Minutes – September 19, 2024

This was a hybrid meeting, broadcast on Zoom.

Call to Order: President Barb Bassett

Call to Order: 7:30 PM

Attendees: 34 viewers.

In person: 21 (plus Barb, Navin and Tory)

The minutes from the last meeting were approved.

Updates and news:

DVOC Council meeting was held over the summer.

DVOC made a $2000 donation to support the Birds of Bucks County book.

The annual member summer picnic was held at Barb’s home in NJ and it was AWESOME!

Philadelphia Birding Weekend, October 12 & 13

This event is a joint effort of Mid-Atlantic Audubon, Discovery Center and DVOC.

Registration is open: Phillybirding.com

Looking for leaders from the DVOC.  Contact Damien, Damien.Ruffner@audubon.org

October 12th is also eBird Global Big Day.

Big Sit at Heinz will be Saturday Oct. 12.

Big Sit at Rose Tree will be Sunday, Oct. 13

Committee Reports

Membership – Barb Bassett for Rebecca Reicherter

Seven new members joined in June-August:

Diana Hulboy
Mary Anne Duthie
John Moran
Ania-Ariadna Baetica
Tommie Catanach
Diane Biederman
Mark Thomas

Field Trips – Linda Widdop

If you wish to lead a field trip, contact Linda: linda@techimpact.org

Upcoming field trips:

DATETIMETRIPLEADER
9/20/2412:00 – 2:00Morris ParkBirdPhilly
9/21/248:00 – 11:00FDR ParkHolger Pflicke
9/21/248:00 – 12:00Great Marsh Institute (w/WAS)Mike Coulter & Troy Bynum
9/21/248:30  – 10:00Twining Valley ParkNilesh Shah
9/21/2412:00 – 2:00Carpenter’s WoodsEdge
9/22/248:30 – 10:30Houston Meadow (w/WAS)Troy Bynum and Nilesh Shah
9/25/247:30 – 9:00Lorimer Park/Fox Chase FarmLinda Widdop
9/26/248:00 – 10:30Harriet Wetherill ParkMartin Selzer
9/28/247:15 – 10:15Palymyra Cove for Fall MigrantsKen Walsh
9/28/248:00 – 10:30Pennypack on the DelawareHolger Pflicke
10/2/247:30 – 9:00Lorimer Park/Fox Chase FarmLinda Widdop
10/3/248:00 – 10:30Harriet Wetherill ParkMartin Selzer
10/5/248:00 – 10:00Discovery CenterKen Walsh
WAS = Wyncote Audubon Society

Conservation – Perri Strawn

Rosalie Edge Award Nominees being accepted now. Deadline for nominations to the Conservation Committee is October 20.

Bird Safe Philly

Update from Linda Widdop and Steve Maciejewski

Fall Migration is underway. Monitors are out every day. To date 98 birds have been killed; Steve noted that the numbers fluctuate quite a bit from year to year. The impact of Lights Out on the overall bird strike situation is under study.

As home residents, what can we do to help:

Feather Friendly window treatments can help. For example, the window treatments at Sister Cities Café has reduced bird strikes at that site by 100 percent. Steve notes that it’s not just the height of the building—all buildings (including our homes) can be protected.

At home, if lights outside can be turned off, blinds and windows shut, whatever we can do to keep it dark would be beneficial.

Suggestion that we contact the WSFS building to turn off their lights at night, as they don’t currently participate.

The upcoming Cassinia issue will have an article discussing the Oct 2, 2020 mass bird kill.

Cassinia – Holger Pflicke

No report.

Communications – Navin Sasikumar

No report

Banquet

Friday, November 15th at the Sheetmetal Workers’ Union building, with Rosemary Mosco speaking.

Awards

Witmer Stone Award

Selection Committee: Gregg Gorton (Chairperson), Debbie Beer, Nikolas Haass

Awarded to one or more DVOC members for the best publication which embodies the results of ornithological research not undertaken in the course of professional duties. This award was established in 1943.

Julian K. Potter Award

Selection Committee: Matt Halley (Chairperson), Rob Bierregaard, Lisa Kiziuk, Jason Weckstein

Awarded to one or more DVOC members who have made an outstanding contribution to field ornithology. This award was established in 1964 and first presented in 1965.

Rosalie Edge Conservation Award

Selection Committee: Conservation Committee

Awarded at the annual banquet to one or more non-members of the Club who have made a significant contribution to the conservation of the environment.

Annual Meeting

January 9, 2025 (January 2nd although the first Thursday is too close to the holidays)

Honorary Members and Fellows of the DVOC will be named at the annual meeting.

Nominations should be sent to Barb Bassett.

Honorary Members of the DVOC

(From the DVOC Constitution)

“Ornithologists who have attained special prominence in their ornithological work and contributions to the Club may be chosen at the annual meeting to be Honorary Members of the Club.”

Fellows of the DVOC

(From the DVOC Constitution)

“Fellows shall be chosen…………………..from among the Active Members of at least one year’s standing as a recognition of the high quality of their ornithological work or contributions to the Club.”

Announcements

Tori Sindlinger has started a birding club at Penn for undergrads and graduate students—if DVOC members know of anyone who might be interested, they can contact Tori at tori.bird6am@gmail.com

Matt Halley has been appointed chair of the Archives Committee.

As of today, the Wyncote Audubon Society will be known as the Liberty Bird Alliance. Many reasons, including the expansion of the club’s territory.

Local Notes

As was noticed by many birders, the water levels at Heinz this summer have been managed in a way that created great habitat for migrating shorebirds. Suggestion was made that we write to Heinz thanking them and asking for this to be continued going forward.

If you participate in a DVOC walk, it would be great if someone could share the list the dvocbirder on eBird.

Linda Rowan reported a Great Horned Owl that was perched on a neighbors house.  She is also seeing Accipiter activity in Levittown, Bucks County.

Barb Bassett reported on a group of sightings:  Purple Gallinule on Lily Lake at Cape May Point; Wood Thrushes calling at dusk and an Eastern Screech Owl trilling; American Redstarts, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Northern Parula, Black and White Warbler in Clarksboro, NJ.

Manny Dominguez mentioned that it had been a great summer for the Brown Booby on the Delaware River.  He had six sightings – May 15th, June 17th, July 19th and Aug 13th (2 on this day) and Aug 14th at the Naval Yard.

Manny also mentioned that as of now 77 species have been confirmed as breeding in Philadelphia County.

Shawn Towey was pretty sure she had seen a Black-billed Cuckoo while walking her dog between Valley Forge and Phoenixville in Chester County.  She did not have her binoculars with her and the bird did not stick around.

Barb Bassett mentioned that the Club’s “dvocbirder” eBird account now has 320 species from 318 checklists from nine different states.

Linda Rowan, Manny Dominguez and Nilesh Shah would love a DVOC trip to Magee Marsh.

Programs: Navin Sasikumar

Stay tuned for announcement about Oct 17 meeting.

Dec 19 meeting will be the annual members’ photo night. Bird of the year is the Baltimore Oriole.  Next year’s bird: Chimney Swift.

Evening Program

In a talk entitled, “Eagle, Quetzal, Grackle: Ornithological Understanding in the Aztec World”, Tori Sindlinger presented a detailed account of the ornithological knowledge demonstrated by the Aztec, based on the species accounts in the “Florentine Codex”.  The accounts were remarkably detailed and the understanding of bird anatomy was ahead of its time.  The knowledge of migration and molting was very surprising given that the accounts were from the 16th century.

You can watch Tori’s talk on the DVOC YouTube channel.

Tori Sindlinger

Adjournment

After the presentation and some questions, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 PM.