Monday, Aprill 11, will be the next monthly meeting of the Cayuga Bird Club. Tim Gallagher will be giving his presentation, "The Peregrines of Taughannock Gorge" starting at 7:30 pm
Zoom meeting registration: https://tinyurl.com/cbc2022-04 After a 74-year absence, Peregrine Falcons finally returned to nest at Taughannock Gorge in 2020. The gorge is arguably the most famous falcon nest site in the world, thanks to a famous picture taken by world-renowned Cornell ornithologist Arthur Allen in the 1920s. A lifelong falcon fanatic, Tim Gallagher was only 12 years old when he first saw Allen's exquisite picture of an adult Peregrine perched on a branch in front of Taughannock Falls while her chicks lie on their nest ledge nearby. When he first came to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 1990 to be interviewed for the position as editor-in-chief of Living Bird, he asked if someone would take him to Taughannock Falls. He spent the entire afternoon at the gorge, imagining what it would be like if Peregrines still nested there. Well, he only had to wait 30 years. Gallagher will present the entire saga of the Taughannock Peregrines from their discovery by world-famous bird artist (and former Cayuga Bird Club President) Louis Agassiz Fuertes in 1909; the factors that led to the abandonment of the eyrie in 1946; Professor Tom Cade's failed effort to reintroduce captive-bred peregrines there in the 1970s; and their triumphant return in 2020.Tim Gallagher is an award-winning author, wildlife photographer, and magazine editor. He is the former editor-in-chief of Living Bird, the flagship publication of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Tim got his first field guide at the age of eight, and he's been hooked on birds ever since. His lifelong interest in wilderness exploration has taken him twice to Greenland, where he made two open-boat voyages up the coast to study nesting seabirds and falcons, and to the hinterlands of Iceland, where he climbed lofty cliffs to learn more about the spectacular Gyrfalcon, the world's largest falcon. He is the author of several books, including Parts Unknown: A Naturalist's Journey in Search of Birds and Wild Places; The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker; Falcon Fever: A Falconer in the 21st Century; Imperial Dreams: Searching for the Imperial Woodpecker in the Wild Sierra Madre; Wild Bird Photography; and Born to Fish.Cayuga Bird Club meetings start at 7:30 pm on the second Monday of each month, September through June, and are open to the public. Each virtual meeting will begin with the speaker's presentation, followed by clubbusiness. at 7:30 pm. Colleen RichardsCorresponding SecretaryCayuga Bird Club -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
