Minutes – Jan. 3, 2019 | Delaware Valley Ornithological Club

Delaware Valley Ornithological Club

Location: Discovery Center
Time:
6:30 pm – Members enjoyed food and beverages from the potluck
7:30 pm – Formal meeting

Call To Order:

President: George Armistead
VP: Linda Widdop; Secretary: Navin Sasikumar (covering for Gregg Gorton)

Attendees:

Members present: 57

George Armistead talks about the history of the East Park reservoir and how the Discovery Center came to be.

Linda Widdop traces the location of the Annual Meeting over the years from the Academy of Natural Sciences to the Jenkins Arboretum to the Discovery Center. She worked with Damien Ruffner of the Discovery Center to secure the location in exchange for DVOC members leading field trips at the Center.

Sally Creighton, Karen Schwager & Dennis Bert

Ann Reeves, Debbie Beer, Holly Merker

Pres. George Armistead

Reports from Council:

none

Committee Reports:

Nominating Committee:

Barbara Granger (for Art McMorris) announces the slate of nominees:

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)
A vote is called; all nominees are approved.

7.42 pm: Nominees for new fellows are announced:
Anne Bekker, Holger Pflicke, Katrina Rakowski
A vote is called; all nominees are approved.

Field Trips:

Linda Widdop

Barnegat Light and Sharks Inlet

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/ )

Bob Billings Big Year:

Marty Dellwo (for Art McMorris):

If you participated in the Billings competition in 2018, submit your lists by January 31.
Rule change: No need to sign up to compete in 2019

Announcements:

Tony Croasdale: Tony along with his sister’s company Mayfair Travel is launching an ecotourism subsidiary named On The Wing. One of their first trips of this new venture is a special opportunity for Philadelphia area bird club members to visit the Galapagos Islands followed by an optional tour to the Maquipucuna Reserve in the cloud forests of mainland Ecuador.
The Galapagos portion will be a ten-day tour of the east, central, and west islands aboard the beautiful G Adventures’ Yacht, Eden. On this tour, you will see a variety of Darwin’s Finches and mockingbirds, flightless cormorants, giant tortoises, land and marine iguanas and much more!
Click here for more info

Local Notes:

Matt Halley: 2nd year Hermit Thrush at Wissahickon. Aged by the retained juvenile feathers on outer coverts.

Peter Burns: First Pileated Woodpecker of the year at Forth Washington

Tony Croasdale: First Pileated Woodpecker at his new house, along with Bald Eagle and Common Raven

Linda Widdop: New yard bird – Pileated Woodpecker

Rob Bierregaard: Pileated Woodpecker at his house brings yard count to 107 species

Rick Mellon: 86 Bald Eagles on the Southern Bucks County CBC

Anne Bekker: Hermit Thrush, Eastern Phoebe and Gray Catbird at Carpenter’s Woods

Holly Merker: Low numbers of chickadees and titmice seen this winter. Keep an eye out for those species and report any sightings or lack thereof to eBird.

Peter Burns: Noticed low numbers of chickadees and titmice

Keith Russell: Titmice and chickadees used to be migratory. The decline could be food related.

Matt Halley: Lots of White-breasted Nuthatches killed by skyscrapers were tallied this year.

Rob Bierregaard: Junco numbers seem low

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Treasurer’s Report:

Bert Filemyr: Financial health of club is in good shape. Life memberships are used for investment, and the interest generated is used for operating costs of the club. Rick Mellon became a life member in ’67. The full treasurer’s report can be obtained from the treasurer.

Program Speaker:

“From the Archives”
Speaker: Bert Filemyr

The Annual Meeting used to have a parade of CBC reports but since most of that is available online, Bert Filemyr does a presentation looking back at the history of the club. This year’s program “Stone, Potter, and Edge,” looked back on the lives of the people three of the DVOC awards are named after.

Side note: Tony Croasdale presented Bert with a DVOC DeLorean car model