Three Rivers Birding Club Southwestern Pennsylvania

Bimonthly Membership Meeting
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
7:30 PM -- 9:30 PM
Zoom Meeting Originating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sixty-five computers were logged on to the meeting via Zoom, with some shared by more than one person. In total, more than 70 individuals viewed the meeting which featured popular club speaker, Jean Iron, whose talk was entitled: "Are There Penguins in the Arctic?"

President Mike Fialkovich called the meeting to order at approximately 7:30 PM. He and other club officers, directors, and members next made the following announcements and reports.

• Treasurer Tom Moeller relayed that the club is doing well. Membership has grown to 342 current memberships (up from 338), with 47 renewal notices sent and 5 already renewed. This translates to about 450 individuals in our club. He also reported that, due to increased digital subscriptions to The Peregrine, the club ordered fewer envelopes (1,500 vs. 2,000) for mailing. As is his usual custom, Tom thanked our loyal, ongoing members for their continued support and generosity as well as the new members who have chosen to join us.


• Webmaster Tom told the members about a few new features on the website. First, the latest edition of The Peregrine is universally available now, with photos for Tom's "Observations" column featuring 2025-26 winter birds. Also on the website under the '3RBC History' tab is Steve Thomas's latest compilation of the club's annual history, updated through 2025. In addition, information about the Eastern Bird Banding Association's 103rd annual meeting, to take place on March 22nd, is available. Finally, Tom and Janet Keuhl's summary of how we can contribute to the Winter Bird Atlas remains on the main page until February 28.


• Outings Director Steve Thomas summarized the club's upcoming outings.
  
  
  • Saturday, February 14 – Frick Park – 'Dead of Winter Walk' with Mike Fialkovich
  • Wednesday, March 18 – Woodcock Walk
  • Sunday, March 22 – Pymatuning Area
  • Wednesday, March 25 – Woodcock Walk
  • Wednesday, April 1 – Woodcock Walk
  • Saturday, April 4 – Yellow Creek State Park (with Todd Bird Club)
  • Saturday, April 25 – Sewickley Heights Borough Park (Beginners/Inexperienced)
  • Friday, May 1 – Sewickley Heights Borough Park Warbler Walk
  • Saturday, May 2 – Boy's Home Park in South Fayette Twp.
  • Friday, May 8 – North Park
  • Saturday, May 9 – Harrison Hills Park
  • Saturday, May 16 – Deer Lakes Park
  • Tuesday, May 19 – Frick Park
  
  Outing participants must follow club guidelines. When appropriate, social distancing is recommended; equipment sharing is discouraged; wearing a mask is recommended. Each outing leader may set additional restrictions and requirements: some leaders require pre-registration, and numbers of participants may be limited. Each leader may discontinue the outing at any time if conditions warrant such an action. Attendees should also note that pets are not permitted on 3RBC outings. Please see the full outing listing on the website for all restrictions and requirements that may apply! As always, check the club's website and Facebook page for details, directions, and possible last-minute changes or cancellations.


• The Peregrine editor Bob Mulvihill apologized for the late delivery of the recent Peregrine. He has established a new dedicated email address for submissions: 3rbc.peregrine@gmail.com. Bob requested materials be submitted by the end of each meeting month, within 2-3 weeks after meetings. He encouraged members to contribute articles, book reviews, and photos.


