Minutes

Springfield Naturalists’ Club

Monthly Meeting March 16, 2005

Recording Secretary: Nancy Condon

Attendance: 54

Program Presenters: Mr. Seth Kellogg

Interesting sightings reported by members included: Grackle, Flying squirrel, Cedar waxwings, Saw-whet owl, Bluebirds, Peregrines downtown Springfield, Golden-crowned kinglets.

Only 2 members attended the trip to Tregelly’s Fiber Farm and we were told by the attendee that others missed a great trip. Kevin reported that Laughing Brooik Trails are open for hiking. Nancy Condon made a phenology appeal and made lists available for members to document their spring sightings. Tom Condon announced the Westfield River Symposium on April 2^nd. Joan Presz announced an upcoming Stars Club event in which the speaker will address light pollution.

Other reports:

Treasury: We have approximately $2,400 in our treasury.

Bettye Bradley from the Southwick Open Space Committee addressed the membership on the Goose Pond Project. The town owns approximately 100 acres at the base of South Pond along the future rail trail in Southwick, but has the opportunity to purchase another 38 acres. The club’s $1,000 donation will go into either purchase of this property or trail construction in this property once purchased. The final closing is expected in June of this year.

Dietrich Schlobohm introduced our distinguished speaker this evening, columnist and premier birder, Seth Kellogg. He is involved in the Allen Bird Club (founded 1912) and spoke about local bird sightings compared over the years. Seth distributed 2 handouts that displayed counts and trends of the Christmas Bird Counts in Western Massachusets, Western Massachusetts Hawkwatches and the May Census in Central Hampden County.

There are 9 Christmas Bird Counts that currently occur in Western Mass per year. The charts displayed changes in select bird species from 1980 until 2004 and enumerated their percent change, either increasing in sightings or decreasing, and Seth’s feeling as to the reason for such change. The top 5 birds increasing in frequency in our region are: Mute Swan, Fish Crow, (due to range expansion) American Robin, Common Grackle and Eastern Bluebird (due to warming trends). The 5 birds whose occurrences have decreased most dramatically over the years include: Evening Grosbeak (due to more prevalent feeders out west keeping them there), Iceland Gull and Herring Gull (due to clean up of landflils), Eastern Meadowlark, and American Kestrel (due to agricultural changes).

It can be seen from the Hawkwatch data that Bald Eagles have increased since 1979 by 459% due to introduction efforts and Peregrine Falcons (by 162%) for the same reason. Red-shouldered hawks have increased because beaver ponds are more prevalent; the red-bellied woodpecker seems to be expanding northward; and the pine warbler seems to be on the increase perhaps because they are adapting to using the white pine. Broad-winged hawks have however decreased (by 75%) presumably due to deforestation in their South American wintering grounds. Seth continued to go over some of these trends in the 2 bird counts while displaying slides of some of the most notable birds.

Our evening concluded as always with some enjoyable snacks and pleasant socializing.