March 11, 2024—Monday--The Color of the Rainforest, presented by Jeffrey Hall
Green is the color of the rainforest, but along with the verdant lushness, all the hues of the spectrum are represented in the flora and fauna of tropical woodlands. Bartramian President Jeffrey Hall will share images and stories of birds and other animals both familiar and exotic, vegetation in amazing profusion, and ancient civilizations that made Central America their home.
April 8, 2024—Monday--Eavesdropping on Birds: New Tools to Help Bird Populations, presented by Tessa Rhinehart
Tessa Rhinehart is a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. She is developing innovative methods to assess bird populations in areas where humans cannot readily survey, over a longer timeframe that is normally possible. This information will greatly expand our knowledge of bird populations and allow conservation decisions to be made using more complete information.
Tessa will describe autonomous acoustic recorders that detect a wealth of bird sounds, along with the technology that allows researchers to identify those sounds. She will discuss how this new mass of data will help efforts to protect birds and bird habitat.
An avid birder, Tessa’s interests also include science communications and developing open source tools for birders and biologists.
May 13, 2024—Monday—Awards Night
At our annual Awards Night on May 13, we will honor institutions, organizations, and individuals for their contributions to conservation. Students from Slippery Rock University and Westminster College will receive scholarships to assist in their study of wildlife and conservation issues. Landowners who have enrolled their property in Bartramian Audubon Society's "Wildlife Sanctuary" or "Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary" programs this year will be recognized and receive the signs that designate their participation.
April 10, 2023-Monday-Road to Recovery: Continental Conservation of the Evening Grosbeak—David Yeany II.
David has carried out studies of evening grosbeak winter populations in western Pennsylvania, using cutting edge tracking devices to follow individual evening grosbeaks within the region and through their migratory and irruptive movements. Now, his project has expanded beyond just Pennsylvania's wintering evening grosbeaks to the continental population - using newly available satellite tracking tags to follow grosbeaks in near real-time and formed an international evening grosbeak working group. Come hear about this exciting project that began in the backyards of Western Pennsylvania and is now working toward conservation for the continental population of the evening grosbeak.
March 13, 2023-Monday-Everything You’ve Wanted to Know about Cerulean Warblers (But Were Afraid to Ask)—Scott Stoleson
Scott will summarize what he and his colleagues have discovered in their studies of this enigmatic bird over the last 16 years. You will learn about the Ceruleans' fussy habitat requirements, treetop lifestyle, and recently revealed migration patterns.
Monday, November 14, 2022, 7:00 pm. BIRD STACK: Migration at the “Cape May of China”
As migrating birds move along coastlines, they often hesitate at the ends of peninsulas before crossing a body of water. Thousands of birds often “stack up” as they wait for the proper weather to proceed. In North America, Cape May and Point Pelee are two well-known examples, but this is, of course, a world-wide phenomenon. Dr. Mark Bonta had the good fortune to teach for a time near China’s Laotieshan mountain at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula—the most famous “bird stack” area in the country. He witnessed clouds of Amur falcons appear and disappear as if by magic, thousands of chestnut-flanked white eyes streaming overhead, orioles, bulbuls, and leaf warblers covering the grounds of his university, and even Siberian rubythroats flying into classrooms through open windows; he also gained valuable insights into the opportunities and threats facing Chinese bird conservation. Join us as Dr. Bonta shares his experiences of this spectacle and his assessments of the future of birds in one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.
As he has travelled in 40 countries over six continents, Mark Bonta has been involved in environmental conservation efforts, learned the wisdom traditions about birds among local and indigenous populations, and become a leading export on cycads, “living fossils” that are the most threatened group of plants in the world.
We hope you can join with us for this virtual presentation; if you cannot attend, but are interested, here is the link to view the talk on your own computer.
https://tinyurl.com/Bartramian
Meeting ID: 261 132 940 525
Passcode: kK8aQW
Monday, October 10, 2022: The Origin of Modern Birds: New Fossil Discoveries from China and Antarctica, presented by Dr. Matthew C. Lamanna
Comprising over 10,000 species, modern birds (Neornithes) are today’s most diverse group of land-living backboned animals. Nevertheless, the origins of these birds from toothed, long-tailed ancestors during the Cretaceous Period (the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, or Age of Dinosaurs) remain poorly understood. Expeditions led by Matt Lamanna and colleagues have uncovered dozens of exquisitely-preserved avian fossils—many of them including soft-tissues such as feathers and skin—from ~120 million-year-old lake sediments in the Changma Basin of northwestern Gansu Province, China. An overwhelming majority of these specimens belong to Gansus yumenensis, a semi-aquatic bird that, despite its great antiquity, is thought to be closely related to Neornithes. More recently, Lamanna and a different group of collaborators have conducted expeditions to latest Cretaceous exposures in the James Ross Basin of the Antarctic Peninsula in search of what may be the world’s most ancient neornithines. Dr. Lamanna will chronicle his teams’ discoveries of Chinese and Antarctic Cretaceous fossils and their implications for the rise of modern birds.
