This was a virtual-only meeting. Instructions for registration were announced on the website and weekly digest.
Call to Order: President Gregg Gorton
Call to Order: 7:31 PM
Gregg (remote) introduced all the officers and welcomed guests.
Attendees: 40 on Zoom.
The minutes from February 16th were approved.
Committee Reports
Membership Committee – Nilesh Shah
In February, we’ve had 4 new members – Marq Forste, Lisa Powley, Carol Cunningham, and Denise Coogan. The membership committee is currently processing one applicant. We’ve had 13 new members since the beginning of the year.
Field Trips – Navin Sasikumar for Linda Widdop
Email Linda Widdop, linda@techimpact.org, if interested in leading any field trips.
Upcoming field trips:
- March 3 @ 8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Bartram’s Garden with Ben Filreis
- 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. Please register for this trip.
- March 11 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm – Lake Lily, Cape May Point, NJ with Barb Bassett
- March 11 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm – Winter Gulls at Glen Foerd with Holger Pflicke
- March 18 @ 9:00 am – 10:30 am – Discovery Center with Victoria Sindlinger
- March 19 @ 8:00 am – 10:00 am – Arlington Cemetery, Upper Darby PA with Lynne Rabchuk and Jamie Watts
Judy Stepenaskie gave a brief report via chat on the Sunday, February 26th trip to Middle Creek WMA (joint trip with Wyncote Audubon/DVOC). They had a great turnout with over 25 people. Snow Geese and waterfowl have been migrating early with the warm weather. The number of Snow Geese had been estimated at 18,000 on Friday, well down from peak numbers, but it was still a thrill for many of those on the trip who hadn’t seen such a large number before. The other highlight was four Redheads.
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 – Gregg Gorton for Anne Bekker
Linda Widdop and Anne Bekker are involved in the Bird Safe Philly (BSP) program (which includes the Lights Out initiative). Bird Safe Philly is a partnership of Audubon PA, Audubon Mid-Atlantic, Wyncote Audubon, Valley Forge Audubon, Academy of Natural Sciences, and DVOC. Bird Safe Philly has partnered with businesses for the Lights Out initiative asking them to turn lights out starting from April 1st to the end of May. There is a need for new volunteer monitors and drivers.
Victoria Sindlinger gave an overview of BSP to the audience and she added that they’re trying to get Sister Cities Cafe to treat their glass. She also said that even if you can’t commit to a regular monitoring/driving slot, you can post photos of any window strike victims to the BSP iNaturalist project.
Cassinia – Gregg Gorton for Holger Pflicke
Gregg said that the latest issue of Cassinia has been released. Hard copies should have been mailed out and members should have received them already. Digital versions are also available on the website.
Nilesh Shah added that if you are a new member and would like a copy, please email him or Holger Pflicke. And Navin mentioned that new members (or anyone) can also get Cassinia from the website.
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
Linda Rowan announced that the Silver Lake Nature Center in Bucks County is going to be starting spring walks on Saturday at 7:30. Meet at 1306 Bath Road, Bristol in the parking lot. See their website at https://silverlakenaturecenter.org/
Gregg said that Council has voted to approve the allocation of funds for the Academy internship program. On an annual basis, the Associate Curator of Ornithology at the Academy, Jason Weckstein, requests funds from the club to support interns. We thank Hart and Jewel Rufe who have donated funds year after year to the DVOC Interns Fund which is managed by the Trustees. Council approved $3000 which was the total request. Gregg has written to the Rufes thanking them as well as Jason Weckstein and Nate Rice.
Local Notes
Phil Witmer reported 100 – 125 Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds today at his feeders on Kynlyn Road, Wayne, Chester County. He also had two female and one male Bufflehead on the pond at the Willows Park, Radnor, Delaware County on Tuesday.
Lisa Shalet reported seeing Turkey Vultures yesterday a little north of Philadelphia.
Patrick McGill said that the Ash-throated Flycatcher is still hanging at the NE Water Treatment Plant. He also had six American Woodcocks displaying and presenting at Pennypack Meadow last Saturday. The meadow is behind the playground off Verree Road. And on the Houston Meadow Woodcock Walk, while they had zero woodcocks, 2 participants were using birding backpacks fro a library.
Victor Lefevre reported a Great-horned Owl last Sunday (2/26/23) at Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, Philadelphia. He also had Red-breasted Mergansers on the Delaware River (seen from Navy Yard, Philadelphia) earlier today (3/2/2023).
Elizabeth Porter had a Fox sparrow in her Gladwyne yard today, which is a rare occurrence.
Manuel Dominguez said that the Bald Eagles nesting across the river (in NJ) from the Navy Yard have two eaglets. He also had Blue-winged Teal recently in the pond outside of Fort Mifflin.
Nilesh Shah said that on February 23 at the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust, he had 22 species, the highlights of which included Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Pileated Woodpecker.
Dieter Schifferli reported at least 12-15 American Woodcocks at Eastwick yesterday with Ben Filreis.
Christa Walck said she was happy to see a flock of White-throated Sparrows in front of the Rodin Museum poking around since she usually only sees the usual “English sparrows” (House Sparrow).
Programs: Navin Sasikumar for Barb Bassett
Navin announced that the next meeting will be on March 16th. Mike McGraw will be in-person at the Academy and will give a talk titled For the Birds: A Look at Ecology in Philadelphia from a Bird’s (and Birder’s) Perspective. Mike will review the existing ecological communities within Philadelphia County to understand where the best locations are for finding birds and where to put our effort regarding ecological restoration to promote better bird habitat in the City. Mike has been a DVOC member since 2006. He’s a wildlife biologist and ecologist doing wildlife surveys and ecological assessments, and an Adjunct Professor of Ornithology at UPenn.
More information on the Meetings page of the DVOC website for this and other upcoming meetings.
Evening Program
Danielle Whittaker gave a highly informative talk on the olfactory abilities of birds. She said that there is a common misconception that most birds, aside from some well-known exceptions, lack a good sense of smell. Even Wikipedia states so but there is no citation or evidence for that claim. Historically, it was surmised that because raptors have a keen sense of vision, they don’t have a good sense of smell due to evolutionary trade-offs. Audubon did a number of poorly planned experiments to try to prove it.
Professor Whittaker gave an account of experiments she and others have done to tease out how the compounds in preen oil are perceived by songbirds. The compounds in preen oil are not pheromones, but rather a signature mixture. One of the experiments used a Y-shaped apparatus to test mate attraction – whether the bird at the bottom of the Y would prefer the male or the female that were in either arm of the Y. In another similar experiment, it was deduced that when the focal male (the bird at the bottom of the Y) was in worse condition, he went to the female side of the cage, but when he was in a better condition, he picked the male side.
The full presentation is available on Youtube.
Adjournment
After the presentation and questions, the meeting was adjourned at 9:18 pm.