State
College Bird Club
22 September 2010
The State College Bird Club met at Foxdale Village on 22 September
2010. Forty members and guests attended; Deb Grove presided.
Business
• Nan Butkovich read the minutes.
• Dorothy Bordner presented the Treasurer’s report.
• She also read the checklist. 138 species were
reported as having been seen within 25 miles of the Penn State campus
since 1 Sept. Species of note included Black-crowned Night-heron,
Semipalmated Plover, Pectoral Sandpiper, Baird’s Sandpiper, and
Sanderling.
Announcements
• Joe Verica is the new Vice-President for Field
Trips.
• Greg Grove, Membership Chair, reminded everyone
that annual dues are due.
• Copies of Birds of Central PA are still
available. See Greg Grove or Nick Bolgiano.
• Cards listing 10 top woodland plants were
distributed to anyone interested.
Upcoming events
• Clearwater Conservancy is hosting an Environmental
Film Festival at Mt. Nittany Middle School.
• Spring Creek Day is 3 Oct. at Millbrook
Marsh. The Bird Club will have a table.
• Woodland Owners of Centre Co. will meet 6 Oct. at
Foxdale Marcia Bonta will speak on her family’s woodland
stewardship efforts in Tyrone.
• Big Sit is on 10 Oct. There will be circles
at Bald Eagle State Park, the Shaver’s Creek Boardwalk, the Stone Mtn.
Hawkwatch, and somewhere along the Juniata River.
• Wayne Laubscher will speak at our Oct. meeting on
vagrant western hummingbirds.
Presentation
Greg Grove and Nick Bolgiano gave a presentation on raptor migration in
Central PA. Much of the content was extracted from the three
chapters on hawk migration in their book. There are three main
hawkwatches in our area: Jack’s Mountain, Stone Mountain (both in
Huntingdon Co.) and Tussey Mtn. (on the border of Huntingdon and Centre
Co.) Tussey is a premier eastern location for the spring
migration of Golden Eagles. Wind direction is critical.
Even though Jack’s and Stone are just a few miles apart, the direction
of the wind can result in a great observation day at one location and a
poor one at the other. Not all hawks migrate at the same
time. One very interesting table showed the frequency of
distribution by species throughout the spring and fall months.
The presentation concluded with a discussion of identification tips for
raptors and a quiz that required the audience to apply those tips to
the unknown raptors shown.
Minutes taken by Nan Butkovich, Secretary