Category: Uncategorized

This meeting and presentation took place both in person at the Linder Theater in the American Museum of Natural History and concurrently online via Zoom.

At 7:02 pm, Board Member and Acting President Peter Davenport called the Society meeting to order.

Peter made the following announcements:

• He noted that this in-person regular members meeting is a return to the Society’s original, longtime home at the American Museum of Natural History after a six-year absence.
• The Society’s 148^th annual meeting will be held on March 10, 2026, at the Liederkranz Club at 6 East 87^th Street. Dr. Trevor Price of the University of Chicago will be awarded the 2026 Eisenmann Medal and will present, “A Bird’s Life in the Anthropocene.”
• Invitations for the annual meeting have gone out by email; the Society is no longer sending them by mail. It is an in-person, members-only event and will not be broadcast and recorded via Zoom.
• Following the annual meeting, soon after April 10, ballots will be emailed to the Society’s membership to elect the Society’s officers and directors, and to vote on changes to the Society’s bylaws.
• Peter welcomed fifteen new members to the Linnaean Society who joined in January 2026:
  • Kitty Allen
  • Tom Besser
  • Julia Blumenthal
  • Ned Boyajian, Jr.
  • Caleb Hunt
  • Amy Hurst
  • Amanda Leath
  • Ellen Lepor
  • Herbert Lepor
  • Richard F Miller
  • Brian Moldashel
  • Jennifer Mulhearn
  • Nancy Newman
  • Brian Saville
  • Alexander Tepper
• Peter expressed thanks to the nomination committee members for doing a fantastic job recruiting candidates for the board of directors. The committee is still seeking a member to fill the recording secretary vacancy, and he encouraged people to contact him to volunteer or offer suggestions for candidates. He can be reached at the president’s email address. (The president’s email address is on the Society’s website: https://www.linnaeannewyork.org/contacts/.)
• He said that the Society has some fabulous trips scheduled and encouraged the audience to take a look at the calendar. An upcoming event, “Bird Jazz in Harlem,” in the Birds and Brews field trip series, is a concert being performed by Society member Elijah Shiffer and his City of Birds quartet. It is on Wednesday, March 11, the day after the annual meeting.
• The birdathon fundraiser for Great Gull Island is coming soon: May 2 and 3.
• The Society’s birdseed fund for the Central Park feeders is still accepting donations.
• Peter encouraged members to consider joining a committee and to keep an eye out for emails about those opportunities.      

At 7:09 pm, Peter turned to the lecture program and welcomed the night’s speaker, Amar Ayyash, gull expert and author of The Gull Guide: North America.

Lecture: “Humans and Gulls: A Complex Relationship,” presented by Amar Ayyash

Starting with an introduction to the bird that graces the front cover of his acclaimed gull book, The Gull Guide: North America,Amar Ayyash launched into a fascinating and riveting discussion about gulls. The bird on the cover is the Black-legged Kittiwake, the most abundant gull in the world, and a favorite of his. We learned that during the breeding season they nest on cliff ledges overlooking the oceans in the far north and that they spend most of the winter over the open ocean. If we are lucky, a few are occasionally seen near us off the Atlantic Coast each winter.

Currently, gulls are grouped taxonomically into eleven genera, and only one of the eleven has not been recorded in North America. Peppering his talk with quiz questions, this was one of the first: “What is that eleventh genus?” The answer stumped the audience and ultimately was revealed in the Q&A at the end of his talk.

Much of Amar Ayyash’s presentation covered ways to approach the identification of gulls, a particularly challenging group of birds of around 50 species. While some species are distinctive, many are difficult to identify because of subtle plumage differences in color and patterns and additionally complicated by plumage changes between and within life cycles. There is also variability in bird size and plumage within species and the added confusion of hybridization, which is especially prevalent among the large white-headed gulls. Using photographs and a pointer, Amar Ayyash carefully identified features to distinguish one gull species from another and interspersed the discussion with interesting information about behavior, migration, hybridization, and personal anecdotes about the birds.

Concluding his talk, Amar Ayyash shared his enthusiasm and love for gulls, saying, “I’ll leave you with this: The next time you encounter a gull flock, I hope that it falls in favor with you.” In the Q&A session, an audience member reminded Amar Ayyash that he would reveal the one genus of gull that has yet to be documented in North America. He gave the audience one last chance to weigh in, and with no takers, he told us: Saunders’s Gull, Saundersilarus saudersi—in the monotypic genus Saundersilarus.

