January Meeting Minutes

Cayuga Bird Club

Ithaca, New York

Minutes - Membership Meeting

January 14, 2019

Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by Diane Morton.

Cookies - Thank you to Beth Lalonde and Colleen Richards.

Plentiful and Delicious!

Minutes- Accepted

New members and visitors welcomed.

Christmas Bird Count

Windy day, but many participants this year (159). 

Both species numbers and total birds were down this year relative to last year. Paul Anderson reported the highlights from this year. Approximately 20,000 birds were counted.

Dish to pass count compilation supper was great as usual - thanks to Donna Scott for organizing. 

Still looking for the someone to claim a left over dish and spoon.

Field Trip Reports:

Dec 16- Josh Snodgrass led an afternoon trip on west side of Lake:  Gyrfalcon, 2 Snowy Owls near Finger Lakes regional airport, 4 Short-eared owls at dusk

Jan 13-  Bob McGuire led an all-day trip around the lake - Cold! Glaucous Gill at Stewart Park, Tufted Duck at East Shore Park, White-winged scoters, Green-winged Teal, Swans, Savannah Sparrow were seen on the trip.

Upcoming Field Trips:

This Sunday, Jan 20- 1/2 day trip for winter birds w/ Diane Morton & Ken Kemphues,. Meet at 8:00 am on the East end of Stewart Park.

Look for lake birds and winter field birds such as Horned Larks. Beginner birders welcome.

BUT- keep ears open for weather forecast!  If necessary, will cancel on Saturday- see the club web calendar. 

Feb 10-  All day trip around the Lake with Bob McGuire- Meet at 8:00 AM at Stewart Park, east end.

Update on plans to sell items donated by Richard Tkachuck

Richard Tkachuck, long-time Cayuga Bird Club member and former newsletter editor, has donated quite a few bird-related items for the club to sell as a fundraiser. Our committee for this sale has created a spreadsheet of all the offerings; you can all view them on our website, cayugabirdclub.org. We’ll sell these items through eBay. Everything will be available for sale to club members and the public, but for local pickup only. Everything is stored at Diane Morton’s house in the city of Ithaca. We’ll arrange to have the sold items picked up there or at a bird club meeting. 

Recent News about the shooting of a Bald Eagle in the town of Caroline- Bob McGuire.

On January 20, Bob is hoping to have people at the court with him to show the judge that there is serious concern against shooting wild birds. No need to speak, just be present. He will post information on the CBC website and CBC Facebook website with details and information if the court date is changed.

Next Bird Club Meeting, Monday February 11: Ian Davies, eBird project coordinator, will speak to us about the next NY Breeding Bird Atlas for 2020 and how we can use eBird for inputting bird census data for it.

Phil McNeil and Diane Morton have begun planning an eBird workshop for Saturday, February 23. We haven’t worked out the details for that yet, but will put something in the February newsletter. The workshop will be primarily about using the eBird mobile app on a smart phone, but we also hope to discuss using the  eBird.org  website as well. Stay tuned.

The list of birds identified in the Cayuga Lake Basin in the past week was read by Bob Horn. 104 species were recorded.

(We are now linking this list to the meeting minutes that are posted on our website).

Introduced Kevin McGowan.

It’s Share Your Photos Night! 25 participants shared their bird photos.

Meeting adjourned at 9:30pm.