• President Mike Fialkovich next gave his recap of highlights of recent bird sightings: due to the freezing of the waters of the Great Lakes, we have had a number of waterfowl concentrated in the small areas of open water on the rivers here; 80 Common Goldeneye at Emsworth Dam and 66 at the Natrona Heights dam; 97 Common Mergansers on the Ohio near Brunot's Island; Red-breasted Mergansers at Sharpsburg and at Natrona Heights; 105 Mourning Doves at Homewood Cemetery; Wilson's Snipe at Imperial; Herring Gull at Dashields Dam; leucistic American Robin at Fox Chapel; 66 American Goldfinches in Hampton Township; Chipping Sparrow at Frick Park and Lawrenceville; Fox Sparrow in Harmar Township; leucistic Northern Cardinal in Indiana Township; immature dark morph Snow Goose at North Park; immature white morph Snow Goose at Creighton; adult dark phase Snow Goose at Aspinwall; white morph juvenile Snow Goose at Findlay Township; white morph juvenile Snow Goose at Tarentum; dark morph adult Snow Goose at Schenley Park; flock of 30 Snow Geese flying over McCandless Township; Cackling Geese at Dashields Dam; Greater White-fronted Goose at Duck Hollow; Northern Shoveler at Duck Hollow; Northern Pintail at Duck Hollow, Wingfield Pines, and Oakmont; 60 Redheads at Emsworth Dam; 50 Canvasbacks at Emsworth Dam; Long-tailed Ducks over Aspinwall and at Dashields Dam; White-winged Scoter at the mouth of Flaugherty Run on the Ohio River, Blawnox, Sharpsburg, Emsworth Dam, and Brunot's Island; Iceland Gulls at Duck Hollow and Emsworth Dam; Lesser Black-backed Gull at Duck Hollow and at the Point; Great Black-backed Gulls at Duck Hollow, Braddock Public Boat Launch, and Brunot's Island; Virginia Rail at Wingfield Pines; up to 183 Sandhill Cranes flying over the area; Common Loon at Oakmont; regular reports of small numbers of Black Vultures; Red-headed Woodpeckers at North Park; Rusty Blackbird at Wingfield Pines; Orange-crowned Warbler in Greenfield; Painted Bunting in Squirrel Hill; and, further afield, a Varied Thrush in State Game Lands 95 in Butler County.


• Program Director Carol McCullough announced that our next in-person meeting at Beechwood Farms will be held on April 8, 2026, featuring new speaker Scott K. Robinson, the Katharine Ordway Professor of Ecosystem Conservation at the Florida Museum of Natural History. His talk, "What Resources Do Migratory Landbirds Need in Spring and Fall?" will address key requirements for successful migration, including protein-rich food, water, safe stopover sites, and minimal hazards.
  
  A Pittsburgh native whose father, a former president of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, introduced him to birds in infancy, Scott earned his B.A. from Dartmouth (1978) and Ph.D. from Princeton (1984). He has worked on the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, held positions at the Illinois Natural History Survey and the University of Illinois, and he has conducted extensive research in both North and South America, contributing to numerous scholarly papers. He now lives near Gainesville, Florida, where he serves as Ordway Lab Director at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida.

Carol next introduced distinguished Ontario ornithologist Jean Iron, a returning speaker who has twice addressed the club to great acclaim. A prominent Canadian ornithologist and educator, she received the Ontario Field Ornithologists' 2016 Distinguished Ornithologist Award. Born in Wales, she emigrated to Canada in 1967 and pursued a successful career as a teacher and school principal with the Toronto Catholic School Board before retiring in 1999.

Although her passion for birding emerged later in her professional life, Iron quickly became a central figure in the birding community, serving as President of the Ontario Field Ornithologists from 1995 to 2004 and contributing to provincial birding committees, the Ontario Bird Records Committee, and conservation initiatives, such as protection of the Carden Alvar grasslands. Renowned for her expertise with shorebirds, gulls, and geese, she is a prolific author and photographer, notably of the Shorebirds of Southern Ontario identification guide, and has devoted many years to volunteer fieldwork on shorebird monitoring and climate change studies in the Hudson and James Bay Lowlands. As a mentor and naturalist tour leader, she has guided expeditions across the Canadian Arctic, Central and South America, and Europe, and through her workshops, lectures, and educational website Jean continues to engage both veteran birders and the general public in avian conservation.

Jean Iron's presentation "Are There Penguins in the Arctic?" used the seemingly simple title question to explore why penguins are confined to the Southern Hemisphere and how their Northern Hemisphere "counterparts," the alcids (auks, murres, puffins, guillemots), fill a strikingly similar ecological niche in Arctic and sub-Arctic seas. Her talk blended biogeography, evolution, and field natural history to show how convergent evolution can produce two seabird groups that look and live alike, yet never naturally meet.

Framing the Question—Jean began by answering the literal question: there are no native penguins in the Arctic and none anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in the wild, aside from occasional zoo escapes or introductions. Penguins are exclusively Southern Hemisphere birds, with species ranging from Antarctica through sub-Antarctic islands to temperate and even tropical coasts such as South America, Africa, Australia, and the Galâpagos. She contrasted this with the Arctic, where cold, productive seas are dominated not by penguins but by a different seabird family, the alcids, whose life histories in many ways mirror those of penguins.

