November 2024 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of Cayuga Bird Club Monthly Meeting

November 11, 2024 

Cornell Lab of Ornithology 

Attendance: 54

Welcome & Reading of the List, by president Stephanie Herrick

Call to Order and welcome to members and guests, grateful for everyone’s attendance and glad to be back meeting at the Lab. 

Four first timers attended and introduced themselves:

1.Sandra Marraffino moved here in April & is a lifelong birder.

2. Peggy Hurley of Spencer is glad to see those with whom she volunteers with BBW & KDT. 

3. Juan de Dios Morales, from Guayaquil, Ecuador, presently working at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

4. Fred Leff, our guest speaker.

Last month’s meeting minutes were approved as written. As a reminder, anyone can access the meeting minutes from the cayugabirdclub.org Home Page 

via the “See Meetings and Speakers Page” link.

Cookies!

No one signed up to bake cookies for tonight, so thank Danny Wegman for our cookies. 

Please sign up to bring cookies for future meetings, otherwise they’ll be store bought.

 Next Meeting

12/9 at CLO Visitor Center Auditorium
Presenter: Alyssa Sargent
PhD candidate, University of Washington, Behavioral Ecophysics

Topic: Hitchhiking on Hummingbirds Using Tiny Tech

Special Topic!

Juan de Dios-Morales, Cornell Lab of Ornithology employee & Panama Bird Cam team member, thanked Jill for inviting him to speak to us briefly tonight. He gave a mini-sneak-peek on a project that he is involved with. This will likely be something that will be documented as a project proposal, and given the club’s recent international trips to various South and Central American countries, may be of interest to individuals who want to find a unique way to contribute to youth and to nature. His Book of Birds is a fundraiser to support Wild GYE Initiative, an educational project in his hometown of Guayaquil (GYE), Ecuador. 

For every $45 book purchased, another will be donated to the children in this program. Note: book is in Spanish. Contact Jill Leichter to purchase a book.

Recent CBC Field Trips:

First, an update from Steve Kress on his 11/02 around Cayuga Lake and the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge trip: it was cold with 20 mph winds. We started at Stewart Park and headed up east. Flocks of Dunlin, 250 brant, scoters, loons & gulls were observed. At MNWR, the area behind the visitor center was completely dry. Along the drive were ring-necks, bald eagles, a sandhill crane pair with their young, and perhaps 10K redheads.

Sunday, November 3, 2024:
Stephanie reported on the annual Loon Watch at Taughannock Falls State Park:

 It was the most beautiful morning, sunny, mild and calm. We had more watchers (one traveling all the way from the Rochester area) than we had loons over the course of the day! Still, the loons we did see were mostly low and easy to see, the companionship of the watchers was enjoyable,
the double-chocolate chip cookies provided by Jane Bain were scrumptious, and we had 20 species on our ebird list to keep us engaged, including one of a pair of very cooperative and photogenic peregrines who perched in a nearby tree, preening and sunbathing in the dawn light.

Trip up the East Side of Cayuga Lake, Saturday, November 9, 2024, led by Bob McGuire who gave this summary: 15 birders participated. On the way to MNWR via Salt Point, horned larks and a few loons were observed. Behind the Visitor’s Center were 50 Sandhill Cranes. Along the wildlife drive were dowitchers and literally thousands of ducks. At Knox-Marcellus there were around 200 Sandhill cranes! 

Upcoming Field Trips – Beginner Bird Walks (BBW)

Currently we do not have other trips scheduled except for our

Beginner Bird Walks every Saturday and Sunday at SSW

We have continued to have large, lively and varied attendance at the BBWs, so if you are having field trip cravings, please join us!

 Youth Birding

 • Sat, Nov 23 (9-11:30) – Local trip

• Sun, Dec 15 (9-11:30) – Birdhouses 

see https://cayugabirdclub.org/youth

Our Youth Birders have a couple activities planned later this month and in December.

In November, youth will be going on a local trip, like the Lab of O, Stewart Park, or Myers. This depends on weather and “where the birds are” at the time. 

In December the group will be making birdhouses!

The group meets at 9:00 am at the CCETC (Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County) on Willow Ave to start each session.  Youth should bring clothes for the weather, a filled water bottle and field guides/binoculars if they wish. 

Club leaders will also have binoculars for everyone to borrow if needed.

Conservation Action Committee

International Field Trip fundraiser reminder!
(in collaboration with Holbrook Travel)

Peru: July 2025

• Main Peru trip 

• July 15-23, 2025

• see holbrook.travel/cayuga-peru25

• Optional Extension (Machu Pichu)

• July 23-26, 2025 holbrook.travel/cayuga-peruext25

The Cayuga Bird Club’s Conservation Action Committee, in collaboration with Holbrook Travel, has organized not one, but two international fundraising trips in 2025.  

Last month I mentioned the Peru trip in July 2025 with a 

• Main Peru trip to explore the Peruvian desert, Huaca Pucllana ruins, 

and the Peruvian Amazon, as well as an  

• Optional Machu Pichu extension

Two spots are available for the Cuba trip in April to explore western birding hotspots to study island endemism and biodiversity.

These trips build not only life-lists, but life-stories and friendships!  See the Field Trips page on the club’s website for links to each trip for more info.

 NYSOA 2025

Less than a year to go till the 2025 Cayuga-bird-club-hosted NYSOA annual business meeting and conference.  

Diane Morton asked for more club members to join the current 8 volunteers to help with fundraising. Please contact her for more information.

Christmas Bird Count 2024

Count Day: ​Wednesday, 01/01/2025

Reading Day: ​Friday, 01/03/2025

​​Foundation of Light

​​6:00 pm dish-to-pass

​​7:00 pm count reading

Seeking a new Area Coordinator!

This year marks the NAS’s 125th CBC and the CBC’s 63rd consecutive year
with our club’s count day on Wednesday, January 1st.

We will also hold an in person dish-to-pass dinner prior to the reading of the counts,

but this year we will be holding the Reading two days later on Friday, January 3 at the Foundation of Light.  

Also, Josh Snodgrass is stepping down as Area Coordinator and Stephanie would really appreciate not having to be Area Coordinator this year. So anyone interested in learning more about what the Area Coordinator does here for the Cayuga Bird Club, please contact Stephanie. 

Birds of a Feather: Announcements or news from the floor: 

VP Kevin Murphy made a plea for members to complete the CBC survey either by filling in a hard copy tonight or on CBC website, under newsletter. 

Ann Mitchell shared a recent hotspot for loons, Sheldrake Point. 

Tonight’s Presentation

Everything you ever wanted to know about Sandhill Cranes (but were afraid to ask)

Speaker – Fred Leff

NY Audubon Environmental Educator for Seneca Meadows  

Fred Leff is the NY Audubon Environmental Educator for Seneca Meadows.  Fred went to Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska, where hundreds of thousands (maybe even up to a million) of Sandhill Cranes migrate through every March through very early April.  He discussed some of the biology of Sandhill Cranes, their migration patterns, why the area around Rowe Sanctuary is perfect for Sandhill Cranes in migration, and conservation efforts that are done to keep the cranes returning every year. 

Meeting was recorded & ended at 8:50 after Q&A