Our Next Three Rivers Meeting
SCOTT ROBINSON WILL DISCUSS
BIRD MIGRATION NEEDS
AT OUR APRIL MEETING
At our April meeting we will welcome a new speaker, Scott K. Robinson, the Katharine Ordway Professor of Ecosystem Conservation at the Florida Museum of Natural History. His topic will be "What resources do migratory landbirds need in spring and fall?" Migrating birds need, foremost, protein-rich food, as well as water, safe stopover sites, and few hazards to impede their journey. Scott will elaborate on the necessary requirements for birds' successful migration.
Scott has a long history as a premier ornithologist. He is a community and conservation biologist, but he also works on many behavioral ecological issues, especially with flocking species. He has worked with Kenn Kaufman, Ted Parker, John Terborgh, and Richart T. Holmes. In 1982, Scott and Ted Parker and their team set a Big Day record for the most species of birds observed at a site in a single day at the Cocha Cashu Biological Station in Peru. Scott was awarded the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award by the American Ornithological Society in 2025, recognizing his lifetime achievements in ornithological research.
Scott was born and raised in Pittsburgh where his father, a former president of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, taught him birds starting practically in infancy. He earned his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1978, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1984. Early in his career he participated in the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study and later was employed at the Illinois Natural History Survey and the University of Illinois, where he continued to study tropical birds. Scott has worked extensively in both North and South America. Scott has also contributed to numerous scholarly papers during his career.
Scott Robinson lives in the Gainesville, Florida area and is currently the Ordway Lab Director at the Florida Museum of Natural History of the University of Florida.
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This will be a hybrid meeting starting "live" in Beechwood Farms at 6:30 PM (ET) and a Zoom presentation starting at 7:00 PM (ET) giving you time to log on. The business meeting will begin at 7:30 PM, and Scott's program will start around 8:00 PM. Details on how to join the Zoom event, including passcodes and other instructions, will be supplied a few days before the meeting.
FUTURE PROGRAMS:
- June 3, 2026 - AMANDA HANEY - Trinidad and Tobago
- August 5, 2026 - FRANK IZAGUIRRE - TBA
- October 7, 2026 - BRIAN SHEMA - Chimney Swift Research
Last Updated on 3/1/2026
Items of Interest
VIEW THE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026 EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER -- THE PEREGRINE
Items of Interest
VIEW THE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2026 EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER -- THE PEREGRINE
The January/February 2026 edition of The Peregrine (in full color) is avaiable here: January/February 2026.
See also Tom Moeller's photo gallery to accompany his "Observations" column:
Winter Bird 2025-2026.
For those who would like to submit articles, photos, sightings, book reviews, anecdotes, etc. about birds or birding to The Peregrine, please send them to this email address: 3rbc.peregrine@gmail.com.
THE WRITTEN MINUTES AND VIDEO OF OUR DECEMBER 3, 2025 MEETING FEATURING THE SLIDE-SLAM ARE AVAILABLE!
Read the Meeting Minutes for our December 3, 2025 hybrid membership meeting featuring thirteen talented photographers in the annual Slide-Slam here: December Meeting Minutes.
You can see the video of the December 3 meeting here: December Zoom Meeting.
OUR SPRING OUTINGS START IN MARCH WITH WOODCOCK WALKS AND TRIPS TO VARIOUS LOCALES IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Two Woodcock Walks with Tom Byrnes will highlight our March outings on Wednesdays, the 18th and the 25th. Ken Knapp will lead a trip to Pymatuning hotspots on March 22. More outings are coming in May. Stay tuned!
Three more outings are now listed for April: our last Woodcock Walk, a trip to Yellow Creek State Park, and a beginner/inexperienced birder outing to Sewickley Heights Borough Park.
For more information, go to our Outings Page.
SPECIAL "POP-UP" WOODCOCK WALK ON MARCH 10, 2026 AT THE PENNDOT WETLANDS
Join Conor Tompkins (conorotompkins@gmail.com) for a "pop-up" Woodcock Walk at the PennDOT Wetlands on March 10, 2026. Participants will gather at the parking lot on Mayview Road in South Fayette (GPS 40.3309140, -80.1140820) across from the trail and the OTB Bicycle Cafe at Hastings at 7:00 PM.
This site has been good for Woodcock mating displays in the past, so we will keep our fingers crossed. The trail is flat but can be muddy. We will be out after dusk, so dress accordingly. The group can meet at the OTB Bicycle Cafe afterwards for a snack.
The outing will be cancelled if it rains, and you will be notified on our social media and website.
