Three Rivers Birding Club Southwestern Pennsylvania

Bimonthly Membership Meeting
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
7:30 PM -- 9:30 PM
Virtual Zoom Platform from Pittsburgh, PA

Fifty-seven computers were logged on to 3RBC's June 2022 meeting, with several of those shared by more than one person. In total, at least 67 individuals viewed the club's twelfth virtual Zoom meeting, which featured Katie Fallon, who presented her program entitled "Saving the Cerulean Warbler."

3RBC President Sheree Daugherty called the meeting to order at approximately 7:45 PM. She and other club officers and members made the following announcements and reports:

• Sheree announced that two club members had booked a tour to Antarctica this November, but, unfortunately, they will not be able to make the trip. They are looking for two individuals to take their places. As an incentive, these two members are willing to pay for the airfare of anyone who takes their places on this trip of a lifetime. For those who are interested, please contact Mary at MaryBirdPA@gmail.com. The information is also available on the club's website and Facebook page.


• President Daugherty told the group that, since Covid numbers are up, and the county has rated the risk of community spread as high (at the time of the June meeting), the club's next meeting in August will be presented on Zoom.


• Peregrine Editor Paul Hess was unable to log on to the Zoom meeting, but he provided the following regarding the upcoming July-August issue of The Peregrine:

- Carol will announce that our next program will take us to Powdermill, one of the most famous bird banding stations in the US.

- Sheree's "President's Message" will offer us an entertaining essay on bird names, complete with a quiz for you to complete.

- Steve's "Outings to Come" will include some exciting new places to visit.

- As usual, our outing leaders have a terrific array of "Outings Revisited" reports.

- Tom's "Observations" column will relate a good trip to Hawaii. (By the way, don't hesitate to send your reports of places you have visited. Other members may be encouraged to visit these places, too.)

- Mike's "Birds in the Three Rivers Area" will include a very unusual sparrow.

- Finally, Joan Tague, one of our charter members, will offer a report of her visit to birding Mecca, Magee Marsh in Ohio, with one of the most unusual Kirtland's Warbler photos you've ever seen.


• Treasurer Tom Moeller reported that the club's membership continues to grow. Memberships currently stand at 336, up from April's number of 329. Since some of these are couples and family memberships, the current number of individuals who enjoy birding is 425. He announced that PayPal is now fully functional on our website and thus far 14 payments have been received using PayPal. He remarked that this is a good option for a quick membership renewal, though checks and cash are also accepted. As always, the club is very grateful for the continued support and generosity of its members.


• Webmaster Moeller reported that he has added links to two videos of his backyard robins, as an adjunct to his "Observations" column. The links are on the website's main page.


• Outings Coordinator Steve Thomas announced the outings that are scheduled. He noted that this year's club picnic will soon take place at Harrison Hills Park. The picnic will commence at noon at the pavilion across from the environmental center. In a departure from our usual practice, and to insure everyone's safety, the picnic will be a "bring-your-own-lunch affair," instead of our usual potluck buffet. The picnic will be preceded by a bird walk, which will start at 9:00am. Walk participants should meet at the Rachel Carson Pavilion.

• June 11, 2022 — 3RBC Annual Picnic at Harrison Hills Park
• June 18, 2022 — Ohiopyle State Park, Fayette County
• August 26, 2022 — Sewickley Heights Borough Park
• September 9, 2022 — Sewickley Heights Borough Park
• September 10, 2022 — Harrison Hills Park
• September 11, 2022 — Glad Run Lake
• September 17, 2022 — Deer Lakes Park
• September 24, 2022 — Chatham University's Eden Hall Campus
• September 25, 2022 — Frick Park
• October 2, 2022 — Moraine State Park
• October 8, 2022 — Frick Park joint outing with the Parks Conservancy

Participants must follow CDC guidelines, including these: practice social distancing; do not share equipment; vaccines are recommended; wear a mask when appropriate. Each outing leader has set additional restrictions and requirements: most require pre-registration, and numbers of participants are limited to about 15. Finally, each leader may discontinue the outing at any time if conditions warrant such an action. Please see the full outing listing on the website for all restrictions and requirements that may apply! As always, check the club's website and Facebook page for details, directions, and possible last minute changes or cancellations.