Matt Lamanna is the Mary R. Dawson Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology and the principal dinosaur researcher at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.. Within the past 25 years, he has directed or co-directed field expeditions to Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, China, Croatia, Egypt, and Greenland that have resulted in the discovery of numerous new species of dinosaurs and other fossil animals from the Cretaceous Period, the third and final time period of the Age of Dinosaurs; indeed, he is one of only a handful of paleontologists to have found dinosaur fossils on all seven continents. Lamanna served as chief scientific advisor to Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s $36M Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition and has appeared on television programs for PBS (NOVA), the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, A&E, the Science Channel, and more.
Monday, September 12, 2022, presented by Kate St. John.
Peregrine Falcons are an environmental success story from their extinction in eastern North America in the 1960s to their reintroduction and removal from the Endangered Species list in the US and most eastern states. As the lead volunteer peregrine monitor in Southwestern PA Kate St. John has over two decades of experience observing these charismatic birds. She'll describe their breeding strategy, the history of their crash and recovery, notable breeding sites and peregrine dynasties in western Pennsylvania. Her engaging account of their lives and histories will give you a new appreciation for these fierce and beautiful raptors.
Fascinated by birds, curious about nature, and addicted to peregrine falcons, Kate St. John is a birder, blogger, and Pittsburgh’s lead peregrine falcon monitor. She writes about birds and nature every day at Outside My Window, widely regarded as one of the country's leading blogs on nature and birds. www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org
Jeffrey Hall is President of Bartramian Audubon Society. He has presented many programs for BAS, on subjects as diverse as Patagonia, Whooping Cranes, and the wonders of nature in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
DISCOVERING LIFE THROUGH BIRDS
PROGRAMS
March 13, 2023-Monday-Everything You’ve Wanted to Know about Cerulean Warblers (But Were Afraid to Ask)—Scott Stoleson
Scott will summarize what he and his colleagues have discovered in their studies of this enigmatic bird over the last 16 years. You will learn about the Ceruleans' fussy habitat requirements, treetop lifestyle, and recently revealed migration patterns.
Scott is the Research Wildlife Biologist at the Forest Service's Northern Research Station in Warren, PA, and a Research Associate of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, NY. His current research focuses on the ecology and conservation of Cerulean Warblers and lesser birds in northeastern forests. Scott has published various scientific papers based on research in Pennsylvania, the western U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Ecuador. He serves on the Pennsylvania Biological Survey's Ornithological Technical Committee and the Governing Councils of the Association of Field Ornithologists and Eastern Bird Banding Association.
April 10, 2023-Monday-Road to Recovery: Continental Conservation of the Evening Grosbeak—David Yeany II.
With a 92% population decline since 1970, evening grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus) was cited as the steepest declining landbird in the continental United States and Canada by the Partners in Flight 2016 Landbird Conservation Plan. Since 2017, the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Powdermill Avian Research Center at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History have collaborated on tracking studies of evening grosbeak winter populations in western Pennsylvania. They use cutting edge tracking devices to follow individual evening grosbeaks within the region and through their migratory and irruptive movements.
In 2021, the Finch Research Network (FiRN) was added as a collaborator and the focus was expanded beyond just Pennsylvania's wintering evening grosbeaks to the continental population - using newly available satellite tracking tags to follow grosbeaks in near real-time and formed an international evening grosbeak working group.
You will learn more about this exciting project that began in the backyards of Western Pennsylvania and is now working toward conservation for the continental population of the evening grosbeak.
David Yeany II is the Avian Ecologist for the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. David joined PNHP in 2011 and has 17 years of professional experience in ornithology and bird conservation. He has an M.S. in Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology from Frostburg University. His work includes avian ecology and monitoring; wildlife-habitat relationship studies; rare and endangered species surveys; conservation projects; and bird tracking studies with new technologies, including evening grosbeaks.
May 8, 2023-Monday-Awards Night and Annual Meeting
At our annual Membership Meeting and Awards Night on May 8, officers will be elected and we will honor institutions, organizations, and individuals for their contributions to conservation. Students from Slippery Rock University and Westminster College will receive scholarships to assist in their study of wildlife and conservation issues. Landowners who have enrolled their property in Bartramian Audubon Society's "Wildlife Sanctuary" or "Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary" programs this year will be recognized and receive the signs that designate their participation.
