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| spring 2009 meeting. . . |
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It wasn’t a big group that gathered at the Ramada Skytop in Rome during the first weekend in May, but human nature and Mother Nature combined forces to ensure that the 50 members in attendance would not soon forget that meeting. I know I won’t. The meeting started earlier than usual for me, as I was invited to participate in a radio talk show about birds and GOS on the outskirts of Rome first thing Friday morning. Most birders I know thrive on pre-dawn departures from home, but I’m the anomaly to the rule because I’ve never enjoyed (“detest” is more like it) staggering out of bed at 4:30 a.m., and it’s downright excruciating for me when the task that drives me from between the covers doesn’t involve birding. So I cussed the bedside clock, gulped coffee like I was still in college writing term papers hours before they were due, and struggled to keep my truck between the lines on the way to Rome in the wee hours of the morning. And you know, I miraculously found the radio station, the caffeine took control, the deejays were kind and funny, and I had a ball. Funny thing – they had also invited GOS member and Berry College professor Renee Carleton to talk about bluebirds just in case I didn’t show up or froze up in front of the microphone. I can hear those of you who know me thinking, “They were worried that he wouldn’t talk? Ridiculous. They should have been worried about the opposite problem.” The rain started just seconds after I stepped out of
the radio station door, so my plan to scout one of Saturday’s field trip
destinations was busted. Instead, I spent an hour talking about birds
over breakfast with one of the deejays. After breakfast I saw that the
rain was falling hard enough to impress Noah, so I used up the rest of
the morning indulging another favorite hobby – yup, I found a bookstore
100 yards from the restaurant. I had no idea the soggy weather was a
foreshadowing of the outrageous storm to come later that evening – both
outside and inside the Friday’s program began with the presentation of the
Earle Greene Award to GOS member and DNR biologist Tim Keyes (see the
article in this newsletter). It’s fair to say that Tim didn’t see it
coming. Then he had to live up to the award by co-presenting (with
Oglethorpe University’s Roarke Donnelly) a study concerning privet
control in the Atlanta area, and how bird species diversity responds to
the removal of that obnoxious exotic. This program was the first of a
double-header, as University of Georgia graduate student Michael Parrish
followed Tim and Roarke with a program about using remote sensing
technology and computer models to predict bird species diversity and
density in habitat fragments in the Athens area. Both programs, by the
way, were partially sponsored by grant money from GOS. At some point in
the evening the audience became aware that there was also a show in
progress outside the hotel. It seems that at least one tornado raged
through Rome that evening, unbeknownst to us, but what we couldn’t help
but notice were the impressive sound effects coming from outside the
building. The next morning we discovered that Friday night’s unclaimed name tags (i.e., some GOS members didn’t arrive until Saturday) had been “borrowed” from the registration table, most likely by the club’s patrons. I had visions of intoxicated strangers sporting our name tags making memorable impressions on area business owners and police. Speaking of memorable impressions, the birding was great, and the field trip leaders really did an outstanding job. I enjoyed my first visits to John’s Mountain, Arrowhead Wildlife Management Area, and Berry College. The hill country around Rome was bubbling over with mountain warblers, and if you’ve never been to Berry College then you really need to get up there and experience that treat. The campus is enormous, the buildings are majestic, the habitat is green and diverse, and the deer . . . well, visualize houseflies on an unattended raw hamburger. No kidding – deer by the dozen stood by the side of public roads everywhere we went, glaring at us as though they were annoyed by our presence. Saturday night featured one of Georgia’s ornithological treasures – Georgann Schmalz – speaking about “The top 10 ways to share the wonder of birds.” Georgann used her superb teaching gifts, funny slides, and memorable analogies to explain to the audience how we could teach others why birds matter and why they are amazing. Of course, we know birds are fascinating; just think about how much money and time we spend in pursuit of them each year. But have you ever struggled to find the words to explain to someone – someone who is laughing at you for being a birder – why he or she should care enough to do something to conserve birds? If so, then you should have been in the audience that night. My favorite line from Georgann’s talk was about how she compared a complete ecosystem with all the right bird species to a hamburger with all its condiments. She noted that when you’re explaining this analogy to kids you had better say “condiments” slowly. Thank you again to the speakers, the trip leaders, the hosts, and the GOS gang who made the Rome meeting such a fun weekend. And if one of the non-registrants who “borrowed” a name tag from the check-in table happens to read this, we’ll be meeting again on Jekyll Island in October. Come join us. We’ll have new tags.
Bob Sargent, Compiler The following table contains a
combined list of the species
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9/2009
