State College Bird Club Zoom Meeting
November 17, 2021


Presiding: Doug Wentzel

Recording: Peggy Wagoner Saporito

Attendance: 24

Meeting Format: Zoom (due to Covid)

Treasurer’s report: (Jean Miller): Expenses: $50 for last month’s speaker. Deposits: $190; dues and hawk watch donations. If you haven’t already done so, dues can be paid. For instructions, see our website www.scbirdcl.org.

Bird Club Field Trips:
A successful trip led by Bob Snyder at Bald Eagle State Park was held on Sunday, November 14. No trips are scheduled, but plans are in the works for the spring.

Announcements:
Khaki baseball hats, with the new club logo are not quite yet available, but Susan Smith will notify everyone on the listserv when they are. Contact Susan with any questions.

SCBC stickers are being sold at Shaver’s Creek Env. Center gift shop as are donated, gently used nature themed books with proceeds going to support the Hawk Watch.

At Millbrook Marsh, be aware that the boardwalk replacement project is underway. Also, funding for the new building is on track and the building is proposed to be completed in 2023.

As part of the Penn State Arboretum avian outreach committee, Joe discussed the bird strike study to determine which buildings on campus are particularly dangerous for birds. The problem is widespread and buildings with glass breezeways are particularly susceptible to bird strikes. The committee is working with the University on options to mitigate the problem. At the same time as normally scheduled window maintenance activities occur, window patterns to alert birds could be installed.

Other Activities:

Christmas Bird Counts in the area are coming up in December. For more information, see Audubon’s website: Audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count or contact the circle compilers.

December 18 Penns Creek (including Penns Valley) (Cathy Pierce)
December 19 State College (Jen Lee and Bob Fowles)
December 19 Huntingdon (Deb Grove)
December 28 Bald Eagle State Park (Bob Snyder)
December ?? Lake Raystown (Jon Kauffman)

Hawk Watches:

As with October, perhaps because of relatively mild weather, November has been a slow migration month so far. The Bald Eagle Mnt. hawk watch has recorded more migrants than Tussey, but still far below the counts in 2019, especially for golden eagles (GE). During November 2019, there were 315 GE’s; so far in 2021 there have been only 50. The one bright spot for Bald Eagle Mnt. hawk watch, is that turkey vulture numbers (1865) this year, have surpassed those in 2019 and, as in 2019, are higher than other local hawk watches.

Notable Bird Sightings: Greg Grove’s Summary

Unfortunately, Greg was unable to attend the meeting this month, so we have no report from Greg.

Speaker: Charles Miller: "A Geologist Photographs Birds"

As a geologist, Charles mentioned that 25 years ago, he had given a presentation to the SCBC about fossils. This time, Charles gave us and interesting and entertaining look at living birds that he had photographed in a variety of locations.

The majority of birds he discussed were wading and wetland species that he photographed in southwestern Florida. Charles discussed some of the locations (Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Big Cypress National Preserve, Bonita Springs) and habitats such as mangrove swamps and tidal flats where he found these birds.

He also described some of the history of these incredibly beautiful species. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, snowy egrets, roseate spoonbills and others with spectacular plumage were nearly hunted to extinction to provide decorative feathers and even whole stuffed birds to adorn fashionable ladies’ hats that were all the rage at the time. This atrocity finally ended with the signing of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918.

With his photos, Charles gave us a wonderful “refresher course” or “introduction” to the distinguishing characteristics among 7 species of herons and egrets found in southwest Florida. He also discussed some of the other large birds associated with the waters around Florida including ibis, cormorants, anhinga, wood stork, gulls and pelicans. Charles touched on ecological impacts of some prominent Florida reptiles: the benefits provided by native alligators and the problems associated with introduced iguanas and Burmese pythons.

In addition, Charles shared some nice photos from other areas of the world including ruby-throated hummingbirds from his own backyard here in State College, California condors at Grand Canyon and red-billed gulls in New Zealand.