State College Bird Club (Brief) Meeting
May 27, 2026


Presiding: Doug Wentzel

Recording: Peggy Wagoner Saporito

Attendance: 22

Meeting Format: In-person potluck picnic at Millbrook Marsh pavilion on a lovely, mid 70’sF evening.

Bird Club Field Trips: (Kathy Bechdel VP of Field Trips, in absentia tonight)

The annual Sweets and Swifts field trip will be Wednesday July 15 from 8:15-9:15 at Ferguson Township Elementary School.

All the details can be found on our website: https://www.scbirdcl.org/schedule.current.html


Treasurer’s report:(Karen Kottlowski):

SCBC account balances: Checking: $7434.80 and Savings: $22,581.20, $20,000 of which is from the anonymous charitable gift received last year to be used on our project to apply bird safe glass materials along with education about birds and bird safe glass at Spring Creek Elementary School.


Announcements/Other Activities

The Millbrook Marsh Nature Center (MMNC) bird walks have wrapped up for the season. Doug thanked all of the club volunteers who participated in leading these bird walks.

Kathy (by way of Doug) thanked all of the volunteers who led SCBC sponsored bird walks throughout the year.

This coming weekend (May 30) is Frogfest at Muddy Paws Wetland in Spring Mills, sponsored by Penns Valley Conservation Association. SCBC will be present with our table and Joe Gyekis will be leading a bird walk.

Judy Sinn championed a screening of the “Extraordinary Caterpillar” movie this summer which will be shown at Millbrook Marsh on July 1 at 7pm. This is an hour-long documentary made by Doug Tallamy with amazing footage of caterpillars in their environments. The showing of this movie is being jointly sponsored by SCBC and PA Native Plant Society. Details are on our website https://www.scbirdcl.org/

Doug also thanked all of the Board members and other club members who have devoted their time and efforts this year toward making the club an active and engaged participant in the community. He also thanked the Board for all they do for the club:

Brady Thomas, our VP of Programs, for setting up interesting speakers for our monthly meetings

Karen Kottlowski, our Treasurer, for all she does to keep track of the accounts, various payments for our activities and updating membership lists.

Bob Fowles, Board member at large for keeping the website up to date

Kathy Bechdel, VP of Field Trips, for organizing great bird walks and working on many of the community facing activities of the club.

Peggy Wagoner, Secretary, for minutes of meetings and serving on the grant selection committee.

Jon Kauffman, Deb Escalet and Doug Mason, Board members-at-large, for their help on various committees.

And we thanked Doug for his leadership as President.

SCBC Bird Conservation Endowment Fund: Report from Grant Distribution Committee (Peggy Wagoner, Sue Braun and Deb Escalet)

We received 6 funding-worthy grant proposals this year as follows:

1.    Coty Ehrenhaus: “Bird Biology and Conservation Summer Camp Pilot”
2.    Noah Hart: “Bird-Safe School Windows: Student-Led Collision Prevention and Education” (Delta   School)
3.    Susan Hart: “Enhancing a Native Bird Habitat and Education Feeder Station” (Millbrook Marsh  Nature Center)
4.    Nick Kerlin: “Rehab Nest Boxes” (Soaring Eagle and Dreibelbis Birding Areas)
5.    Centre County PA Master Naturalists (Mallory Wahlstrom, Kristy Gallo and Donnan Stoicovy): “Wings in the Meadow” (Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center)
6.    Emily Young, (grad student at Shippensburg University): “Nest-Box Microclimate and its Impact on Reproductive Success of Eastern Bluebird” (Canoe Creek State Park and Fort Roberdeau Historical Site

The total requested from all of these proposals was $3710, far beyond the $1463 we have available for distribution this year. In the application, some projects stated that they would still be able to use a lesser amount to accomplish a portion of the goals of their projects. By using $342 from our SCBC checking account to supplement the $1463 available, we would be able to fully fund projects #4 and 6, and half or more of projects #1, 3 and 5. Because project #2 so perfectly aligns with the goals that the $20K Anonymous Gift committee has set forth for bird-safe windows and education at State College Area Schools, that committee agreed to devote a portion of the Anonymous Gift funds to support project #2.

Members present at this May meeting were asked to approve spending. Brady made a motion to approve spending of the $1463 from our Endowment and $342 from SCBC checking to be used to fund the projects as stated above. We then had some clarification discussion. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Brady also made a motion to approve spending $1000 from the $20K Anonymous Gift to support project #2. This motion was seconded and also passed unanimously.