Our Next Three Rivers Meeting

Mike and Macaw
Mike Fialkovich with Macaw
Costa Rica

COSTA RICA'S BEAUTIFUL BIRDS
WILL DAZZLE US AT
OUR APRIL 3 MEETING

If you have ever birded Costa Rica, you know what a fabulous birding destination it is. At our April 3, 2024 meeting our club's new president, Mike Fialkovich, shows us why Costa Rica is so fabulous. Mike traveled to this birder's paradise in January 2023, and he will share with us the wonderful birds he saw there. This meeting will again be a hybrid meeting with a live presentation at Beechwood Farms Nature Center and a Zoom meeting online.

Mike's participation in 3RBC, the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology (PSO), and the birding world in general is very impressive. He has played a major role in every 3RBC meeting since the club's early days. He reviews bird sightings at each meeting and writes about them in The Peregrine. Mike is a past president of PSO, has been on their bird records committee (PORC), and has been a regional coordinator of the breeding bird atlas. He also is one of the four seasonal editors of PSO's scientific publication, PA Birds, as well as the compiler of bird sightings for that publication for Allegheny and Fayette counties.

Mike was the recipient of the W.E. Clyde Todd Award from the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania in 2011. The PSO recently announced that Mike is the 2024 recipient of the prestigious Earl Poole Award, which will be presented to Mike at the upcoming PSO Birding Festival and Annual Meeting in Washington County. (See below.)

Mike is not just an expert birder; he is an all-around naturalist which he incorporates into his birding field trips. He was a block owner of the Pennsylvania Herpetological Atlas Project conducted in 2000-2001. Our club is indeed fortunate to have Mike as an active member.

* * * * * * * * * *

This will be a hybrid meeting starting "live" in Beechwood Farms at 6:30 PM (ET) and a Zoom presentation starting at 7:00 PM (ET) giving you time to log on. The business meeting will begin at 7:30 PM, and Mike's program will start around 8:00 PM. Details on how to join the Zoom event, including passcodes and other instructions, will be supplied a few days before the meeting.

FUTURE PRORGRAMS:

  • June 5, 2024: KATE ST. JOHN - "Peregrine Falcons"
  • August 7, 2024: BECCA RALSTON - "Prothonotary Warbler Research"
  • October 2, 2024: NICK LIADIS (BIRD LAB) - "Banding Spring and Fall Migration in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Sites"

Last Updated on 3/8/2024

Items of Interest


   VIEW THE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER -- THE PEREGRINE Peregrine Falcon

The January/February edition of The Peregrine (in full color) is avaiable here: January/February 2024.
See also Tom Moeller's photo gallery to accompany his "Observations" column: Owl Gallery.




   THE WRITTEN MINUTES OF OUR FEBRUARY 7, 2024 MEETING ARE AVAILABLE!

Read the Meeting Minutes for our February 7, 2024 membership Zoom meeting featuring Jonathan Slaght's talk on Blakiston's Fish Owls here: February Minutes.
Per Jonathan Slaght's request, the meeting was not recorded for later inclusion on our website.


   THE STATE COLLEGE BIRD CLUB MEETING DISCUSSED PA'S THIRD BIRD ATLAS

In case you missed this meeting on the Third Bird Atlas, a recording is now online.
Here is the link for the February 28 meeting: Pennsylvania's Third Bird Atlas

Third Bird Atlas

The State College Bird Club held its monthly meeting on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom with a presentation from Amber Wiewel titled Let's (Try To) Count All the Birds in Pennsylvania! A Look at PA's Third Bird Atlas.

Amber grew up in Missouri where she fell in love with birds in the Ozarks. She received a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences from the University of Missouri and then studied Puerto Rican Bullfinches while earning a master's degree from Iowa State University. She went on to work as a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Pennsylvania State University before joining the Pennsylvania Bird Atlas team as Atlas Coordinator.


   BIRDING OUTINGS FOR MARCH, APRIL, AND MAY AND OUR ANNUAL PICNIC ARE NOW POSTED

Waterfowl

Our most popular activity of bird outings continues this spring. Fourteen outings are planned: four in March, six in April, and five in May. Our annual June Picnic is also listed on the page.
We do have a general statement that will be followed for all our outings. Also, the leader may have specific requirements that are stated in the outing description. Please read that statement and the requirements on each outing as you plan your choices.

Find all this important information on our Outings page.



   WE'RE SAD TO REPORT THE PASSING OF A TALENTED PHOTOGRAPHER
Cris Hamilton

The club lost a very talented photographer and extremely pleasant person recently. Cris L. Hamilton, who joined 3RBC in 2006 "to learn more about birds, and their habitat and way of life," passed away too soon at the age of 71. Cris loved photographing birds, animals, and nature, traveling to all the nearby hotspots as well as faraway places like the Rio Grande birding trail, Bosque del Apache, and Florida. She even went to Costa Rica, Africa, and the Falkland Islands with her cameras. Cris spoke to the club in October 2013 on her trips to the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and Costa Rica. She and her talented eye will be sorely missed.

