October Meeting Minutes

Cayuga Bird Club Meeting/Webinar  October 12, 2020 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm  

For all club information, check out cayugabirdclub.org.  Tonight’s speaker 7:30 pm: Muhammad Arif, Birds of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge  

Next ones: November 9 with speaker Sara Kaiser December 14 with speaker Melissa Groo January 11 with speaker Kevin McGowan  

8:40 pm Annual Club Update by President Diane Morton 
Interpretive Panel for Fuertes Overlook Jane Graves and Dave Nutter will work on panel design for Sign at Fuertes Overlook in Stewart Park. 
Lighthouse Point Habitat Restoration Native treses and shrubs planted Other groups involved in habitat improvement.
CBC Motus station at Myers Park Nightjar was spotted detected here 8/21/20 and later was detected in Florida  Blackpoll Warbler that had been tagged at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory in September detected by our station 10/7/20 
Purple Martin house at Stewart Park Purple Martins nested here this year. It has been taken down for winter and will be put back up in spring

2019 Richard B. Fisher Environmental Conservation Award Awarded to CBC by the Town of Ithaca Conservation Board on September 20, 2020 for conservation work in the community, particularly habitat restoration at Lighthouse Point. A tree planting ceremony was held at Salem park and 12 young Serviceberry trees were planted.  

25 field trips between September 1, 2019 and March 15, 2020. Since then Covid-19 restrictions have prevented group activities. Hopefully COVID situation will subside so we can continue many of our bird walks.  

First CBC course was offered last spring with Steve Kress lecturing. It had to be adapted to zoom and had 75 participants. If you are interested in taking this course next spring, let us know.  

CBC Membership with 232 members, higher than ever  CBC Facebook membership 772 members  Christmas Bird Count had 154 participants  

Time to join or renew the your club membership Only $15/year  You can pay with Paypal on bird club website above or mailed to: Cayuga Bird Club c/o Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca NY 14850  

New officers introduced Motion to approve slate of officers made and seconded. Vote by Zoom polling was unanimously in favor.  President: Suan Yong Vice President: Josh Snodgrass Treasurer: Ken Kemphues Corresponding Secretary: Colleen Richards Recording Secretary: Poppy Singer Director: Diane Morton  

New committee chair for newsletter will be Jill Leichter Contact her (her email is on website) if you have contributions  

Announcements: November 9 CBC meeting with speaker Sara Kaiser on birds of the mountains of Borneo, “The Social Lives of Bornean Babblers” 
October Big Day is October 17 Submit your sightings on that day to eBird Zoom webinar October 16 at noon for instructions on how to participate (info on Facebook page) 
Let us know if you are doing creative things related to birds For instance: Lament of the Whippoorwill, poems by Jim Burkett 
Chat time...