 at Meyers Point in Lansing and invited all to attend. There were two bird walks over the previous weekend. Paul Anderson led a group on Saturday morning, May 12, and gave a brief report, followed by Susan Danskin’s report of her May 13 trip to Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve on Sunday.

Upcoming field trips were announced. On May 19 Carl Steckler will lead a trip to Dorothy McIlroy preserve, and May 20 Laura Stenzler will lead a trip to the Park Preserve. In addition, on June 2, Bill Baker will lead a trip to the Lindsay-Parsons Biodiversity Preserve.

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Mark Chao will lead 4 trips to different Finger Lakes Land Trust preserves. Information about all of these are on our website and also can be viewed at the Finger Lakes Land Trust website, fllt.org. A short informational discussion ensued about Mark Chao’s fundraising efforts for the FLLT, followed by a proposal to approve a club donation in support of his efforts in the amount of $100. Susan Danskin made the motion, which was seconded and approved.

Our September meeting will be on the 10th. The speaker will be Sahas Barve, a graduate student with Andre Dhondt. He will be talking about birds of India. Thanks were extended to Laura Stenzler and Bob McGuire for the wonderful slate of speakers we have heard this year. A brief overview of presentations included travels to Australia, Romania, and the Sonoran Desert and references to what we have learned, including bird evolution, anatomy, current research on gull reproduction, and different breeding strategies of petrels. We all virtually soared with California Condors in hearing about their release program and its successes and challenges.

Equally big thanks were extended to all our wonderful trip leaders and the great birds and places they have shown us. Their generous donation of time, knowledge, enthusiasm, and love for birds is so appreciated by all of us and is truly a contribution that makes the world a better place.

Linda announced first Celebrate the Lake event to be held on Tuesday, July 17, hosted by the Finger Lakes Land Trust. She suggested that the Cayuga Bird Club participate in this and asked for volunteers to set up an attractive booth highlighting our club and also asked for some volunteers to lead a couple of bird walks.

Mention was made of the 65th annual meeting of the New York State Ornithological Association, which will be held on September 29 in Owego. It is a one-day affair this year rather than the normal three-day event. Information and registration materials for this can be found at the NYSOA website, and everyone is encouraged to attend.

This announcement led to a discussion about the possibility of the Cayuga Bird Club’s possible hosting of this annual meeting in the future. It was decided that the Executive Committee of Officers and Directors would meet over the summer to come up with some concrete details that will then be presented to the general club membership, at which time we will determine if there is enough interest and willingness to participate so that we can move forward with this.

A brief discussion of the Renwick Wildwoods at Stewart Park followed. Jane Graves gave a brief update on the name confusion and will continue researching the seeming nonofficial and inaccurate name change to Fuertes Sanctuary. Rick Manning has approached Linda Orkin with some ideas for club participation in Stewart Park improvements. We will hear more about this in the future.

Linda read through Cayuga Basin Checklist.

Marie Read introduced the evening’s speaker, John Cancalosi, praising both his skills as a photographer and his significant work in conservation. We then sat back to enjoy a multimedia, multi-species presentation set in the amazing Sonoran Desert.

Next meeting: Monday, September 10, 2012, 7:30PM