Delaware Valley Ornithological Club
Time: 7:43pm
Call To Order:
President: George Armistead
VP: Mike Walter (for Linda Widdop); Secretary: Gregg Gorton
Attendees:
Members present: 40; guests present: 2 (Rachel Adler & David Waxler)
Reports from Council:
none
Committee Reports:
Membership:
Barb Bassett (for Bonnie Witmer)
New member: Daniel Long (present)
New applicants: none
Conservation:
No Report
Nominating:
Gregg Gorton (for Art McMorris
Slate of Nominees for 2020-2021
President – Linda Widdop; VP – Gregg Gorton; Secretary – Barb Bassett; Treasurer – Marty Dellwo; Councilors-at-Large: Katrina Rakowski, Dan Efroymson (rotating off: Navin Sasikumar & Barb Bassett)
No other nominations were put forward
Field Trips:
Barb Bassett (for Linda Widdop):
Conowingo Dam
Dec 21, 2019@9am-12pm
Trip Leader: Cliff Hence
Meet at 2569 Shures Landing Rd., Darlington, MD
Pennypack on the Delaware
January 12, 2020@9am-11am
7801 State Road – Meet at Picnic Pavilion ( 40.027771, -75.012497)
Trip Leader: Holger Pflicke
–>Please contact Linda Widdop if you want to lead a trip outside Philadelphia: Linda@techimpact.org
–>Please contact Tony Croasdale if you want to lead a walk inside Philadelphia (for DVOC’s BirdPhilly initiative): Tony.croasdale@gmail.com
Details for all walks/trips can be found at:
http://dvoc.org/activities/field-trips/ and http://birdphilly.org/events.html
Up-coming Program:
Annual Members’ Night Meeting
January 9, 2020@6:30pm
Discovery Center in Fairmount Park
3401 Reservoir Drive, Phila., PA 19121
THIS IS A POT-LUCK, so please bring something!
Announcements:
Gregg Gorton: Members’ Night will be on January 9, 2020–one week later than usual. Per tradition, it will be a pot-luck affair. Bert Filemyr will give a talk on some aspect of DVOC history. Location: Discovery Center.
Marty Dellwo: The Philadelphia Mid-Winter Bird Census will be on January 11, 2020. Please contact Keith Russell if you would like to participate: Keith. Russell6@verizon.net. There will be an after-count social gathering at For Pete’s Sake Pub, 900 S. Front Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147.
George Armistead: made the point that buying gift memberships is a way of supporting DVOC and encouraging new members.
Local Notes:
? who: A Barnacle Goose was present in Yardley Corner’s Pond, at 295 & Rte 1, Bucks County. Also found were a White-fronted Goose and a partially leucistic or hybrid goose.
Tori Sindlinger & Daniel Long – Saw the Black-chinned Hummingbird and the Painted Bunting, but missed the Mountain Bluebird (because it was eaten!) at Cape May. They also found a dead Red-throated Loon and found Turkey tracks on the beach!
Frank Windfelder: Tom Bailey alerted me today to a flyover Brown Pelican at Palmyra Cove, which is very unusual this time of year.
Robert Mercer: A Fox Sparrow was singing at Neshaminy State Park, and a Winter Wren was present behind the Dow Plant in Bristol Twp., Bucks County.
George Armistead: Along with Jason Weckstein, Tom Johnson and Matt Halley, there was quite a gull experience during the Christmas Count at the landfill in the Levittown/Bristol area, Bucks County– with roughly 10 Iceland Gulls, including one juvenile glaucoides, three Glaucous Gulls, juvenile and adult Thayer’s (now Iceland), and hybrids of Lesser Black-backed x Herring (Appledore) and Glaucous x Herring (Nelson’s). Finally, there were approximately 20,000 Herring Gulls.
Daniel Long: Found two Rusty Blackbirds and a Common Gallinule on December 15 at Heinz NWR.
Judy Stepenaskie: Noted a female Peregrine Falcon on the steeple of St. John the Baptist church in Manayunk, Philadelphia. No sign of a male yet.
Todd Fellenbaum: Found a Eurasian Green-winged Teal (also called a Common Teal) at Heinz NWR. This has not been split from Green-winged Teal in the U.S., though it has been in U.K.
Evening Program:
Annual Photography Contest
Moderator: Michael Walter (for Linda Widdop)
Mike took the audience through all of the photos that had been submitted (by 18 people) in the six different categories: birds, fauna, flora, scenery, birders, and DVOC area. See separate post about the winning entries. As usual, a cheery time was had, as the mix of interesting, beautiful, surprising, and at times funny photos was brought forth, and as the winners were announced.
(Winner of Bird Category)
After-meeting Gathering at Cherry Street Tavern:
After the formal meeting, a good number of club members enjoyed beverages and bird-chat.