State College Bird Club Zoom Meeting
January 26, 2022


Presiding:Doug Wentzel

Recording: Peggy Wagoner Saporito

Attendance: 44

Meeting Format: Zoom (due to Covid)

Treasurer’s report:(Jean Miller): Deposited: $183 received from dues, stickers and hats. Expenses: $50 for last month’s speaker and $242 for purchase of hats

Bird Club Field Trips: (Susan Smith)

On the cold morning of January 15 a joint Juniata Valley Audubon/SCBC field trip, attended by 20 intrepid souls, was held at Innovation Park led by John Carter to enjoy some winter birds including both vulture species and a hardy Hermit Thrush.

Additional field trips are being planned for March, April and May and will be posted on the listserv next month.

Announcements:

The first set of khaki baseball hats with the club logo have arrived and are being distributed. Susan will be placing a second order of hats pending board approval. Contact Susan if interested in purchasing any ($20/hat).

Another successful Christmas Bird Count season was completed in late December. A big thanks to all of the local Christmas Bird Count compilers!

The PA Game Commission is interested in keeping track of turkey flocks and is asking for help from citizens. See more information at pgcdatacollection.pa.gov/TurkeyBroodSurvey

Old Crow Wetland: Development of Rutters filling station above the wetland is an ongoing issue. There will be a Zoom meeting on February 2 to update concerned citizens and provide comments prior to Rutter’s formal application for construction permits. Contact Greg Grove for more information.

Congratulations to Margaret Brittingham, upon her recent retirement from Penn State after a productive 33-year career as professor of wildlife resources, extension wildlife specialist and one of the state’s leading ornithologists. We wish Margaret all the best and hope she might find a little time to spend with us.

For anyone who is interested copies of an older edition of Birds of Central PA, from 1983, are available at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center.

Other Activities:

Julia Plummer sent out an announcement to the listserv to let us know about an upcoming webinar hosted by PSO, “Owls of Pennsylvania” on January 31 7:00-8:00 pm.

The Arboretum will host a program on “Animal Signs and Tracking Basics” on February 6 led by Shaver’s Creek’s, Jason Beale. See website.

On March 20 at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center, “Birds and Bagels,” a program for beginning birdwatchers will be held along with SCBC from 8-9:30AM. And weekly Bird Walks at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center will begin on March 22 and continue each Tuesday through April 26. Walks will be led by a few of our SCBC members. See website for both events.

The Penn State Arboretum’s annual Avian Education Seminar will occur on March 15 at 5:00PM both in-person and on zoom. Dr. Tricia Miller will give a presentation about her work with Golden Eagles. Further details will be available soon here.

Notable Bird Sightings: Greg Grove’s Summary

(Jan1-26, 2022; Centre and its contiguous counties)

The month could be divided by warmer than usual weather in very early January and the onset of real winter weather with cold and snow beginning around January 8. With the warmer weather in early January, sighting of species not normally or not often seen included: trumpeter swans (at Fairbrook marsh), 19 species of ducks, a rufous hummingbird, spotted sandpiper,  phoebe, catbirds at several locations, four species of warblers including yellow-rumped, common yellowthroat, orange-crowned and even a yellow throated warbler. The most unusual species was a Bullocks oriole on January 2.  Since the cold and snowy weather has arrived, sightings of some of the “expected” winter birds have been reported including a number of rough-legged hawks, a few scattered flocks of purple finches, and red cross-bills (though this is not a big winter finch invasion year) Lapland longspur and snow buntings. Less common winter sightings included Savannah and Lincoln’s sparrows, eastern meadowlark, a brown thrasher and Baltimore oriole

Speaker: Chyvonne Jessick and Judy Bowes: "Applying Bird Building Collision Data to Ensure Effective Bird-Safe Solutions". (This entire presentation can be viewed at: https://psu.zoom.us/rec/share/ZdFbzVqpOrnMvBLWRki_ebZQUMyCIw7JxQAebCsoSZqKsoVbYS6gtwJ3a0r1yhLN.HdoQAEjcSJTGvMVC?startTime=1643242824000

Chyvone Jessick, a Penn State senior in Environmental Resource Management and recipient of an Erikson Discovery Grant in 2020, studied bird-window collisions on select buildings across the PSU campus. Judy Bowes, an architectural researcher, consultant, and Ph.D. student at the University of Washington in Seattle, focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of sustainable, bird-friendly designs. Judy founded her company, Birdphilic, where she conducts research and consults on public and private bird-friendly projects and policies.

