Georgia's first birding festival on the coast was a tremendous success thanks to the efforts of many dedicated people. Although the weekend was a damp one, the weather didn't appear to lessen anyone's enthusiasm. The schedule was packed, featuring seminars, a field trip to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and a birthday bash to celebrate the centennial of the National Wildlife Refuge system on day one. The next two days featured field trips to most of the hot spots along the coast including many of the barrier islands, seminars on various aspects of ornithology, a great line-up of vendors displaying their wares, a scientific poster session, Pierre Howard as the master of ceremonies for the evening events, and a Saturday night banquet featuring a very funny presentation by noted birder and author Kenn Kaufman.

Included in the Saturday evening schedule was a special presentation by John Swiderski and Giff Beaton in which they presented a copy of the new Annotated Checklist of Georgia Birds autographed by the checklist committee to Dick Parks. The presentation was not only meant to thank Dick for donating the beautiful print that graces the checklist's cover, but also to recognize the countless things he has done to support GOS. Lydia Thompson was also recognized Saturday night for the amazing job she did in pulling the whole festival together, as were the members of the festival committee, particularly Amy Ochoa and Diana Churchill. GOS president Gail Russell briefed the banquet audience on the results of the Saturday afternoon GOS elections, then handed over the reins of the organization to me with the symbolic passing of the gavel.

With nearly all species lists for field trips received, the tally appears to be 169. The high counts were 92 species detected for both Altamaha WMA and Little St. Simons Island. Highlights included: Plain Chachalaca, Tricolored Heron, Rough-legged Hawk, Black Rail, Piping Plover, Black-necked Stilt (still needs confirmation information for the checklist committee), Long-billed Curlew, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Western Kingbird, Golden-winged Warbler, and Clay-colored Sparrow. The species list is included in this newsletter (page 5). The final list will be posted on the festival web site  (http://www.shrike.net/ccbf/) and on GABO-L. If you didn't make it to this event, don't despair - something tells me that this will happen again next year. Hope to see you then!

Submitted by Bob Sargent

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