Come to the CBC Winter Meeting!
Southport, North Carolina — January 27–28, 2012

Southport offers some of the state's top winter coastal birding sites and often leads NC and SC in species seen on Christmas Bird Counts. With the meeting less than a month after the local count, we'll hope to see most of the species recorded!

Map — Field Trips — Registration Form

Carolina Bird Club

Club News

75th Anniversary Meeting. In May we plan to take a look back, bird in the footsteps of our founding members and reflect on all the changes. We hope you'll join us the weekend of May 4–6, 2012 in Raleigh, NC, to do just that. We'll have the usual field trip schedule on Friday and Saturday to bird some of the local hot spots you often see mentioned on Carolinabirds.

Florida bonus trip South Florida is the only truly tropical region in the entire mainland United States. It has mangroves, manatees, bromeliads, and crocodiles. But most of all it has birds, many of them found nowhere else in the country. Join us April 21–29, 2012.

Alaska Fabulous scenery, excellent mammal viewing, and birds found nowhere else on the continent. Alaska is a must for every North American birder! Join us this June.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Trip February 18, 2012: The Carolina Bird Club is offering a chance to bird one of the more interesting sites along the mid-Atlantic coast, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Don't miss this rare opportunity!

Beaufort, SC Fall Meeting 2011: By all accounts the Beaufort meeting was greatly enjoyed by all. The total of 203 species may have set a new record for meeting bird lists.

Sandhill Crane Migration—Nebraska March 28–April 1, 2012: 500,000 Sandhill Cranes. 80% of the world's population of Sandhill Cranes at one place and mostly at the same time. Considered one of nature's greatest migration spectacles. Sound exciting? Then come and join us! (Registration is now waiting-list only)

Bonus field trip to Huntington Beach State Park, SC: The report is in, 92 species were seen!.

Enjoy a gallery of nature photos from the Blowing Rock Spring Meeting, contributed by John Ennis.

Blowing Rock, NC Spring Meeting 2011: The Carolina Bird Club enjoyed a beautiful weekend in the mountains of North Carolina and observed a total of 130 species. The club's new logo was unveiled at the meeting to enthusiastic response. Thanks to Ron Clark for his hard work in successfully organizing the meeting.

Tee shirt with the new logo—click for larger view

New logo! At the Spring meeting, the CBC unveiled its new logo, designed by member Josh Southern. This is the first new logo design in many years. As always, the logo features a Yellow-breasted Chat, and like the old logo it includes outline maps of our two states, but ingeniously integrated into the Chat image. We are selling shirts and other items with the club logo online. Click on the Online Store link which you can find in the navigation bar on the left. It's time for a new T-shirt! We also have window decals with the new logo, but they are sold only at meetings.

Birds of NC: Harry LeGrand is writing a new website “Birds of North Carolina: Their Distribution and Abundance”. Before you look at species accounts, click on the “show/hide” next to Introduction, so you will know what the website and the species accounts are all about. Do the same for Finding Tips. (However, Finding Tips were written by Harry 5–10 years ago, and many are woefully out of date.) Then do the same for Maps.

This is a work in progress. Only the non-passerine species accounts have been written, and many of them contain spelling errors, incomplete data, lack of peak counts, and have lots of other editorial needs! Tom Howard, the website administrator, and Harry are looking for some qualified people to help out editing these accounts, and maybe even writing some of the songbird accounts. Contact Harry (email) if you want to help out, or have some errors to report.

Band codes: MODO? RTHU? NSWO? Would you like to understand more about those four-letter bird codes? Read more about them.

Presentation to CWRS.
Photo by Bonnie Strawser, USFWS

Presentation to Friends of Pocosin Lakes

At the winter meeting on the Outer Banks, Carolina Bird Club members enjoyed field trips to area National Wildlife Refuges. To show their support for the refuges, CBC's executive committee authorized monetary gifts to the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society, and to the Friends of Pocosin Lakes Refuge, the non-profit groups that support these refuges.

Left: Skip Morgan presents a check to Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society President Stanley Oliver. Pictured from left: Mike Bryant, NC Coastal Plain Refuge Complex Project Leader, Stanley Oliver, Skip Morgan and Scott Lanier, Deputy Refuge Manager for Alligator River and Pea Island Refuges.

