Donna Foyle presented Introduced and Endemic Birds from Three Hawaiian Islands. Even from a young age, Donna was fascinated with birds. She got her first camera at age 7 and the rest is history. Donna was on a bird tour in February with three other birder friends. Her photos were fantastic of beautiful introduced birds and also a few natives. Many birds are threatened because of introduced predators, ie rats and disease carrying mosquitoes. One albatross that she photographed had a leg band. She was able to trace the number to find out that it was probably seven years old, sex undetermined.

Mike Fialkovich presented “Birds and Nature in Southern Texas”.

In November, 2018, Mike joined an Audubon Society of W. Pennsylvania tour to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas to see the area’s famed birds, Mike shared his photographs of the birds, other wildlife and plants that the group experienced during the trip.

Ryan Tomazin presented Holistic Birding: Seeing Without Seeing, Hearing Without Hearing. The slideshow and audio focused on trying to deepen our senses beyond the obvious, for when birds don’t behave and sing nicely in full view. The theories draw upon Ryan’s personal experiences with our eclectic feathered brethren. He has deliberately blurred out his chosen picture in order to punctuate his presentation.

This was our last meeting of the season. Next meeting September 12th. See you on the trail.

Thursday, April 11, 7:30 pm. Dianne Machesney presented The Spotted Lanternfly. Dianne Machesney is a Penn State Master Gardener and a naturalist with a life long love of gardening and nature. The Spotted Lanternfly is a particularly devastating invasive insect making its way westward across Pennsylvania. Dianne addressed what we all need to look out for as we prepare for this serious agricultural pest, and what to do if you find one. Call 1-888-4BAD-FLY 1-888-422-3359.

Members were good sports and wore the paper Spotted Lanternfly hats, provided as a good way to remember what to look for. As an encore, information was given about the Asian Jumping Worm, another invasive that is already present in W. PA.

Bonnie Isaac presented Herbarium Happenings. Bonnie Isaac, a Pennsylvania native, is the Collection Manager of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. She has been employed by the museum since 1989. Bonnie received her Bachelors & Masters degrees in Biological Sciences with emphasis in Plant Sciences from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio and an International Diploma in Herbarium Techniques, from the Kew Royal Botanical Garden in Kew, England. Bonnie serves on the Pennsylvania Botany Symposium Committee, the Pennsylvania Vascular Plant Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, and as President of the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania. When not botanizing, Bonnie enjoys hunting, traveling, gardening and snorkeling.

We learned what a herbarium is, what is stored there, how to take and dry a sample for the collection and how today’s technology is giving us even more insight into plant DNA . The herbarium has a weekly blog featuring specimens from their collection at:https://www.masonheberling.com/collected-on-this-day

Bonnie and Tara

Tuesday, January 1, 2019, 12:00  noon
North Park, Irwin Road, Allegheny County
Leader: Richard Nugent:  rmnugent@live.com;  (412)  487-5549
Directions:  From PA 8 north of Pittsburgh, travel north about 7 miles from Etna to Wildwood Road. Turn left onto Wildwood Road and travel 3 miles to a major intersection and stoplight in the park at Babcock Blvd. Turn right onto Babcock Blvd, continuing a short distance to a parking lot on the left side of Babcock Blvd, just after the turn for Pearce Mill Road. Alternatively, travel I-79 north to Exit 73-Wexford. Turn right onto PA 910 and continue 5 miles to Babcock Blvd. Turn right onto Babcock Blvd and travel 2.7 miles to the parking lot on the right, just before Pearce Mill Road. 
Enjoying botany and nature on New Year’s Day is now a BSWP/Wissahickon tradition!
This trip could be canceled due to unsafe driving conditions; to learn if the trip is canceled when weather conditions are uncertain, please call Richard at 412-487-5549 the day of the hike.