This was a hybrid meeting. The in-person portion was in the Commons room at the Academy. Instructions for registration were announced on the website and weekly digest.
Call to Order: President Gregg Gorton
Call to Order: 7:32 PM
Gregg (remote) introduced all the officers and welcomed guests.
Attendees: 43 on Zoom, 22 in person.
The minutes from January 19th were approved.
Gregg said that the Trustees report wasn’t ready and will be given at the next meeting.
Council Reports
Gregg announced that the Council is having its first meeting on the evening of February 6th.
Committee Reports
Membership Committee – Nilesh Shah
We had 8 new members in January – Lela Stanley, Daniel Sloan, Gary Karpinski, Benjamin Filreis, Dieter Schifferli, Jamie Watts, Lynne Rabchuk, and Bill McGeeney
Field Trips – Linda Widdop
Email Linda Widdop, linda@techimpact.org, if interested in leading any field trips.
Upcoming field trips:
- February 5 @ 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm – Motts Creek for Short-eared Owls with Barb Bassett and Linda Widdop. This trip might be rescheduled due to high winds.
- February 12 @ 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm – Winter Gulls at Glen Foerd with Holger Pflicke
- February 18 @ 8:00 am – 10:00 am – Bird Walk at the Discovery Center with Patrick McGill
- February 25 @ 8:30 am – 10:30 am – FDR Park with Robert Karchnyak
- February 26 @ 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm – Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area joint trip with Wyncote Audubon led by Judy Stepanaskie
- March 5 @ 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – Late Winter Barnegat Light and Long Beach Island, NJ joint trip with Wyncote Audubon led by Linda Widdop and Martin Selzer
Navin announced that there were late-breaking simultaneous field trips planned at Laurel Hill East and West for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Navin is leading the walk on the east side but we are still looking for a leader for the west side since the traditional west leaders (Gregg Gorton and Jason Weckstein) are unavailable. Michael Walter volunteered to lead the walk on the west side.
Conservation – Anne Bekker
No report
Billings – Art McMorris
Go Birding! The Billings award is given each year to the DVOC member who observes the most birds for the year in the Billings area. You have to be a member at the beginning of the year to compete in that particular year.
Cassinia – Gregg Gorton for Holger Pflicke
The latest issue of Cassinia has been released! Hard copies should have been mailed out and members who requested one should start receiving it soon if they haven’t already. Digital versions are also available on the website.
As a side note, Gregg also mentioned that the preliminary results of the Philadelphia Mid-winter Bird Census have been released. Holger was the coordinator this year. Participants found a combined 104 species and 34k+ individual birds. Thirteen Northern Saw-whet Owls were found which is an all time record.
Communication – Navin Sasikumar
Navin is resigning as the web admin and is looking for a replacement to take over. The responsibilities include maintaining and updating the website, for example adding news, events and other items to the website, updating members’ pages, etc. Navin will help train the new admin to take over.
DEI – Navin Sasikumar
Navin reminded those present that the In Color Birding Club received a $2000 gift from DVOC to arrange buses to take students to green spaces in and around Philly. Navin also added that DVOC members can go to the In Color Birding club website and donate personally as well.
https://www.incolorbirding.org/contribute
Jason Hall (founder of the In Color Birding Club) thanked the DVOC for the donation and said that they were able to award 12 buses to five schools so far. He shared a link to an article about the program in Grid Magazine.
NB4NB – Gregg Gorton for Paul Guris
Gregg is in touch with Paul Guris to see if we can donate binoculars to the In Color Birding Club.
Announcements
Heritage Conservancy is hosting a spring bioblitz and approached Barb about the DVOC joining the event to help with bird surveys. Barb mentioned that Anne Bekker is taking the lead on this.
Greg announced that the DVOC was going to collaborate with the National Park Service at Independence Historical Park on a series of walks near there.
Local Notes
Nilesh Shah mentioned that finches have entirely disappeared from his feeders and asked if others were seeing the same thing. Steve Mattan said that Pine Siskins have been non-existent but other finches have been around. Gregg Gorton added that the Philadelphia Mid-winter Bird Census had zero siskins and only seven Purple Finches. Patrick McGill and Maria Pacheco both reported that they had several Purple Finches at Morris Arboretum recently. And Linda Rowan added that she has plenty of House Finches and American Goldfinches, while Sharon Hardy said they don’t have many finches in Cherry Hill, NJ. Katrina Clark said that they were seeing goldfinches and a few House Finches at Bartram’s Garden. Jamie Watts said that there were fewer finches and they were being overtaken by a mob of House Sparrows. Stephanie Egger reported House Fiches in Manayunk, but not many goldfinches. Holly Merker said that she has many House Finches and American Goldfinches, and a few Pine Siskins are sporadic at her feeders in Chester County.
Steve Mattan reported that he had Pileated Woodpecker and Sharp-shinned Hawk at his yard in Southampton, Burlington County, NJ.
Linda Rowan said that a pair of Red-tailed Hawks were back working on their nest in Levittown, Bucks County. This is the 8th nesting season they are observing.
Nilesh Shah reported that a Red-shouldered Hawk was a repeat visitor to their yard. Also, four Eastern Bluebirds have visited the yard two days in a row.
Barb Bassett reported Lark Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and Chipping Sparrow at the Beanery, West Cape May. She said that there was also a pair of Painted Buntings on Foster Ave, Lower Township, NJ coming to feeders that are visible from the street. In Cape May Point there was a Nashville Warbler in her yard and Lake Lily is holding a good variety of ducks including Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, American Wigeon, Bufflehead, Gadwall, and Ring-necked Duck at Cape May Point. She added that Marbled Godwits with many American Oysters are present at Nummy Island by the toll bridge (the free bridge is closed from Stone Harbor).
Manny Dominguez said that the Ash-throated Flycatcher at the Northeast Philadelphia Water Treatment Plant continues as of 2:30pm on the day of the meeting. He also said that Canvasbacks can be seen easily at the Philadelphia Naval Yard.
Patrick McGill said that a Painted Bunting female is continuing at Bartram’s Garden. It was originally found by Ben Filreis and Laura Herschel on one of the BirdPhilly walks.
Elizabeth Porter reported that she saw a Common Raven chasing an immature Bald Eagle at Saunders Woods in Gladwyne a few days ago.
Evan Fisher said that there was a pair of Sandhill Cranes by the Pine Run Reservoir.
Gregg Gorton said that Troy Bynum was on the jetty at Barnegat and saw his lifer Razorbill.
Jamie Watts reported seeing a Canada Goose trying to land on a powerline.
Programs: Barb Bassett
Barb announced that the next meeting will be on February 16th. Emily Griffith who is a Ph.D. student and ornithologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will speak about The Secrets of Long-eared Owl Plumage.
More information on the Meetings page of the DVOC website for this and other upcoming meetings.
Evening Program
Rob Fergus talked about the Lenape, whose ancestral lands included much of the Delaware Valley region. Rob started the program by sharing some myths about the Lenape. One notable myth that elicited a reaction from the audience was that Wawa is a Lenape word – it is in fact, Ojibwe, and not Lenape. Rob also played sound recordings of the names and pronunciations of the birds that were known to the Lenape. He ended the program by recounting some of the bird-related folk tales of the Lenape.
Adjournment
After the presentation and questions, the meeting was adjourned at 9:14 pm.