AOS WINTER MEETING 2003
Meeting Report

By COLONEL BOB REED

Freezing temperatures and other demands kept most AOS members from the winter meeting. Too bad. They missed some good shows. Those hardy souls that went up Thursday were greeted with low single-digit temperatures Friday morning and lots of birds. Beside the expected waterfowl and eagles, there were hundreds of Hermit Thrushes. Pat and I had a picnic Friday when the temperature had warmed to a balmy 22°.

Allen had arranged four fabulous field trips:

Wheeler NWR, led by Dwight Cooley, the Refuge Manager. This field trip went behind all the locked gates and produced four species of geese, induding Ross’s and Greater White-fronted, and 2000 Snow Geese. There were at least 300 Sandhill Cranes, and ducks galore.

Wheeler Dam/Wilson Dam, led by Damien Simback, which produced five species of gulls, including Bonaparte’s Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull, and a Great Blue Heron rookery.

Bear Creek Embayment of Pickwick Lake, led by Ned Piper, which produced waterfowl of all types. I heard that this is where a pair of eagles was seen mating.

Waterloo, led by Paul Kittle, which produced a number of American Bald Eagles, and even a Le Conte’s Sparrow.

Bob and Elberta Reid found some Virginia Rails at Town Creek, and shared them with the group. One rail proved to be very accommodating and gave all comers very satisfying looks as he munched on invertebrates.

Finally, Tom Haggerty honored us with an extremely interesting well-organized presentation on his research on Carolina Wrens. Allen had been in a panic because our speaker had cancelled at the last moment, but we are blessed to have several wonderfully talented, interesting speakers in our AOS family. Dr. Haggerty was not second string; he was topnotch, and I personally hope he speaks to us again soon.

And, as Larry Gardella said, it was fun walking along snow patches on a crisp day.