Minutes – Dec. 20, 2018

Delaware Valley Ornithological Club

Time: 7:37pm (in BEES)

Call To Order:

President: George Armistead
VP: Linda Widdop; Secretary: Gregg Gorton

Minutes from last meeting approved as submitted.

Attendees:

Members present: 33; Guests: Maya Langer

Reports from Council:

none

Committee Reports:

Membership Committee:

none

Nominating Committee:

Barbara Granger:

First, Barbara graciously acknowledged the hard work of all the officers this past year.

Slate of nominees for Officer positions:

George Armistead, President                                                                              Linda Widdop, Vice President                                                                              Gregg Gorton, Secretary

Nominees for Council positions:                                                                          Anne Bekker & Brian Quindlen                                                                                  (since Holly Merker & Jason Weckstein are rotating off)

Other nominees: none offered

Bob Billings Big Year:

Marty Dellwo:

For the 2018 Billings Big Year, please submit your checklists by Feb. 1. For 2019, please sign up to participate, because if you don’t sign up, you can’t win!  Closing date to sign up: March 31, 2019.

Cassinia, Communications, Conservation:

none

Field Trips:

Linda Widdop:

Barnegat Inlet with Valley Forge Audubon Society

January 05, 2019, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

208 Broadway, Barnegat Light, NJ 08006

Trip Leaders: Joe Hudson and Dan Sullivan

Free to all members & non-members

–>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/ )

Programs:

Linda Widdop:

Annual Members’ Meeting

January 3, 2019@6:30pm (social hour) & 7:30pm (formal meeting)

Audubon Discovery Center, Fairmount Park

3401 Reservoir Drive, Philadelphia

Speaker: Bert Filmyer

“From the Archive: Stone, Potter & Edge”

Announcements:

Phil Witmer:  The email spoofing is ongoing, unfortunately, so please be aware that if  you receive and odd and unexpected email from him, you should delete it because it is illegitimate and potentially problematic! Please contact him if you have any question about such a occurrence.

Brian “BQ” Quindlen: Nathaniel Sharpe, a citizen science outreach naturalist and member of DVOC, will be doing a broadcast on Vermont Public Radio about the winter finch irruption.

Brian also thanked Rob Bierregaard for donating a tripod to his Garnet Valley District school program, and also acknowledged the donation by Wild Bird Unlimited in Glen Mills of 15 bird feeders that will be put up at his school once he is able to obtain sufficient materials on which to hang them.

Jack Creighton: Noted that on the Winter Solstice there will be a Full Moon, which is also known as The Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon (by some Indian tribes) when it and the solstice co-occur.  This happens only once about every 10-15 years. And, there will also be the annual Ursids Meteor Shower the same night.

Local Notes:

Rick Mellon: 86 Bald Eagles were seen roosting at the Penn Warner Club property (private) in Falls Township, Bucks County.

George Armistead: There have reportedly been few Bald Eagles at Conowingo Dam this year.

Linda Widdop and Marty Dellwo: Had a Snow Bunting at Cape May on the CBC–the only one reported.

Marty Dellwo: Had two Harlequin Ducks on Two Mile Beach during the Cape May CBC.  And, a Cape May Warbler was found at the Northeast Water Treatment Plant in Philadelphia, only the second for the CBC since 1988.

Rob Bierregaard: Gregg Gorton found a Nashville Warbler on the same CBC.

Gregg Gorton: Rob Bierregaard found a Blue-winged Teal on the same CBC.

Win Shafer: An Ash-throated Flycatcher was at Mercer County Park, West Windsor Twp., NJ.  A Common Goldeneye was on Springton Reservoir near Newtown Square, PA.

Debbie Beer: A Common Goldeneye and a Black-headed Gull (likely the returnee from last year) were at Heinz NWR. And, 274 Canvasbacks were carefully tallied on the Delaware River at the Navy Yard, comprising the highest number found there since 2014 when George Armistead found 270.

***********

Program:

Members’ Photography Night

Host: Linda Widdop (Chair of Photography Night Judging Committee, along with Todd Fellenbaum and Ann Reeves).

Photos were submitted according to the following categories: Birds (up to 5); Fauna (up to 3); Flora (up to 2); Scenery (up to 2); Birders (up to 2); DVOC area (up to 2).  Seventeen members submitted photos to be judged, and all deserve thanks!

Linda took the audience through all of the photos, providing the captions and location information in her usual good-humored and enthusiastic style. After the photos were shown, she then announced the winning submissions by category, awarding a Winner, a Runner-up, and one or two Honorable Mentions.  Finally, the Grand Prize winner of the Steve Kacir Memorial Award for Photographic Achievement was announced.  See the list of winners (by Navin Sasikumar) on this website.

Meeting Adjourned:  9:02pm

After-meeting at Cherry Street Tavern:

As per custom, some enthusiastic members enjoyed beverages and bird-chat….