Three Rivers Birding Club
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Mission of 3RBC: To gather in friendship, to enjoy the wonders of nature and to share our passion for birds!

The Three Rivers Birding Club was formed in July of 2001. Today, there are over 220 members who appreciate birds and the natural world of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Our members are diverse: we have naturalists, teachers, plumbers, electricians, chemists, laborers, students, retirees, doctors, and others.

First and foremost, we have many outings to locations in Western Pennsylvania and beyond. We meet 6 times a year to see slide shows and hold workshops mainly about birds, bringing in the most outstanding speakers we can find.

And, we socialize with each other a lot, at meetings and outings, because we are birders who like the company of other birders.

The club is now a permanent fixture in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Other Three Rivers Birding Club activities and projects are, or could someday include Special Areas Projects (SAPs), bluebird box trail creation and maintenance, building and maintaining purple martin houses, rare and endangered bird restoration projects, collecting and cataloguing bird populations, record keeping for Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and breeding bird surveys, participation in North American Migration Counts and Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs).

The club's newsletter, The Peregrine, is a bi-monthly newsletter mailed to members. This newsletter is named for Pittsburgh's most spectacular resident bird. Articles that are regular features include, meeting dates and locations, club outings scheduled for each season, short reports of recent club events, treasurer's reports and a message from the President including news, plans, and discussion about the club.

In addition to the newsletter, we have this web site where members and non-members can receive up-to-date information on outings, reports from outings with links to eNature's online field guides, and special notices that may not appear in the newsletter. Our web site includes a bulletin board where members can discuss a sighting and ask questions about birds, a gallery of member photos, trip reports, checklist of birds for Important Bird Areas and directions to birding areas around Southwestern Pennsylvania. It is our goal to create a web site that is first-class for a birding club that will provide members and non-members information about our birding in and around Western Pennsylvania.

The club is operated by its officers and a steering committee composed of committee heads and other active members.

Officers of the club for 2008 are:

Jim Valimont, President and Outings Committee
Bob VanNewkirk, Vice President and Outings Committee
Bob Machesney, Treasurer
Pat & Sherron Lynch, Co-Secretaries and Peregrine Copy Editors (photos)

Steering Committee Members include the above officers, and also Committee Leaders and particularly active members. They are:

Steve Thomas, Outings Coordinator
Mike Fialkovich, Bird Reporting and Recording Officer, Peregrine Bird Reports Editor
Randi & Sarah Gerrish, Peregrine Distribution Staff
Paul Hess, Peregrine Editor
Jack & Sue Solomon, co-chairs of the Hospitality Committee
Becky Byerly (photo)
Julia Pahountis-Opacic, Webmaster
Ian and Margaret Haigh, Program Directors
Brian Shema, Liaison with Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania