Minutes – December 13, 2024

This was a hybrid meeting, broadcast on Zoom.

Call to Order: Barb Bassett

Call to Order: 7:30 PM

Attendees: 26 viewers.

In person: 21

Linda Widdop moved to approve minutes of the last meeting and Marty Dellwo seconded the motion.  The minutes were approved unanimously.

Committee Reports

Membership – Barb Bassett for Rebecca Reicherter

Since the last meeting, two new members have joined the club:

Jasper Lan

Courtney Faber

Others who joined this Fall are:

David Eberly

Bull Gervasi

Karen Kirchhoff

Sydney Liu

Nicholas Nishiura

Zarah Khan

Field Trips – Linda Widdop

If you wish to lead a field trip, contact Linda: linda@techimpact.org

Upcoming field trips:

DATETIMETRIPLEADER
12/14/248:30 – 11:00Pennypack on the DelawareHolger Pflicke
1/1/259:00 – 12:00Start the New Year off at HeinzCliff and Nancy Hence
1/4/2512:00 AM – 11:45 PMPhiladelphia Mid-Winter Bird CensusTony Croasdale
1/18/2411:00 – 12:30Winter Gulls at Glen FoerdHolger Pflicke

Conservation

No report.

Nominating Committee – Art McMorris

Art McMorris (Chair) reported the Nominating Committee’s slate of nominees for the Jan. 9, 2025 election. The nominees are:

Officers (for 1-year terms):
President:           Barbara Bassett
Vice President:   Navin Sasikumar
Secretary:           Manny Dominguez (Nilesh Shah chose not to be renominated)
Treasurer:           Martin Dellwo

Councilors-at-Large (for 3-year terms):
Perri Strawn
Rob Karchnyak

No additional nominations were made from the floor.

Billings

Art says: “Go Birding!”

Cassinia

No report.

Communications

No report.

Announcements

Barb mentioned the dedication of the bench for Frank Windfelder at the Pennypack on the Delaware on Saturday, December 7th.  Details were posted in the weekly newsletter.

Local Notes

Manny Dominguez reported seeing a Cave Swallow at the Northeast Water Treatment plant.

Patrick McGill noted that the group that had gathered for the Windfelder dedication saw a couple of Horned Larks, a Tree Sparrow and Peregrine Falcon during the walk to the bench.  Photos of the bands on the Peregrine helped identify it as a hatch-year female banded in Westchester County, NY, on May 30, 2024.

Marty Dellwo reported sighting a Bay-breasted Warbler at Rittenhouse Square last Saturday.  The bird was seen again on Tuesday.

Bert Filemyr described his sighting of a dark phase Pomarine Jaeger at Barnegat Light.  Jason Weckstein saw the same bird separately.

Programs: Navin Sasikumar

Next programs:

  • December 19th – Photo contest
  • January 9th – Annual Members night (Discovery Center)

Evening Program

This evening’s program was presented by Amar Ayyash, a leading authority on Gulls in North America.  Amar’s new book called, “The Gull Guide, North America”, was published in October this year.  In his presentation, Amar covered a range of identification tips and rules of thumb, illustrating his guidance with a plethora of beautiful photographs.

You can watch the recording of the talk on the DVOC YouTube channel.

Amar Ayyash
One of Amar’s slides
Art McMorris presenting the recommendations from the Nominating Committee

Adjournment

After the presentation and some questions, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.