THE   CATBIRD

Volume XLI,   No.2                                                                                                   March 2016     

Official Publication of the Cattaraugus County Bird Club, an affiliate of the New York State Ornithological Association.

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Club Officers:

President:       Tim Baird                                Statistician:    Tim Baird

Vice President: Mike DeSha                         Web Master:  Regina VanScoy

Secretary:    Robin Baird Vosburg            Membership: James VanScoy

Treasurer:       Regina VanScoy                     Field Trips:      Bert Schweigert

Catbird Editor: Regina M. VanScoy             Programs:       Mike DeSha

                           5557 Nichols Run

                           Limestone, NY 14753

                           716-925-7109

                            e- mail :  vanscoy716@outlook.com

website  http://www.cattbird.org

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Meetings are held on the third Friday of the month, at the First Presbyterian Church, 212 Laurens Street, Olean, New York at 7:00 P.M. 

 March 18, 2016 – Local artist Jennifer Miller will give a presentation on her year of travel as the Federal Duck Stamp artist. While sharing photos and experiences from her win, where she worked closely with a variety of groups, ranging from the US Fish and Wildlife service, to birding organizations such as Audubon, and various conservation groups; all while explaining her passions for wildlife and conservation through the unique lens of an artist.  An evening not to be missed.  Pauline Farmer and Lisa Chapman will provide refreshments.

April 15, 2016- To most it is TAX DAY but at CCBC we will be treated to a presentation by Twan Leenders, President of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute.  Twan is a biologist from The Netherlands interested in animal ecology and conservation management. For more than twenty years his work with birds, mammals, plants and especially tropical amphibians and reptiles has taken him to various places on the planet. As a former researcher at Yale University’s Peabody Museum and other institutions he participated in many international expeditions that helped gather data to better understand and protect biologically important areas and their unique species and habitats. Before coming to western NY, Twan taught biology at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, and went back into the ‘trenches’ of hands-on conservation research and education while leading the Science and Conservation Office of the Connecticut Audubon Society. As President of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, he now applies his experience to our region and develops new conservation research and education initiatives that aim to spark increased interest in the area’s exceptional natural assets while providing economic incentives to promote good environmental stewardship. He will be doing a presentation on tropical bird and frog research. He says it will have lots of cool bird pictures and highlight some of the work RTPI is doing. He calls his talk  ‘Birds on break – and other tropical discoveries’ and it is primarily focused on our research and banding efforts to find out where ‘our’ neotropical migrants go when they’re not in our backyards.

A meeting not to be missed.

Theresa and Joe Schueckler are our hospitality hosts.

2016 Meetings: May 20, June 18(picnic), September 16 (members’ night), October 22 (annual dinner), November 18, and December 18 (Christmas Count)

 Past Programs

January 15, 2016- What a night –President Tim Baird shared his program titled  “A Program For Bird Nerds”.   Sounds like us!  This was a cleverly disguised bird quiz with clues given to help us identify the birds.  Tim helps us to learn more and at times helps us affirm all we do know.  A teacher for sure.  It was a Baird night with Tim and Beth also sharing refreshments for our social time.

 February 19, 2016- Beverly Jones, naturalist of the Pfeiffer Nature Center, presented a program she calls   “An Evening of Owls”.   She shared information on the superstitions surrounding our mysterious, scary, and /or wise old owls.   She talked about the physical characteristics that make an owl different from other raptors and provided some natural history and wildlife rehabilitation case studies for each of the species of owls that can be found in Western New York.   Our nocturnal owls are some of our most interesting birds and we enjoyed learning more about them.  Thanks to Robin Baird Vosburg for being our hospitality chair.

                                                                                                                         

Just a reminder — submissions for THE CATBIRD are always welcome. The easiest way to send them is by email in word format. We NEED write ups on field trips! Please, if you participate in a field trip, take a few moments to let our members know about your adventures.  Or -how about your experiences working on the BOS counts?

 The Catbird is published 5 times per year – January, March, May, September, and November.  Please send articles, field trip write-ups by the 5^th of those months.

