December 2022 Meeting Minutes
Cayuga Bird Club
Monthly Meeting
12 December 2022
7:30-9:00 pm
Lab of Ornithology
Are there any corrections for last month’s meeting minutes?
Minutes approved as written.
Just a reminder, everyone can access the meeting minutes on the club website Home Page
via the “See Meetings and Speakers Page” link.
Welcome to our guests and new members.
3 new folks introduced themselves!
Stephanie Herrick made the cookies tonight and hopes everyone enjoyed them!
Please put your name on the sign up sheet for future months at Lab meetings, or… no cookies!
Please look at the list on your way and make sure we have cookies for January (Christmas Bird Count) and February.
Our next regular club meeting is scheduled for January 9th (2nd Monday of the month)
The presentation is our annual Share Your Photos Night, Hosted by Kevin McGowan
It will be Zoom-only (so no cookies needed for this one)
see club calendar for registration link & instructions for sending photos
Members send photos only (max 5), by Jan 4th to kjm2@cornell.edu
Christmas Bird Count 2022
(which actually rings in during the 2023 new year)
Count Day: Sun, Jan 1st
Reading Day: The next day, Mon, Jan 2nd 7:30-9:00 p.m. (doors open @ 7)
It will by a hybrid event: In person @ Lab of O and via Zoom for those who prefer
(see club calendar for registration link)
After the November newsletter was published, Randy Scott Little contacted Stephanie to say:
“My first introduction to the club was around 1950 when Doc Allen led the Saturday morning bird walks in May at Renwick Woods/Stewart Park…
Around 1960, at the urging of Dorothy McIlroy, I formed the first formal Ithaca Christmas Bird Count, which I compiled for several years until moving to Ohio –and even then returned to visit family and participate in the count.”
If you go to the Macaulay Library website, under News and search for Randolph Scott Little, you will find a “Recordist of Note” article and can learn more about him.
Stephanie encourages everyone to check out the Christmas Bird Count event and build some lasting memories for ourselves!
Club Newsletter -January Email Suan Yongsuan.yong@gmail.com
Jill is still away, so if you have updates for the January newsletter, please send them to Suan, who, while
also traveling, is still graciously coordinating the first new year’s edition for Jill.
Young Birder Program
Recent: Sunday, Dec 11
Ithaca Farmers Market
Upcoming: TBA
cayugabirdclub.org/youth
Beth Bannister spoke:
Update on the Youth Birder Program
13 youth officially have signed up, many with family members
Each day 7-12 people and 2-3 bird club members along with Beth.
Lots of learning is happening!
More programming will be planned.
Spring Ornithology with Steve Kress
It’s not too soon to start thinking about another annual event that builds lasting memories, the upcoming Spring Ornithology program with Steve Kress! (SOSK)
SOSK will be held at Kendal at Ithaca this year, on N Triphammer Rd, on Wednesday evenings, 7-9pm, for 8 weeks, beginning March 29.
We will also be recording Steve’s lectures and posting those for later view (or reviewing).
Those enrolled who are unable to attend the in-person lectures will be able to watch the recording
at their convenience.
The cost for the 8 week in-person course is $125 per person.
This makes a GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT even if it’s to yourself!
And thanks to the SOSK team, registration is now open and online at www.cayugabirdclub.org/spring-
ornithology.
Steve said a few things about his class:
Steve: This class is fun and we try to keep it fun and interesting! We pair each week’s topics with birds that are coming through the area that week.
Conservation Action Committee Looking for…
Jody Spoke:
1. Folks to “adopt-a-plot” in Renwick and Lighthouse Point Woods. Monitor and take out non -natives.
2.Individuals to help design school bird feeder and habitat garden
3.People interested in assembling community-based grant for:Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program (www.nfwf.org/fivestar)o~ $1.6M is available nationwide for projects meeting program priorities. Awards range from $25,000 to $50,000 with an average size of $40,000! 40-50 grants awarded per year. Grants should span 12 to 18 months with a start date in late summer/early fall 2023. Participating partners include:U.S. EPAFiveStarRestoration Training Program,Urban Waters Federal Partnership, U.S. EPA and U.S.D.A. Forest Service,U.S. FWS Urban Programs (including the UBT Program),Southern CompanyFiveStarRestoration Program, and FedExoFull proposal due 1/31/23 Applicant webinar 12/8/22, 2-3:15 EST
See Jody about interest in one or all of these.
