3rbc.org Website Review

Pittsburgh native Aidan Place, one our club's expert birders at age 20, has a tantalizing title for his program at the Three Rivers Birding Club meeting on Wednesday, February 6: An Israeli Bird Race for Conservation. The race in March 2017 was a two-part international challenge: first, to list the most bird species during 24 hours in Israel's Negev Desert; second, to raise funds for bird conservation in the eastern Mediterranean Basin where migrating birds face horrific slaughter. Aidan's team of two other college-age birders met both challenges marvelously. Sponsored by the American Birding As*ociation and Leica, their goal was to raise $5,000, and they topped it with over $5,500. Their total of 147 species was also impressive for a first attempt in the difficult competition with expert birders from many nations. Aidan began his birding career while growing up on a fa*m in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, where he fell in love with nature and particularly everything to do with birds. Since then, his love of birding has taken him from the steaming jungles of Panama to the barren steppes of Kazakhstan. His particular birding interests include world birding as well as birding by ear and photography. He is an editor of the American Birding As*ociation's young birder blog, The Eyrie, and writes his personal birding blog, The Birding Place. Aidan also fosters a keen interest in history, particularly that of the Balkans and former Ottoman Empire. In fact, for the past year he resided in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he enjoyed learning the birds of the Western Palearctic on a de*per level. In fall 2018, Aidan enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, where he will pursue biology and a career in ornithology. We will learn about his exciting experience at our meeting in the Phipps Garden Center, 1059 Shady Avenue in Shadyside. Doors open at 6:30 PM for socializing, a business meeting begins at 7:30, and the. LISTINGS OF THE 2018 CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNTS (CBC'S) AS WELL AS EARLY 2019 CLUB OUTINGS ARE AVAILABLE!