This was a hybrid meeting. The in-person portion was in the BEES classroom. Instructions for registration were announced on the website and weekly digest.
Call to Order: President Gregg Gorton
Call to Order: 7:30 PM
Gregg (remote) introduced all the officers and welcomed guests.
Attendees: 22 in-person, 28 on Zoom.
The minutes from March 2nd were approved.
Committee Reports
Membership Committee – Linda Timlin
One new member for March – Susan Behr. We also have two new applications that are currently being processed.
Field Trips – Linda Widdop
Email Linda Widdop, linda@techimpact.org, if interested in leading any field trips.
Upcoming field trips:
- March 18 @ 9:00 am – 10:30 am – Discovery Center with Victoria Sindlinger
- March 26 @ 8:00 am – 10:00 am – Arlington Cemetery, Upper Darby PA with Lynne Rabchuk and Jamie Watts
- April 05 @ 7:00 am – 8:30 am – Dixon Meadow with George Armistead. This field trip will be repeated for four consecutive Wednesdays.
- April 05 @ 7:30 am – 9:00 am – Lorimer Park & Fox Chase Farm with Linda Widdop. This trip will be repeated all through April and May.
- April 22 @ 8:30 am – 10:00 am – Robbins Park, Upper Dublin with Wyncote Audubon and Bird Town led by Nliesh Shah.
- June 20 @ 7:00 am – 12:00 pm – Lakehurst Naval Station for Upland Sandpipers with Bob Horton. Registration is required for this trip and you need to be a US citizen. Please send an email to Bob Horton before May 29th with your full name, driver’s license number and state, and date of birth.
Billings – Art McMorris
Ken Walsh is the winner of the 2022 Bob Billings Big Year Award. Ken had 272 species of birds in the DVOC program area, including one species new to the count (Hermit Warbler)! The award will be presented to Ken at the April 6 DVOC meeting, with members of Bob Billings’s family present, and Ken will give us a brief talk about his Big Year effort.
Conservation – Anne Bekker
Bird Safe Philly needs more monitors who can commit to volunteering one morning a week, or more if they can. You’ll be trained to do a formal monitoring route. Talk to Robin Irizarry or email Anne at conservation@dvoc.org.
Cassinia – Gregg Gorton for Holger Pflicke
Holger is seeking submissions and he has asked the Youth Birders for items they may want published, such as the short pieces Tori and Ethan have in the current issue.
Communication – Navin Sasikumar
Victor Lefevre will be taking over as web admin over the next few months. Please add Victor to any requests sent to Navin so that he can start working on some tasks. You can also just use webmaster@dvoc.org and both of us should get those emails.
Gregg added that new member applications are added to the website and you can email the webmaster account to get your bio updated.
DEI – Navin Sasikumar
Nothing new to report
Announcements
Barb Bassett announced that there is a practice run for the World Series of Birding on May 6th, the weekend before the actual event organized by the Gloucester County Nature Club. For $15, you get a T-shirt and lunch.
Navin Sasikumar announced that the City Nature Challenge will be happening again this year from April 28 – May 1. If you are in Philadelphia county or any of the counties that share a direct border with Philly – Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks in PA, and Camden, Gloucester, and Burlington in NJ – take photos of any wild organism during those four days and upload them to iNaturalist. There are nearly 500 cities competing across the world this year. Philly’s goals are to beat NYC, DC, and Boston and also get at least 1000 people participating in our area.
Win Shafer announced that the annual meeting of the Eastern Bird Banding Association is at Rushton Woods Preserve on the 26th of March. Go to ebba.org for more information. Victoria Sindlinger said that she is having a poster displayed at the event.
Patrick McGill said that Hawk Mountain is looking to hire a Bird Coordinator for the PA BIRD Atlas and to check out their website for details.
Local Notes
Mike McGraw said that we’re starting to see resident birds getting feisty. He had his first Chipping Sparrow singing in a hemlock in his backyard. He also had Yellow-rumped Warblers at Green Lane 3 weeks ago.
Elizabeth Porter said that she heard that someone flushed an American Woodcock at Stoneleigh Garden a couple of days ago, in the wetland area by the parking lot, close to the Oakwell border.
Bonnie Witmer said that they had about 250 Common Grackles accompanied by European Starlings and Red-winged Blackbirds at their Chester County today. She also said that they still have Dark-eyed Juncos, and White-throated Sparrows, as well as all the usual suspects – Red-bellied, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, loads of Northern Cardinals, which have taken over as the most abundant bird surpassing Blue Jays.
Patrick McGill said he had three Eastern Meadowlarks at NE Philly airport this past weekend singing away. He also added that Ben Filreis had the female Painted Bunting again at Bartram’s Garden this week.
Barb Bassett reported that Ospreys are back – one in Cape May Point and 2 at Jakes Landing on different platforms waiting for their mates.
Rob Hynson, from Australia, reported 4 White-throated Needletails feeding near his house yesterday.
Manuel Dominguez said that he observed Peregrine Falcons copulating at the Navy Yard last Friday. Two eaglets across the river from the Navy Yard continue to grow; he observed one this afternoon flapping its wings next to one of its parents.
Marty Dellwo reported that the LeConte’s Sparrow originally found in December was seen by him on Monday, March 13 at Pennypack on the Delaware, and again the next day by Peter Kurtz (according to eBird).
Programs: Barb Bassett
Barb announced that the next meeting will be a special Billings Night when we will present Ken Walsh with the 2022 Billings award and then Ken will give a brief talk on his Big Year effort. That will be followed by a presentation from Barb and she will take everybody through the history of the Billings award and recount what species have been seen.
More information on the Meetings page of the DVOC website for this and other upcoming meetings.
Evening Program
Mike McGraw gave a fascinating talk on greenspaces and restoration efforts in Philadelphia. Many birds have specific habitat preferences and a collection of a few bird species can help one get very specific on where in the world one is. He said that it is always essential to plant natives, but good restoration efforts, like the one at Washington Street Pier in Philly, left a few non-native Mulberry and Paulownia trees for the height. Lots of natives were planted and once they get big, the non-native trees can be cut down.
The full presentation is available on Youtube.
Adjournment
After the presentation and questions, the meeting was adjourned at 9:18 pm.
Adjournment
After the presentation and questions, the meeting was adjourned at 9:18 pm.