1915 and 1956 Annual Dinner

1914 & 1956 Annual Dinner Photographs from the Archives

In the 1914 photo #20 is Ludlow Griscom. In the biography of Griscom, Dean of the Birdwatchers by William E. Davis, Jr. there is a photo of Griscom from 1910 that you can compare. In the same book there is a photo of the AMNH Ornithology Department staff taken in 1924. Comparison indicates that photo to the 1914 Linnaean dinner photo, #14 is probably Waldron DeW. Miller and #21 Jonathan Dwight, Jr. (in 1914 Dwight was Society president and Griscom secretary so that table is liekly the head table). Probably #4 is Frank Chapman, #7 Robert Cushman Murphy, #15 Charles O’Brien and #16 Elsie Naumburg.

The 1953 picture below is labeled left to right Ludlow Griscom, Dean Amadon (at podium), John Kieran, Ruth Chapin and Beecher S. Bowdish, a longtime Society member.

Linnaean Homecoming, 2018

The Linnaean Society of New York’s Annual Homecoming Party was held on Thursday, September 27, 2018 at the Culture Center in Manhattan. It was well-attended, with a few new faces mingling with long-standing members of the organization. To celebrate the 140th year of the society’s existence, a display was set up with photographs of some of the original members, along with write-ups on these members. A highlight of the evening was everyone participating in a Trivia Quiz by Ken Chaya and Kathleen Matthews which produced some hilarious results. And served as a reminder of what we don’t know about birds, or Central Park, or even the Linnaean Society of New York itself.

We would like to thank everyone whose efforts made this event a success. 

Helen Hays by BirdCallsRadio: Episode #108

Great Gull Island In The News

By Mardi Dickinson 

• To hear the podcast  Episode #108: Helen Hays by BirdCallsRadio, December 19, 2017 click https://birdcallsradio.com/episode-108-helen-hays. 

This show is one of BirdCallsRadio’s featured series called “For The Record, Legacy Interviews” with this series 6th guest Helen Hays in New York City.

Our distinguished guest today is Helen Hays of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. What can you say about a woman who lives half the year in an abandoned fort in the middle of Long Island Sound and has voluntarily elected to do so every year for fifty years. No, she is not serving time, she has chosen to be at this place, Great Gull Island off the Eastern tip of Long Island between Plum Island and Fishers Island, to oversee what has become her life’s work. The other half of the year, she lives in Manhattan, does office work and writes papers. 

Helen Hays has directed, since 1969, the work on the ongoing Tern Research project on Great Gull Island designed to study and preserve this major colony for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, which gained control of the Island in 1949. Today the Great Gull Island tern colony attracts in the summer 9,500 pairs of Common Terns and 1,300 pair of Federally Endangered Roseate Terns making this the largest such colony of Roseate’s in the Western Hemisphere. 

Before the terns arrive in the spring preservation efforts are undertaken to ensure nesting success and when the terns arrive en masse the team efforts turn to pure research. Helen is the driving force for this ever-changing band of ornithologists and volunteers from around the world, who do the work, cheerfully, under marginal conditions. The research efforts under Helen have expanded to Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico and the Azores and now involve modern electronic monitoring to track migration routes. As everyone who works with her knows, she is a very special person and she has helped nurture, through her labors and perseverance, one of the great ornithological preservation efforts and data banks of our times. Helen is on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History, and it is do to their continued support that this work was possible.

Show Notes:

• Early years and how you became interested in the world of natural history. 
• Tell us about the two tern species found on Great Gull; it is for them that all these efforts have been expended. 
• Please give us the background on acquisition of Great Gull Island be the American Museum Natural History and the early re-colonization by terns. 
• When you started at Great Gull what were the conditions like and how many people where they’re in the early days. 
• Tell us about the data that is collected and the path the data travels to the database. 
• The data gleaned from years of tern research is hard science in its rawest form, what are some of the most interesting findings that have come from this work? 
• Describe a typical high season day on Great Gull Island. 
• Great Gull is not the only tern colony in the North East, what are some of the other important colonies and do they have research working on them? 
• Tell us about Esteban Bremer from the Fundacion Vida Silvestre Argentina and the connection to Great Gull. 
• There are also connections to Brazil and the Azores particularly related to Roseate Terns. 
• What advice would you give to young people interested in a career in the natural sciences? 

Corncrake – New York State, November 7-8, 2017

Submitted by: Anders Peltomaa 11/25/2017

Paul Sweet’s Presentation

Paul Sweet, Ornithology collections manager at the American Museum of Natural History, presenting on the status of Corncrake in New York State and showing the specimens in the collection at AMNH.

Paul Sweet’s Slides

Impromptu “show and tell” in the break between the scheduled presentations on the occasion of the November 7-8, 2017 Corncrake at Cedar Beach Marina, Suffolk County, New York. Found by Ken and Sue Feustel on the shoulder of the parkway and then seen by many observers for two days. The bird was then, unfortunately, found dead by the birders who arrived at first light on November 9. Arrangements were made and it was transported to AMNH, where they could confirm it had been hit by a car. The bird is now specimen AMNH 841733.

Corncarke presentation, 11/14/2017 © Sean Sime

A Salute to Mike Flynn

The council enjoyed reading Mike’s letter and would like to share it with you. 

May 16, 2017
Dear Secretary of the Linnaean Society of New York,

My name is Michael B. Flynn, an elderly birder and longtime member of the Linnaean Society of New York (1937).

I’ve recently moved to a new location in EI Paso, Texas, with my elder daughter and my son-in-law, Bonnie and Stanley…

Just a few days ago I was fortunate to spend a day birding and butterflying in the high desert of nearby New Mexico.

Sincerely,

May 25, 2017
Dear Mr. Flynn, 

Congratulations on your move to El Paso. We have updated your records as you have requested. We will continue to send you the annual program of events so that you can keep tabs on us in NYC!

Thank you for your 80 years of membership and support. Looking at our roster, your membership holds the record. Clearly, birding and butterflying are the key to longevity. The proof is also in the wonderful pictures you sent.

I wish you much happiness (and many new species for your life list) in El Paso. 

Sincerely,
Lydia Thomas, Secretary

2017 Annual Dinner and Awards Program

The Society’s Annual Meeting & Dinner was held at the Liederkranz Club on March 14 2016. The featured speaker and recipient of the 2015 Eisenmann Medal for excellence in ornithology and encouragement of the amateur was Peter Harrison. Harrison has written and illustrated over a dozen books of which his Seabirds: An Identification Guide is considered to be the bible of seabird identification. First published in 1983, it was awarded the “Best Bird Book of the Year” award by the prestigious journal British Birds. Peter Harrison gave a very lively and enjoyable talk on his life’s exploits while researching seabirds. 

The Awards And Program

Some Of The Team Of Helpers

Socializing Before The Dinner

The Dinner

Photographs by Shirley Metz, Susan Opotow and Sherry Felix

Helen Hays Receives Environmental Champion Award

Great Gull Island In The News

On Friday May 13, 2016, Helen Hays was honored by the US EPA (Region 2) with a 2016 Environmental Champion Award.

The Trans-Atlantic Terns of Great Gull Island

Great Gull Island In The News

Article in Bird Watching on The trans-Atlantic terns of Great Gull Island. “The island is also the home of a famous long-term research project overseen since 1969 by researcher Helen Hays, of the American Museum of Natural History, in New York.