State College
Bird Club ZOOM Meeting
October 25, 2023
Presiding: Doug Wentzel
Recording: Peggy Wagoner Saporito
Attendance:46
Meeting Format: Zoom
Treasurer’s report:(Karen Kottlowski):
SCBC balance in the checking account is $4088 and savings account
is $5575.85. This is member renewal season. Since July we have had
8 new members sign up and 17 renewals. We continue to work on
setting up Paypal on the website. In the meantime, for
instructions to pay dues, check our website: www.scbirdcl.org.
The audit committee of Ron Crandall, Kathy Bechdel and Julia
Plummer has been set. They will be reviewing the treasurer’s
accounting during the past year.
Announcements/Other Activities:
A working group of Susan Braun, Deb Escalet and Peggy Wagoner has
been established to develop a procedure for distributing funds
generated annually from our Centre Foundation endowment.
The listserv continues to be a wonderful source of
information about recent sightings and photos of birds as well as
daily updates from the hawkwatches in our area. If you are
interested in signing up, instructions are on the website. www.scbirdcl.org.
The SCBC history project, a 70-page compilation of stories
spanning over 80 years from our founding in 1941 through 2023
compiled by Nick Kerlin is now complete. The next step will be to
determine the best means of making this available to a wide
audience. Thanks so much to Nick for this wonderful effort.
Project Feeder Watch (https://feederwatch.org) is
beginning. Active feeders are established at PSU Arboretum and
Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. Anyone interested in helping
to monitor these feeders is welcome.
Greg Grove updated us on the proposed seven acre Rutter’s truck
stop development adjacent to and uphill from Old Crow wetland.
Smithfield township supervisors have given Rutters another
extension for nine months to address issues and criticisms of
their planned development. At the DEP sponsored public meeting
last May, opposition among the many members of the public in
attendance was unanimous and many were given a chance to express
their opposition. There is no word yet as to any DEP decision.
Doug reminded us that due to the Thanksgiving holiday, next
month’s meeting will be on November 15 when Alan MacEachren
will be our speaker.
Bird Club Field Trips: (Susan Smith VP of Field Trips)
One more field trip is planned for November 12 led by Bob Snyder
at Bald Eagle State Park (details on our website: www.scbirdcl.org).
Notable Bird Sightings (Greg Grove): (Sept. 27 – Oct 25,
2023; Centre and its contiguous counties)
Waterfowl are beginning to come into our area. November is
primetime for migrating waterfowl, so be on the lookout
particularly during storms which force migrants down onto our
local lakes. Red-necked grebes, an unusual fall visitor, was seen
at Bald Eagle State Park. The rufous hummingbird in Penns Valley
was a special treat for a couple of weeks before it moved on.
Sadly, an extremely rare clapper rail was killed in a window
strike on PSU campus (referred to in the minutes of our Sept 27,
2023 meeting). This rail is typically only found around salt
water. Virginia rail and common gallinule were noted. Thanks
to Jon Kauffman for keeping tabs on the variety of interesting
shorebirds along PA Furnace Road including several plovers,
sandpipers and dunlin. At the hawkwatches, the earliest recorded
rough-legged hawk was seen at Stone Mtn. on October 7. Monitoring
at Bald Eagle mtn hawkwatch began this week now that migrating
golden eagles are beginning to make an appearance at local
hawkwatches. Marsh wrens were seen in Big Valley and Old Crow
wetland. Several red crossbills were seen at Shavers Creek and
relatively large numbers of pine siskins have already been noted.
This could be an “invasion” year for the winter finches with a
particularly good pine seed crop on local conifers. Interesting
sparrows have included Nelson’s. Since the last meeting, 27
warbler species have been noted moving through the area including
the less often seen species; orange-crowned, mourning and
Connecticut. Local night flight call data has revealed northern
saw-whet owls and dickcissel flying over our area on their
migration.
Speaker: Mercy Melo: “Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's American
Kestrel Project.”
(This entire presentation can be viewed at:)
https://psu.zoom.us/rec/share/xMv2or_zoywCH6zuSpaUzLG9xjZtIGoWoRim0znxKrnO5at2WA2NhwRoubvzfgdG.42piVn0PUAUfy9Pd
Mercy, a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
is conducting a multifaceted study to address the decline of
American kestrels. She is doing this work in association with Hawk
Mountain Sanctuary’s American Kestrel Project, the longest running
American kestrel nest box program in the country started in the
1950’s and now numbering 130 nest boxes in the areas surrounding
HMS.
As a study species, kestrels offer many advantages. In fact, these
little falcons were the species studied in captivity during the
1960’s and 70’s that showed the negative impacts of DDT on raptors
and led to its eventual ban.
Kestrels, the smallest diurnal raptors in North American, are
found throughout the continent. Within much of the US, they are
present year-round. Kestrels inhabit open areas such as
agricultural and grassland settings, making them relatively easy
to spot on the landscape. As cavity nesters, they readily utilize
nest boxes that can be monitored throughout the breeding season,
allowing researchers to follow the development of young.
Additionally, kestrels’ sexual dimorphism makes distinguishing the
sexes easy.
As shown by Breeding Bird Surveys and annual migration counts at
hawk watches, there has been a significant decline in kestrel
populations seen throughout much of the continent including the
northeast. The research that Mercy is involved with hopes to
identify causes of this decline and develop management plans to
address and reverse this trend.
One factor implicated in the decline is the kestrels’ diet which
includes insects (such as grasshoppers), songbirds (starling size
and smaller) and rodents (voles and mice). The presence of
kestrels in agricultural settings can be beneficial, since these
falcons eat pests that may otherwise consume or contaminate
agricultural products such as grains. However, their diet exposes
kestrels to the rodenticides, insecticide and herbicides that are
used on croplands. These pesticides have shown a range of negative
impacts on kestrels ranging from reduced cognitive ability to
acute toxicity.
In addition to these environmental contaminants, a variety of
additional interrelated factors are having negative impacts on
kestrel populations. Habitat change due to residential or
industrial development in areas that were formerly agricultural or
grassland landscapes reduce suitable habitat for nesting, reduce
prey abundance and can introduce contaminants such as rodenticides
and pesticides used in home landscapes. Predation by larger
raptors such as Coopers hawks or competition for nest sites by
introduced species such as starlings can negatively impact kestrel
populations. Other factors such as West Nile Virus, mortality in
migration, collisions with structures and climate change can all
have negative impacts on kestrel numbers.
Mercy described the extensive monitoring of all nest boxes in the
HMS American Kestrel Project. Activities include weekly growth
measurements of chicks and blood samples taken prior to fledging
tested for contaminants. Young are banded and some fitted with
transmitters so they can be followed after their departure from
the nest. Landscape level monitoring of prey (small mammal, insect
and songbird abundance) and vegetation surveys in areas
surrounding nest boxes are recorded. Additionally, the impact of
the presence of Coopers hawk on nesting kestrels was studied using
Coop call recordings and a taxidermy Coop dummy during the nesting
season.
This extensive monitoring is being replicated by many
collaborators in locations across the country, particularly in the
Northeast. The goal is to develop and communicate management plans
to help kestrel populations throughout their range. Data and
results from all of these collaborators are still being compiled,
but already there are recommendations that are being communicated
to the public to help kestrels including providing nestboxes,
maintaining suitable habitats and reducing/eliminating the use of
pesticides. Helping kestrels will also benefit all farmland and
grassland species that have suffered the greatest population
declines over the past 50 years.