February 2003 Outings
Saturday, February 8 — Cook Forest & Piney Tract
Mike Leahy (814-797-2287) will lead this outing in search of wintering species. Cook Forest sometimes has abundant numbers of winter finches and Piney Tract is a great place to find Northern Shrike and Short-eared Owl. Meet at 9:00 AM at the Cook Forest park office. Allow two hours driving time from Pittsburgh.
Sunday, February 23 — Lake Arthur
This leaderless outing should produce some of the first migrating waterfowl, assuming the weather cooperates. Lake Arthur is the heart of Moraine State Park. Although it is heavily fished, fishermen should not be a problem at this time of year (unless they are ice fishing). The lake gets good (sometimes spectacular) numbers and variety of waterfowl in migration. Meet in the Moraine State Park day use area (south shore) in the first parking lot on the right at 8:00 AM.
Non-3RBC Outings
(Non-3RBC) Thursday, February 6 — Winter Wildflower Outing at Jennings Prairie
Nature Observer News and Wissahickon
Nature Club
Meet Leaders Esther Allen and Chuck Tague at 10:00AM at
the Jennings Prairie parking lot for this challenging
wildflower identification walk. Dress for the weather.
Bring binoculars, a lunch and hot beverage. Call Susanne
at (412)771-4737 to let us know you're coming.
A note from Jack Solomon: Even though it's a wildflower
outing, no Chuck Tague/Esther Allen outing would ever
ignore any birds that may be present, and any birders
that show up may want to take an impromptu trip afterwards
to nearby Lake Arthur, or the Volant Strips to look for
Sandhill Cranes, Horned larks and Lapland Longspurs, all
of which are quite possible then.
(Non-3RBC) Saturday, February 8 — Shark River Inlet and North Shore, NJ
(Non-3RBC) Thursday, February 13 — Peregrine Falcons at Pitt
Nature Observer News and Wissahickon
Nature Club
Kate St. John will present a program on the Peregrine
Falcons who nest at the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral
of Learning. The story begins two years ago in February
2001 when Kate first saw them in courtship flight. Since
then she has worked with Western Pennsylvania Conservancy,
the University of Pittsburgh, and the PA Game Commission
to provide the falcons with a nest box from which they
fledged four young in June 2002. This spring she's working
to provide a webcam at the nest. Kate comes to us with
a wealth of stories about Peregrine behavior and human
efforts to help them survive and thrive. Come learn about
peregrine falcon natural
history from an amateur bird lover's point of view.
Meet at Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon, 7501 Church Avenue, Ben Avon, PA 15202 (412) 761-1233.
(Non-3RBC) Friday, February 15 — The Great Backyard Bird Count
(Non-3RBC) Friday, February 15 — Tyler Arboretum
(Non-3RBC) Saturday, February 16
(Non-3RBC) Wednesday, February 19
(Non-3RBC) Saturday, February 22 — Sandy Hook, NJ
(Non-3RBC) Saturday, February 22 - Saturday, March 1 — Texas Field Trip
(Non-3RBC) Saturday, February 22 — Cape May, NJ
(Non-3RBC) Friday, February 28 - Sunday, March 2 — Salisbury Beach State Park