• 3RBC Vice President Mike Fialkovich delivered the bird sightings report: American Wigeon at Wingfield Pines; Semipalmated Plover at Imperial and Dashields Dam; Solitary Sandpipers at Wingfield Pines; Semipalmated Sandpiper at Chapel Harbor; Short-billed Dowitcher at North Park; Wilson's Snipe at Imperial; an interesting light-phase Red-tailed Hawk at Wingfield Pines, may have been leucistic; Winter Wren at Barking Slopes and North Park; American Pipit at North Park and Wingfield Pines; Purple Finches at Pine Township; Vesper Sparrows at North Park; Savannah, Grasshopper, and Henslow's Sparrows in the Imperial area; Bobolinks at Imperial; White-crowned Sparrow in Collier Township (inside a grocery store!); Dark-eyed Juncos in Mt. Lebanon; Worm-eating Warblers at Harrison Hills Park; Golden-winged Warbler at Boyce Park, Schenley Park, Frick Park and Boyce-Mayview Park; Prairie Warbler at Chapel Harbor and Beechwood Farms; Black Vultures in Millville, Peter's Creek, and Sewickley; American Avocets at the Point and Dashields Dam; Bonaparte's Gulls on the rivers throughout April; Forster's Terns at the Point and Dashields Dam; Caspian Terns at the Point and Dashields Dam and flying over Frick Park; Great Egret flying over Bridgeville, Collier Township, North Park and Imperial; Red-headed Woodpeckers at Frick Park, Baldwin, Bethel Park, and Wexford; Yellow-bellied Flycatcher at Deer Lakes Park, Harrison Hills Park and Upper St, Clair; Olive-sided Flycatcher at Wingfield Pines, Sewickley, Deer Lakes Park, Frick Park and Hartwood Acres; Alder Flycatcher at Wingfield Pines, Frick Park and Harrison Hills Park; Cliff Swallow in Clinton; Bank Swallows at Dashields Dam and Duck Hollow; Marsh Wren at Wingfield Pines; Pine Siskin at Fox Chapel and Frick Park; Prothonotary Warbler at Peter's Creek; Orange-crowned Warblers at Wingfield Pines, Frick Park, and Boyce Park; Rusty Blackbird at Harrison Hills Park; and finally, a Blue Grosbeak at Imperial.


• Program Director Carol McCullough noted that the club's next meeting will take place on Wednesday, August 3, 2022. Annie Lindsay, will present, "Sixty Years and Counting: Bird Banding and Avian Research at Powdermill." She is Powdermill's Bird Banding Program Manager and 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.

Carol introduced the evening's speaker, Katie Fallon. She reminded members that, a few years ago, Katie spoke to the club about her book, Vultures: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird. Carol told us that tonight Katie will speak about her book, Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird. Ms. Fallon has also written two children's books. She is a founder of the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia; she has been president of the Mountaineer Audubon Society; she is a member of the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators; and she has taught writing at West Virginia University and Virginia Tech.

Katie began by telling us that Cerulean Warblers, one of her favorite species, are, right now, working on their nests. Because of her interest in the species, about ten years ago she wrote her first book, Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird. Even though we know a lot about this and other birds, there is still a lot to learn, especially about small migratory birds that are difficult to observe.

She showed us a photo taken from a small plane of the devastation to the environment in southern West Virginia created by mountaintop coal mining. This destruction is taking place in the heart of the Cerulean Warbler's breeding range in central Appalachia, with disastrous effect on the birds, since this is the place where most of the world's population of Ceruleans exist, and seventy percent of them breed here. Unfortunately, they are one of the world's fastest declining neotropical songbirds, although many such birds - like the Golden-winged Warbler - are declining almost as rapidly.

One of the reasons that West Virginia has so many Ceruleans is because the state is blessed with many forests, a prime habitat. These warblers especially like mature hardwoods located on ridges, with gaps in the canopy, usually caused by a big, old tree that has fallen. Bird scientists have made guesses as to where the Ceruleans go during migration. At least some of them stop in the Yucatán and Central America en route. But they all end up in the northern Andes Mountains of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Columbia, with some in Bolivia. Experts assumed that they were trans-Gulf of Mexico migrants, but recent studies have shown that during fall migration, at least some Ceruleans migrate over the Caribbean, and return during spring migration over the Gulf.

Where can we see them? One place is close to Pittsburgh, at the base of West Virginia's northern panhandle: the Lewis Wetzel Wildlife Management Area. Look for them in sloped, complex canopied areas with gaps, with trees that have a diameter at breast-height of sixteen inches or more, and some understory vegetation. The birds usually are found very high in the canopy, where they eat caterpillars, spiders, leaf hoppers and other small insects. Ceruleans are small, with two-and-a-half inch wings, and weigh only nine-to-ten grams, about the weight of two nickels! A strong field mark is the two parallel white wing bars. The most obvious marking is a whitish underside, punctuated by a thin, blue-black necklace. The males are, of course, cerulean blue, but the females are more greenish in color, and don't always have the distinctive necklace.

Why are these birds in such a steep decline? Habitat loss throughout the range is the most obvious culprit. Deforestation and fragmentation are often cited as prime causes, with the mountaintop coal mining in West Virginia at the top of the list. Luckily, this practice has slowed a bit since natural gas is outcompeting coal these days. Gas extraction can also be a bad thing for Cerulean habitat, since it also destroys large swaths of forest land.

In the South American part of the Cerulean's range, deforestation and fragmentation is also taking place, due mostly to development and agriculture. Coffee farming in particular is responsible for much habitat loss in South America. There is a solution: shade grown coffee, which preserves the forests. This is why buying bird-friendly coffee is very important, and not just to Ceruleans but to many neotropical birds. Particularly, we should look for coffee that bears the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center certification, which insures that the coffee has been grown in a bird-friendly manner.

Katie closed by telling us that we can help Ceruleans by buying shade grown coffee; supporting alternatives to mountaintop mining; advocating for forest management projects that manage the land so as to produce Cerulean habitat; and supporting organizations that do songbird conservation and research.

After her presentation, Katie took several questions from the attendees.

Sheree thanked Katie for her good work and reminded everyone to check out her books. She wished everyone well, cautioned us to stay safe, and adjourned the meeting.

— prepared by Frank Moone on 6-6-2022