President Barbara Saunders called the meeting to order at 6:01 pm. Vice-President Lydia Thomas then introduced the evening’s first speaker Patrick Baglee whose talk entitled “A Birding Miscellany” included film and sketches of birds in a diversity of locations and habitats, ranging from the southern Rio Grande Valley in Texas, to the island of Kauai and several places in California. Patrick pointed out that, for him, film was preferable to still photography in that it captures the behavior and the sounds of the birds, a point borne out by his presentation. He showed clips of the Common Pauraque, a bird with remarkable camouflage, a beautiful Altamira Oriole, and a co-operative Aplomado Falcon, all filmed in Texas. In Kauai, he filmed the Bristle-thighed Curlew, with its bristles prominently displayed and later in the talk the Hawaian Short-eared Owl. California clips documented a very rare appearance of a Ross’s Gull, several thousand miles from its normal home, and distant views of Sooty Shearwaters feeding near Monterey Bay, their closest shore location during their figure of eight migration pattern around the Pacific. One extraordinary shot was of a single Northern Gannet, an Atlantic species, among a large population of Common Murres on Devil’s Slide Rock off the California coast. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the talk concerned Patrick’s attempts to film the extremely secretive, but vocal, Black Rail in a marsh in the south of San Francisco Bay. After many tries, Patrick captured a black shape scuttling through the frame, confirmation not only that what is heard can also be seen, but also that patience pays off.
At 7:30 pm, President Saunders reconvened the meeting and asked Recording Secretary Hamish Young to read the Minutes of the September 11th meeting. They were approved as read. In the absence of Secretary Peltomaa, Council Member Marie-Claire Cunningham announced the names of two new applicants for Society membership, Kate McMullan and Bobbie Leigh, both sponsored by Claude Bloch. They were approved for membership unanimously. President Saunders then proposed Mary Jane Kaplan to fill the remainder of the term of Council Member James Muchmore, who has resigned. This appointment was approved unanimously by the membership. The President reported that the Homecoming on September 27th, represented the 140th Anniversary of the Society’s founding and the 50th of the Great Gull Island project, and that it had helped to raise $450 for the Archival cabinets. She also reminded the members that dues for the 2018-2019 season should be sent to Treasurer Ruth Hart, and of upcoming field trips, in particular the Starr Saphir Memorial walk led by Lenore Swenson. Finally, President Saunders alerted the members to look out for an invasive species the Spotted Lanternfly, which has been spotted recently in Manhattan, and is potentially devastating to fruit trees in the state.
President Saunders then introduced the evening’s second speaker, Joan Collins, whose talk was entitled “Current and Projected Effects of Climate Change on Boreal Habitats and Birds of the Adirondacks”. She pointed out that boreal forests are characterized by the presence of various spruce species, balsam fir, birches and aspens and are usually boggy wet environments. They are home to countless neotropical migrants and a variety of resident avian and mammalian species. She outlined the dramatic increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the beginning of the industrial revolution and the consequences for temperature increase. The renowned climate scientist James Hanson has predicted that current levels of carbon dioxide will lead eventually to a 9-degree Celsius rise in mean annual temperature. The effects of temperature increase are already being felt in the Adirondacks, with much lower amounts of snowpack, later freezing and earlier melting of the lakes and ponds, and a consequent asynchrony between events triggered by temperature and those triggered by daylight length. As an example, snowshoe hares whose coats turn from summer brown to winter white according to day length are now white when the ground is still bare, exposing them to increased predation. Much of the talk concentrated on the changes as they affect Bicknell’s Thrush, an iconic species of the high peaks. They nest in the balsam fir zone, which ranges from 3000 to 4000 feet. The zone moves up 500 feet for every 1-degree Celsius increase in annual mean temperature and this implies that the thrush will eventually be extirpated from its breeding grounds in the Adirondacks. Its place may be taken by Swainson’s Thrush, which favors more temperate forests, whose area is increasing as the boreal forest recedes. Joan went on to point out that many of the boreal species such as Canada Jay, Black-backed Woodpecker and Boreal Chickadee are also in sharp decline. The take home message is that climate change is already having significant and mostly deleterious effects on the fauna and flora of the Adirondacks.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:57 pm.
Respectfully submitted by
Hamish Young, Recording Secretary