Dear RBA members.
Our meeting tonight at 7:30 at the Baptist Temple, 1100 Clover Street, Rochester, will go on as planned. Your health and well-being are our concern.
Please consider the following:
If you are not feeling well, please stay home.
If it has been less than 14 days since returning from a trip where the corona virus has been active, please stay home.
Please avoid direct contact with other people–no hugs or handshakes.
We will space chairs with more distance between them. Members are welcome to move them closer together if comfortable.
When you arrive, please go the restroom and wash your hands thoroughly–20 seconds–before entering the fellowship hall.
We have a great program tonight with Christina Hoh speaking on winter raptor monitoring. We look forward to seeing you!
Liz Magnanti, President, RBA
Upstate New York is known for its harsh winters, but a handful of raptor species specialize in cold and snowy weather and spend their winters right here in our communities. These charismatic raptors, including Northern Harriers and Short-eared Owls, are under a wide range of threats, and NYSDEC, its partners, and volunteers work together to monitor these nomadic birds across their winter range in New York. We will discuss these birds’ natural history, current trends, our surveys, and what we’ve learned over the last few years. Christina will also introduce the new DEC raptor technicians, who will discuss how you can take part in monitoring and our ongoing effort to conserve these fascinating species.
Christina Hoh first came upstate to attend RIT, where she earned a B.S. in Biology and was introduced to avian research through bird banding on campus and at the Braddock Bay Bird Observatory. She then attended SUNY Brockport, where she monitored Great Lakes coastal wetland birds and amphibians and studied migration physiology of White-throated Sparrows for her M.S. degree. She spent four years as a Wildlife Technician at NYSDEC, where she monitored rare bird species and their habitat, and now works as a DEC Habitat Biologist here in the Finger Lakes/Western New York region.
