This was a hybrid meeting, broadcast on Zoom. We had a speaker and a live audience in the BEES classroom and the meeting was broadcast on Zoom.
Call to Order: President Barb Bassett
Call to Order: 7:30 PM
Attendees: 7 on Zoom
In person: 17
Gregg Gorton moved to approve minutes of the last meeting and Marty Dellwo seconded the motion. The minutes were approved unanimously.
Committee Reports
Council
The honorarium for speakers will be raised next year. Speakers on Zoom will continue to receive $200 but speakers who show up in person will receive $250.
Membership – Barb Bassett for Rebecca Reicherter
One new member, Kay Jones, joined during the summer.
Field Trips – Linda Widdop
If you wish to lead a field trip, contact Linda: linda@techimpact.org
Upcoming field trips:
| DATE | TIME | TRIP | LEADER |
| Sept 20 | 8:00 – 11:00 | FDR Park | Robert Karchnyak |
| Sept 20 | 8:30 – 11:00 | Blue Bell Park | Sean Bradley |
| Sept 20 | 10:30 – 11:30 | Penn Treaty Park with Fishtown Community Library | Holger Pflicke |
| Sept 21 | 8:30 – 10:30 | Pennypack on the Delaware | Holger Pflicke |
| Sept 22 | 6:30 – 7:45 PM | Swift Watch with Philly Queer Birders @ Belmont Charter High | Rob Karchnyak Elise Greenberg |
| Sept 24 | 7:30 – 9:00 | Wednesday mornings at Lorimer Park/Fox Chase Farm | Linda Widdop |
| Sept 25 | 8:00 – 9:30 | Thursday Bird Walks at Harriet Wetherill Park | Martin Selzer |
| Sept 27 | 8:00 – 10:00 | Bird Walk at the Discovery Center | Lynn Roman |
Conservation – Rob Karchnyak and Perri Strawn
Rob authored an Op-ed piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the topic of preserving the habitat in FDR Park.
There is an opportunity to speak to legislators in Harrisburg on September 29.
A small group of people met for the “Write for Birds” event at Discovery Center on July 23rd.
A number of local conservation organizations collaborated to advocate for opposing the amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act to suspend the Endangered Species Act on military installations. The amendment was defeated.
Nominations for the Rosalie Edge Conservation Award are due soon.
Billings – Art McMorris
Go Birding!
Cassinia – Holger Pflicke
Holger is looking for short articles for the next issue.
Communications
No report.
Announcements
DVOC Annual Banquet will be held on November 14th. Keynote speaker is Jason Hall.
Nominations are due for Witmer Stone and Julian Potter awards.
The Constitution / By-laws committee have made changes that will be circulated to members before coming up for a vote.
“Wings over Mercer” is a new Birdathon organized by the Wild Birds Research group. It is scheduled for October 4th in Mercer County, NJ. DVOC will be a small business sponsor of the event. One of the field biologists from the Wild Bird Research group will present some of their work at a DVOC meeting in March.
https://wildbirdresearch.org/wings-over-mercer/
Local Notes
Linda Rowan reported seeing a Northern Waterthrush in her yard in Levittown, Bucks County. She has also been hearing an Eastern Screech Owl for the past few days.
Marty Dellwo has observed Northern Waterthrush and a number of Warblers, such as Magnolia, Black-and-White, Northern Parula, American Redstart and Ovenbird.
Linda Widdop saw a Fork-tailed Flycatcher in Cape May and photographed it. The bird stayed around the area for a few days.
Programs
October 2nd: “Flycatchers Demystified” by Cin-Ty Lee and Andrew Birch
Evening Program
JoAnne Woods from the Free Library of Philadelphia spoke about the Birding Backpacks program that she started in 2017. The program started with three branch libraries. Today, these backpacks are available at 20 branches in Philadelphia. Over a hundred backpacks have been placed in circulation and they have been checked out 1625 times over eight years. JoAnne described the program in detail. Originally funded by the Knight Foundation, the program has gained momentum and is now funded by DVOC and several other organizations such as the Whitemarsh Foundation. The program was started to serve underserved populations which now include birders who need special access. JoAnne highlighted the value of partnerships because they expand reach, enhance offerings and add stakeholders. Her talk included multiple videos of people, such as Troy Bynum and Tony Croasdale, who provided testimonials for the program and the partnerships. Finally, she showed a video highlighting the contents of the “Go Birds” exhibit at the Free Library, which was on display during this summer.
Adjournment
After the presentation and some questions, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00pm.