E-mail Addresses:

We are sending THE CATBIRD by email to those members who are on the web.  This saves us a great deal of money. We also send out timely meeting reminders to let members know of upcoming meetings. If you would like to receive your copy of THE CATBIRD by email and email reminders please send your email address to editor – Regina VanScoy at  vanscoy716@outlook.com.

 Catbird Mews:

Dues– Dues are payable on January 1st of every year. Family -$15, Individual – $10, and Student -$3. Send them to James S. VanScoy, 5557 Nichols Run, Limestone, New York 14753-9775. The Cattaraugus County Bird Club functions on a calendar year- please help us by paying your dues promptly.  Make checks payable to The Cattaraugus County Bird Club.   

Birding report – Mike and Joyce Ermer, Jim Pomeroy and Mike Landowski

On February 3, 2016, the warmest day of the winter, we made our annual trip to look for waterfowl on the Niagara River.  After a previous night of high winds and rain, the temperature reached 60 degrees by the time we crossed the Peace Bridge to enter Canada.  In and along the Niagara River we spotted the following species:  great blue heron, tundra swan, Canada goose, mallard, canvasback, redhead, greater scaup, long-tailed duck, white-winged scoter, common goldeneye, bufflehead, common merganser, red-breasted merganser, ring-billed gull, herring gull, greater black-backed gull, turkey vulture and black vulture.  There wasn’t much ice and the birds seemed more dispersed in the river this year.  Unlike the last two years, we did not see any dead waterfowl.  We also went to the Batavia Airport and were fortunate to spot a snowy owl standing on the ground. 

  Cattaraugus County Birds Yearly List 2015

 Each year the members of the Cattaraugus County Bird Club keep track of the species we see during the calendar year.  Tim Baird is our “Keeper of the List”. 

This year we found a total of 179 species.  We were 21 species short of our goal of 200.  The total reflects the amount of time that members spend in the field.  The more time spent the more we see.  With more time in the field we should be able to make that total of 200 species in 2016.  On the following page is our listing for 2015.

Field Trips and Buffalo Ornithological Society Counts

Saturday March 26th – Our annual Waterfowl trip will be held on Saturday March 26th to the Reservoir, Randolph etc. Meet at 8 a.m. at the Salamanca High School parking lot.

Tim Baird is compiler for our Buffalo Ornithological Society Counts. Please volunteer to cover an area and help us keep track of our native birds during migration.

Sunday April 10 BOS early migration count.

Sunday May 15 BOS Big Day Count

Saturday October 8 Fall Migration Count

Life With Feathers

Tim Baird

There are four seasons.  It seems to me that summer and winter are pretty static, warm and cold respectively.  Spring and Fall I tend to think of as transitional, each season closes the door to its predecessor and opens the door to the next.

In March, winter’s door is beginning to close.  The sun is turning the tide in the battle between cold and warm.  The Earth’s position in its orbit is transitioning the tilt of the axis towards the sun in the Northern Hemisphere.  The summit of the sun’s daily path in the sky moves gradually north and its influence intensifies.  The period of daylight lengthens, and all nature takes notice of the change.

Mornings are silent no more.  The local birds begin to announce the seasonal change.  The cardinal’s song is a welcome sign of an awakening in nature.  Though we soon will take it for granted, what delight there is in a Red-winged Blackbird suddenly appearing.  The gentle calls from sinuous skeins of Tundra Swans a mile or more above our heads hastened along by a soft southern breeze make us pause.  Such are the vectors of the fever of spring.

We know the birds are reacting to the environmental cues associated with the solar transition.  What are we reacting to?  We have no ‘breeding cycle’ to complete.  We are no longer dependent on the seasonal revival of the vegetable world for our food thanks to grocery stores.  Do we carry an emotional attachment to spring handed down from our earliest ancestors?  Or are we just happy to anticipate comfortable temperatures and nature’s revival once again?  I’m sure there are many reasons for our feelings at this time of year.

Spring’s slow progress toward summer brings a continuous parade of new birdlife and new bird activity, and the bird enthusiast gets into step.  One does not need to be a bird watcher to taste spring’s tonic, but those who take special note of our birds receive a refined flavor.  It is a flavor to help quench a growing thirst.