Our Next Three Rivers Meeting
photo from Bob Mulvihill
ON OCTOBER 8
WE'LL GET TO KNOW
BOB MULVIHILL BETTER
Bob Mulvihill will tell us about his 40+ years in ornithology at our October 8, 2025 (the second Wednesday in October) membership meeting with his talk "A Serendipitous Career in Ornithology." Throughout his career he has been attracted to a wide variety of research questions, not infrequently as a result of one or two quirky or eyebrow-raising observations he has made or have told to him by others. He will review his own ornithological peregrinations, showing examples of when and how unexpected observations have led him to some interesting and exciting discoveries of interest to birders and ornithologists alike!
Bob began studying and working with birds as a volunteer at Powdermill Nature Reserve in 1978. After college and graduate school he joined Powdermill's staff in 1983, and spent the next 28 years working there and helping band hundreds of thousands of birds. He served as a co-regional coordinator and species account author for the first Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas (1983-1989). Later, he was project coordinator and co-editor for the Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania (2004-2010). In 2011, he joined the National Aviary, where he currently serves as staff ornithologist.
from a mist net at Sewickley Heights
Bob spearheaded the Pittsburgh edition of the Smithsonian Institution's Neighborhood Nestwatch citizen science project from 2013-2019. In fall 2013, he also has launched the first urban Project Owlnet migration banding station in western PA at Sewickley Heights Borough Park to study the migration of Northern Saw-whet Owls.
Bob has authored more than forty scientific articles on a wide range of ornithological topics as well as many popular articles and blog posts about birds and nature. The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology have awarded him for his efforts in bird conservation. He currently serves as Editor for the Three Rivers Birding Club newsletter, The Peregrine.
Bob and his wife, Pam Ferkett (a librarian), live in Pleasant Hills with their indoor rescue cat, Smudge, and three rescue beagles: Rooby, Rascal, and Shiloh.
The October meeting is also our Annual Meeting, when we will elect members of our Board of Directors. Your attendance is very important as we select those who will lead 3RBC for the next two years (2026-2027). Let's all try to be there for this important election!
This will be a hybrid meeting starting at 6:30 PM (ET) in-person at Beechwood Farms auditorium [614 Dorseyville Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238] and a Zoom meeting at 7:00 PM (ET) for those who cannot attend. The business meeting, which will be our Annual Meeting with Election of Board members, will begin at 7:30 PM, and Bob's presentation will start around 8:00 PM. Details on how to join the online event, including Zoom passcodes and other instructions, will be supplied a few days before the meeting.
FUTURE PROGRAMS:
- December 3, 2025 - ANNUAL SLIDE-SLAM (Zoom Only)
- February 4, 2026 - TBA (Zoom Only)
- April 8, 2026 (the second Wednesday) - TBA
Last Updated on 9/14/2025
Items of Interest
VIEW THE JULY/AUGUST 2025 EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER -- THE PEREGRINE
Items of Interest
VIEW THE JULY/AUGUST 2025 EDITION OF OUR NEWSLETTER -- THE PEREGRINE
The July/August edition of The Peregrine (in full color) is avaiable here: July/August 2025.
See also Tom Moeller's photo gallery to accompany his "Observations" column:
Mallards.
FOUR INTERESTING ARTICLES HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE WEBSITE
The pages of our newsletter The Peregrine are limited. Many fine trip reports and articles are submitted for publication by our membership, but since we cannot fit them all into The Peregrine, we can publish them here on our website.
Four interesting submissions have been made by our members, and they are now published. Patience Fisher made a birding trip to Costa Rica in December 2024, and her detailed report "Pura Vida in Costa Rica" is online. Ted Weller visited the Galveston FeatherFest in April 2025, and his report may interest you to visit the 2026 FeatherFest. Sam Sinderson, who has contributed several trip reports to the website, wrote "Dominican Adventure" about his May 2025 tour in the Dominican Republic to find endemic birds for his life list. Finally, Sheree Daugherty has reviewed another book Feather Tails, which describes the work biologist Sophie Orborn has done with three endangered birds.
Check out these informative and entertaining reports by following the links to their works on the Trip Reports and Articles page of this website. Maybe you'll look into other articles there, too.
THE WRITTEN MINUTES AND VIDEO OF OUR AUGUST 6, 2025 MEETING WITH TOM KUEHL ARE AVAILABLE!
Read the Meeting Minutes for our August 6, 2025 hybrid membership meeting featuring Tom Kuehl and his program "A Safari Trip to Southern Africa" here: August Minutes.
You can see the video of the August 6 meeting here: August Meeting.
OUR FALL OUTINGS CONTINUE IN SEPTEMBER AND ON THROUGH NOVEMBER
Our outings continue during the fall migration. Our next outing is at Raccoon Creek State Park on Saturday, September 20, led by Malcolm Kurtz.
Four more outings are listed for October, including a special family-oriented outing to Frick Park, and one for November (so far) on our Outings page.
Find the details here: Outings page.
