This has been a long cold winter, and it has affected our birding trips and the numbers of species and individual birds we saw during our annual bird census. Articles about our census on both campuses appeared in the March Issue of Medford Leas Life. The temperatures were frigid and many of our usual species were under cover to keep warm.

Our most exciting occurrences were the six bluebirds on the main campuses and three eagles sighted along the Rancocas on the Lumberton Campus. Our February trip planned for the North Shore around the Shark River Estuary just south of Asbury Park was postponed on the coldest day of the year due to the frozen Estuary and the freshwater lakes.

Fortunately, we continue to meet each first Wednesday morning of the month in the Linden Room, where it is warm and sometimes quite cozy. Jennifer Bulava, the Burlington County Naturalist, was our speaker in January. Her topic was Birds and Bare Branches, what birds are typically here in the winter time. She always comes with beautiful pictures in her Powerpoint presentation, and has some new presentation for us each year.

Author Scott McConnell spoke to us in February. He brought many guests from the Pinelands Preservation Alliance who wanted to hear his talk on his new book Witmer Stone, The Fascination of Nature.  Stone was an ornithologist in the early 20th century who wrote Bird Studies in Old Cape May. He and others from the Delaware Valley Ornithology Club actually built a cabin at Camp Dark Waters (which still stands today) and used it as a base to study birds, plants, and animals in the Pinelands.

Joe Costanza created a quiz which challenged us at our March Meeting. He showed his own beautiful bird photographs and asked us if we could identify them. The Black-throated Green Warbler was a really tough one to identify. Joe’s presentation was called Armchair Birding. We all enjoyed the quiz.

We have some very active and knowledgeable birders in our group who have joined our community this past year.