November 2023 Meeting Minutes

Cayuga Bird Club
Meeting Minutes
Foundation of Light
11/13/23
7:30pm

Reading of the List

• by Stephanie, after welcoming newcomers & explaining the list

Call to Order

• Prior Month’s Meeting Minutes approved

Cookies

• TY to Ken Kemphues for cookies!

Next Month’s meeting

• Monday, December 11th
  (2nd Monday of the month)
  @ Foundation of Light

• Presentation: Madagascar: Birds, lemurs, chameleons, and other amazing critters
  Speaker: Ton Schat, Cayuga Bird Club member, traveler, photographer

Recent Field Trips

• Nov 4th – Steve Kress provided highlights of Trip Around Cayuga Lake &MNWR

• Nov 11th – a report by Wes Blauvelt of Franklin Mountain Hawkwatch field trip was reported by Stephanie

Upcoming Field Trips

November

·         Sat, 11/18 - Loon Watch
Jared Dawson & Stephanie Herrick: Taughannock Falls State Park, North Point.
Check CBC website for possible cancellation/postponement

December

·         Saturday or Sunday, December 2nd or 3rd. Niagara Falls (leader TBD) basically a gull & duck trip

·         Sat, Dec 9 – Evening Owl Watch (Wes Blauvelt, location west side of lake, looking for short-eared owls

Beginner Bird Watch Reminder!

·         November-March: 9:30am start

Youth Birding

·         Saturday Nov 18, 9am-11:30am

Cornell Raptor Program, CCETC, 615 Willow Ave

·         Saturday Dec 2, 9am-11:30am
Local birding & bird games, CCETC, Willow Ave

Motus Update by Diane Morton

·         CBC members monitor our two towers (Myers’s Point & Mt Pleasant) to detect radio-tagged migratory birds

·         Swainson’s Thrush was tagged in Costa Rica 3/2023, then pinged flying over Guatemala, then Texas.

·         October 16 it was pinged in Virginia then October 23 at Myers’s Point!

·         Areas between apparently don’t have Motus towers.

Conservation Action Committee

·         Reminder: more participants are needed for the Belize & Guatemala tripor it is in risk of being canceled.

(03/30-04/07/24)
http://holbrook.travel/cayuga-bzgt24

·         Thank you, Anne Stork and her 20 Ithaca College Conservation Biology class of students for participating in October Renwick Woods andLighthouse Point habitat improvement

·         Movement on the Grasslands Initiative

o   w/ FLLT to assist with monitoring protocols regarding mowing.

o   Donna Scott expressed her concern about trees being cut down at old Cedar View golf course (ownership passing to NYS)

·         Questions? Contact Jody Enck jodyenck@gmail.com

Christmas Bird Count 2023

·         will mark Audubon's 124th year and CBC’s 62nd year of participation

·         Count Day: Mon, 01/01/2024

·         Reading Day at Foundation of Light: Tues, 01/02/202

·         6pm dish-to-pass followed by 7pm count reading & presentation by Paul Anderson

·         See our Christmas Bird Count page @https://sites.google.com/site/cbc14850/resources/christmas-bird-count for how to get involved!

Miscellaneous

·         It’s blaze-orange season!

·         MNWR Wildlife Drive closes end of November

·         Request from Laura Stenzler for volunteers to arrive by 7pm to set up chairs for monthly meetings while we meet at Foundation of Light. Those able will help put chairs away afterwards.

Tonight’s presentation: Desert Hopping for Birds & Wildlife, by Meena Haribal,

featuring most excellent photography of birds and wildlife of Ladakh region of

India.

·         Tonight’s presentation began at 7:45 & ended at 9:05 so there was no time for group Q&A.

·         Interested members stayed afterwards to ask Meena questions