Three Rivers Birding Club of Southwestern Pennsylvania

Our Next Three Rivers Meeting

Amanda Haney

IN JUNE WE WILL JOURNEY
TO TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
WITH AMANDA HANEY

Amanda Haney, a consistent presenter at our annual Slide-Slams, will present our June 3, 2026 meeting's program "Birds of Trinidad and Tobago: Where Bird of Paradise Grows Wild." Amanda and her husband Bob's first trip to Trinidad and Tobago was in 2008, staying at the world-famous ecolodge: Asa Wright. This preserve is an amazing place to view and photograph birds in the mountains of Trinidad. They decided to go again, since less hiking is required to see great birds at places with lots of feeders. On that trip they were lucky enough to stay at another fantastic ecolodge in Tobago: Cuffie River Preserve.

Amanda Haney and her husband Bob have been life-long residents of Pittsburgh and have always been interested in birds. They joined 3RBC during its first year of existence in March 2002. Amanda first presented at a 3RBC Slide-Slam in 2010, and she has presented in almost all of them since 2013. Amanda never goes birding without her camera (currently a Sony A6700 with 350 mm lens).

Once they retired, the Haneys started birding in earnest. For 10 years they went to Florida each winter to bird. Since 2019, they have gone to Arizona for three months a year and bird nearly every day. In Pittsburgh Amanda's favorite place to bird is Fall Run Park in Shaler. They also go to Magee Marsh every May.

Amanda Haney is a retired teacher. She worked as a special education teacher in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and as an administrator in mental health and adult literacy nonprofits. She has done many presentations to groups, including gardening, travel, and nature talks. Also, Amanda has taught beginning birding classes a number of times, including at Osher and the Frick Environmental Center.

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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 Amanda'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 PROGRAMS:

August 5, 2026 - FRANK IZAGUIRRE - TBA
October 7, 2026 - BRIAN SHEMA - Chimney Swift Research

Last Updated on 4/8/2026

Items of Interest

VIEW THE MARCH/APRIL 2026 EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER -- THE PEREGRINE Peregrine Falcon

The March/April 2026 edition of The Peregrine (in full color) is avaiable here: March/April 2026.
See also Tom Moeller's photo gallery to accompany his "Observations" column:
Feeder Marauders.

For those who would like to submit articles, photos, sightings, book reviews, anecdotes, etc. about birds or birding to
The Peregrine, please send them to this email address: 3rbc.peregrine@gmail.com.

THE WRITTEN MINUTES OF OUR FEBRUARY 4, 2026 MEETING FEATURING JEAN IRON ARE AVAILABLE!

Read the Meeting Minutes for our February 4, 2026 Zoom membership meeting featuring Jean Iron with her talk "Are There Penguins in the Arctic?" here: February Meeting Minutes.

Unfortunately, Zoom did not record Jean's program well, possibly due to our deep snow, extreme cold, or power line problems, so there is no proper recording of her presentation.

OUR SPRING OUTINGS CONTINUE IN APRIL, MAY, AND JUNE WITH MANY TRIPS TO VARIOUS LOCALES IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

Blackburnian Warbler

One more outing is listed for April: a beginner/inexperienced birder outing to Sewickley Heights Borough Park, which is already full, plus eight outings are available in May. Two outings have been added in connection with Seneca Rocks Audubon Society - one near the end of May to Piney Tract and the other in June to Cook Forest State Park.

For more information, go to our Outings Page.

WINGS OVER WILHELM at Lake Wilhelm in Maurice K. Goddard State Park

Saturday, April 11, 2026 - 8:00 AM to 2 PM - Duration: 6 hours

Event by Maurice K. Goddard State Park
at 684 Lake Wilhelm Rd., Sandy Lake, PA 16145

Open to the Public

Calling all birders! Come out to the third annual bird festival at Maurice K. Goddard State Park. This family-friendly event will showcase local bird-loving organizations that can help your birding with tools and resources for both beginner and advanced birders. Learn how you can support birds in northwest PA and in your own backyard.