It is estimated that 100 million to 1 billion birds are killed annually due to collisions with glass in the human-built environment. This has contributed significantly to the 29% decline in bird populations since 1970. Collisions occur at buildings with any one of a variety of characteristics including, extensive areas of glass, artificial light at night, the presence of nearby trees and shrubs or even indoor plants located close to transparent windows. Birds often cannot perceive transparent glass and are confused by reflections of nearby vegetation on reflective surfaces.

Chyvonne described her research to evaluate bird collisions on the PSU campus. Many buildings on campus have design and landscape characteristics that may increase the likelihood of collision. Incidental observations of bird strikes at PSU buildings have been noted since 2009. Beginning in spring 2019, more thorough documentation of collisions have been made and were used to help Chyvonne design her research. Since spring 2019 through fall 2021, 234 collisions have been documented representing more than 50 species in 20+ families. This number is probably a low estimate due to removal of window strike victims by scavengers, predation and PSU maintenance crews

Cheyvonne used data generated since 2019 to design her spring 2021 study in which 15 building locations were monitored April 2-May 25, 2021. Each site was visited at least once per day to record presence and number of observed collisions, species, condition of collision (dead or injured) as well as geographic information. Collisions were documented at 10 of the 15 locations.

During the spring 2021 monitoring period, 38 collisions across 26 species were found. Four buildings accounted for 66 % of the collisions: Stuckerman (7 collisions), Huck Life-Sciences (7) (especially the glass bridge corridor area), Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (6) and Intramural (5). These building have characteristics conducive to collision such as surfaces that reflect adjacent vegetation.

Species found included a variety of passerines including those of conservation concern such as Wood Thrush, Black-throated Blue and BT Green warblers, Brown Creeper and White-throated Sparrow

The goal of this research was to document bird collisions in order to have information to encourage installation of effective window treatments at locations with the highest documented collisions. Beyond this goal, Chyvonne and others are working to encourage the University Sustainability Institute Operation Initiative to adopt bird friendly campus policies including modified lighting during migration, installation of bird-safe windows and bird friendly landscape design for all new buildings.

PSU has a beautiful campus with a rich diversity of vegetative species making it a good habitat for a variety of bird species. We should ensure that the habitat and its proximity to windows is not what’s contributing to bird population decline.  PSU could become a leader in this area. In contrast to complex issues such as climate change and habitat loss, preventing window collisions has a relatively simple solution with a potentially large positive effect on bird populations

Judy gave an in-depth discussion about the architectural context and options available to help prevent bird strikes. Collisions are a year-round threat to local and migrating birds. Surprisingly, buildings that are 4-11 stories tall with moderate glass surface area and vegetation within 50 m are just as deadly as buildings with high amounts of glass surface area. Also surprising, skyscrapers (12+ stories) account for less than 1% of bird collisions.

Transparent or reflective surfaces as well as nearby vegetation are confusing to birds during the day as is lighting during the night. Using less glass in building design is not a solution due to the human health benefits associated with views of nature and daylight provided by windows. Therefore, architects continue to incorporate a lot of glass in their designs. Unfortunately, architects currently receive little or no education about bird building collisions or solutions to address the problem.

