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Review of the 1999 Fall AOS meeting - BirdFest '99

by Colonel Bob Reed

Each meeting takes on its own personality. The fall 1999 meeting was no exception. Friday got under way with a bang when several people allegedly saw a Black Rail at the airport. They suckered several more people into believing they had seen one, until at least 30 people had swallowed the Legend of the Black Rail. I say legend because yours truly never got to see him; therefore I don’t buy into this myth. It’s unfortunate that some of the folks who claim to have seen it are otherwise very creditable birders. Many others got very close (5 feet away!) looks at a very cooperative Virginia Rail. Still others saw the many Clappers, and a few felt certain they heard a Yellow Rail.

A flock of Black Skimmers put on quite a show for us. They flew about the east end, in formation, showing first the white underneath and then the black above. We speculated as to how they could fly in such close formation, turning left and right, up and down, in perfect time, never brushing each other, never lagging behind, always seeming to be led by an invisible hand. As they turned, the lead bird suddenly became the flank or rear, so it wasn’t a lead bird keeping them synchronized. However they did it, it was the best show in town.

Several people saw a Franklin’s Gull at the Bayou La Batre sewage ponds, which, by the way, is one of the best birding patches in the state.

We’ve all seen Seaside Sparrows and Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrows at Dauphin Island, usually from a distance. But a small amount of pishing brought them both to within a dozen feet of any birder with five minutes to try it along the entrance road at the airport. I’ve never seen either from closer than 30 yards before, and both of them just came up and said "Hello" from the minimum focal distance of my binoculars. They are startlingly beautiful birds. I won’t take time to describe them to you, but you might want to pick up a field guide and just feast your eyes on them. You will not be wasting your time.

Joe Shelnutt, from the Southeast Raptor Rehabilitation Center and his crew (all volunteers) brought many of their birds, from Bald Eagle and Mississippi Kite to American Kestrel and Eastern Screech Owl. It was quite a treat to see these birds from 18 inches.

Sunday morning, as Pat and I got out of the car at the Chamber of Commerce building, I heard a Great Horned Owl. Pat showed me the direction, because too many years in the Field Artillery have robbed me of my ability to tell direction of sounds. I found it on the top of one of the communications towers behind the Chamber building. He was illuminated enough to distinguish him well. He flew just as it was getting light enough to see him well, but many of us got a good look.

Several people were lucky enough to see a Clay-colored Sparrow at the west end. Others saw Baird’s Sandpiper, Red Knot, Lincoln's Sparrow, White-winged Dove, and Warbling Vireo.

Other than the birds, the highlight of the weekend was the inauguration of the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail. Herb Malone, from the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, and Sonny Mares, Executive Vice President of the Mobile Convention and Visitor’s Corporation, both of whom had vital parts in bringing the Trail to fruition, spoke to us as part of the dedication. Our heartfelt thanks to them and to Charles for this wonderful accomplishment.

We enjoyed the fruits of may cooks’ labors Friday night. Everything was delicious.

In addition to all the other activities, we enjoyed wonderful presentations from Don and Lillian Stokes, Dr. Paul Kerlinger, Clay Taylor, and the crew from Wild Birds Unlimited. You all know the Stokes from their books and their Public Television series, Bird Watch. They proved to be very accomplished birders and showmen, and entertained us well. They autographed copies of their many books for us birding fans.

Dr. Paul Kerlinger is a fascinating person who is doing landmark work in environmental and ecotourism economic study. Wait! I saw your eyes rolling up to the top of your head. This is good stuff, honest. Paul has an answer to many of our concerns. He conducts studies to determine the economic value of birds to an area, versus the competition, whether it’s agriculture, condos, lumber, or whatever. Then he shows the powers-that-be that if the bird habitat is converted to the alternate use, the economy will suffer, because of the loss of birding revenues. Of course, it doesn’t always come out in the birds’ favor, but often it does. For instance, the millions of shorebirds which arrive at Cap May during the spring feed on the eggs of the horseshoe crab. Local fishermen wanted to start harvesting the horseshoe crabs for fish bait. Dr. Kerlinger proved that the eggs, used as bird bait, were worth five times as much as the crabs would be as fish bait. The fishermen lost, and the birds won. It was truly fascinating stuff.

Clay Taylor, a Naturalist Market Field Coordinator for Swarovski Optik and past President of Mattabeseck Audubon Society, Middletown CT, presented birding optics seminars and led field trips. Wild Birds Unlimited taught seminars on developing backyard bird habitat.

Saturday night the Stokes and Dr. Kerlinger presented an interesting panel discussion Birding, Then, Now, and Tomorrow. They each discussed the various changes in birding starting a hundred years ago, right up to today, and tried to give us a peek into birding twenty or thirty years from now.

Oh, yes. It rained. But nobody cared.