State College Bird Club Zoom Meeting
March 22, 2023


Presiding: Doug Wentzel

Recording: Peggy Wagoner Saporito

Attendance: 61

Meeting Format: Zoom

Treasurer’s report:(Karen Kottlowski):
The SCBC checking account balance is $3807.78 and saving account balance is $5573.77. Last month, $100 was sent as a donation to Erie Bird Observatory upon the request of February’s speaker, Mary Birdsong.

Bird Club Field Trips: (Susan Smith)

Our first field trip on March 19 to Bald Eagle State Park was led by Bob Snyder. The next trip, scheduled for April 1, will be led by Joe Gyekis at Chicory Lane Farm. Additional trips are scheduled for April and May. Details for each trip can be found on our website www.scbirdcl.org

Announcements/Other Activities:

Board member elections will be held at our regular April meeting. The nominating committee; Susan Smith, Deb Escalet and Larry Miles, is looking to fill positions for President, VP of Programs, Secretary and 2 at large Board seats. The committee encourages any interested members to infuse “new blood” into the ranks of our board. Joe Gyekis, current VP of Programs, is stepping down from this role. The nominating committee welcomes nominations from club members. Contact Susan. Anyone can nominate themselves up to and including during the April meeting at which time club members will vote.

Chad Kauffman, PA Society of Ornithology (PSO), is heading up an effort to bird under-birded counties in PA where there are currently low numbers of e-bird checklists. The next effort will take place in Greene county, April 28-30. For more information about this weekend of birding contact Chad.

Deb Grove and Julia Plummer have been hard at work organizing the PSO’s Birding Festival to be held in mid-May here in State College. For Details see https://pabirds.org/BirdingFestival/BF.php

Greg Grove gave us an update on the proposed Rutter’s truck stop development adjacent to Old Crow wetland. The DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) has recently updated their permitting criteria to provide tougher standards for pollutants impacting water resources. This is an encouraging sign, but in no way a guarantee that Old Crow wetland will be protected.

Today the season total for golden eagles (GE) at Tussey Mountain Hawkwatch stands at 98. The number of GE counted to date has been lower than many years due to lack of favorable south winds. However, GE still represent the highest proportion of any species seen at the watch to date. Red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures are now coming through in numbers. As the season progresses, we can still look forward to a variety of accipiters, falcons, osprey and harriers.

Notable Bird Sightings: Greg Grove’s Summary
(Feb 23-March 22, 2022; Centre and its contiguous counties)

March is the month of waterfowl moving though our region.

Usually, as snow geese migrate northward, they tend to stay toward the eastern side of our state. This year unusually large numbers were seen in early March including a flock of 700. Ross and greater white fronted geese were also noted. Large numbers of tundra swans were seen earlier this year. In all 21 species of ducks have been noted including a flock of 100 northern pintails, lots of ring-necked ducks as well as a large gathering of 55 horned grebes.

Ruffed grouse, a species that is declining due to West Nile Virus, was reported in concerningly low numbers. There were only 12 reported this month in the region, all reporting only a single bird and one report of 2 birds.

American coots are another species that is seen in fewer numbers now compared to 10-20 years ago. The largest single sighting during this past month was 6.

On a brighter note, woodcock are back and a greater yellow legs was seen at Bald Eagle State Park. Birds to look forward to during early April as they move into or through our area include Bonaparte’s gull, common loon, osprey, phoebes, American pipits, fox sparrows, Eastern towhees, rusty blackbirds, yellow-rumped and pine warblers all of which are beginning to be reported now.

Other interesting sightings included 3 reports of saw whet owls, a northern shrike, a large flock of 90 American pipits and the last sighting of a single evening grosbeak in late February.


Speaker: Steven Feldstein: "The Impact of the Weather on Shorebird Migration in Western Alaska."

