One Final Message

Hello my little birding friends! Hope you all are well and enjoying the birds. The winter ones have  left and the summer ones have arrived. I had a male American goldfinch at my feeder, which was exciting. An egret, a Kingfisher, and a great blue heron were in my backyard too. And of course, Mal  is  still around. For those of you who don’t know Mal, he is half a white duck and half a mallard. Someone took his mate  because he didn’t feel it should be in the canal. So now Mal hangs out with the other mallards. He gets lonely when they mate. Also, a lot of ospreys are on their nests along with the bald eagle who took over one!

At one of our bird walks in Hempstead Lake, we saw a black crowned night Heron sitting on the side of the lake fly right in front of us! It was the highlight of our walk! We didn’t see as many, but heard a lot. Good things our leaders know who they were just by their sound. We look on our phones to see who they are. Good thing for cell phones! Before then we had to bring our little bird books. We’ve had a lot of good bird walks and leaders. I would like to thank our leaders Jack Carlson, John Gluth, Vera Capogna, Ken Thompson, and Mike Cooper. They’re great leaders and sure know their birds. Unless I really study, I don’t think I will ever know the different sparrows, but those guys do.

We had a great dinner party at Captain Bill’s, thanks to Annette Brownell. She always does a great job and we will miss her next year, as she is moving down south to be near her son and grandchildren. She has done a lot for GSBAS throughout the years. We will need people to get speakers for our monthly meetings, since Annette did that too. Anyone who can help, let me know.

We have a new board, which started first of May. I am no longer the president!! I had a good run and want to thank everyone who helped me. Joe is the new president. I will still be on the board. I’ve met a lot of good people who sure know their birds and pick good places to see them and that’s how you learn.

I would also like to thank my board members: Annette Brownell, Michael Maler, Bob Bender, Steve D’Amato, Jeanne Halton, and Karen Andres for helping during my term.Thanks for putting up with me all these years! It’s been my pleasure, knowing all of you.

–  Jody Banaszak