January 2024 Meeting Minutes

15 January 2024 Cayuga Bird Club Meeting Minutes

7:30 P.M. via Zoom

Call to order

50 participants in all on the Zoom call.

Stephanie Herrick welcomed everyone to the "Share Your Photos" night meeting.

Started with a brief business meeting.

Asked if there are any corrections offered for last month’s meeting minutes (December)?

No changes noted. Last month’s meeting minutes were approved as written.

Just a reminder, everyone can access the meeting minutes on the cayugabirdclub.org Home Page via the “See Meetings and Speakers Page” link.

Next Meeting

Monday, February 12th (second Monday of the month)

Zoom-only (club calendar will post registration link)

Presentation: "Clear and Present Danger of Bird-Window Collisions"

Speaker: Luke DeGroote

Collisions with windows cause millions of bird fatalities every year. But now there’s new hope for birds thanks to scientists at Powdermill Nature Reserve. Listen to Luke DeGroote share his findings from testing bird’s perception of patterned glass in a flight tunnel to collision monitoring in downtown Pittsburgh. Before the end, you’ll learn how to make your own windows safer for birds.

Help Wanted

NYSOA 2025 CBC Conference Host?

Even though COVID threw things off a bit it's around the 10-year mark when CBC typically hosts.

We are looking for planning committee volunteers! The team will propose date, venue, budget, and more.

Contact Stephanie (sph1@cornell.edu)

Upcoming Field Trip

Saturday, January 20th 8:00 A.M - 12:00 P.M. led by Suan Yong

Meet at Stewart Park

(1st parking lot on right), and from there we will carpool to various winter birding sites.

Miscellaneous

A big thank you to Ken Haas for leading last month's meeting and to Paul Anderson for compiling the Christmas Bird Count data and presenting it at the compilation dinner. Stephanie apologized for not getting the compilation presentation recorded but expects to do so next year. Paul added that we broke a tremendous number of records - We had a total of 97 species on the day and a record-breaking 107 for the week (previous record was 104 in 2008.) We also had 24 species with record high counts (or ties).

SOSK will be held at Kendal at Ithaca this year, on N. Triphammer Rd, on Tuesday evenings, 7-9pm, for 8 weeks, beginning March 26th.

The cost for the 8 week in-person course is $125 per person, $50 for students.

We will be recording Steve Kress's lectures and posting those for later view (or reviewing), so that those enrolled who are unable to attend the in-person lectures

will be able to watch the recording at their convenience.

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The presentation

In the early days of Share Your Photos Night, Cayuga Bird Club members would bring 5 physical SLIDES to share in one meeting a year.

Sadly, that tradition paused somewhere in the 1990s, when the main contributor passed away.

Meanwhile, Kevin McGowan, who had already been super into sharing photographs, started putting digital photos on the internet in the mid 1990s, starting with scanned images.

He got his first digital camera in 2000, and with his son, Jay, innovated digiscoping immediately.

He began posting digiscoped bird photos on the web right away, mixing local rare birds with museum collections.

In early 2004 he created some web pages for the Cayuga Bird Club where people could share their bird photographs.

Right away, it was a huge hit.

From there, it seemed a natural progression and, according to old newsletters, somewhere around 2007 Kevin decided to revitalize the Cayuga Bird Club tradition of sharing bird photographs once a year.

This now-18-year-old event has been popular ever since, and Kevin is once again glad to help make it happen.

Thank you Kevin!

(1) Paul Anderson -- Storks, Corn Buntings, Red-billed Choughs, Great Blue Heron w. catfish, Chipping Sparrow

(2) Kay Burkett --  Waved Albatross, Gray-crowned Crane, Ostriches, Long-billed Wren Babbler

(3) Barbara Clise -- Northern Parula, Red Crossbill, Limpkin, Carolina Wren, Cliff Swallow

(4) Jared Dawson -- Great-winged Petrel, Indian yellow-nosed Albatross, Snowy Albatross, White-capped Albatross

(5) Tim Gallagher -- Cooper's Hawk (2), Peregrine Falcon (2), Florida Scrub Jay

(6) Ken Haas -- focused on vocalizations - Common Yellowthroat, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Terns and Gulls, American Robins, and Tree Swallows

(7) Meena Haribal - Iceland Gull, Northern Fulmar, Whooper Swans, Eurasian Wigeon, Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls

(8) Bob McGuire -- Eastern Screech Owl, Purple Sandpiper, Long-tailed Duck, Hooded Merganser, 2 Harlequin Ducks

(9) Kevin Murphy -- Southern Double-collared Sunbird, African Penguins, Southern Ground Hornbill, Lilac-breasted Roller, Pearl-spotted Owlet, Verreaux's Giant Eagle Owl

(10) Sandy Podulka -- Osprey with three fish, Reddish Egret (2), Red-throated Loon, Gannets diving

(11) Ton Schat -- White-necked Jacobin, Long-billed Hermit, Violet-crowned Wood Nymph, Honeycreepers (2)

(12) Tom Shepard -- Prairie Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Northern Parula, Swainson's Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler

(13) Tracy McClellan, presented by Kevin McGowan (who discussed Upucerthia  genus) -- Buff-breasted Earthcreeper, Yellow-striped Brush Finch, Ovenbird family, Tit Tyrant, Black Siskin

Discussion ensued about Red-winged Blackbird feeding behavior by Kevin, Meena spotting about 30 chickadees in pine trees, the increase in numbers of Turkey Vultures here ranging from only 1 counted in 2004 to 59 in 2015, and this year the number was 43. Donna mentioned that she had seen about 123 Wild Turkeys likely eating barley seeds in a field on Algerine Road.

Meeting closed at 8:46.