This entire presentation can be viewed for a limited time at: https://psu.zoom.us/rec/share/6nv4uhz0Yn_Z6p7dnV0GPDH9WAurZ7nfGhtjIm6JSpofIB4OKpugnka4r6CiCqiz.MvR43XBthY_nV8TH?startTime=1679527392000

As an avid birder and highly accomplished meteorology professor at Penn State, Dr. Feldstein tied his research and knowledge of global climactic and atmospheric cycles with his love of birds in this technical and insightful presentation.

Steven focused his discussion on the bristle-thighed curlew (BTC) and bar-tailed godwit (BTG) both of which are among a dozen or so shorebird species that make incredible semi-annual trans-Pacific migrations over thousands of miles of open ocean from wintering grounds in the southern Pacific to their nesting grounds in Alaska and back. Both the curlews and godwits are long lived species (~20 years) that depend upon ideal weather conditions for such long distance, multi-day migrations.

Three weather conditions are particularly problematic for successful migration. Strong headwinds cause depletion of fat reserves in migrants as they battle with the winds or are forced to divert course and cover greater distances. Strong lateral winds force migrants to drift off course and extensive or deep cloud cover reduce visibility and can cause disorientation.

Steven first described the unusual weather patterns in the last week of April 1998 that resulted in a fallout of BTC on the US west coast during the curlews’ spring migration from the tropical Pacific to nesting areas of western Alaska.

Migrants encountered 55mph (25m/s) headwinds blowing from the north as they were flying northward over the eastern Pacific, west of the continental US. With these strong winds, migrants could make no progress while depleting their energy reserves. Instead, they drifted downwind where they encountered eastward moving storms that pushed the curlews toward the US where they were seen in on the coast of California and Washington state during the fallout of late April 1998.

The amplitude of this anomalous weather pattern had only been seen once before during the late April migration season since records had begun in 1950. The unusually strong north winds in the temperate eastern Pacific appeared to have been generated by an atypical lack of thunderstorm activity across the tropical Pacific highlighting the global impacts of weather patterns.

Using current weather models applied to the conditions recorded during the last week of April 1998, the trajectory of BTC ending up along the west coast in CA and WA is predicted.

Steve next discussed the role of global interconnected weather patterns in the 9-day, non-stop fall migration of BTG from their breeding area in western Alaska directly to New Zealand over 7,200 miles of open ocean.

Prior to migration, the godwits undergo an array of physiological changes including increased fat (fuel) reserves, shrinkage of digestive organs and changes in heart, flight muscle and blood viscosity among others. 

The majority of BTG depart western Alaska during a 48 hour period when winds are optimal, not only at the starting point of their fall migration, but during the 9 days along the entire migration route. The godwits depart on day 2 of a 3 day period of persistent northern winds. Waiting until the second day of northerly winds provides more assurance that conditions will be favorable throughout the long migration flight. The godwits have consistent tail winds from 60° North down to 30°N latitude as they fly south over the eastern Pacific.

At around 30°N, they encounter the trade winds blowing from the east which helps push them toward the west into the central tropical Pacific and more in line with the longitude of New Zealand.

As BTG approach New Zealand from the north, the southern hemisphere jet stream along which storms are typically generated around New Zealand, moves south of the islands. This enables the godwits to avoid storms and strong head winds towards the end of their journey.

It is hypothesized that a large region of strong thunderstorm activity over Indonesia propagates the weather and wind conditions from the tropics into middle and high latitudes in both hemispheres that benefit fall migration of BTG. The effect of these Indonesian storms ripple across the Pacific. This effect includes generating consistent north winds in the eastern temperate Pacific (60°N-30°N latitude) and favorable trade winds in the tropical latitudes (30°N-30°S latitude) as well as suppressing development of tropical cyclones along the BTG migration route and pushing the southern hemisphere storm track south of New Zealand as BTG reach their destination.

In spring, because of global weather patterns, these godwits take a different route back to their breeding grounds in Alaska. They head northwest from New Zealand to the Yellow Sea, then eastward along the north Pacific to Alaska.