November Meeting Minutes

Cayuga Bird Club, November 13, 2017

President Wes Blauvelt called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm.  He thanked Liisa Mobley and Ken Kemphues for bringing cookies.  Ann Mitchell and Sara Jane Hymes will bring them in December.

Wes recognized Jody Enck for his work as president for the past two years and presented him with a gift envelope. The minutes for the October meeting were approved by club vote.

Gladys Birdsall reported on the trip she led to Montezuma on Oct. 21.

Ann Mitchell reported on the trip that Gary Kohlenberg led to the Franklin Mountain Hawk Watch on Oct. 28.  This trip also included a stop at Whitney Point. 

Bob McGuire and Suan Yong led an owling trip on Nov. 4 hoping to make use of Suan’s infrared camera.  Great Horned Owls were heard but not seen at Dodge Road; no other owls were found. The group also went to John Confer’s Saw-whet Owl banding site where they got to see an owl banded and released. 

Wes Blauvelt led the loon watch at Taughannock State Park on Nov. 11.

Upcoming birding trips:

There are beginning bird walks every Saturday and Sunday morning at the Lab of Ornithology at 8:30.

Ann Mitchell will lead a trip to look for Short-eared Owls on Dec. 17.

The DEC raptor survey starts in December.  The base of operations is the Trumansburg library.  For more information see Wes Blauvelt.

The Christmas Bird Count will be on Jan. 1 as usual.  Wes will contact the area leaders.

Membership dues are due now.  Please see treasurer Susan Danskin.

Jody Enck reported on his participation in the Partners in Flight symposium held in Costa Rica on Nov. 3.  There were six presentations.  Jody’s was about the Sister Bird Network which he has started to foster relationships with bird clubs particularly between the Americas but also throughout the world.

Jody also talked about the upcoming international bird trips available to the club: to Honduras in January and to Costa Rica in April.

He would also like to discuss the possibility of having the Cayuga Bird Club be the temporary home for the Sister Bird Network.  More information will follow.

Diane Traina gave a report about the NYSOA meeting in Buffalo which she and Kevin McGowan attended as representatives for the club. There were many talks, papers, and field trips. She said that there was discussion about the updating of the Breeding Bird Atlas which is done every 10 years. The next meeting will be in Oct of 2018 in Rochester.

Donna Scott will be selling her sister’s miniature bird collection at Lifelong on Court St in Ithaca on Nov. 17 and 18 to benefit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Donna Scott read the list of the birds of the Cayuga Basin.

The speaker for the evening was Dr. Emma Greig. Her talk was “Stories from Project FeederWatch: what we have learned from 30 years of counting birds”.

Respectfully submitted,

Becky Hansen, Recording Secretary