Meetings & Programs

Robert S. Mulvihill

The National Aviary in Pittsburgh Does Bird Conservation Around the World. Formally designated as the “National” Aviary by an act of Congress signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993, the National Aviary was first established as a local Conservatory-Aviary in 1952. For more than 70 years the facility has pursued its mission to “Inspire respect for nature through an appreciation of birds.” In addition to serving as a popular recreation and education destination, the National Aviary pursues important bird conservation work around the world. Ornithologist, Bob Mulvihill, will give us a look behind the scenes at some of the National Aviary’s ground-breaking contributions to bird conservation efforts, from Louisiana to the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, South Africa, Guam, and right back here in Pennsylvania, too.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Club Member John Mercer

John is back to tell us about another one of his trips, this time to Ecuador, where he added almost 300 species to his lifelist. He will discuss plans to have the club celebrate its 115th anniversary by scheduling an Ecuador trip in 2026 for interested members.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Zoom Link to Meeting

Jeff Kenney and Angela Romanczuk

Join Jeff and Angela as they recount their January 2025 travels through the state of Assam in eastern India. They visited four National Parks while having up close and personal encounters with Indian rhinoceros, water buffaloes, Indian elephants, and over 300 species of birds. They will also share general observations about travel in India, as well as what you can do to help make your trip to India a success.

Jeff and Angela will also be able to answer any PA Bird Atlas questions you may have after the presentation is complete.

Jeff Kenney has lived in Chester County for most of his life. Having been introduced to birding as a child by his father Mike, Jeff’s passion for birds and nature was mostly dormant until being rekindled in 2020. Now an avid (and moderately obsessive) state and county lister, Jeff’s favorite place to bird in Chester County is the Crow's Nest Preserve/State Game Lands 43 complex in Elverson. Jeff currently resides in Phoenixville with his two dogs, Vita and Grits, and is a founding board member of In Color Birding Club, as well as a Force of Nature volunteer with Natural Lands.

Angela Romanczuk has lived in multiple Pennsylvania counties, but has spent most of her adult life in Montgomery and Chester counties. While Angela has always loved being outdoors, it wasn’t until 2020 that she was introduced to birding. She now enjoys exploring under-birded areas all over Pennsylvania and is forever on the lookout for the American Woodcock. Angela’s favorite local places to bird are Crow’s Nest Preserve in Chester County, Congo Open Space in Montgomery County and her backyard. She is a founding board member of In Color Birding Club and a Force of Nature volunteer with Natural Lands.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Julie Brown

Julie will speak about the Hawk Migration Association’s work and the continental network of hawkwatching sites, why collecting spring and fall migration data is important and what we’ve learned about raptor movements and populations. She’ll dive into migration data from across the continent and what it’s showing us about the health of raptor populations.

Julie Brown is the Raptor Migration and Programs Director at the Hawk Migration Association. Before joining HMANA in 2009, she migrated throughout the US and tropics working as a field biologist primarily with raptors, focusing on human impact studies, migration research and behavioral studies. She received her BS in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Maine and received her MS in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England where she studied Peregrine Falcon migration in Costa Rica for her thesis. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, whom she met hawkwatching, and her two bird-loving children, a flock of chickens, her dog and lots of fruit trees. She is a volunteer counter at the Pack Monadnock Raptor Migration Observatory each fall.

Zoom Link to Meeting

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Mike Coulter

Since 2019, the Great Marsh Institute has been utilizing Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) for the purpose of detecting and monitoring bird species within The Great Marsh in Chester County. ARU's are useful in remote locations and for targeting rare species. Raw field data is analyzed through a multi-step process which then shows the distribution and relative density of various species. This long-term research allows the tracking of trends which inform future conservation decisions. In this program, avian researcher Mike Coulter of the Great Marsh Institute will describe the purpose and process of this study and the results obtained to date.

Mike Coulter, a lifelong Chester County resident, has been birding the county for over 30 years and has focused his efforts on The Great Marsh for the past 13 years in an effort to better understand the bird species present at this unique 700 acre+ habitat. As a member of GMI's Science Advisory Board, he has been instrumental in developing strategies for habitat improvement.

Zoom Link to Meeting

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Robert Galardo

If tropical birds and butterflies fascinate you, then you’ll be sure to enjoy this virtual presentation. It will be an up-close and personal look at these colorful denizens of Honduras. To date, more than 800 species of birds and over 1,300 butterflies have been found there. This little known Central American country still receives little attention, but Robert will take you on a picture-filled journey on what he, and other colleagues, have been doing there for the past 30 years. After nearly two decades of field work, Robert published two lengthy volumes on the birds of Honduras (in English and Spanish). He and his partner, Olivia, then set out to start working on the country’s butterflies; a field of fauna that was virtually unknown. After seven years of field work, they finally finished the first edition of the Guide to the Butterflies of Honduras. Join Robert on this enlightening presentation and get to know the beautiful country he calls ‘home’.

Robert is originally from California. His passion for all things natural lead him to get a degree in Natural Resources Planning and Interpretation from Humboldt State University in his home state. Immediately after graduating, he joined the Peace Corps and served as a volunteer in Honduras from 1993-1996. He remained in that country and has been there ever since. He and Olivia reside at Emerald Valley, an international butterfly center, home to 755 species of butterflies and 200 birds.

Zoom Link to Meeting

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Club member John Mercer

A travelogue of the trip I took with the Hawk Migration Association of North America to visit the Belize Hawk watch and do a lot of other birding.

John Mercer is the treasurer of the West Chester Bird Club.

Zoom Link to Meeting

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Coordinated by Luc Jacobs.
 