Following is Amar Ayyash’s abstract of his talk:

   Among the world’s “seabirds,” gulls are the most accessible to humans, invading our most immediate surroundings. Gulls are sometimes perceived as 2nd class avian creatures. This, along with the identification challenges they present and their readiness to hybridize, presents a love-hate relationship for many birders. Yet some gull species are among the most coveted birds on any birder’s list (think Ross’s, Ivory and Sabine’s Gull). This makes for an interesting juxtaposition: Do we like some gulls and look past others? Amar Ayyash will take us through an entertaining and intriguing exploration of the natural history of gulls, including their thorny taxonomy and identification.

At 8:14 pm, the Q&A session began with questions from both the in-person audience and from those on Zoom.

At the conclusion of the Q&A, Vice President for Programs Karen Becker observed how extraordinary it was that Amar had entranced both gull beginners and gull experts alike, and she thanked him for joining us and giving his talk.

At 8:37 pm the meeting was adjourned.

Amar Ayyash’s presentation and the Q&A session have been recorded in their entirety, along with Board Member and Acting President Peter Davenport’s opening meeting remarks. The recording is available for viewing on the Linnaean Society of New York website under the dropdown menu: Programs/Watch/ and on the Society’s YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@linnaeanny/videos.

Respectfully submitted by Lisa Kroop, Recording Secretary

This meeting and presentation took place entirely in person at the Liederkranz Club at 6 East 87^th Street, New York.

The evening began with a reception at 6 pm. This was a members-only event, and it was well-attended by the membership and invited guests. Between members, invited guests, and award winners, around one hundred people began filling the room with the sounds of conversation and laughter, which got louder as more people arrived.

At 7:36 pm, President Debbie Mullins called the Society meeting to order.

President Mullins welcomed the audience to this 147^th annual meeting of the Linnaean Society of New York and thanked all for coming. She noted that the annual meeting gives the president the opportunity to report on the activities of the Society over the past year, and that she would be presenting those as well as the finances of the past year, the nominees for the Society’s board for the new term, 2025/2026, and the recipients of this year’s Society’s awards.

President Mullins made the following remarks:

In Memoriam

• She gave tribute to all the Society members who have recently passed away and the year in which they joined.
• Michael Bonifanti, 2016
• Helen Hays, past president, 1958
• Orlando H. Garrido, Honorary Member, 2010*
• Jean Held, 1977
• Leo Hollein, 2003
• Anthony Lauro, 1968
• Nina Moinester, 2007
• Paul Meyers, 1970
• Bernard Nathan, 1974
• Irene Payne, 1999
• Alison Rea, 2013
• William Riley, 1965*
• Ruby Senie, 2019
• Olaf Soltau, 2016
• Lenore Swenson, fellow, 1994
• Constance Wiley, 2021

*After the annual meeting, the Society’s board learned of their deaths.

• She noted that Helen Hays, who died a few weeks ago, was a former president of the Society. She was a guiding light for the Great Gull Island project over the decades, beginning in the 1960s, and retired only a few years ago. She will be greatly missed.

Annual Report

• The 2024 annual report was distributed to all members in attendance. It contains the secretary’s report and reports from all the Society’s committees. The president encouraged the members to read them.
• Thirty new members joined the Society in 2024, bringing the membership to 767—almost double the number from before the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The requirements that new members be sponsored and approved by a vote of the membership have been discontinued.
• The Society’s fiscal position is strong, with a current balance of $214,000. Last year’s net income was $26,000.
• The board is looking into the logistics of returning to in-person regular member meetings as a hybrid together with remote attendance via Zoom. Numerous members have been expressing their hope for in-person meetings.
• The president presented highlights from each of the committee’s accomplishments over the past year, and thanked the chairs, committee members, and volunteers for their dedication and hard work.
• The president expressed her appreciation and thanks to the outgoing board members whose terms are ending.
• The president mentioned others who have contributed to the Society’s infrastructure, operations, and growth. And she thanked those on the planning committee for arranging this annual meeting.
• She concluded by expressing that it had been a privilege to serve as president for the past two years, and thanked the Society for its support.

Silent Auction and Raffle

• Gillian Henry presented the results of the silent auction, and drew the tickets for the winners of the raffle bags.