THE ABA'S PITTSBURGH COMMUNITY WEEKEND IS COMING SEPTEMBER 20 AND 21, 2025
Join the American Birding Association for a fun weekend of birding on September 20 and 21 in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!
Events include a morning walk at Hartwood Acres, two afternoon presentations on birding at Beechwood Farms, and an evening get-together at East End Brewing for urban birding and socializing over pizza, all on September 20.
On September 21, a morning bird walk at Frick Park to look for fall migrants will be followed by an afternoon program by Mike Fialkovich in the Frick Environmental Center.
All bird walks, talks, and workshops are free and open to the public, but registration is mandatory.
Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow bird enthusiasts and enhance your birding skills. Sign up now and join us for an unforgettable weekend!
Find many more details at the ABA site: Pittsburgh Community Weekend.
REGISTRATION FOR THE 2025 PSO BIRDING FESTIVAL WILL BE OPEN FROM JULY 1 TO SEPTEMBER 7
Brian Byrnes, the president of PSO, announced that registration for the 2025 PSO Birding Festival in Allentown, PA will run from July 1 through September 7 here: https://pabirds.org/registration/. "We are looking forward to an exceptional weekend in Allentown - September 26 to 28 - with an amazing line-up of field trips and speakers."
All of the event details can be found at https://pabirds.org/2025-overview/. Some field trips may fill quickly, so the PSO encourages you to plan ahead and register early (but don't sweat, they are ALL great).
A few of the weekend's highlights include:
- Field trips led by local experts to 14 locations across 8 counties that are easily accessible from Allentown
- Engaging talks on Eastern Towhee migration, reducing bird/window collisions, and pelagic birding
- Plenty of time to socialize and visit bird-related vendors
- Presentation of the Earl Poole Award for contributions to Pennsylvania ornithology to Lisa Kiziuk of Willistown Conservation Trust
- Presentation of Conservation Awards to Jim Dunn and Brian Auman of the Robert Porter Allen Natural Area, and to Wildlands Conservancy
- A keynote address by Holly Merker, Pennsylvania birder and co-author of Ornitherapy: For Your Mind, Body, and Soul.
Brian looks forward to seeing you this fall in the Lehigh Valley!
BRAND NEW WARBLER HYBRID FOUND IN SOUTH CAROLINA
A new warbler hybrid has been discovered by Mary Alice Tartler in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This bird is a cross between a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Black-throated Blue Warbler. Photos of the bird have been seen by expert, Andy Jones, executive director of the Spring Island Trust in South Carolina, who is researching the new hybrid.
In Western Pennsylvania we have the three-species, two genera hybrid warbler, commonly called the "Burket's Warbler," discovered by Lowell Burket in May 2018. It is a cross between a Chestnut-sided Warbler and a Brewster's Warbler (a Brewster's Warbler is a cross between a Golden-winged Warbler and Blue-winged Warbler). Another hybrid in our area was found by Steve Gosser in June 2020. This hybrid was a cross between a Scarlet Tanager and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, not warblers but an unusual pairing.
Find out more about the new warbler hybrid here: https://tinyurl.com/HybridWarbler
Photo by Mary Alice Tartler
A NEW PYMATUNING WILDLIFE LEARNING CENTER IS BEING BUILT
Many of us can remember gathering at the Pymatuning Wildlife Learning Center with Bob VanNewkirk for a day of birding in the area. We could see Bald Eagles, Sandhill Cranes, and all kind of passerines and waterfowl from the front of the building. That 75-year-old building was torn down in 2014, having become too expensive to maintain.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission broke ground on a new Pymatuning Wildlife Learning Center on May 19, 2025. Participants were Game Commission Northwest Region Director Jesse Bish, Game Commission Executive Director Stephen Smith, retired Pymatuning Wildlife Learning Center manager Terry McClelland, and state lawmakers Sen. Michele Brooks and Rep. Brad Roae.
The new learning center will be much bigger, more modern, and more user-friendly than the old building. There will be many informative and interactive displays with a life-sized Bald Eagle's nest on permanent display. The project will cost $8.8 million. Completion date will be in 2026 with a grand opening in early 2027.
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
2024 WAS A PRODUCTIVE YEAR AS WE BECAME A NON-PROFIT CORPORATION
Our 2024 activities included our usual winter, spring, and fall outings, and membership meetings continued as hybrid in-person/Zoom formats, except in the winter months. Steve Thomas was able to compile the six meetings we had, the full sets of spring and fall migration outings, and other events in our full 2024 calendar. See the year's history as a PDF here: 2024 Events.
A NEW ERA FOR THREE RIVERS BIRDING CLUB IS SPELLED OUT
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.
"BIRD WATCHER'S DIGEST" BRINGS BIRDING NEWS AS "BWD"
Bird Watcher's Digest, the birding magazine that suddenly closed in December 2021, resumed publication with its July/August 2022 edition under its new title BWD.
Two new publishers, Rich Luhr and Mike Sacopulos, have taken on the task of resurrecting BWD. Many of the magazine's former staff have returned to revamp the style and size of the publication. A welcome return of a vital birding publication.
For more information on the magazine, visit the BWD website here: BWD.
