Club Co-hosts Birding Festival
By Jack Solomon!

Over 230 people attended the first major birding festival in Pittburgh's history at the Frick Environmental Center, co-hosted by the Three Rivers Birding Club over May 3, 4 and 5. 101 bird species were found during the event by scheduled parties of birders, led by Jim Valimont, Mike Fialkovich, Joe Walko, Joan Tague, Walt Shaffer, workshop leaders Chuck Tague, Steve Hoffman and Ted Floyd,and a scattering of parties birding on their own.

Highlights were a pair of Eastern Bluebirds heard flying over by keynote speaker Julie Zickefoose, and an Evening Grosbeak, heard and seen by club Bird Reporting Officer Mike Fialkovich. Twenty one (21) warbler species were on the list. The group led by Joan Tague, assisted by Chuck Tague, found the Black-billed Cuckoo.

The outing leaders were ably assisted by club members Pat and Sherron Lynch, Paul Hess, Yale Cohen, Randi and Sarah Gerrish, Al and Carol Borek, and Sam Sinderson. It helped to have extra people in each group who could point out where the birds were, and answer questions.

Among Claire Staples' many contributions to the event was her arrangement for Mayor Tom Murphy to show up on Saturday, in time to bird with some of us at the tail end of one of the morning outings.

"The teamwork of all the club volunteers and Frick staff was what impressed me the most and what made the festival a success," is how club Program Director Wendy Jo Shemansky put it. Her workshop for beginners, featuring the new Thayer birding software, was run on a team basis, with club President Jack Solomon doing a segment for her on binocular use and selection. Wendy Jo's countless hours of work to make festival arrangements beforehand, and was everywhere at the event. She was still doing tallying of registrants and fee receipts and other paperwork as I wrote this.

Frick Environmental Center Director David Jett's take on it all was that the festival "exceeded all my expectations in the first year and I look forward to it in coming years."

Workshops for birders from beginners to veterans, led by those mentioned above and Karen Lippy, and Scott Shalaway, were well attended by enthusiasticbirders and would-be birders. Several new club memberships were received during the festival, including one from a 12 year old, Dan Williams. He along with Julie Zickefoose, was one of the only participants in Floyd's advanced warbler ID workshop to correctly identify the Hermit/Townsend's warbler hybrid.

Zickefoose brought free copies of Birdwatcher's Digest for all participants, and donated a beautiful print of one of her Bluebird paintings to the club for a fund raiser.

Many members, yours truly included, sipped coffee and munched on a muffin as artist Stephen Leed painted a warbler in the environmental center.

Many club members sacrificed a prime birding day to sit a the club's information table — their's was a noble gift to the group. Sue and Steve Thomas were foremost among them. Sue Solomon, Eric Marchbein and Claire Staples came early (well before 7 AM) each day and did whatever was needed, from helping with tent raising to processing registrations. Others at our table over the two days to answer questions, and encourage new memberships were: Sherron and Pat Lynch, Pam Snyder, Claire Staples Eric Marchbein, Mary Floyd (proud mom of Ted, the workshop presenter and new editor of the ABAs magazine "Birding", Becky Byerly, Marianne Crossman. Sarah and Randi Gerrish and Don Gibbon.

Tom Byrnes manned an Audubon Society of Western Pa. table both days, and pitched in to move tables and do other heavy work. Steering Committee member Pam Ferkette, and her mother, Holly, did a brisk business at the Wild Birds Unlimited table. Pam was the moving force behind the publication of the club's membership brochure, getting it off the ground in time to be distributed at the festival.

All participants received a copy of a map of Frick Park, the original of which was provided by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy for use at the festival, and a checklist of the birds of Frick Park, recently completed due to a yeoman effort by Reiko Goto and a few other club members.

The art contest winners who were not already members all received 1 year memberships in the club and the Environmental Center, and the following cash awards:

First Prize ($200) — Tom Pawlesh Photo category for "Primary Colors."

Second Prize ($100) — K. C. Grapes Painting category for "Great Horned Owl."

Third Prize ($50) — Patrick Lynch Photo category for "New Zealand Robin."

Judges Award ($75) — Lindsay Waina "Cardinal in the Park."

Honorable Mention ($25) — Scott Kinzey "Common Yellowthroat Singing."

All the art contest entries were beautiful, and their display added a lot to the event.

None of us had, as far as I know, any experience at all in running a birding festival, and it speaks well for us all that our first one was so successful.