State College Bird Club

17 November 2010

The State College Bird Club met at Foxdale Village on 17 Nov. 2010.  Twenty-six 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.  118 species were reported as having been seen within 25 miles of the Penn State campus since 27 Oct.  Species of note included Dunlin, Greater Scaup, White-winged Scoter, Canvasback, and Black Scoter.

Announcements
•    No announcements.

Upcoming events
•    Next meeting: 15 Dec. – Program on birds of Tanzania by Mark and Ruth Henry.
•    Local Christmas Bird Counts have been announced.  Contact the coordinators if you want to participate in any of them.
o    Lewistown and Clup (Blair Co.) – 18 Dec.
o    Huntingdon and State College – 19 Dec.
o    Lake Rayestown – 27 Dec.
o    Bald Eagle State Park – 2 Jan.

Presentation
The presentation was by Cindy Patrick, who spoke on birds of the Galapagos Islands.  She visited there in July 2009.  Since the Galapagos Islands are in the southern hemisphere, this was the middle of winter, which meant that the days were mild but the seas were rougher… an important consideration since they travelled from one island to another by boat.  She and her group saw roughly half of the 98 bird species reported there.  She included information on feeding and breeding behavior for many species, such as the Galapagos Hawk (the only resident hawk), many of the finch species made famous in Darwin’s, the Flightless Cormorant, the nocturnal feeding Swallow-tailed Gull, and all three species of Boobies present in the Galapagos Islands.


Minutes taken by Nan Butkovich, Secretary