Every year, we end our meetings and presentations on the first Monday in June with a showing of members' photos.  If you would like to contribute and show your photos, below is the process for getting the photos to Luc Jacobs.  This is quite a bit of work for Luc, so please get your pictures to Luc as soon as you can.
 

1. Maximum 50 photos per participating member
(depending on the number of people that want to show pictures, Luc may need to make a selection and pair the numbers down a bit.  We think the absolute maximum number of photos should not exceed 300.  E.g. if 7 people send 50 photos each, Luc will take out 7 photos per submission to bring it down to 301).

2. The photos need to be in JPEG format.  Ideally each photo file should be 2Mb or less.  However, if you don't know how to compress your files, Luc with do so himself if it becomes too much for the Powerpoint presentation file

3. Each file name should include the name of the bird.  If you want to also show on the slides the location where the photos were taken, please include the name of the location also in the file name, or include a Word document with the cross reference of location to the file name.  Luc will then make sure that the location is shown on the slides.

4. The photos should preferably be sent to Luc Jacobs via websites such as DROPBOX or WETRANSFER.  These services are free if you don't exceed 2 Gb for the 50 photos combined.

5.Luc's email address is jacobsluc52@yahoo.com

6. Please make sure to get your photos to Luc by May 15th at the very latest.  Earlier submissions are encouraged.

7. If you want to give the photos to Luc on a memory stick or a CD, get in touch with him via phone (cell: 484-706-1999) or via email to discuss day, time and location to hand over the memory stick or the CD, You can also mail a memory stick or CD to his home address at 511 Annadale Drive, Berwyn, PA 19312.

NOTE: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.
 

Zoom Link to Meeting

Troy Bynum

Join this introductory photography workshop and unlock the secrets of digital photography! This hands-on course delves into the essentials of Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO, empowering participants with a solid foundation on digital photography basics. Explore Exposure Compensation, Auto-Focus, Metering, and more, while mastering important terminology and troubleshooting techniques.
 
Perfect for beginners and seasoned photographers alike, this workshop cultivates the skills needed to capture images with your unique artistic flair. By the end, you’ll confidently use manual settings to photograph wildlife and diverse subjects. The information covered in this course is applicable across various camera types – DSLR, mirrorless, bridge, superzoom, and even your phone. Elevate your photography journey with this workshop!
 
Participants should bring a camera with a fully charged battery and the instruction/user manual for use during the hands-on portions.

Troy Bynum, owner of TB Wildlife Photography LLC, is not only an enthusiastic birder but also a passionate wildlife photographer from Philadelphia, PA. Troy’s work focuses on capturing and showcasing the remarkable colors, intricate patterns, and rich textures that are abundant throughout the natural world. In his work, Troy draws attention to the oftentimes overlooked naturally occurring beauty found in the wild. Troy is on a mission to accentuate and celebrate the inherent magnificence of nature.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Jared Clarke

Join us for an overview of birds & birding at the eastern edge of Canada & North America. From spectacular seabird colonies to lush boreal forests and puffins to warblers, Newfoundland & Labrador offers a unique blend of habitats and a wide diversity of birds - along with may other natural and cultural highlights to enjoy along the way.

Jared Clarke grew up on the northeast coast of Newfoundland and was introduced to the outdoors at a very young age, mostly by his grandfathers. Always a nature enthusiast, he became interested in birds while working for a local conservation group. Jared soon became one of the most avid birders in the province. Despite his “official” training as a health researcher (Ph.D. Medicine), his love of nature and sharing it with others increasingly led him astray. He currently runs a small bird and nature tour business, called Bird•The•Rock, and routinely leads trips at home and abroad for various tour companies. You can follow his adventures at www.birdtherock.com.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Andrew Farnsworth

BirdCast is a collaborative project that employs the expertises of computer scientists and ornithologists to harness the power of big data to study movements of birds and, more broadly, capture the spectacle of bird migration. I will be speaking about monitoring bird migration with data collected by citizen scientists and the US weather surveillance radar network to forecast where, when, and how many birds will migrate and to observe these movements in near real-time at a continental scale. I will discuss magnitudes and extents of migration, challenges of monitoring birds' nocturnal movements at scales relevant to their biology, and ways we use radar to remotely sense interconnected patterns in time and space. Birds truly represent dynamic and global communities, and recent trends in methods and analyses showcase what may be the future of bird migration research and conservation to study birds' complex roles in terrestrial, aerial, and aquatic systems. In the age of big data and observation, the potential of what remains for us to learn is inspiring.

Andrew Farnsworth is a Visiting Scientist in the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Andrew began birding at age 5 and quickly developed his long-standing fascinations with bird migration. His current research applies remote sensing technologies, including weather surveillance radar, audio and video recording and monitoring tools, citizen science datasets, and machine learning techniques, to study bird movements. Andrew received his BS in Natural Resources from Cornell, MS in Zoology from Clemson University, and PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. He lives in New York, NY with his wife Patti and two daughters Aja and Elle. Andrew is also active in his family foundation, whose mission includes support for climate change education, promoting women's health and rights, children's education, and land conservation. He is also a musician when time and space allow.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.

Will Williams - Sustainability Director – Borough of West Chester

Mr. Williams will present on past, present, and future projects, initiatives, and policy related to ecological sustainability and habitat restoration in the borough. Will is a Chester County native and avid birder, who lived in West Chester for 12 years and worked for the borough for six. Recent additions to his lifelist include a Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Delaware, a Cerulean Warbler in Chadds Ford, and a Great Tit in Morocco.

Note: This meeting will be held in person at the meeting house and via Zoom. Zoom signon will start at 7:15 to enable the meeting to begin at 7:30.