Please join us at Virginia Beach for the Carolina Bird Club 2006 winter
meeting, February 3-5. Trips include Back Bay NWR, Great Dismal Swamp NWR,
Craney Island, First Landing State Park, Princess Anne WMA, Mackay NWR, and
pelagic trips to the Norfolk Canyon.
Updated information concerning the meeting has been posted to the Carolina
Bird Club website (http://www.carolinabirdclub.org/; click on the Virginia
Beach in the Winter link). The article includes many links to those sites'
home page to aid your trip selection. The CBBT trips are sold out; however
there are plenty of slots left on the pelagic trips.
Headquarters will be the Ramada Plaza Resort at Oceanfront and 57th Street
(1-800-365-3032, (www.ramadaplazavabeach.com
<http://www.ramadaplazavabeach.com/> ). Oceanfront rooms are $68 and regular
rooms are $60; both have a mini refrigerator and microwave. The cutoff date
for reservations was January 2; however, they will honor rates based on
availability thereafter. Please tell Ramada reservations you are associated
with the CBC.
Registration for the meeting begins Thursday night, February 2, at 6-9 pm at
the Ramada.
The Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum will host an open house for the
meeting attendees on Thursday night from 7-9 pm. A decoy carver will be on
hand for demonstrations and light refreshments will be served. The museum is
at 12th & Atlantic Avenue, three miles from our hotel. Additional parking is
available at the Raven Restaurant. There are a number of good restaurants,
including the Raven, in the immediate area.
Our featured speaker for the Friday evening meeting will be Brian Patteson,
reviewing the awesome 2005 pelagic birding year. The Friday night meeting
begins at 7:30 pm.
Our featured speakers for the Saturday evening meeting will be Judy Fieth
and Michael Male, of Blue Earth Films (birdfilms.com <http://birdfilms.com/>
). "A Year in the Desert" will show the filming, at Bitter Lake NWR in New
Mexico, of a bird-filled film for the refuge's new visitor center. Their
talk will be based on highlights from three seasons of filming at the
refuge, where the Chihuahuan Desert meets the short grass prairie.
Please let me know if you have questions.
John Ennis
Leland, NC
910-371-9729
PS We still could use a few trip leaders. Please let me know if you are
interested and which sites you know fairly well. You do not have to be an
expert because you will have help. We are trying to have a CBC leader for
each trip and a Virginia leader for each trip. That should take the
pressure off since the CBC leader will know how we do trips and the Virginia
leader would know the sites.
