3RBC Membership Meeting
Meet Thrilling Birds of Prey
Wednesday, March 2 2005
Come prepared for a thrillingly close encounter with live birds of prey at our meeting on Wednesday, March 2, at the Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside. Earl
Schriver, well-known to western Pennsylvania wildlife lovers for nearly six decades, will add our club to the hundreds of groups who have marveled at his majestic birds. He will bring us his huge Golden Eagle, which at age 42 is the oldest of the species on record, as well as a Peregrine Falcon, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a hybrid falcon whose genes represent Peregrine, Gyrfalcon, and Saker Falcon ancestry.
The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM, with doors opening at 6:30 for socializing. Earl said cameras are welcome for a rare opportunity to photograph these birds eye-to-eye.
Earl is a retired steelworker and resident of Baden in Beaver County. He has been a state and federally licensed falconer, breeder, and bird bander for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for many years. He bands hawks, owls, and ravens in Pennsylvania and New York, and has lectured widely on the habits, habitats and ways of protecting birds of prey. Earl presented his first-ever nature program to the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania as a 13-year-old Boy Scout, invited by the society’s famous president Hal Harrison, and he has been committed to educating the public ever since.
The Garden Center is at 1059 Shady Avenue behind the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts at Fifth and Shady Avenues. Parking is 25 cents an hour in a metered lot, and more parking is available on Shady Avenue. In addition, Beechwood Boulevard, a block east of Shady, has free parking and is a short walk
through Mellon Park to the Garden Center. Detailed directions are on the Phipps website: http://www.phipps.conservatory.org/information/directions.html.
NOTE: Except in April and September, our meetings in 2005 will be on the first Wednesday of
the month, a change from the present Monday meetings, to avoid conflicting with Botanical
Society meetings held on Mondays. The year's meetings are scheduled for
Wednesday, April 20; Wednesday, July 6; Monday, September 19, and Wednesday, November 2.
LOOKING AHEAD: Our meeting on April 20 (third
Wednesday of the month), will feature a show titled "Screech
Owl Studies" by Bill Beatty.