Election of Officers, Board Members, and Motions

• Alice Deutsch, Mary Beth Kooper, and Kevin Sisco comprised the committee for nominating officers and board members.
• Thus far, a presidential candidate has not been found, and the search continues for a person who would be interested in filling the role. In the interim, board members and former presidents will share the responsibilities.
• President Mullins then introduced the officers and board members who have been nominated for election.
• Voting will be done online: following the meeting, ballots will be emailed to all members who are up-to-date with their dues. The poll will be open for two days, and close on Thursday, March 13^th, at midnight.

Awards

• Member awards:
  • Peregrine Falcon 50-year Member Award to Paula M. Schutte, who joined the Linnaean Society in 1975.
  • Fellow to Ken Chaya, former president, vice president, board member, and trip leader, who provided a great deal of dedicated service to the Linnaean Society, including during the COVID lockdown, when he kept the Society vibrant and moving forward.
• Linnaean Society of New York awards: The Society presents several awards each year to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to natural history, conservation, and education. President Mullins introduced each honoree and described and recognized their achievements:
  • 2025 Shelda Taylor Award to Jennifer Stalec, a teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. The award honors K – 12 teachers who have made a sustained and substantial impact by educating their students on aspects of natural history.
  • 2025 Natural History Service Award to Dustin Partridge, director of conservation and science at the NYC Bird Alliance, for his research and expertise on green infrastructure in urban landscapes. This award is given to individuals who, through working with members of the public, have triggered a lasting interest in natural history.
  • 2025 Eisenmann Medal to Bryan D. Watts, the Mitchell A. Byrd Professor of Conservation Biology at the College of William & Mary. He is the founder and director of the Center for Conservation Biology, and the author of over 600 scientific publications. The Eisenmann Medal is the highest award given by the Linnaean Society of New York. It is given to an individual for excellence in ornithology and encouragement of the amateur.

Eisenmann Lecture: “Eagles of the Chesapeake,” presented by Dr. Bryan D. Watts

Dr. Watts began his talk with an introduction to the Center of Conservation Biology, a research unit within the College of William and Mary. Its focus is on birds of conservation concern in the Western Hemisphere. The organization has worked on thousands of projects from Argentina to the Arctic, with about 40 field projects per year, many of which are long-term, multi-decade commitments. He then moved on to present three of those projects, starting with the Bald Eagles of Chesapeake Bay.

The Eagles of Chesapeake Bay

In his introductory description of the Chesapeake Bay, Dr. Watts noted that it is one of the great estuaries of the world, with shallow waters and a dendritic shoreline that result in a highly productive habitat, including for fish-eating birds such as the Bald Eagle, Osprey, and Great Blue Heron. It is also an area that is becoming engulfed in the rapid development of the Boston-to-Washington corridor and the Virginia Golden Crescent; the resultant habitat loss is having an impact on these species.

Dr. Watts next talked about the Bald Eagles: their traits as part of the sea eagle subfamily, their habitat needs and preferences, and details about their life cycle, all punctuated with photos from around the Chesapeake Bay. He then moved on to the data, which illustrated the devastating effect of DDT on Bald Eagle populations, with maps of nesting sites around the Chesapeake Bay over time together with bar charts constructed from chronological data of nesting pairs. He described the monitoring methods, which amped up to aerial surveys beginning in 1962, and his own involvement flying as part of a team for over 30 years with the famous Professor Mitchell Byrd, and Captain Fuzzzo (with three “z’s,” with the middle “z” being silent…to spontaneous audience laughter).

With the banning of DDT and the enactment of federal legislation directed at protection of endangered species, the Bald Eagle and Osprey populations have rebounded. Dr. Watts estimates that there are now 3,000 pairs of Bald Eagles in the Chesapeake Bay, up from about 60 to 70 pairs at the height of the DDT period. Osprey pairs have increased from 1,400 to around 12,000, and Great Blue Heron pairs from fewer than 1,000 to now 15,000. Over this time, there was an exponential growth in the birds’ reproduction, reaching a maximum in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Dr. Watts explained that research suggests that since that peak, a negative behavioral feedback loop is now bringing the populations to a new stable level based on territory constraints.

The Chaco Eagle

Dr. Watts introduced the Chaco Eagle (Buteogallus coronatus), which he described as one of the most endangered eagles in the world and one of the least known. It lives in arid habitats in south central South America in Argentina, Paraguay, and southern Brazil. Formerly named Crowned Eagle, it has a small crest of dark, gray feathers. Fifteen years ago the Center of Conservation Biology began assisting in conservation efforts with local researchers in Argentina to protect this eagle. The center provided technology and training to local scientists to learn about the ecology of the eagle, and to understand why it is so endangered.