Judy described the effectiveness of a variety of glass treatments to help reduce bird strikes. She discussed testing methods which can yield vastly different results when determining the effectiveness of each type of glass treatment. Recommendations that she provided are based on her in-depth research into the topic and are as follows:

The Best Options (at least 90% effective) to prevent bird collisions include:
    1.    Cover or break up the glass surface with any of these options: external blinds, solar fins, mesh, screens or living walls
    2.    Frit glass: the entire surface is acid etched and is neither transparent nor reflective
    3.    Ceramic frit glass or silk-screened dots on glass
    4.    Perforated film (removeable vinyl applied to glass surface, but reduces light and solar heat gain)

Good Options (80- 90% effective) to prevent bird collisions include:

    1.    Striped pattern; vertical or horizontal following the 2”x4” or 2”x2” rule. The pattern is in ceramic frit, acid etched or applied with vinyl film with lines
           2.5 cm thick, spaced 5 cm or 10 cm apart
    2.    Dots spaced 2”x2” (vinyl pattern applied to surface, removable or permanent)
    3.    “Organic” line patterns applied to glass (artistic wavey lines with no more than 2-4” spacing between lines)
    4.    Artistic scenes made with vinyl such as images of birds and vegetation created with lines (lines spaced no more than 2-4” apart)

Options of Last Resort or Require Further Study

    •    UV products: These are promoted as being less visible to humans, but visible to birds. However, in fact, these products should not be used except as an absolute last resort because of their questionable effectiveness, lack of standardized use of wavelengths, breakdown in sunlight and the fact that UV is not perceived in the same way by all bird species. When comparing the exact same patterns, such as strips, UV products are not nearly as effective as solid or etched patterns. UV products are less visible to birds in low light (dusk, dawn and overcast conditions). Some UV products could be even more deadly to birds than transparent glass.

Not Recommended (less than 50% effective)

    1.    Ornilux glass with UV coating is actually more deadly to birds than untreated transparent or reflective glass.
    2.    Window decals such as one or a few silhouettes, bird of prey decals, UV light decals
    3.    Inside shades
    4.    Lights around windows
    5.    Hanging string or feather in front of windows (unless strings are attached at both ends and spaced 2” apart

Judy provided several recommendations for retrofitting PSU buildings that are especially susceptible to bird strikes. These include:

    •    Products with dots spaced 2” apart available from “Feather Friendly Professional” or “Collide Escape Dots” costing $8-17/sq ft, especially on transparent walkways.
    •    Local artists and/or students could design vinyl line patterns or images that allow no more than 2” of glass surface exposure between lines, like the bird and leaf designs that Judy showed as examples from University of British Columbia. The cost is $3-29/sq ft and this is a good way to encourage community engagement.

She does not recommend films that cover the entire glass surface such as UV products that can be more deadly to birds or perforated films that reduce light and heat gain.

Beyond retrofitting existing buildings, Judy encourages the development of bird safe/friendly policies and guidelines to guide future development and construction. Bird-safe/friendly policies are beginning to appear in a few states and a number of cities throughout North America. Five college campus are adopting or have adopted such policies including Universities of British Columbia, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Judy highly recommends checking out the University of BC campus policy, “Bird Friendly Designing Guidelines for Buildings”. For a city policy, she suggests looking at that of Toronto, Ontario which includes useful drawings which highlight critical areas on buildings and in the built environment that require special attention to help prevent bird strikes.

To expand beyond building design features, Judy is looking to create complete bird safe/friendly policies or guidelines to include lights out program, protect habitat, eliminate chemical treatment in the landscape (using organic methods). It is important that as we pursue bird friendly policies, we “make friends, not demands” when attending local planning meetings and in discussions about new development.

Judy concluded by stating that the critical conservation issue of bird building collisions can be solved directly by designers and architects and by their clients who require bird-safe/friendly construction. Reducing collisions must be met with the same concern and similar standards in sustainable design as reducing carbon emissions and addressing habitat loss.

To request information or report bird strikes on the PSU campus; email or Instagram. Judy’s contact information: email, and birdphilic.com.