November 2025 Meeting Minutes

Cayuga Bird Club Monthly Meeting, Monday, November 10, 2025 at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Auditorium 

Reading of the List by Stephanie Herrick

Call to Order by club president Tracey McLellan 

• 4 first-time attendees raised their hands 

• October minutes approved by Ann Mitchell, seconded by Jill Leichter

• Tonight’s attendance: 51

• Cookies: Many thanks tonight to our Corresponding Secretary of 19 years, Colleen Richards for tonight’s delicious cookies. We need volunteer bakers for April & May. The sign-up sheet is next to the cookies.

• Next month’s presenter is Grete Pasch-Valdés, PhD and now Graduate Student, MPS, Dept of Natural Resources, Cornell University. Her theme will be Every Bird A Connection: Conservation Work in Guatemala. 

• Membership dues are due 

• Upcoming field trips, including the 11/15 tour of the east side of Cayuga Lake with Bob McGuire & 11/16 annual loon watch are listed on the CBC website, under calendar. 

• Thursday morning 7:30 birding meet-ups initiated in April 2025 and have proved tremendously popular, adding newcomers every week. These are listed on the CBC website calendar as well as on social media and CBC Listserv. Field trips are decided at the breakfasts following each bird walk. 11/13 will be at Robinson Hollow State Park. 

• Beginner Bird Walks in Sapsucker Woods take place every Saturday and Sunday, meeting in front of the Lab of Ornithology, starting 9:30am (November-March) and 8:30am (April-October) & are led by Cayuga Bird Club volunteers. 

• Saw Whet Owl Bandings at Connecticut Hill are so popular that all the sign ups are full.

• Christmas bird count begins December 14 through January 5, but CBC count day will be January 1 and the dish to pass/compilation of the count day will be January 2 at Foundation of Light. Jared is in charge of the nine groups and also of reading the list on count day. Some participants put in many hours, even in the middle of the night while others participate for one or two hours.

• The youth birders recently observed Saw whet owl banding at Connecticut Hill. They were fascinated observing the pinkness of feathers under UV lights.

• Conservation action committee Cayuga Bird Club, in collaboration with Holbrook Travel, is going on a birding trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos: July 2026. Also, a trip to Panama is planned for January 6-16, 2027; the Panama trip is already filled and there is a wait list. Scroll down on the club’s Field Trips page for a link to the trip details. 

• Birds of a feather: David Duggan of Skaneateles died in October and donated an amazing 1916 bird guide to Cayuga Bird Club. It is on the cookie table. 

• NYSOA T-shirts are on sale tonight for $10

• Tonight’s business meeting ended at 7:45pm, in record time, followed by a presentation by Wenfei Tong, wildlife biologist, conservationist and writer who presented “Bird Love: Why identify WITH birds?” She finished at 8:30 and we had a half hour of very enthusiastic Q&A.