Three Rivers Birding Club
Bi-monthly Membership Meeting
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
6:30 - 10:00 PM
Phipps Garden Center, Shady Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
Sixty-two members and visitors forgot about the cold, snowy gloom of Pittsburgh while watching presentations by ten of 3RBC’s finest photographers.
Vice President Bob VanNewkirk recognized the six newcomers. He announced that Julie Zickefoose’s free lecture and book signing is on March 18 at Mt. Lebanon’s Jefferson Middle School. Bob referred everyone to the club’s website, www.3rbc.org, for information about two birding events in Ohio. The 3RBC annual Magee Marsh Weekend will take place May 7-9. The Black Swamp Bird Observatory and the American Birding Association will co-sponsor the “Biggest Week in American Birding” festival at Magee Marsh May 6-16.
A huge notice to everyone is to mark your calendars for our unusual meeting day in April – MONDAY, APRIL 5 is our next general membership meeting.
Steve Thomas, Outings Director, reminded members to look at the website and the newsletter for upcoming outings and how to participate in one day of the Great Backyard Bird Count at Sewickley Heights Park on February 13.
Mike Fialkovich, Bird Reports Editor, discussed locally seen species including Ruffed Grouse, Horned Grebe, Wilson’s Snipe, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Eastern Towhee, Fox Sparrow, Tundra Swan, Long-tailed Duck, White-winged Scoter, Rough-legged Hawk, Bald Eagle, Merlin (absent from areas of past sightings), Iceland and Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed Gulls, Forster’s Tern, Barred and Northern Saw-whet and Great Horned Owls, Northern Shrike, and Pine Siskin. A Snowy Owl was in Crawford County and a Red-throated Loon was at Pymatuning. Northern Pintail, Bufflehead, and American Coot were also reported.
Members Photography Night included both new and previous presenters. Attendees marveled as the photographers took them on tours from as near as local backyards and familiar places in Pennsylvania to exotic locales in Africa, Ecuador, and Hawaii. The oohs, aahs, and applause showed how much the photographers’ skills and the birds’ beauty were admired and appreciated.
Cris Hamilton began with photos taken in Bosque del Apache, New Mexico. Getting her equipment set up before dawn allowed her to capture some great colors in the soft morning hues. A stop-action shot of a Sandhill Crane in flight was so crisp that even the nose holes showed. Her attention to color and lighting, from the cryptic tans of the coyote in the dried grasses to the warm sunset, made her bird photos even more memorable.
Mike Fialkovich took us through his year of birding from his backyard to rarities around Pennsylvania. His humorous asides kept people laughing while they enjoyed staring into the face of a fantastic LeConte’s Sparrow, reminiscing about the White-winged Crossbill invasion of 2009, and studying a leucistic American Robin.
Audience members were thrilled with Geoff Malosh’s beautifully photographed birds on the island of Kauai. His photos of a White-tailed Tropicbird clearly showed the black markings from every angle and against various backgrounds; it was really spectacular on the black background. The bright red scene of an endemic Apapane perched among the Lehua blossoms was a crowd favorite.
Virginia McQuown treated us to the Napa River Valley, Galapagos Islands, and Bellavista Cloud Forest, all in Ecuador. The unusual looking Hoatzin, Hood and Galapagos Mockingbirds, and the Violet-tailed Sylph were some of the birds that can only be found in Columbia and Ecuador. Virginia cleverly arranged several photos of the courtship dance of Blue-footed Boobies and then caught the audience in a collective “aah” when the next photo showed a fuzzy young booby.
Donna Foyle used her photos to share with us what she learned last year. Through an amazing series of photos taken within a two-hour period, we followed the development of a monarch caterpillar from its “J” to a hint of a chrysalis, to a fully developed chrysalis. Sadly, the nearby parasitic wasps kept that monarch from becoming a butterfly. Using hummingbird pictures from Cozumel, Mexico, Donna discussed the difficulty of identifying some hummingbirds.
Amanda Haney, new to bird photography, took us to New Jersey, Florida, and Ecuador. Ripples in the water around a sunlit Green-winged Teal made a pretty picture. She caught a Snowy Egret holding a large frog at just the right moment. The Caribbean Flamingos, Galapagos Penguins, Violet-tailed Sylph, and Rufous-tailed Hummingbird photos tempted birders to consider travel to Ecuador.
Steve Gosser showed fantastic bird photos taken within two hours of home. But catching a Red Phalarope jumping the waves took perfect timing. Photographing an Upland Sandpiper among wildflowers required having a camera always ready. Finding a pair of American Coots in an intimate moment meant lying in the mud to get the best angle. Sometimes you just need to point the camera out the window toward a Red-breasted Nuthatch in the backyard, so don’t quit trying.
Bob Greene did it his way. Usually, people start as birders and then try bird photography. Bob started as a photographer and took up birding in 2008. The photos show that Bob’s way produces amazing results! The color and lighting on the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, the snowflakes around the Eastern Bluebird, the feather detail on the Ruddy Turnstone, the patterns on the Wilson’s Snipe, and the timing on the Snowy Owl catching a mouse were all remarkable.
Laurie Bruns traveled all the way to Cape Town, South Africa, for her special photos. Seeing the Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk with its long name and the Speckled Mousebird with its very long tail, an egret hassling a warthog, a huge nest built by a group of Sociable Weavers, a weaver carrying nesting material, and African Penguins in the wild expanded our appreciation of birding.
Rob Protz shared amazing hummingbird photos taken in Utah and Montana by Marlene Foard. Rufous, Black-chinned, and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds were all photographed with gorgeous colors and clarity.
Submitted by Pat and Sherron Lynch
Co-Secretaries of Three Rivers Birding Club
