State College Bird Club Meeting
November 20, 2024


Presiding: Doug Wentzel

Recording: Peggy Wagoner Saporito

Attendance: 28 in person/10 on zoom

Meeting Format: Hybrid: In-person (Don Hamer Community Room, Millbrook Marsh Nature Center) and Zoom

Treasurer’s report:(Karen Kottlowski):

SCBC account balances: checking: $4601.02 and savings: $5578.65.

Karen thanked the audit committee of Susan Smith, Julia Plummer and Ron Crandall for reviewing and approving the treasurer’s accounting during the past year.

Bird Club Field Trips: (Kathy Bechdel - VP of Field Trips)

The last field trip of the fall season was held on Sunday Nov 17 at Bald Eagle State Park led by Bob Snyder. Unfortunate cold foggy weather and a dearth of waterfowl did not dampen the sprits of the dozen hardy souls that enjoyed a walk through woods and meadow along the lake’s edge, finding familiar avian friends of the season such as juncos, white-throated sparrows and golden-crowned kinglets as well as less frequently seen species, hermit thrush and fox sparrow.

Kathy will be planning spring field trips early in the new year and is happy to receive any thoughts or suggestions. A link to her email is available on the SCBC website: https://www.scbirdcl.org/schedule.current.html

Announcements/Other Activities:

Doug acknowledged Deb Grove’s recent accomplishment of seeing 100+ species in each of PA’s 67 counties. Congrats to Deb!

Next year’s PA Society of Ornithology (PSO) annual meeting will be held in northeastern PA in September.

There was a special request by State College Area School District librarian for anyone from the club interested in assisting at the annual ‘SCASD Reads’ program next February when the theme will be Animal Adventures. Attendance at previous programs has been 1500. For more information about the program see: https://sites.google.com/scasd.org/scasdreads2023?usp=sharing or contact Doug

Joe Gyekis discussed the night walks at the Arboretum that he is leading this fall. At last night’s walk, participants were treated to the varied sounds of a close great horned owl and night vision photos revealed that it held a large prey item, possibly a rabbit. The next walk will occur on Dec 13.

Joe also discussed Giving Tuesday on Dec 3 to support efforts by Penn State Sustainability to benefit biodiversity on Penn State campus by installing bird friendly window treatments. Last year, the Giving Tuesday Campaign broke records with 400+ unique donors, raising over $16,000 which funded the installation of bird collision deterrence "Feather Friendly" dots on a portion of the Verne M. Willamen Gateway, the glass breezeway between the Chemistry and Life Sciences buildings. More of the window area needs to be covered to be more effective. This year the goal is 500 unique donors to help expand the work to retrofit buildings with bird-friendly glass treatments and engage with the community through a public education campaign focused on conservation efforts and the importance of protecting wildlife. Community participation in this fundraising effort is especially important now as the University is scaling back funding in many areas. More information about Giving Tuesday will be posted on the listserv.

Joe G. has also been working with three students who are continuing research on bird collisions with campus buildings. The work of one of these students appears in an article in PA Birds and these students are broadening the community/campus engagement initiative.

The PA Winter Bird Atlas begins on December 1. The handbook with information is available at: https://ebird.org/atlaspa/about/winter-atlas-volunteer-handbook

Christmas Bird Counts begin on December 15 with the Huntingdon and State College counts. Doug encouraged everyone to get involved. Information can be found at https://www.audubon.org/community-science/christmas-bird-count.

Notable Bird Sightings (Julia Plummer): (Nov 1-20, 2024; Centre and its contiguous counties)

Birds of winter are beginning to appear including snow buntings and pine siskins. Evening grosbeaks at Shaver’s Creek, northern shrike and white-winged crossbills north of Snowshoe have been reported. At Bald Eagle State Park, brant and sandhill crane were unusual sightings this month.

Speaker: Steven Feldstein: “My Six Months Birding in Korea: Eastern Palearctic ornithology, common and rare birds, and the thriving Korean birding community.”
(This entire presentation can be viewed at:) https://psu.zoom.us/rec/share/l4r6EwZER35bYcwBEnSrsRMVB42tDs4JhGQwuZIqLVl3dIv6mJPtCVgHnxxo2gKt.feGA6VGF2LA4AaOC?startTime=1732148325000

Steven Feldstein, an emeritus professor of atmospheric science at PSU, is an avid birder with an impressive “life list” who has provided the SCBC with a number of interesting presentations including last year’s discussion about weather impacts on shore bird migration from western Alaska. In celebration of his retirement in January 2023, he indulged his passion for birding during his six-month stay in South Korea from late September, 2023 to late March, 2024.

Steven not only discussed some of the 195 bird species he encountered but he also gave us insight into the thriving birder community of the country. In Korea, birding has grown in popularity, first inspired by the publication in the Korean language of a popular field guide in 2000, then with the COVID pandemic. Having never been saddled with a “nerdy” stereotype, birding in South Korea is considered “cool” and is enjoyed by young people, primarily ages15-35.  They readily use eBird and Merlin, and group trips involve a morning of birding followed by lunch with 2-3 hours of discussion about the birds they encountered on the trip.

Throughout his stay, Steven birded 6-7 times per week which included the fall, winter and early spring. He was able to join field trips with groups, especially Birds Seoul, which gave him the opportunity to bird in many locations throughout the country, both east and west coasts from the southern tip to the demilitarized zone in the north. Thanks to his bird-enthusiast acquaintances, he saw many birds, including rarities that he would not have otherwise had the chance to see.

Steven shared photos, many taken by his birding companions, as well as interesting facts about the birds they encountered. For example, he showed us the four species of tits (chickadees) that can all be found together geographically, unlike our North American chickadees that are represented by only one species in a region. During ice ages when a land bridge connected northern Asia and western Alaska, tits likely moved into the western hemisphere and have not had the evolutionary time to speciate as those in the eastern hemisphere.

South Korea is located at about the same latitude and has a similar climate as ours. Some of the winter woodland mixed flocks that Steven encountered in S. Korea have similar behavior and counterparts to those in our region. For instance, tits (chickadees) in Korea are often found along with treecreepers which are similar to our brown creeper, Eurasian nuthatch, similar to our red-breasted nuthatch and goldcrest, similar to our golden-crowned kinglet.

Though the species in Korea are different from ours many belong to familiar bird categories such as waterfowl, and other water-associated birds, raptors, owls and a variety of passerine groups.  Some of the species in Korea have very similar features or plumage to those in our area such as Mandarin duck, similar to and in the same genus as our wood duck, or the Eastern buzzard and our red-tailed hawk.

Since Steven was in Korea during the winter months, there were a number of species that were winter migrants from Siberia and other northern regions. He shared a video of the amazing spectacle of 500,000 wintering Baikal Teal wheeling in the sky together in flight on their daily movements from roosting areas in wetlands to feeding areas in rice paddies.

Steven also showed us examples of species from groups found in Korea that are unfamiliar to us such as parrotbill, white-eyes, accentor and bulbul.

Toward the end of his stay, Steven was rewarded with the sight of barred-tailed godwits, the species whose migration he had discussed with us last year. These BTG had, the day before, landed in Korea after migrating non-stop for 7 days from New Zealand on their way to breeding grounds in western Alaska. Based on weather data, Steven determined that the birds had timed their flight well to have 6 days of favorable tail winds during their 7-day flight.