The Lancaster County Bird Club publishes a quarterly newsletter called Call Notes. Issues are posted here for viewing each January, April, July, and October. The newsletter is also emailed to all current members with an email address on file.
Beginning in 2018 — due to the transition to a digital publication and not having space constraints — the information contained in our Research Newsletter shifted to being included in our regular newsletter. These select issues are presented for archival/research purposes.
We’re pleased to share a collection of newsletter archives from decades past.
Here are some digital copies of original documents in the Bird Club’s archives. Long-time members may remember the names of some of the people in these documents. Newer members – and the simply curious – may be interested in the long-term study and enjoyment of Lancaster County’s bird life that these documents represent.
The “Call Notes” Newsletter for October-December 1972 is one of the earliest issues of our current newsletter. There is a short July-September issue in the archives, too, but page 2 of the October-December issue contains a note from the club president announcing the newly-approved quarterly and its tentative name (that was apparently good enough to keep).
Earlier on, the Bird Club published a “Bulletin” as its regular newsletter. This copy of the “Lancaster Bird Club Bulletin” for October 1943 is the earliest one in the club archives, as it is issue No. 1. It includes an 89 species yard list from Ruth Sener, living on Charlotte Street in Lancaster, for the decade 1933-1943.
Nearly nine years later, the lead article in issue No. 23 (June 1952) of the Bulletin was headlined “Roger Tory Peterson Honored By The Lancaster County Bird Club.” A total of 114 persons attended the surprise dinner in Peterson’s honor on 6 June. (A note on a later page says that the July 1952 issue of ‘Lancaster Magazine’ – published by Ad-Craft – would carry “a full account, with pictures”.)
The Lancaster County Bird Club was founded back on 8 December 1937. The earliest organizational document in the archives is this 1951 Constitution and Bylaws. The club slightly revised the document in its 1977 Constitution and Bylaws. Major revisions to the by-laws were approved by the membership in April 2013.
In 1977 the Bird Club also published a special supplement to its “Call Notes” newsletter. Club president Harold B. Morrin edited “The Natural Attractions of Lancaster County” which came out in November of that year. Its 16 short essays by various Club “members and friends” describe some of the County’s flora and fauna (especially the birds, of course) and the natural setting that makes this area so attractive.
Part of the club’s mission has always been supporting education, research, and the study of our area’s bird life. One way the Club does that is by supporting other organizations in the region that have similar goals. Evidence of Club support is this Saw Whet Owl Adoption Certificate issued to the Lancaster County Bird Club by the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art (Millersburg, Pa.) which sponsors the northern saw-whet owl research in our area.
The ancestors of our county birds were here before any of us were. But some of them were immigrants, too. A short front-page article in “The Lancaster Farmer” (March 1875) edited by Prof. S. S. Rathvon talks about the area’s finches, and the influx of English sparrows to Lancaster in the three years since they were introduced to America.
