March Meeting Minutes

Cayuga Bird Club, March 12, 2018

President Wes Blauvelt called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm. He asked whether any visitors would like to introduce themselves.  First time new member Louise Patterson and visitor Alistair VanKeern of the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club responded. 

Wes thanked the cookie providers: Sarah Blodgett, Lee Ann van Leer, and Ann Mitchell, and passed a sign-up sheet for cookies for April, May and September. 

A motion to approve the February minutes was approved.

Past field trips included those led by:

Suan Yong, 2/24, around the Lake

Ken Haas, 3/4, up the west side of Cayuga Lake - 15 people attended

Bob McGuire, 3/11, around the Lake - attended by 12 people w/10 scopes! Lots of great sightings, included: Lesser Black-backed and Iceland gulls, Pipits, Eurasian Green-winged Teal, large flock of N. Pintails @ Carncross, and White-winged Scoters.

Upcoming field trips:

March and April Beginning bird walks continue on weekends  @ Sapsucker Woods.

Mar. 17, Meena Haribal will lead a trip to where the birds are....

April 8, Ann Mitchell 7 a.m. Dryden Lake

The next club meeting is April 9, when our speaker Paul Guris, founder of See Life Pelagics, pelagic birding tours, will give a presentation entitled  “Pelagic discoveries – birding the mid-Atlantic and New York waters”. 

New business was about Committees. Jody Enck has agreed to chair the Conservation Action Committee. Projects to be considered and people to be on the committee are welcome.

Chairmen are still needed for the Nominating and Membership committees.

Note: It is Jody’s birthday today; applause!

Ken Kemphues  read the list of the birds of the Cayuga Basin.

Shawn Billerman, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology did a short presentation on the birds and diversity of Madagascar flora and fauna. Then Alizé Carrère, National Geographic Explorer & Cultural Ecologist, gave her presentation, Adapt and Thrive: Creatively Living in a Climate-Changed World. From the 2 endemic avian orders to the 5 endemic avian families to the 114 endemic species of birds in an area the size of Texas, Shawn amazed us all with pictures and his knowledge of this array of unique birds. Alizé then shared with us about her time in Madagascar and the issues and challenges of deforestation in the central highlands. She compared the structural and behavioral changes that are needed there with several examples she has viewed in Bangladesh, Ladakh, and Vanuatu. She posed several questions for us and for herself as she embarks on further graduate studies. What is the impact of positive vs. doomday storytelling on the perception of and engagement with climate change? What is the role of hyper-local adaptive responses in preparing for the future? How do we teach about a high-stakes problem in a low-stakes environment?

Rather than ask a new generation to clean up after the big party of older generations, perhaps we should ask,

                “How do we throw a better party?”

Respectfully submitted,

Colleen Richards, 

Acting Recording Secretary