Included in the information the center learned is that Chaco Eagles’ principal prey are snakes and hairy armadillos; that they seem to produce a single chick per year; that the chick has a long dependency period of 12 months or longer; and that adults are dying at a rapid rate. As to why the adults are dying prematurely, field work has provided answers: 1) electrocution by power lines: rural infrastructure has not been upgraded to raptor-safe, international standards; 2) killing by ranchers: local lore tells of Chaco Eagles preying on lambs—a fiction, as borne out by research and evidence to the contrary.

Addressing the indiscriminate killing of Chaco Eagles, Dr. Watts told us that an outreach and education program was developed and implemented to involve ranchers in the efforts to protect the species. He showed a photograph of himself demonstrating to a rancher how to band a Chaco Eagle. And he emphasized the need for multi-generational participation in these efforts in order to ensure sustainability of the species, showing another photo of a mother introducing her young daughter to a Chaco Eagle in-hand.

Panama City—Remarkable Wetlands, Shorebirds, and Encroaching Development

Dr. Watts concluded his lecture with a topic that he told the audience he had particularly selected to honor Eugene Eisenmann, having to do with Panama and the ecological treasure of the habitat near the Panama Canal.

In 1997, at the time when the United States was handing over control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama, the State Department asked Dr. Watts to do a rigorous assessment of waterbirds as part of its conservation recommendations to the Panamanians. One location was the shoreline just east of Panama City along the Pacific coast. Dr. Watts described it as a remarkable place, an internationally important area for migratory shorebirds with especially high densities of birds—on the order of 14 birds per meter. In 2008 he returned to Panama with the Center of Conservation Biology to do another survey. He found that the coastal mangrove forests and mudflats to the east of Panama City that they had surveyed in 1997 were being cut down and filled in to build high-rise buildings on this ecologically important terrain.

Dr. Watts honed in on his theme: conservation must be local. And while research is important, conservation requires the commitment of the people who live there. In 1997 Dr. Watts had been concerned that the Panamanian people might not know how globally important the Panamanian Pacific coastline is for migratory shorebirds. At that time he wrote a booklet describing the birds and the importance of the habitat, and printed about 10,000 copies. He handed the booklets over to the Ministry of Education. Ten years later, in a classroom at one of the field sites he was visiting, he noticed one of those booklets tacked onto a bulletin board. And he had noticed over those ten to fifteen years that a national awareness and pride was building about the efforts to support shorebirds. In the early 2000s, the Panama Audubon Society directed their focus to shorebird conservation. To that end, the Center for Conservation Biology has periodically gone down to Panama to support them with equipment and training on shorebird survey techniques, all with the goal of building the capacity for local scientists and volunteers to do the work.

Dr. Watts concluded that conservation requires the commitment of the local area, government entities, corporations, citizens, and citizen groups. And it needs to be multi-generational. We can offer help, but it is those who have the closest, local stake who ultimately will shepherd conservation forward.

At 9:02 pm, following the Q&A session, President Debbie Mullins thanked Professor Watts and adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted by Lisa Kroop, Recording Secretary

This meeting and presentation took place entirely online via Zoom.

At 7:00 pm, President Debbie Mullins called the Society meeting to order.

President Mullins made the following announcements:

• She welcomed all to the February meeting of the Linnaean Society of New York.
• She noted that the annual meeting is just four weeks away, on Tuesday, March 11, at the Liederkranz Club on East 87^th Street; it starts at 7:30 pm and is free of charge.
  • The meeting is for members only (those who are up-to-date with their dues).
  • There is still time to become a member in time to join the meeting. The membership application is on the Linnaean website at linnaeannewyork.org under Members/Join.
  • Those who have forgotten to pay their fall dues can pay now in order to attend the meeting.
  • Registration is online at members.linnaeannewyork.org/events
  • There will also be a cocktail reception before the meeting, starting at 6:00 pm. Tickets to the reception are $135 per person.
  • Among the awards being presented at the annual meeting are the following:
    • The Eisenmann Medal, the Society’s highest honor, to Dr. Brian Watts. He will give the keynote address, “Eagles of the Chesapeake”.
    • The Natural History Service Award to Dr. Dustin Partridge, Director of Conservation and Science at the New York City Bird Alliance.
    • The Shelda Taylor Award to Jennifer Stalec, a teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School.
  • Raffle tickets are $5. There will also be a silent auction with many offerings, including original art work by Alan Messer and a private boat tour of Jamaica Bay led by Don Riepe.
  • Volunteers are still needed for the evening. If you can help, email Debbie Mullins at president@linnaeannewyork.org.
• President Mullins welcomed the following new Linnaean Society members:
  • Joseph McManus
  • Pieter Prall
  • Julia Zichello

At 7:03 pm, President Mullins turned to the lecture program and introduced the speaker, Dr. Wesley Hochachka, senior research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY. Dr. Hochachka is an ornithologist with a background in field studies of birds and data analysis, and is part of the eBird organization. He has been working at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology since 1998.

