Three Rivers Birding Club Southwestern Pennsylvania

Our Next Three Rivers Meeting

Bird banders at Powdermill Nature Reserve in Westmoreland County have been banding birds year-round since 1961, creating one of the largest and longest-term banding datasets in the U.S.

In our 3RBC meeting on Wednesday, August 3, Annie Lindsay, Powdermill's Bird Banding Program Manager, will discuss bird banding in-depth, review how the dataset has been used to study songbirds over the past six decades, and show other current and past bird research at the Reserve, including her current Ph.D. dissertation work.

She titles her program "Sixty Years and Counting: Bird Banding and Avian Research at Powdermill."

The Reserve, located in Rector, is a field station of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where Annie runs the long-term bird banding station and teaches banding workshops. Read more about Powdermill at Powdermill ARC.

She earned her M.S. in Natural Resources at The Ohio State University where she studied the effects of winter habitat quality, as determined by stable-carbon isotope analysis, on plumage characteristics and reproductive success in Yellow Warblers.

A Ph.D. candidate and University Fellow at the University of Toledo, Annie studies trends in long-term bird banding datasets, and how anthropogenic factors, in particular climate change, affect avian populations, movements, and behavior.

She is certified by the North American Banding Council as a bander-trainer and serves in leadership roles for several bird-related organizations and societies. She's an avid birder and loves sharing the hobby with new birders, especially her son Tommy!

*       *       *       *       *       * This will be a Zoom meeting starting at 7:00 PM ET, giving you access time to log on. The business meeting will begin at 7:30 PM, and Annie's presentation may start before 8:00 PM. Details on how to join the event, including Zoom passcodes and other instructions, will be supplied a few days before the meeting.

FUTURE PRORGRAMS:

• December 7, 2022: Our annual Slide Slam with photos from our members.

Last Updated on 6/17/2022

Items of Interest

   VIEW THE MAY/JUNE EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER -- THE PEREGRINE

The MAY/JUNE Edition of The Peregrine (in full color) is avaiable here: May/June 2022. See also Tom Moeller's photo gallery to accompany his "Observations" column: Pet Robins III. In addition, find two videos related to the "Observations" article with Tom feeding the robin at   Raisins  , and one of the robins attacking its own reflection at   Reflection  .

   THE WRITTEN MINUTES AND THE VIDEO OF OUR JUNE 1, 2022 MEETING ARE AVAILABLE

Read the Meeting Minutes for our June 1, 2022 virtual gathering featuring Katie Fallon with "Saving the Cerulean Warbler" here: June Minutes.
The video for the June meeting is on our Past Zoom Meetings page.

   OUR BIRDING OUTINGS ARE LISTED FOR JUNE!

With COVID limitations easing, it has been decided to resume our most popular activity of bird outings, but with restrictions. Spring outings are planned for April through June. 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.




   THE JANUARY BIRDING MAGAZINE FEATURES TWO 3RBC MEMBERS

ABA's Birding magazine's January 2022 edition celebrates its 2022 Bird of the Year, the Burrowing Owl. Two 3RBC members, Frank Izaguirre, new co-editor as well as book review editor of the magazine, and Tessa Rhinehart, known for her work in recording and categorizing bird songs, have excellent articles in the January issue.

Our local birder, researcher, and author Frank Izaguirre is the editor of Birding magazine's new issue, which focuses on one of the most delightful birds we see - the Burrowing Owl. See Frank's article in this edition: "In the Eye of the Owl; Celebrating the Burrowing Owl in 2022."

In the same issue, our University of Pittsburgh's techno-ecological expert Tessa Rhinehart has an extraordinarily well researched and well reported article about a newly described South American bird species, the Inti Tanager. Read Tessa's article: "Data & Discoveries in the World of Birds."

   BIRD WATCHER'S DIGEST IS RETURNING!!

According to Julie Zickefoose's blogspot and the Bird Watcher's Digest Facebook page the birding magazine that suddenly closed in December 2021 will resume publication with its July/August edition.
Two new publishers, Rich Luhr and Mike Sacopulos, have taken on the task of resurrecting BWD. Many of the magazine's former staff is returning to revamp the style and size of the publication. Julie's blogspot has the details of the new look for BWD.

   BIRD WATCHER'S DIGEST CEASES PUBLICATION AFTER 43 YEARS - BUT ONLY FOR SIX MONTHS!!

The birding world's iconic magazine Bird Watcher's Digest closed its doors on December 22, 2021. First published in 1978, the magazine's last printed edition is the January/February 2022 magazine. The March/April 2022 edition (pictured here) appears only as a digital magazine on the BWD website.

Bill Thompson's untimely death in March 2019, his mother Elsa Thompson's sudden demise in a house fire only two months later, and Bill's brother Andy Thompson's passing in 2020, followed by the Coronavirus pandemic together with financial losses and increased printing and mailing costs all contributed to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021 and the final decision in December 2021 to close down the business.

More information on the closure can be found at the Bird Watcher's Digest website and an article in The Marietta Times from December 30, 2021: "Bird Watcher's Digest closes doors".

   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

WE ACCOMPLISHED MUCH IN 2021 IN SPITE OF COVID RESTRICTIONS

Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, our 2021 activities were somewhat limited, especially in the first part of the year. Steve Thomas was able to compile the six Zoom meetings we had, along with a full set of fall migration outings. See the year's history here: 2021 Events.
Mike Fialkovich prepared the list of birds observed in Allegheny County in 2021. See his comprehensive list of 233 bird species and 3 hybrids here: Allegheny County Birds - 2021.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK!

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!

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/.

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

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.