The Linnaean Society had a great turnout of members and their guests for the 2024 Homecoming Picnic held at Summit Rock in Central Park on September 22. We were lucky to have a beautiful fall day for the gathering.
It was heartwarming to greet old friends and fellow birders after a long summer. Much fun was had by all as members competed for prizes during the birding trivia game, snacked on good food, and participated in bird walks led by Debbie Becker, Peter Davenport, Ursula Mitra, and Junko Suzuki. We look forward to seeing everyone again on one of our field trips and on the monthly Zoom meetings.
The Brooklyn Bird Club is having a walk on Saturday, November 2 from 8:00 am – 12:00 pm to honor our friend and fellow birder Lenore Swenson who died in June. The group will meet at the entrance to Prospect Park at the corner of 9th Street and Prospect Park West (by the Lafayette Memorial). Take the F or G train to Seventh Avenue, then walk east. You can read more about the walk on the Brooklyn Bird Club website.
The Bird Collective, a conservation-minded apparel company, has designed a line of shirts and other products that feature images from Great Gull Island. A percentage of Bird Collective’s profits will be donated to the Great Gull Island Project to support their ongoing tern research and conservation efforts.
Please check out their offerings at birdcollective.com And purchase some items to support the terns.
Each year, the Linnaean Society sponsors a birdathon to help raise money for Great Gull Island. The island, which was acquired by the American Museum of Natural History in 1949, is home to the world’s largest nesting colony of Common Terns and the largest colony of Roseate Terns in the Western Hemisphere. Located in Long Island Sound next to Plum and Orient Islands, it has remained uninhabited and desolate.
In 1969, ornithologist and naturalist Dr. Helen Hays made a visit to Great Gull Island and realized it was a nesting haven for terns. Since then, she has supervised the repurposing of the island to favor nesting conditions for the birds. Her work has been successful, and the most recent counts of Common Terns show more than 26,000 nesting pairs. Dr. Hays has been recognized for her contributions to bird conservation and has received a service award from the United States Department of the Interior, among other accolades for her work.
This year’s Linnaean Society birdathon raised almost $6,000 to contribute to the island’s maintenance and to help fund the interns who work to keep the island free of invasive plants that could ruin the terns’ nesting sites.
The Linnaean Society birding teams included Slow Birding Saturday ($4,037); Wandering Warblers ($431); Gnoble Gnatcatchers ($902); and Scarlet Tanagers ($194).
“A birdathon is a fun and challenging day at the office,” said Amy Chaplin, who volunteered on one of the five teams organized by the Linnaean Society.
The Gnoble Gnatcatchers observed 106 species of birds as they birded Sunset Cove Park, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, and Central Park. Some of the highlights included Blue-winged Teal, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Clapper Rail, American Oyster- catcher, Willet, Forster’s Tern, Little Blue Heron, Glossy Ibis, Red-headed Woodpecker, Yellow-throated and White-eyed Vireos, Purple Martins, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Scarlet Tanagers and a variety of warblers. These are all species that migrate through the NYC area during the month of May.
Our annual Homecoming Picnic for LSNY members and their guests will take place on Sunday, September 22, from 12:30–3:30 (rain date September 29). The event will be held at Summit Rock this year (enter at Central Park West and West 81st or West 85th Street). Please register online so we know how many people to prepare for. Bring your binoculars and a sandwich; we will provide snacks, drinks, and dessert. LSNY hats will be available for a donation of $25. After lunch we’ll play a fun trivia game and then end the occasion with a bird walk led by Ursula Mitra and Peter Davenport. Don’t worry if you haven’t met any members yet—we’re a friendly crowd, and we’ll be happy to get to know you. Please bring friends who may be interested in joining LSNY.
New York State Ornithological Association’s 2024 Annual Meeting will be held online Sunday, September 15, 2024 from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm.
Along with annual elections and committee reports, the featured presentation will be by author and photographer Scott Harris, whose recent book Raptor Quest: Chasing America’s Raptors, documents his journey to photograph all the raptors in North America.
And you won’t want to miss another challenging bird quiz by NYSOA’s New York State Young Birders Club! Will the young birders baffle the audience as they did last year?
Over 30 New York bird clubs, Audubon chapters, and other nature organizations will be in our roll call. Help make sure your group’s NYSOA delegates are online with NYSOA this fall! For Zoom registration and reminders visit www.nybirds.org/2024.
Our annual evening bat walk in Central Park, led by Danielle Gustafson, was featured in the July 26, 2024 edition of the West Side Rag, a local paper covering the goings-on of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Danielle, a board member of Bat Conservation International, has been leading these popular walks for many years. Participants use electronic bat detectors to hear the bats’ ultrasonic vocalizations and are mesmerized by the sight of bats swooping through the evening sky in pursuit of insects. The article, by Bonnie Eissner, includes photographs by LSNY members Bruce Yolton and Barbara Saunders and quotes from member Savannah Conheady.
The Linnaean Society of New York has supported the important tern conservation work of the Great Gull Island Project since the 1960s. Today, Great Gull Island hosts in the largest nesting colony of Common Terns in the world and the largest nesting colony of Roseate Terns in the western hemisphere. To ensure the continued success of their work, the Linnaean Society raises funds for the Great Gull Island Project every spring with a Birdathon.
The 2024 Great Gull Island Project Birdathon is May 11-12, 2024. This is a fun way to solicit contributions while enjoying a great day of birding. Talk to your friends about forming a team, and start mapping out your strategy. You can also bird solo to challenge yourself to surpass your personal record for the most species seen in a day or a weekend.
Here’s how it works:
1. Sign up using this form and tell us if you will be birding solo or with a team.
2. Ask your friends, family, colleagues, and fellow birders to pledge a dollar amount per species that you or your team sees. Download this sponsorship form to list your sponsors and their pledges.
3. Soon after the Birdathon, a) let all your sponsors know how many birds you saw. b) collect the money and send to the address below.
Helen Hays Great Gull Island Project Ornithology American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) 200 Central Park West New York, NY 10024
4. If your sponsors would like a receipt from AMNH for tax purposes, they must write a check and provide their mailing address. Donations must be received by June 15.
5. Send us your sponsorship form so we know which solo birder/team to credit with the contributions.
Even if you can’t go birding on May 11-12, you can still support the Great Gull Island Project by being a sponsor. The list of teams and solo birders is below. Select a team, then fill out this form to let us know who you are supporting.
2024 Birdathon Participants (list in formation) 1. The Scarlet Tanagers — Debbie Becker and friends 2. The Wandering Warbler — Alan Drogin, Yoming Lin, Debbie Mullins, and Miriam Rakowski 3. The Gnoble Gnatcatchers-Dawn Hannay, Kevin Sisco, Junko Suzuki, and Janet Wooten 4. The Saturday Slow Birders-Chuck McAlexander and friends 5. Amanda Bielskas