THE EASTERN BIRD BANDING ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES ITS 103rd ANNUAL MEETING
Find more information and registration here: EBBA Meeting.
THE CLUB'S ANNUAL HISTORY CONTINUED AS 2025 DREW TO A CLOSE
2025 was marked by our very first Annual Meeting, wherein we elected our 2026-27 Board of Directors and expanded their numbers from nine to eleven members to better serve the club. We had our usual winter, spring, and fall outings guided by volunteer leaders, and our membership meetings with notable speakers continued as hybrid in-person/Zoom formats {except in the two winter months}. Steve Thomas was able to compile the six meetings we had, including the names of all eleven of our Directors, the full set of birding outings, and other events in our complete 2025 calendar. See the year's history as a PDF here: 2025 Events.
All our past annual histories are documented as PDFs here: 3RBC History
Longer Articles Highlighted in THE PEREGRINE
Longer articles and a photo gallery that members contributed to The Peregine have been assembled in this compilation. We hope you enjoy them again:
Oscar Miller's recent article "Blue Grosbeaks in Southwestern Pennsylvania," referred to in the September/October 2024 edition of The Peregrine, has moved from this Main page to its own page: Blue Grosbeaks.
Frank Izaguirre wrote an article for the January 2021 edition of Birding magazine. With permission of the magazine and its editor Ted Floyd, we can present a PDF of the article at this link: Celebrating the Stumpbreaker of Squirrel Hill.
Tom Moeller had a two-part article in subsequent editions issues of The Peregrine during 2020 on Cedar Waxwings. Here are the two parts as one: Here's the Background on a Backyard Beauty.
Frank Izaguirre's adventure in exploring snowy Canada for winter birds in February 2020 was also a two-part article in two editions of The Peregrine. Again, the two parts appear here as one: Frigid Canada's Birds Warmed a Pair of Birders.
The stunning gallery of birds and scenery from Northwest Argentina, which is an adjunct to Claire Staples' article "A Very High Adventure: Birding to 15,000 Feet in Argentina's Andes" [The Peregrine Vol. 18, No. 2, March/April 2019], can still be enjoyed: Northwest Argentina.
David Yeany II and his friends took a side trip from Magee Marsh one rainy day in 2018 to find a Kirtland's Warbler in his narrative Saving the Best for Last: A Kirtland's Warbler Adventure.
Other Important Items
THE BYLAWS FOR THREE RIVERS BIRDING CLUB ARE WORTH READING
As you know by now, the Three Rivers Birding Club has formed into a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation governed by a nine-member Board of Directors. Our organization has an official set of Bylaws, which spell out many details of the make-up of the "new" club, including the responsibilities of the Board of Directors, choosing of officers and their terms and duties, financial reporting to the IRS, standing committees, an annual election meeting, voting procedures, and so on. The members can read these Bylaws by following the link found at the top of each page of this website: Three Rivers Bylaws
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK!
Be sure to visit our club's Facebook page for up-to-date news on happenings with the club, member photos, or links to other birding articles and sites.
WE'RE ON INSTAGRAM TOO!
Our social media presence has expanded. Thanks to member, Malcolm Kurtz, we now have a site on Instagram. You can check for developments on our website 3rbc.org, upload photos, or comment on bird sightings, photos, or outings. Check out our Instagram site here: https://www.instagram.com/3rbcpgh/.
PSO's "PENNSYLVANIA BIRDS" MAGAZINE: SEE WHAT YOU'VE BEEN MISSING
The Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology (PSO) publishes previews of the current issue of Pennsylvania Birds online, which consist of the cover, table of contents, and a featured article. Now anyone who does not subscribe or perhaps does not even know about PSO can actually see a little bit of what they've been missing, and hopefully be encouraged to join PSO! Click on the following link for an example of an article from the latest edition of Pennsylvania Birds: sample article.
Pennsylvania Birds is an all-volunteer effort, created and maintained by a group of Pennsylvania's most dedicated birders, but it is not an exclusive club. Anyone may contribute, whether a member of PSO or not, any original work related to birds or birding in Pennsylvania. If you have photos, article ideas, letters to the editor... as long as it is original work and related to birds or birding in Pennsylvania.
Consider joining PSO if you haven't already. They especially encourage the "beginners" out there, those of you who are just starting to discover the wonderful hobby of birding. In addition to being relatively inexpensive, membership buys you a year's subscription to Pennsylvania Birds and The Pileated, the PSO newsletter.
Find the Home page of the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology here: PSO.
