CarolinaBirds for Thursday, September 7, 2006

Messages are displayed in the order they were received.  Subject  From  Time   Carolian Bird Club Seasonal Meeting in Savannah Georgia   Stephen Harris   12:25pm   Stedman Sod farm this week   David Lenat    3:52pm   Sparrow ID Workshop at Savannah CBC Meeting   John Ennis   4:17pm   Jackson Park Migrants   Jon Smith    7:24pm

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Subject: Carolian Bird Club Seasonal Meeting in Savannah Georgia
From: "Stephen Harris" <srharris(AT)mindspring.com>
Date: 7 Sep 2006 12:25pm

Hi Carolinabirders,

Just wanted to remind everyone about the Carolina Bird Club Seasonal
Meeting in Savannah, Georgia, September 29 - October 1.  We have lined up
some terrific SC and GA based field trips, a sparrow workshop, and 2
excellent speakers for the meeting.  

Our guest speaker for Friday night will be Sidney Maddock. Sidney, Audubon
North Carolina's Field Technician on the Outer Banks of North Carolina,
will give a presentation on the threatened Piping Plover. Using beautiful
pictures, Sid will discuss the interesting behaviors of this rare species
and current conservation efforts. Originally trained as an attorney, he now
focuses his efforts on the conservation of shorebirds and colonial
waterbirds. Sid's work includes the management of Audubon's sanctuary
islands near Ocracoke Inlet, where American Oystercatchers, Common Terns,
Least Terns, and Brown Pelicans nest. He also has closely followed the
National Park Service's management of shorebirds and colonial waterbirds at
Cape Hatteras National Seashore. For the last four years, Sidney has
suggested ways for the Park to be more bird friendly in the management of
off-road vehicles. Sidney is particularly interested in the conservation of
Piping Plovers, and has conducted surveys for this rare species on the Gulf
and Atlantic Coasts of the United States and the Bahamas. A resident of
Buxton, North Carolina, Sidney is an avid photographer of beach nesting
birds, and his photographs have been used by Audubon, the National Park
Service, Canadian Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Saturday night's speaker will be Adam Kent. Adam will also present a
Sparrow Identification workshop Saturday afternoon (See Field trip
descriptions). Adam's interest in nature started when he was a small child.
A love of sharing his passion about the natural world eventually led him to
pursue Master's degrees from the University of Florida in both Natural
Resource Conservation and in Education. Since 1983, Adam has been leading
nature tours to Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico and the Amazon, as well as
within the U.S. His experiences living in and traveling throughout Latin
America, Europe and Asia have equipped him with a broad understanding of
ecological principles, a keen sense of humor and an ability to relate to
people of all ages and nationalities. He has led trips for Alaska Wildland
Adventures since 2000. Adam has been especially fascinated with birds his
whole life. In addition to conducting bird surveys in Florida for more than
20 years, Adam has written a guide to the shorebirds of Baja California,
has co-authored a paper about birds of the Lake Titicaca region of Bolivia,
and has reviewed A Birder's Guide to Alaska for the Journal of Field
Ornithology. And, most notably, recordings he made in 1991 in southern
Mexico led to the description of a new species of bird, the Nava's Wren.
While working for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in
2000, Adam developed Bird Detective, a bird-identification activity guide
now being used in schools throughout Florida. When not sharing his
enthusiastic appreciation of Alaska with others, Adam migrates south to
Florida to work as an environmental consultant. Adam's current projects
include developing bird lists for Wildlife Management Areas in Florida and
helping to develop the Great Florida Birding Trail.   Please see the
website www.carolinabirdclub.org for all the details and registration
materials.  

One highlight for the meeting - we are hosting 2 trips to the Savannah
Spoil Site on Friday, September 29 and Saturday, September 30.  The
Savannah Spoil Site (which is actually located in SC) is famous for
outstanding birding, but is a highly restricted site so we certainly want
to highlight this rare opportunity.  These groups will be led by Steve
Calver.  If you would still like to go, there are limited spaces available.
Please e-mail headquarter's secretary Dana @ srharris(AT)mindspring.com to
confirm availability of a slot.  A reply will confirm whether you have or
do no have a spot at which point you will need to send in the required
paperwork.  We have a deadline of September 13, 2006 to get the forms
downloaded, filled out, signed, and in my hand @ Carolina Bird Club, 353
Montabello, Bloomingdale, IL  60108 for us to compile and send them on to
the Georgia Department of Transportation.  Remember you must also register
for the CBC meeting in order to be able to go on the Spoil Site trip or any
other of our field trips. 

Thanks and we hope to see you in Savannah.

Dana S. Harris
Headquarters Secretary
Carolina Bird Club, Inc.
srharris(AT)mindspring.com


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Subject: Stedman Sod farm this week
From: David Lenat <lenatbks(AT)mindspring.com>
Date: 7 Sep 2006 3:52pm

I watched the cold front move thru NC yesterday and today (hoping for 
some fresh migrants!), but I did not notice much change in the 
shorebirds/water birds at Stedman.  For yesterday and today, we saw:

-Killdear - too many
-Pectoral SP, 50-100
-Least SP, 20-50
-White-rumped SP, 10-14.  The high count of 14 was seen on a single scan 
yesterday.
-Soliary SP, 2  (Ryan: not Spotted SP as I told you; Solitary apparently 
also do some bobbing.)
-Stilt SP, 2
-Greater Yellowlegs/Lesser Yellowlegs.  Both present, but not counted.
-Snipe, 1
-Semipalmated SP, 10-20
-White Ibis, 3-6
-Litle Blue H, 3
-GBH, 1
-Teal?, 2 (flew off before I got a good look)
-Horned Lark, 20-30 (easily visible at some time, but hard to find at 
other times - retreat in higher grass?).
-Semipalmated Plover, 1
-Short-billed Dowitcher, 2

Seen immediately afte the hurricane (Friday-Sunday), but gone this week:
-Buff-breasted SP ("good number")
-Baird's SP , 1.  I looked hard for this species over the last few days, 
but could not convince myself that any were around.
-Western SP, 1
-Red-necked Phalarope, 1
-Black Tern, 6-10

Dave Lenat, Raleigh


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Subject: Sparrow ID Workshop at Savannah CBC Meeting
From: "John Ennis" <swampwolf(AT)thebusinessbirder.com>
Date: 7 Sep 2006 4:17pm

Not that I need it but I am looking forward to attending the sparrow ID
workshop at the Carolina Bird Club meeting in Savannah.

Just wanted you to know a fact not included on the CBC website.Adam Kent
conducted his very-popular sparrow ID workshop for the Space Coast Birding &
Wildlife Festival for several years.

Since this was a late addition to the program (Trip # 34) you will be able
to sign up for it at registration and attend regardless of you previous
choice...

John Ennis
Leland, NC
910-371-9729


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Subject: Jackson Park Migrants
From: Jon Smith <jon49(AT)bellsouth.net>
Date: 7 Sep 2006 7:24pm

I birded Jackson Park today along with Ben and Carol Ringer.  It was a
delightful morning and the birding quite entertaining.  Between the 3 of us we
saw 17 species of Warbler as well as Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-billed Cuckoo,
Scarlet Tanager, Swainson's Thrush and Warbling Vireo.  Warbler highlights
included Golden-winged, Wilson's, Nashville, Blackburnian, Bay-breasted and
Yellow-breasted Chat.  All of the birds were seen along the paved nature trail
(partly underwater) and the warbler trail which starts just across the road from
 the BMX entrance road.

Within the last week I have also seen Blue-winged Warbler and Yellow-bellied
Flycatcher.

Good Birding,

Jon Smith
Fletcher, N.C.