Cris's Obituary: Cris Hamilton

Cris's Photography Website: Cris's Photos




   PSO NAMES MIKE FIALKOVICH AS THE 2024 WINNER THE EARL POOLE AWARD
Mike Fialkovich

Congratulations to 3RBC President Mike Fialkovich, who has been selected by the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology (PSO) Awards Committee as the recipient of the 2024 Earl Poole Award. The PSO is happy to honor Mike's significant contributions to Pennsylvania ornithology through his work with the Pennsylvania Ornithological Records Committee (PORC), the Pennsylvania Birds journal, the Breeding Bird Atlas, and so many other projects.

The Earl Poole award is presented annually to a person or persons who have made significant contributions to Pennsylvania's ornithology. This may be in the form of research, volunteer efforts, publications, field work, or any other pursuit that has increased our knowledge and understanding of the birdlife in Pennsylvania.

Mike will receive the Earl Poole Award at the upcoming PSO Birding Festival and Annual Meeting in Washington County to be held May 31 to June 2, 2024.

Photo credit: Wissahickon Nature Club


   WE HAD A FULL SCHEDULE IN 2023 AS COVID RESTRICTIONS ENDED

Our 2023 activities returned to normal with winter, spring, and fall outings and membership meetings becoming hybrid in-person/Zoom formats. Steve Thomas was able to compile the six meetings we had, the full sets of spring and fall migration outings, and other events in our full 2023 calendar. See the year's history here: 2023 Events.


   LONGER ARTICLES ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE

Six longer articles and a photo gallery that members contributed have been assembled in this single compilation. We hope you enjoy them again:

Geoff Malosh pursued a different prize in 2017 - a solar eclipse - in this article A Different Kind of Chase: Not for Birds This Time.

Kathy Siebert traveled to Ecuador in 2017 to find rare birds in Take the "Sun Route" to Enjoy Ecuador's Avian Wealth.

David Yeany, Jr. and his friends took a side trip from Magee Marsh one rainy day in 2018 to find a Kirtland's Warbler in his narrative Saving the Best for Last: A Kirtland's Warbler Adventure.

Frank Izaguirre's adventure in exploring snowy Canada for winter birds in February 2020 was a two-part article in subsequent editions of The Peregrine. Here are the two parts as one: Frigid Canada's Birds Warmed a Pair of Birders.

Tom Moeller also had a two-part article in two issues of The Peregrine on Cedar Waxwings. Again, the two parts appear here as one: Here's the Background on a Backyard Beauty.

Frank Izaguirre wrote an article for the January 2021 edition of Birding magazine. With permission of the magazine and its editor Ted Floyd, we can present a PDF of the article at this link: Celebrating the Stumpbreaker of Squirrel Hill.

Plus, the stunning gallery of birds and scenery from Northwest Argentina, which is an adjunct to Claire Staples' article "A Very High Adventure: Birding to 15,000 Feet in Argentina's Andes" [The Peregrine Vol. 18, No. 2, March/April 2019], can still be enjoyed: Northwest Argentina.

Other Important Items

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK!

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Be sure to visit our club's Facebook page for up-to-date news on happenings with the club, member photos, or links to other birding articles and sites.


WE'RE NOW ON INSTAGRAM TOO!

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Our social media presence has expanded. Thanks to member, Malcolm Kurtz, we now have a site on Instagram. You can check for developments on our website 3rbc.org, upload photos, or comment on bird sightings, photos, or outings. Check out our Instagram site here: https://www.instagram.com/3rbcpgh/.


BIRD WATCHER'S DIGEST HAS RETURNED!!


BWD Eagle

Bird Watcher's Digest, the birding magazine that suddenly closed in December 2021, resumed publication with its July/August 2022 edition under its new title BWD.
Two new publishers, Rich Luhr and Mike Sacopulos, have taken on the task of resurrecting BWD. Many of the magazine's former staff have returned to revamp the style and size of the publication. A welcome return of a vital birding publication.


PSO's PENNSYLVANIA BIRDS MAGAZINE: SEE WHAT YOU'VE BEEN MISSING

PSO Pileated The Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology (PSO) publishes previews of the current issue of Pennsylvania Birds online, which consist of the cover, table of contents, and a featured article. Now anyone who does not subscribe or perhaps does not even know about PSO can actually see a little bit of what they've been missing, and hopefully be encouraged to join PSO! Click on the following link for an example of an article from the latest edition of Pennsylvania Birds: sample article.

Pennsylvania Birds is an all-volunteer effort, created and maintained by a group of Pennsylvania's most dedicated birders, but it is not an exclusive club. Anyone may contribute, whether a member of PSO or not, any original work related to birds or birding in Pennsylvania. If you have photos, article ideas, letters to the editor... as long as it is original work and related to birds or birding in Pennsylvania.

Consider joining PSO if you haven't already. They especially encourage the "beginners" out there, those of you who are just starting to discover the wonderful hobby of birding. In addition to being relatively inexpensive, membership buys you a year's subscription to Pennsylvania Birds and The Pileated, the PSO newsletter.

Find the Home page of the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology here: PSO.

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Mission of 3RBC

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

© Photo Credits:
Sherron Lynch, Tom Moeller, Brian Shema, and Chuck Tague