We have a new MOTUS update to close out the year! Diane, would you like to tell us a bit about the
latest detection? MOTUS Update from Diane Morton
Our motus station at Myers point detected a Swainson’s Thrush at 11:45 pm on October 14, on its way to Costa Rica! The bird had been tagged in Montreal in August, and remained in that area until October 12, when it began heading south. After passing by Myers Point, it was subsequently detected by four Motus
stations in Pennsylvania October 16-21 and then in northwest Georgia on November 1. The most recent detection of this thrush was in the Veragua Rainforest of Costa Rica, on November 13 —by the same Motus tower in Costa Rica that last fall detected a Tennessee Warbler that had passed by our Myers Point station!
This is the fourth Swainson’s Thrush to have been detected by our station at Myers Point during a fall migration. One last fall was detected in Panama a month after being detected at Myers Point. MOTUS is not an acronym, but Latin for movement or motion.
Field Trips (Recent)
12/04: Diane Morton & Ken Kemphues –South End of Cayuga Lake
11/19: Jared Dawson –Loon Watch
12/10: Wes Blauvelt –Short-eared Owls and Evening Raptors
Check the website calendar @ cayugabirdclub.org/calendar
Diane and Ken highlight:
A surprise at East Shore Park a young male Harlequin duck
Stephanie reported on the Loon Watch
12 birders counted 165 loons in the “1st wave” (hr)… that was the weekend of the heavy lake effect snowstorms that dumped over 6 feet of snow near Buffalo. Our speculation is that the second wave never left lake Ontario as the snow was still sweeping the lake, keeping them down on the lake.
Wes led a Winter Raptor trip out into the Fingerlakes National Forest and reported back:
15 Birders participated.
Taughannock Overlook: Turkey Vulture, Peregrine Falcon near visitors building
Fingerlakes National Forest: On the way, Raptors, Red Tail Hawk. When we arrived at the grassland area, there were 5 Northern Harriers, male and female. Short-eared Owl flying and dropping to the ground.
There was also one small, unofficial field trip announced by Carl Steckler on the Cayugabirdclub listserv to Conowingo Dam; a dam in Maryland on the Susquehanna north of where it feeds into the Chesapeake Bay – not a CBC-organized trip, but we had some CBC members go…
Jane gave highlights: We saw a total of 8 Bald Eagles near and many in the distance. Cormorants, Black and TurkeyVultures.
Currently there are no scheduled field trips on the calendar for the new year, but that is sure to change, so keep an eye on the calendar!
Reading of the List
Long tradition of the Cayuga Bird Club
Species observed in the Cayuga Lake Basin in the last week (since last Tuesday)
Tonight’s reader: Wes Blauvelt… added the new species of Harlequin Duck to the list
John Confer noted a recent non-avian new species at his home on Hammond Hill attracted to the rats who had raided his birdfood storage: a bobcat!
Tonight’s Presentation:
The revolution is here: technology and the future of bird watching and citizen science
Speaker: Professor Ian Owens
Executive Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/staff/ian-owens/
Professor Ian Owens is an ornithologist interested in the ecology, evolution and conservation
of birds, and using the power of birds to engage the public with big questions in science and global sustainability.
The central question of his research is, what are the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that drive biological diversification? He tackles this question at both the macro- and microevolutionary scales, using a combination of field experiments, plus genetic, phylogenetic and spatial analyses.
Almost all of his work is based on birds because of the unrivaled depth of information on the ecology, behavior, systematics and geographical distribution of bird species, as well as the ability to manipulate
genetic pedigrees, observe behavior and monitor individual reproduction and mortality in free-living bird
populations.
So please join now in a warm welcome for tonight’s speaker, Professor Ian Owens.