[Bristol-Birds] TOS State Meeting at Bristol -- what a weekend !

The Tennessee Ornithological Society Annual Spring Meeting at Bristol has come 
to a close
and participating birders are far dispersed to their homes in Tennessee, 
Georgia, Alabama and
Virginia. 

Bristol Bird Club members are tired, thankful and home to get off their feet 
and rest after
days of hosting birders and making sure the logistics were implemented.

Janice Martin was beaming like the sunrise when Ruth Luckado of the Highland 
Rim Chapter
of TOS from Tullahoma, stood at the conclusion of Saturday night's dinner 
before the
annual meeting membership to praise the food.  She proclaimed that, in all her 
years attending
TOS meetings,  there had never been a dinner that was ever that good.  It was 
not only 
delicious and varied but it was as well presented with excellence of eloquence 
as could be imagined
for such an event.  It was simply beautiful.  I don't remember any time that so 
many people
out of the audience rushed forward with cameras to take photos as they did just 
before the
serving line opened. 

Other BBC members had a lot to be proud about:

field trips:  Larry McDaniel, John Moyle, Dick Peake, Rick Knight, Rob Biller, 
Jeremy Stout,
                 Dave Worley, Bill Grigsby, Ron Harrington, Mary Erwin, Richard 
Lewis.

dinner speaker selection:  Larry McDaniel, Wallace Coffey

registration, sign in, visitor packets: Janice Martin, Bill Grigsby, Wallace 
Coffey, Ron Harrington, 
Mary Erwin

BBC display, signage:  Ron Harrington, Bill Grigsby, Zellie Earnest, Dave 
Worley 

finances:  Janice Martin

BBC book sales:  Wallace Coffey, Janice Martin.                                

facility reservation:  Ron Harrington

hotel rooms:  Bill Grigsby

catering. reception, food services:  Janice Martin, Mary Erwin,  
Bill Grigsby, Jacki Hinshaw, Joan Harrington, Ron Harrington, Fred Martin.

table arrangements, decorations: Jacki Hinshaw

door prizes:  Zellie Earnest, Rob Biller, Ron Harrington, Dave Worley, Wallace 
Coffey.
Bill Grigsby.

Among the known birding highlights at this moment was a Merlin perched within a 
few feet of 
Sunday's Laurel Bed Lake field trip group on Clinch Mountain.  The Virginia 
Rail found 
at the Steele Creek Park wetlands was a new park record for the species.

BBC member Wilma Boy joined the ranks of current club members nursing a broke 
arm.
Wilma fell Friday night at her hotel room and was taken to Johnston Memorial 
Hospital
emergency room in Abingdon.  She was out early, sporting a splint and sling to 
take part
in a TOS state meeting Saturday morning field trip.  She
joined Judy Roach who feel down a slope at Kingsport, TN while on a wildflower 
walk
and is sporting a cast and sling on her arm but she made the TOS annual banquet 
this
weekend.  Carolyn Coffey recently broke both bones in her left forearm when she 
feel at 
the South Holston Weir Dam.  After emergency surgery for the breaks and open 
wound and 
a 10-day hospital stay, her splint and sling are gone but she still enjoys two 
metal plates 
and 12 screws in her arm.

What a weekend !  

Let's go birding......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

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