State College Bird Club Meeting
March 26, 2025


Presiding: Doug Wentzel

Recording: Peggy Wagoner Saporito
 
Attendance: 32 in person/12 on zoom

Meeting Format: Hybrid: In-person (Millbrook Marsh Nature Center) and Zoom.

Bird Club Field Trips

The list of Bird Club field trips available this spring was projected on screen before the meeting began for participants to see as they arrived to the meeting and at the meeting’s conclusion. The first trip in this series will be on Sunday morning, March 30 at Bald Eagle State Park.

Upcoming Bird Club Meetings: (Brady Thomas)

At our April meeting, Bryce Robinson from Cornell will give a presentation on his work with red-tailed hawks.

The May meeting will be our “Potluck Extravaganza”.  Help with food coordination, tablecloths, plates, cups, silverware, napkins etc. is needed. Susan Braun agreed to help with that activity and enlist the help of others. The location of the potluck is still to be determined. Locating this activity at a park where community members who may not otherwise cross paths with the Bird Club are being considered to increase our exposure.

Treasurer’s report:(Karen Kottlowski):

SCBC account balances: checking: $3976.00 and savings: $5579.45.

Announcements/Other Activities:

Peggy requested participation of a couple more SCBC member volunteers for our SCBC Endowment grant selection committee, currently composed of Susan Braun, Deb Escalet and Peggy Wagoner. We have $1,416 of endowment funds to distribute this spring for bird conservation projects, research or education in our region. Applications for these bird conservation grants are due April 30. The application is available at the bottom, middle of our homepage on our website https://www.scbirdcl.org. The selection committee will be reviewing applications in May and make our decision by May 28. Our committee’s decisions will be announced at the club’s potluck for final approval by SCBC members in attendance. If interested in participating in our selection committee or if you have any questions about the grant application process, please contact Susan, Deb or Peggy.

Board member elections will be held at the April meeting. Board positions up for election this year include President, VP of Program, Secretary, and two Board members-at-large (currently Doug W., Brady, Peggy, Deb E. and Doug Mason respectively). Jon Kauffman, the Nominating Committee Chair, requested two other active club members to volunteer for the committee. If interested, email Jon.

Jon also discussed activities of the outreach committee (Kathy, Brady, Jon). There have been a lot of requests for SCBC participation in more tabling events and other outreach activities. As a result, SCBC needs props and equipment for these activities. Items that would be useful include our own table cover with SCBC logo, a free-standing sign that could be placed at the start of bird walks and at tabling events, postcards with useful SCBC information that can be handed out at events, hats, stickers, maps with good birding locations etc. Jon presented a motion to members at the meeting to spend up to an initial $1500 to obtain a variety of tabling materials for use at events this year and beyond. The motion was seconded by Larry Ramsey and passed with a show of hands.

Anyone interested in helping to represent SCBC at upcoming events is welcome. For more details, contact Jon.

Jon discussed a project to develop lesson plans and outreach activities related to farmland raptors (kestrels and barn owls). As part of this project, high quality video of both species are needed. Appropriate barn owl videos are readily available, but useful videos of kestrels are lacking. Jon has been working with a local videographer, Joe Glass, who has begun filming kestrels for use in this education project and is asking for $500 to cover costs. Jon presented a motion to members at tonight’s meeting to spend $500 for the kestrel video project. Joe Gyekis seconded the motion and it passed with a show of hands.

At the recent Board meeting on March 4, the Board approved spending $120 toward two books each at Schlow library in memoriam for Don Bryant and Dorothy Bordner. Susan Smith, who has previously facilitated this type of contribution, is working with Schlow library.

Other activities that SCBC has recently supported include a $200 donation in collaboration with Juniata Valley Audubon and others to support a book presentation and informative forest walk by Ethan Tapper related to his bestselling book, “How to Love a Forest”.

Autumn Hanley introduced herself as a SCBC member, PA Master Naturalist trainee, and Howard Borough Councilor who is pursuing the possibility to register the Howard area (Howard Borough & Howard Township) as a PA Bird Town. The Howard area covers the majority of the shoreline of Bald Eagle State Park Reservoir, an important bird area. These municipalities require a dedicated Bird Town Committee before they will consider pursuing a Bird Town designation. Autumn is seeking 2-3 volunteers from the Howard area (zip code 16841) to serve as committee members. If you are interested in serving on the Howard Area Bird Town Committee, please contact Autumn.

Registration for the Shaver’s Creek Birding Cup is now open. This year’s donations will go toward supporting habitat restoration and enhancement at Musser’s Gap, spearheaded by Mike Toolan.

Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch

Adam Bradley, our official counter, discussed the results of the hawk watch to date. There have been 13 species of raptors seen since the watch began on February 20 with a total of 134 golden eagles so far this season. Equally impressive is the 164 birders who have come to the watch during the season along with numerous hikers passing through who have expressed interest in our hawk watching activity. The count will continue through April.

Adam also discussed how he and some visitors that he has spoken with at the watch were having difficulty signing up for our SCBC listserv. He also mentioned that it would be convenient to have something like a business card or postcard about SCBC to hand to interested visitors.

Notable Bird Sightings (Greg Grove): (Feb 27- Mar 26, 2025; Centre and its contiguous counties)

March is waterfowl migration month and interesting sightings included greater white-fronted geese, trumpeter swans and a Eurasian widgeon. Twenty-two duck species have been recorded. Sandhill cranes are still being seen at Buffalo Run Road. American woodcock have returned and beginning April 1, territorial behavior can be accurately noted when conducting PA Bird Atlasing. Shorebirds include Wilson’s snipe, both greater and lesser yellowlegs, pectoral sandpiper, Bonaparte’s gulls and even a great egret recorded on March 16, the earliest recorded arrival of this species.

Four short-eared owls are still being seen in the field along Metz road near Mifflintown. Also in that area, Carolina chickadees have been seen as their range is moving northward. A few purple martins have arrived and a catbird, which may have actually been a wintering bird, has been noted. Purple finch numbers are decreasing now, but the highest ever number was recorded on the Huntingdon County Christmas bird count this winter.

Chipping sparrows and pine warblers are making their way back and a Bullocks oriole was recorded. Rusty blackbirds have been seen in greater numbers this past month than have been reported in recent years.

Greg reminded us to branch out in our atlasing efforts to cover lesser birded areas and counties such as Clinton, Clearfield, Blair and Cameron.

Annual Photo and Audio Show: hosted by Betsy Manlove and Nick Bolgiano.

We enjoyed a delightful evening of bird photographs taken from a wide variety of locations ranging from local backyards to halfway around the world presented by a great group of bird club members who shared their passions and stories about each photos. This generous group of 12 photographers each shared up to five photos. Thanks to photographers: Tina Hay, Deb Rittlemann, Ron Crandall (presented by his 8 year old grandson, Noah Hart), Autumn Hanley, Karl Streidieck (presented by Nick B.), Linnea Smeds, Lou Saporito, Larry Ramsey, Bill Rafton, Joe Gyekis, Susan Braun and Nick Bolgiano. To wrap up the evening, Julia Plummer shared several intriguing song recordings with associated sonagrams including the exotic sounding song of our summer woodland local, the veery, and Columbian birds that she recorded during a recent trip.

Thanks again to Nick and Betsy for organizing this annual fun event!