The Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC) is one of the oldest ornithology organizations in the United States. Founded in 1890, the club has held regular meetings at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for over 125 years, and has published the periodical Cassinia since 1901. Membership is open to any dues paying person with an interest in birds. The club organizes birding field trips throughout the Delaware River valley region, including a dedicated year-round trip schedule within the city limits of Philadelphia (BirdPhilly).
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Meetings
April 03, 2025 @ 7:15 pm - 9:30 pm
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia
The in-person portion of the meeting will be held at the Academy of Natural Sciences, BEES classroom (3rd floor).
Meeting agenda:
7:15 PM: Zoom opens
7:30-8 PM: Club business
8 PM: Presentation followed by questions (might start earlier if club business finishes earlier).
Please register for the meeting whether you will be attending in person or via Zoom. Then watch for the meeting link in your email. Disregard the meeting link if you will be attending in person.
Stopover Ecology and Conservation of Migratory Landbirds in the Eastern United States
Speaker: Dr. Fengyi Guo (Freda) (in-person)
Where do songbirds stop to rest and refuel during their epic migration journey? How does weather radar help with on-the-ground conservation efforts to protect migratory songbirds? Dr. Freda Guo’s research focuses on these questions. She will introduce her work harnessing the power of weather radar to track the continental-scale movement of these birds, and identify critical stopover hotspots and key habitats they depend on during migration. She will also talk about how songbirds cope with the challenges when stopover sites are missing, and discuss the conservation implications.
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Dr. Fengyi Guo (Freda) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and a Rose Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She is a conservation biologist committed to solutions-oriented research. Combining data-intensive radar remote sensing and on-the-ground field surveys, her research focuses on identifying stopover hotspots and key habitats for migratory landbirds during the en-route period, thus contributing to the full annual cycle conservation of migratory birds. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University, and her M.Phil. and B.Sc. from The University of Hong Kong.
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Field Trips
Free to all members and non-members
Meet at Moredon Road Parking lot to take a quick walk around Lorimer Park trails (Montco) looking for new arrivals. We usually find Louisiana Waterthrush singing, many other warblers and passerines. We will view the fields at Fox Chase Farm looking for nesting Bluebirds, Cliff and Tree swallows along with other open field birds. Dog friendly for well-behaved pooches. We will wrap up by 9 AM so that we can get back to work on time. Cancelled if raining.
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Free to all members and non-members
Thursday Mornings meet Martin Selzer to explore the wooded trails, meadows, and farm fields of Harriet Wetherill Park in, Montgomery County. For those unfamiliar with the park, there is series of grass, dirt, and paved walking paths that we will be birding. Besides resident and migrating passerines, we will have ample opportunities to view other migrating species during the walk. The park is nearby both Dixon Meadow and the Wissahickon Waterfowl Preserve, so stops there afterwards can be combined with the walk.
Meet at the west entrance at 2635 Narcissa Rd, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462.
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BirdPhilly is an initiative of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club. Founded in 1890, the DVOC has been based at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia since 1891. The DVOC runs fields trips throughout the tri-state region, however BirdPhilly focuses on trips within in Philadelphia city limits in collaboration with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy.
Through BirdPhilly our goal is to increase interest and awareness of Philadelphia’s birds by providing quality birding experiences on expertly guided field trips. All field trips are free unless the site charges an admission fee. These trips are open to children, adults, and well behaved pets. BirdPhilly also participates in DVOC’s Philadelphia Bird Race to raise funds for conservation and research projects.
The club enthusiastically welcomes new members – young people, beginners and anyone else who is genuinely interested in birding. Members benefit from the wealth of information and expertise that this club offers. The bi-annual club journal, Cassinia, is provided to members.
People interested in receiving the club's weekly email newsletter can sign up by using the button below. Note that new club members start to receive the newsletter automatically after joining the club.
© Bert Filemyr
The Delaware Valley is the name given to the region that lays on either side of the Delaware River, centered on Philadelphia. This consists of southeastern Pennsylvania, central and southern New Jersey and the state of Delaware. Tell me more...
The following counties fall within our boundaries.
In Pennsylvania;
Berks County, Bucks County, Chester County, Delaware County, Lancaster County, Lebanon County, Lehigh County, Montgomery County, Northampton County and Philadelphia County.
In New Jersey;
Atlantic County, Burlington County, Camden County, Cape May County, Cumberland County, Gloucester County, Hunterdon County, Mercer County, Middlesex County, Monmouth County, Ocean County, Salem County, Somerset County and Warren County.
In Delaware;
New Castle County, Kent County and Sussex County
DVOC Flickr Page
Want to see and share photos of Delaware Valley birds? Check out our Flickr page.
BirdPhilly is an initiative of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club. Founded in 1890, the DVOC has been based at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia since 1891. The DVOC runs fields trips throughout the tri-state region, however BirdPhilly focuses on trips within in Philadelphia city limits in collaboration with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy.
Through BirdPhilly our goal is to increase interest and awareness of Philadelphia’s birds by providing quality birding experiences on expertly guided field trips. All field trips are free unless the site charges an admission fee. These trips are open to children, adults, and well behaved pets. BirdPhilly also participates in DVOC’s Philadelphia Bird Race to raise funds for conservation and research projects.
New Bins for New Birders (NB4NB)
Partnering with DVOC's World Series of Birding Team's corporate sponsor, Nikon Sport Optics, NB4NB is committed to supplying new, serviceable binoculars to organizations that expose young people to birding and the outdoors. We focus on those organizations that are local to the Delaware Valley Region: southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.
You can quickly and easily make a donation to various DVOC initiatives using PayPal. Click the "Donate" button above to do see a list of initiatives. If you have a Paypal Account please log in. If you do not, use the "Don't have a PayPal account?" section in the lower left-hand corner of the page that appears after you click one of the "Donate" buttons on the next page.
The DVOC is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Contributions to DVOC are tax-deductible.