October Meeting Minutes

Cayuga Bird Club minutes  - October 12, 2015 

President Paul Anderson called the meeting to order at 7:30. Jody Enck and Paul Anderson provided cookies for the meeting.

Returning member Lynn Leopold was greeted and some stories of recent bird sightings were recalled.

The next meeting of the bird Club will be Nov. 9 - Marie Read will present a recounting of her photographs and adventures on Pribilof Island, AL.

Upcoming Monday evening seminars include:

Oct. 19  BirdReturns: How Big Data and Farmers Are Protecting the Pacific Flyway in California

  Brian Sullivan, eBird Program Leader; and Mark Reynolds, Lead Scientist, California    Migratory Bird Program, The Nature Conservancy

Nov. 2 live-streamed seminar:  The Living Bird: 100 Years of Listening to Nature

   Gerrit Vyn, Multimedia Producer, Cornell Lab of Ornithology        

Mark Chao led several field trips over the Oct. 10-12 weekend at the Freese Rd. Community gardens. On Sunday, 14 species of sparrow were found, including a single dickcissel. [There was a short discussion re: the issue of closing the community garden for 2 years and possible birding repercussions.

Meena Haribeal is our new field trip coordinator. The committee will be meeting soon and the calendar on our website should be checked for upcoming trips.

Club dues are now due. Susan Danskin, Club treasurer advised all to renew online via paypal or credit card, mail their check, or pay directly at the meeting. A budget review explanation was given: due to fiscal year division, registration collections and bill payments for the 2014 NYSOA meeting were made in separate years.        

A slate of officer candidates was pronounced:

Jody Enck             President

Wes Blauvelt            Vice-President

Becky Hansen            Recording Secretary

Colleen Richards        Corresponding Secretary

Susan Danskin        Treasurer

Paul Anderson        Director

A motion was made by Carl Steckler to accept the slate of candidates. Seconded by Chris Pelkie.

A motion was made by Lynn Leopold to close nominations. Seconded by Marie Read. The vote was held and the slate was elected.

Jane Graves came forward to do the Reading of the List.

Our speaker for the evening, Bill Evans, was introduced and gave his presentation, “The impact of wind energy on birds in our region: fact versus fiction”. Bill began and ended his talk with his strong opinion that we may not like the idea of wind turbines that kill birds, but we also may not like the options of not using wind turbines vs. other non-renewable energy sources. The importance of striving to minimize wind energy’s impact upon migratory birds has been a driving force in his consultation work here in New York state as well as in various case studies for wind turbine placement in neighboring Canada.