There will be activities, giveaways, informational tables, a bird walk, and three 45-minute breakout sessions:

1) snakeskins for natural predator guards
2) tale of the tail of the Hooded Warbler
3) habitat management is for the birds

To end the event, Tamarack Wildlife Center will be bringing their ambassadors birds for an educational program. Consider supporting the wonderful efforts of Tamarack through donations of bleach, paper towels, and Dawn dish soap.

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE: A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC TALENTS

Observation Period: April 24-27, 2026

Identification Period: April 28 to May 10, 2026

Get connected with nature and help make a difference! Join the City Nature Challenge, a worldwide movement to document nature and help fight biodiversity loss. During this four-day bioblitz, nature enthusiasts and casual observers take photos and upload them to the free iNaturalist app to share their observations and help document biodiversity in cities around the world. Learn about nature in our local area and enjoy the benefits of being outdoors.

Three Rivers Birding Club is pleased to partner with various local organizations participating for Pittsburgh and its surrounding counties. The Pittsburgh Region joins hundreds of cities with more than 80,000 participants around the world for this exciting global project!

How to Participate

Participation in the City Nature Challenge is easy and free!

First, download the free iNaturalist app.

From April 24-27, get outdoors and take photos or recordings of any wild nature you observe - plants, insects, wildlife, even animal tracks, bird calls, and plants growing in sidewalk cracks - then, upload them to the app. (Wild means it was not put there by people and is not being taken care of by people.) Every observation you make of wild nature is a data point that helps scientists and researchers understand and protect nature for all of us.

From April 28 to May 10, help identify species observed by other challenge participants to help build a better understanding of biodiversity in our region.

Observations in Pittsburgh and the surrounding counties will count towards totals for the Pittsburgh Region.

Educational Resources

This is a great activity to host in classrooms and informal learning spaces. Learners will get outdoors, participate in real hands-on science, and get connected to a global effort!

Educators, please explore this educator's guide first. When you're ready to dive into planning a City Nature Challenge-related activity or lesson, this toolkit has additional resources to support you!

The City Nature Challenge is organized globally by the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

THE CLUB'S ANNUAL HISTORY CONTINUED AS 2025 DREW TO A CLOSE

2025 was marked by our very first Annual Meeting, wherein we elected our 2026-27 Board of Directors and expanded their numbers from nine to eleven members to better serve the club. We had our usual winter, spring, and fall outings guided by volunteer leaders, and our membership meetings with notable speakers continued as hybrid in-person/Zoom formats {except in the two winter months}. Steve Thomas was able to compile the six meetings we had, including the names of all eleven of our Directors, the full set of birding outings, and other events in our complete 2025 calendar. See the year's history as a PDF here: 2025 Events.

All our past annual histories are documented as PDFs here: 3RBC History

Longer Articles Highlighted in THE PEREGRINE

Longer articles and a photo gallery that members contributed to The Peregine have been assembled in this compilation. We hope you enjoy them again:

Oscar Miller's recent article "Blue Grosbeaks in Southwestern Pennsylvania," referred to in the September/October 2024 edition of The Peregrine, has moved from this Main page to its own page: Blue Grosbeaks.

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.

Tom Moeller had a two-part article in subsequent editions issues of The Peregrine during 2020 on Cedar Waxwings. Here are the two parts as one: Here's the Background on a Backyard Beauty.

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

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.

David Yeany II 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.

Other Important Items

THE BYLAWS FOR THREE RIVERS BIRDING CLUB ARE WORTH READING

As you know by now, the Three Rivers Birding Club has formed into a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation governed by a nine-member Board of Directors. Our organization has an official set of Bylaws, which spell out many details of the make-up of the "new" club, including the responsibilities of the Board of Directors, choosing of officers and their terms and duties, financial reporting to the IRS, standing committees, an annual election meeting, voting procedures, and so on. The members can read these Bylaws by following the link found at the top of each page of this website: Three Rivers Bylaws

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 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.