Evolution and Biogeography—A core theme of the presentation was how historical geography shaped this distribution. Iron explained that penguins evolved and diversified in the Southern Hemisphere, especially around Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, and never naturally crossed the equatorial thermal and ecological barrier into the North. Ocean currents, climate history, and continental configurations helped trap penguins in the south while allowing alcids—members of the auk family—to radiate in the North Pacific and North Atlantic and push into Arctic waters. As a result, modern seabird communities at opposite poles show a kind of mirror symmetry: penguins dominate southern polar seas, while alcids dominate northern ones.

Penguins: Form, Function, and Lifestyle—Jean then turned to penguin biology, using images and video from her own travels to illustrate their adaptations to a watery life. Penguins have flipper-like wings, dense waterproof plumage, a torpedo-shaped body, and heavy bones that reduce buoyancy, all of which make them superb underwater pursuit divers but flightless in air. Many species breed in dense colonies on ice or remote islands, endure intense cold and wind, and time their breeding cycles to sea-ice and productivity patterns, as shown by Adélie and Emperor Penguins in East Antarctica. She highlighted how penguins forage on krill, fish, and squid, and how their guano can be so abundant that it alters local biogeochemistry and even shows up as visible stains on satellite imagery.

Alcids: the Northern "Penguins"—The second major part of Jean's talk introduced the alcids–the murres, puffins, guillemots, murrelets, and their relatives—as the functional equivalents of penguins in the North. Like penguins, alcids are black-and-white seabirds that nest in colonies on cliffs or islands and dive for fish and invertebrates, often forming spectacular concentrations along productive Arctic coasts. Iron emphasized that alcids, unlike penguins, still fly, but their short, stiff wings and high wing-loading make them powerful underwater "wing-propelled" divers, a clear case of convergent adaptation to hunting beneath the surface. She pointed to species, such as Thick-billed Murres, whose "swimming migrations" in Arctic seas—long movements made largely on the water—epitomize their dual life in air and water.

Convergent Evolution and Key Differences—A central conceptual point in the presentation was convergent evolution: unrelated groups evolve similar forms when exposed to similar ecological pressures. Penguins and alcids share a broadly similar black-and-white color pattern, colonial breeding, and underwater wing-propelled diving, yet are separated by deep evolutionary history and geography. Jean underscored several differences: penguins are fully flightless, more specialized for swimming, and confined to southern waters, whereas alcids retain flight, nest on northern ocean cliffs, and can range across the entire North Atlantic and North Pacific, including Arctic seas. The now-extinct Great Auk was used as a cautionary example: a large, flightless alcid that converged even more closely on a penguin-like form and was exterminated by humans, illustrating how quickly convergent forms can be lost.

Arctic Birds and Extreme Environments—Drawing on her broader Arctic work, Jean situated alcids within the wider avifauna of northern seas. She noted that Arctic birds must cope with a short breeding season, extreme seasonal light cycles, and highly variable sea ice, all of which compress their annual cycle into a narrow summer window. Physical adaptations—dense plumage, specialized bill and body shapes, and distinctive color schemes—help species such as murres, puffins, and other Arctic seabirds survive in conditions that parallel those faced by penguins in the south. In both hemispheres, seabird populations are tightly coupled to marine productivity and sea-ice dynamics, making them sensitive indicators of climate and ocean change.

Human Connections and Conservation—Jean also touched on the human dimension: these birds are among the most sought-after species for birders and ecotourists, and they have deep cultural resonance in Indigenous and maritime communities across both poles. At the same time, many penguin and alcid populations are affected by warming oceans, shifting ice, fisheries interactions, and pollution, raising concerns about their long-term status. She emphasized that understanding their life cycles—from breeding on ice or cliffs to long migrations at sea—is crucial for designing effective conservation strategies in rapidly changing polar and sub-polar ecosystems.

Answering the Title Question—Jean concluded by returning to the original question with a more nuanced answer. There are no penguins living naturally in the Arctic, but there is an entire guild of seabirds—the alcids—that "play the penguin role" in the North. The absence of penguins there is not because the Arctic is unsuitable, but because history, geography, and evolution sent penguins south and alcids north, leading to two parallel yet separate solutions to the challenges of life in cold, stormy oceans. In that sense, she suggested, if one looks beyond strict taxonomy to ecological function and form, there are "penguins of the Arctic"—they just happen to be called murres, puffins, and auks.

At the conclusion of her fascinating presentation, Jean took several questions from the audience. President Fialkovich thanked Jean and the members and adjourned the meeting.

— prepared by Frank Moone on February 24, 2026