State College Bird Club Zoom Meeting
January 25, 2023


Presiding: Doug Wentzel

Recording: Peggy Wagoner Saporito

Attendance: 35

Meeting Format: Zoom


Announcement/Old Business update

Doug updated us on the current state of the recently established SCBC endowment fund with Centre Foundation. Initially the fund was set up with $12,500 coming from the SCBC savings account. Members generously added an additional $2,500 during the month after establishment of the account. Centre Foundation matched our funds resulting in a total endowment of $29,497. This total should generate an annual income each June of around $1,300 and will be used to support bird conservation activities in our region.

Treasurer’s report: (Karen Kottlowski):

The SCBC checking account balance is $4,278.72 and saving account balance, is $5,573.77, which is reduced compared to last month due to funding the endowment.

Bird Club Field Trips: (Susan Smith)

Susan is scheduling spring field trips. The first will be March 19 with more information to follow.

Announcements/Other Activities:
Thanks to everyone who participates in the various bird counts through the colder months. The Christmas bird count compilers have done a massive amount of work again this year to pull together results of last month’s counts. Other counting activities that have recently completed, are on-going and will be coming up include winter raptor surveys, hawk watches, and the Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb 17-20: https://www.birdcount.org/

Our annual meeting to share photos and sounds from the past year will be on May 24. Nick Bolgiano and Betsy Manlove are organizing this event. Information about how to submit photos and audio can be found in the ‘Meetings and Field Trip Schedule’ section on our website: https://www.scbirdcl.org/

The Huntingdon Arts Council is sponsoring a show, Old Crow through the Seasons in early February. See their website for more information: https://huntingdoncountyarts.com/?page_id=575

There have been questions about how best to access the Duck Pond for viewing birds. The chain link fence that currently blocks access to the area will be removed by late summer or early fall after access improvements are completed. In the meantime, viewing from the grounds of Centre Mansion Furnace is the safest option.

The annual meeting of PSO (PA Society of Ornithology) will be held at the Ramada Inn in State College, May 19-21, 2023. This is the first year that the meeting will be a Birding Festival with speakers and field trips open to participants. Registration for this event will be coming soon. Deb Grove has been sending emails to the listserv to keep us informed.

Nick Kerlin continues his work on the SCBC history project, spanning a period from establishment in 1941 to the present, with interviews and reviewing documents at Pattee library.

Notable Bird Sightings: (Dec 14, 2022 – Jan 25, 2023; Centre and its contiguous counties)
Since Greg Grove was unable to join us tonight, individuals entered their interesting sightings into the Zoom chat. With today’s snowfall, tree sparrows were noted at some feeders in the area.

Speaker: Carl Engstrom:  “Summer with the Tides: Fieldwork in the Saltmarshes of New Jersey” 

Carl, a recent Penn State graduate, grew up in State College with a lifelong passion for birds. He described his work during summer 2021 with the Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program (SHARP): https://www.tidalmarshbirds.org

Hurricane Sandy inspired interest in tidal saltmarsh habitats because of their ability to protect coastal areas from the ravages of severe weather. As a result of Hurricane Sandy, SHARP, a collaborative project among several state, federal and university entities from Maryland to Maine, was established in 2011 to support tidal marsh bird conservation through population studies and to propose solutions to prevent serious declines in these species and their wetland habitats. Funding for the project continued through 2022 but will not be continued beyond.
 
In the US, saltmarsh habitat is found only along the eastern seaboard. It requires a long time to form but much of the original saltmarsh has been destroyed by human development and what remains is fragmented and largely surrounded by development.

Currently, the greatest threat to saltmarsh habitat is sea level rise due to climate change. Carl showed us 2 maps of the saltmarsh area adjacent to Manahawkin Bay in southern NJ. The current map shows a fairly healthy area of saltmarsh, though it is surrounded by development. The map projecting sea level rise in 40 years, shows the estimated 2-foot rise which will completely submerge the existing saltmarsh around Manahawkin Bay. Since it is surrounded by development, the habitat can not expand into high elevation areas and will therefore be completely lost.

To evaluate saltmarsh bird populations and habitat, Carl described the random point count techniques used. Because saltmarsh habitat is so fragmented, not all of the random points sampled were actually saltmarsh.

At each point, bird species were noted through sight, sound and call back response to recorded bird calls. Vegetation was also assessed. Healthy saltmarsh vegetation is dominated by Spartina grass with tall grass Spartina in areas which flood with the tides, and short grass Spartina in slightly higher elevations that do not regularly flood.

Carl discussed the four obligate saltmarsh bird species of greatest interest in the study: Clapper Rail, Eastern Willet, Atlantic Saltmarsh Sparrow and Seaside Sparrow. One third or more of the total populations of each of these four species is found in NJ.

Clapper Rails, an omnivorous species spends the entire year in saltmarsh habitat. It is a ground nester with large clutches (2-16 eggs) of precocious young. Although populations have been declining 5% per year since 1998, this is still a game species with a hunting season, Sept 1- Nov 21.

Eastern Willet, a large formerly hunted shorebird, nests on the ground with clutches averaging 4 eggs. There is no evidence of population change since 1998.

The Atlantic Seaside Sparrow never leaves the saltmarsh. Its relatively long bill, for a sparrow, allows it to have a variable diet. Nests contain 2-5 eggs and are built a few inches off the ground above the waterline, protecting eggs and young from high spring tides. Though there is no evidence of population decline since 1998 for this subspecies of seaside sparrow, the story of its Florida relative, the Dusky seaside sparrow, which went extinct in 1987, provides a cautionary tale if habitat is not protected.

Split from the Nelson’s sparrow in 1995, the Saltmarsh Sparrow lives only along the coast and may be the next to go extinct. Its breeding strategy may help it to survive for a bit longer. As a nonterritorial species, males, with no need to sing to establish territories, have no real song. Instead, they roam around the saltmarsh breeding with females that can mate with several males. They are ground nesters, laying 3-6 eggs. With a 11-12 day incubation period, eggs and nestlings are susceptible to high spring tides. Compared to other passerines, saltmarsh sparrow nestlings have a bit more mobility and manage to scramble up nearby vegetation to escape minor flooding events. If nesting fails, female may breed again if failure occurs within the window of opportunity for nesting. However, these strategies did not help in 2021 when there was a late May high water storm along the NJ coast which caused a total failure of saltmarsh sparrow nests. The species has been declining by 9% annually since 1998 with a 75% population loss from 1998-2012. Unfortunately, decisions about listing this species as vulnerable have been postponed until fall 2023.

In addition to studying bird populations, SHARP proposed solutions to the threats facing saltmarshes. Protecting the edges of saltmarshes from development will allow saltmarsh habitat to expand into new areas as sea levels rise. Eliminating Phragmites, an invasive species which outcompetes the essential Spartina grasses, will improve the health of habitat for birds and other saltmarsh species. Strategically establishing ditches in saltmarshes could alleviate some of the pressures created by higher tide levels. On a small scale, floating islands anchored to the substrate can be built and planted with Spartina. Rising and falling with the tides, these structures do not flood and have supported nesting sparrows.

Carl also described some other fun encounters with birds and other creatures he had during his summer working with SHARP. Currently a grad student at Ohio State University, Carl is now studying how cerulean warbler populations are impacted by forest management.