The next meeting of the Chenango Bird Club will be held on Wednesday, September 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Norwich YMCA at the corner of Broad and Mechanic Streets.

     Environmental educator and longtime birder Fred vonMechow will lead the program entitled "Bird Watching Basics." This program will be designed primarily for beginning birders or longtime birders who wish to improve identification skills.  Club members will have a short business meeting at 6:30 p.m. before the program.  Refreshments will be served following the program.

     Details for the Saturday, September 17 bird walk will be given at the meeting or you may call Charlene LaFever, club president, at 334-9112.

     See you September 14th!

The price of bird seed has reached unaffordable levels.  On March 24, 2011, Country Max was selling black oil sunflower seeds at $20.00 for a 50-pound bag and their millet-based mix at $18.00.

However, cracked corn (chicken feed) was only $9.45 for 50-pounds, half-price.  I bought a sack, but with some reservations.  I wondered how many species would eat it, besides pigeons and sparrows.

Not to worry.  The birds I regularly get voraciously gobble it up, especially the spring migrants, such as Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Brown-headed Cowbirds, White-throated Sparrows, and White-Crowned Sparrows.  Winter birds, such as Dark-eyed Juncos, American Tree Sparrows, and House Sparrows also seemed to enjoy it.  Now Song Sparrows chow down too.

I still provide black sunflower seeds, but much less.  Next fall, I will serve both the cracked corn and the millet-based mix, just to see which is preferred.  Perhaps the cracked corn can be used to dilute the more expensive feeds.

I do like having a large flock of House Sparrows around, because I have several neighborhood cats marauding my feeding area.  House Sparrows and Starlings act as a security patrol.  As long as these birds are feeding, other less wary species know that it is safe to eat.

So, if the high price of bird seed is irritating you, consider shifting to or supplementing with cracked corn.

   According to Laura Carey, Coordinator, 850 visitors came back to Rogers Center on Saturday, May 7, to participate in the first Friends of Rogers Earth Fest Celebration.

   Her letter thanked our Club, saying, "Your presence at this event was vital to making the day the wonderful success that it was! I hope you enjoyed your day as much as all the visitors and I did.  I saw happy faces everywhere I looked."

   She continued, "This was FOR’s first public event since the state closed the Rogers Visitor Center on December 31, 2010, and funding for five education staff positions was eliminated.  Under an agreement with the Department of Environmental Conservation, Friends of Rogers will conduct programs and educational events at the Center.  Earth Fest is the first of many upcoming activities to be held at Rogers and sponsored by FOR."

   Carey added, "Please mark your calendar for May 5, 2012.  We hope you will join us for the second annual Friends of Rogers Earth Fest!

The Chenango Bird Club met on April 13 at our new meeting place, the Norwich YMCA, for a program on the Oxford-Norwich Rails to Trails  proposal.  Jerry Locke, a representative of the Promote Oxford Now organization,  showed pictures and explained the proposal to about 20 Club members and guests.

The May 11 program will be presented by Rick Bunting, a Club member from Bainbridge who photographs birds and other creatures of nature.  He will show photos of Backyard Birds this time.

The Chenango Bird Club welcomes YOU to enjoy the natural wonders of Chenango County and surrounding areas!  The American Goldfinch is one of the brighter colored, more visible birds in our county.  Perhaps that is why it was chosen for the logo of the Chenango Bird Club when the club was organized more than 25 years agol  The Goldfinch is also the name of the Club’s nesletter published four times a year.

The Chenango Bird Club invites YOU to enjoy the natural wonders of Chenango County and surrounding areas!

Nine members of the Chenango Bird Club made a field trip to CBC member Mark Tanis’s farm in Pitcher, NY, on Saturday.  Mark is a long-time birder and bird-friendly farmer who enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience with others. He met us on our arrival with juice and pastries, then explained a little about his farm and what we could expect to see.

The hay wagon pulled by one of the tractors had hay bale seats for all of us. Mark pulled us along to the varied habitats he maintains on his farm—a gravel pit with water, grassy meadows, wooded and brushy areas, hay fields, and riverside pastures.

Along the way we observed more than 30 species, most notably a Bald Eagle, Eastern Meadowlarks, a family of Northern Flickers, a Marsh Wren, a pair of American Kestrels being harassed by Blue Jays, Mourning Warblers, Savannah Sparrows, and a flock of Wild Turkeys with both adults and young.  As usual, it was a great birding day at Mark’s farm.

Charlene LaFever

President 

The Chenango Bird Club invites YOU to enjoy the natural wonders of Chenango County and surrounding areas!

By all accounts, Saturday’s field trip was a great success. More details and more photos to come, but here’s a preview of the day’s delights–a perched adult Bald Eagle.

The Chenango Bird Club invites YOU to enjoy the natural wonders of Chenango County and surrounding areas!

The new issue of The Goldfinch announces the following Fall 2008 club events:

September 10: Presentation by John Knapp

September 13: Field Trip — Ideal Farm, Pitcher

October 8: Presentation by Rick Marsi

October 11: Field Trip — destination tba

November 12: Show and Tell Evening

November 15: Field Trip — destination tba

The newsletter also includes several very interesting articles about the Club’s early history, along with an exciting report of a male Lazuli Bunting in North Norwich.

Want to read more? Join the Chenango Bird Club! Dues are $5 for students, $10 for individuals, and $15 for families, and can be submitted to John Knapp, PO Box 603, Oxford, NY 13830; you can also join at any of the club’s regular meetings, held the second Wednesday of each month from April to December at 6:30 pm at the Rogers Environmental Center, State Route 80, Sherburne.

The Chenango Bird Club invites YOU to enjoy the natural wonders of Chenango County and surrounding areas!

For some video well worth watching, check out Matt Perry’s film of the Utica Peregrine Falcons:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lUipyhmDZAA

The Chenango Bird Club invites YOU to enjoy the natural wonders of Chenango County and surrounding areas!