16 - 19 January 2009
Tybee Island, GA
 

meeting summary. . .

I guess it’s safe to say that the membership didn’t mind the decision to adopt Tybee Island as our winter meeting home following the successful January 2007 meeting. I say this because, despite the rollercoaster economy and frigid weather, nearly 100 people made the trip to the coast again this past January. Note to self: Whenever I’m absolutely convinced the weather is going to torpedo one of our meetings, I need to do a reality check. After all, this is the group that skidded through the ice storm in January 2005 to meet with the Alabama Ornithological Society in Guntersville, and that sputtered through the remnants of a tropical storm on the coast during the October 2005 festival, setting a species count record for that meeting with 210. And who can forget the Arctic monsoon during last year’s winter meeting in Bainbridge? Parts of my fingertips are still attached to the railing on the dam at Lake Walter F. George. Is it safe to say that we scoff at Mother Nature’s abuse? Okay, the rooster who struts is the first one to become a fox sandwich, and maybe this isn’t the best way to encourage you to attend next year’s winter meeting!

Our second winter meeting on Tybee Island was a windy weekend, especially for the folks who set sail on the pelagic trips (a.k.a., the green-gilled cruises), and warm weather didn’t arrive until Monday, when everyone was leaving. Who cares?! We counted 179 species that weekend, including Snow Goose, Northern Pintail, Canvasback, all three scoter species, Common Goldeneye, Manx Shearwater, Roseate Spoonbill, Peregrine Falcon, Piping Plover, American Avocet, Parasitic Jaeger, Black-legged Kittiwake, Cave Swallow, 10 warbler species, Le Conte’s Sparrow, both sharp-tailed sparrows, and Baltimore Oriole. The birding at the Savannah Spoils Site and Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (Savannah NWR) was ridiculously good, and whenever we meet in the Savannah area I always find myself wondering why more people don’t sign up for the spoils site trips. I participated in the Saturday trip to Savannah NWR, and although the diversity of duck species wasn’t exactly overwhelming, at one point we found ourselves looking at Black-bellied Whistling Duck and Snow Goose in the same scope image. A few minutes later we called in two Baltimore Orioles, and we had great looks at roadside Wilson’s Snipe.
On Friday night, our program featured a double header (yes, I’m a baseball nut). Charlie Muise started the evening with a summary of the Georgia Important Bird Areas program, explaining the program’s goals, what it has accomplished thus far, and where it needs to go. Charlie is working hard to create partnership efforts on behalf of bird conservation in Georgia and has done a great job with organizing volunteer field projects, such as collecting grass seeds. And if you’re impressed with Charlie’s seemingly endless energy reserves, you should see his son wading into marsh grasses, toy truck in tow, on a freezing morning.

Kate Spear, graduate student at the University of Georgia, followed Charlie with a presentation about her research on the effects of human disturbance on bird diversity within a Bulgarian national park. Kate, as you may know, is a two-time recipient of GOS’s H. Branch Howe, Jr. Graduate Student Grants, so it was particularly gratifying to see what one of “our” graduate students has been accomplishing. Many people commented on the similarities between Bulgarian and American bird species, and I suspect most of us didn’t expect to learn that wolves, bears, and other large mammals inhabit European parks. Kate emphasized to the audience the importance of establishing partnerships between American university scientists and those in European countries where ornithology and birding, in some cases, might be just beginning to blossom, and how important ecotourism can be in promoting conservation in Bulgaria.

Saturday afternoon featured the most diverse poster session yet for a GOS meeting, from Long-tailed Manakins in Costa Rica to wintering Hermit Thrushes and vulture movements in Georgia, and from the management of birds such as Red-cockaded Woodpeckers at Ft. Stewart to bird banding studies on IBAs. Saturday night’s banquet featured a low country boil – one of the best banquet dinners we’ve had – and the usual comedy routine by Steve Holzman. I fear that one of these days he’s going to start insisting on a performance salary. I followed Steve by torturing the banquet crowd with a reading of the proposed bylaws modifications. The membership approved the changes, probably because they were anxious to get me away from the microphone. And then Dr. John Kricher, truly a master teacher, captivated the crowd with a presentation on the ecology of migratory songbirds. Dr. Kricher’s talk didn’t just identify and explain the usual cast of suspects implicated in the decline of migrants; instead, he introduced us to familiar friends, such as the American Redstart, and led us on a journey as we followed this species from its breeding ground to its wintering ground, explaining the habitats used by the species in each hemisphere, and the obstacles to the species’ survival. If you haven’t read Dr. Kricher’s book, A Neotropical Companion, I highly recommend it.

This seems like enough to wear out 100 birders on a three-day weekend, doesn’t it? Well, we figured it wasn’t, so we made another try at organizing a “flocking” on Sunday night at the hotel. You may recall that we shamelessly snitched this idea from the Florida Ornithological Society, whom we met with in Brunswick a couple of years ago. Anyway, at the Bainbridge meeting last year we invited members to give presentations about their birding projects during our first attempted flocking and . . . well, no one showed up with a presentation. You might say that the flock scattered. Okay, so birds often look bad on that first flight from the nest. This time the flocking featured contributed photo shows from Dan Vickers and Darlene Moore, along with finger food and our secret weapon – a bar open for business. You guessed it: It was a hit.

Thank you very much, as always, to the professionals who make these meetings happen: Bill Lotz, Dan Vickers, Steve Holzman, Jeannie Wright, and Darlene Moore. Thank you, too, to the very talented field trip leaders for the miles you put on your vehicles, and especially for the ways in which you worked so hard to ensure not only that every member of your groups saw every bird, but also ensured that the members knew what to look for as they puzzled over the winged creatures in their scopes and binoculars. You are the best teachers I know. Finally, I’d like to thank the folks who presented the great posters at the meeting: Larry Carlisle, Soluzo Ekenta, Dr. Jim Ferrari, Ryan Malloy, Charlie Muise, and Dr. Mark Welford. I hope to see everyone soon in Rome, and start planning now to join us again next January on Tybee Island, where our featured speakers will include Dr. Sid Gauthreaux and Jim Cox.

Bob Sargent, Compiler
179 species observed

The following table contains a combined list of the species
reported from the all of the field trips:

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