Lecture: “Informing Basic Science and Conservation with Bird Watchers’ Observations (and Lots of Computers),” presented by Dr. Wesley Hochachka

Dr. Hochachka began his talk with a contextual overview of eBird, the citizen-science tool for worldwide bird data collection of the presence, location, and abundance of individual bird species. He explained that eBird provides the platform and system management support for birders to catalog their observations, and makes those observations available (in many forms) for researchers, organizations, and the general public.

To give a sense of the scope and the range of the data within eBird, Dr. Hochachka gave the most recent number of total checklists submitted as of a few hours before this talk: 111 million. He observed that the data are not evenly distributed around the globe, illustrating with a world map. Not surprisingly, some of the highest concentrations of observations are in North America, parts of Europe, India, and elsewhere that eBird has developed partnerships and where eBird is widely used.

This led to the next important point about eBird data that Dr. Hochachka made: in addition to the enormous amount of eBird being gathered, it is also “noisy,” in part because of the way it is gathered. The signal-to-noise ratio is very low, and methods are needed to identify patterns and trends from the data. Hence, the eBird organization has a data analysis team that works on many aspects of managing the data including: 1) developing methods to interpret them; 2) providing resources, documentation, and software tools for others to work with the data; and 3) conducting analyses using the supercomputer resources of the National Science Foundation’s ACCESS program to provide more manageable information and products.

Dr. Hochachka presented examples of products that eBird is currently producing; those that are in the development stage; and others that are in areas for future work. From the “Status and Trends” project, Dr. Hochachka showed an abundance map and a trends map for Wood Thrush. Both the maps and the data underlying them are available to the public. Under development are “Trajectory” data products that aim to use eBird data to model species year-to-year abundance changes much like the results obtained from breeding bird surveys. Other ongoing projects are tailored for specific studies. Some work involves data analysis collaborations with partners on stewardship projects. Future data coordination and analysis might include audio recording data.

Dr. Hochachka concluded his talk with a set of takeaways about eBird that he wanted to convey to the audience from his perspective as a data analyst:

1. There are lots of data, albeit noisy data.
2. Dealing with the noisiness requires lots of computation.
3. We aim to direct this computation toward the useful goals of partners.
4. eBird should never be considered a universal substitute for rigorously designed surveys.

Following is Dr. Hochachka’s abstract of his talk.

Formal bird monitoring programs, such as the North American Breeding Bird Survey, are invaluable sources of information about where birds live and how their numbers have changed through time. However, the costs of running such programs mean that they cannot be run throughout the year or across very large numbers of locations. The large quantities of information being collected by participatory (or citizen) science projects, most notably by eBird, have the potential to fill in gaps in our knowledge of bird populations. Careful analyses are needed in order to separate changes in bird populations from changes in the behavior of the bird watchers who provide their observations. In his presentation, he will talk about some of the insights into bird populations that have been revealed from eBird’s data and the uses of these insights. Weekly maps of the distributions of birds provide information about areas of concentration and migratory movements, which has been used to design and implement conservation programs and to inform policy decisions. Estimates of local changes in population size (“trend maps”) complement the information provided by the Breeding Bird Survey. He will conclude by describing some of our ongoing and future work, and plans for making the insights from eBird’s data more widely and easily available to a variety of audiences.

At 7:53 pm, Vice President Doug Futuyma hosted the Q&A session.

At the conclusion of the Q&A, Vice President Futuyma thanked Dr. Hochachka for his presentation, and noted that the number of questions clearly showed a great interest by the many birders who use eBird to understand how it works and what is being done with the data that is collected.

At 8:36 pm the meeting was adjourned.

The presentation has been recorded in its entirety, including the Q&A session and the president’s opening remarks. The recording is available for viewing on the Linnaean Society of New York website under the dropdown menu: Programs/Watch/ and on the Society’s YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@linnaeanny/videos.

Respectfully submitted by Lisa Kroop, Recording Secretary