Right: Skip Morgan presents a check to Dorris Morris representing Friends of Pocosin Lakes. Refuge Manager Howard Phillips at right.

Suggestion box: Do you have an idea for making the club better? The Executive Committee would like to hear it! Drop it off in the CBC Suggestion Box.

Winter meeting update: A large contingent of Carolina birders enjoyed a weekend of beautiful winter weather (a welcome contrast from the miserable weather of last winter's meeting) and great birding. A collective total of 186 species were observed. The inaugural “CBC roundup” was won by the team of Ricky Davis, Lucy Quintilliano, Matthew King, and Linda Jones. A big thanks to Skip and Linda Morgan for their work in planning and carrying out a successful meeting.

Eloise Potter

Michael McCloy and Eloise Potter

On the occasion of her 80th birthday, Eloise Potter was recognized for her long service to the club, and presented with a framed photograph. Eloise was editor of The Chat from September 1963 through December 1987. The youngest CBC member in attendance, Michael McCloy, was recognized on the occasion of his 19th birthday.

Sean Edward Gough and Taylor Piephoff

Friday night's speaker, Sean Edward Gough, after reporting on his research on effects of habitat disturbance on Bald Eagles, presented the club with a framed photo of an eagle nest in appreciation of the grant that the club awarded him for his work. President Taylor Piephoff accepted.

Chat searchable database: There is a wealth of information about the birds of the Carolinas published in The Chat, and as another step toward making it more accessible, a searchable database covering all of the Briefs for the Files and Bird Records Committee reports from volumes 51–70 (years 1987–2006) of The Chat is now available. When was a Red-necked Stint last seen? Little Stint? Have we ever had a good year for Evening Grosbeaks? Find the answers quickly here.

NC Birding Trail Mountain Guide is now available!

The last of three Trail Guides to cover the state, the Mountain edition joins the previously released Coastal Plain and Piedmont Trail Guides. Each spiral bound guide includes color photos, detailed maps, site overviews, logistical information, and lists special interest species for each location. Birders can visit sites individually or string together numerous "birding drives" that take in multiple sites.

The books can be ordered at the discount price of $10 per copy (shipping included) at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission's "NC Wild" online store.

For more information on the NC Birding Trail, visit www.ncbirdingtrail.org.

(The CBC is a Partner with the NC Birding Trail.)

Cumulative Chat index: There is a wealth of information about the birds of the Carolinas published in The Chat, and as another step toward making it more accessible, a 30-year index to The Chat, so far covering volumes 45–74, years 1981–2010, is now available.

The CBC's Birds of the Carolinas Research & Programming Grants program is again active. Funds are available to support student research concerning North and/or South Carolina birds or secondary school programming designed to promote an interest by students in birds.

Birding North Carolina, the long-awaited guide to birding sites in the state, has now been published. Edited by Marshall Brooks and Mark Johns, this book features the best birding sites in North Carolina as chosen and described by the members of the Carolina Bird Club. The book is available from Globe Pequot Press.

Birding North Carolina was undertaken by the Carolina Bird Club for two purposes: to promote birding in North Carolina and to make birding more accessible to all skill levels of birders by providing information regarding the wonderful birding opportunities that we have in our state; and to further bird conservation by dedicating the income from the guide to bird conservation projects. Proceeds will go into a special account of the Carolina Bird Club to be used to support and further bird conservation projects in the state.

There are so many birding locations in North Carolina that not all of them could be included in the printed book. Descriptions of an additional 44 locations are published exclusively on this web site. Click on "Birding Sites: North Carolina" in the frame at left.

The Carolina Bird Club is a non-profit organization which represents and supports the birding community in the Carolinas through its official website, publications, meetings, workshops, trips, and partnerships, whose mission is

To promote the observation, enjoyment, and study of birds.
To provide opportunities for birders to become acquainted, and to share information and experience.
To maintain well-documented records of birds in the Carolinas.
To support the protection and conservation of birds and their habitats and foster an appreciation and respect of natural resources.
To promote educational opportunities in bird and nature study.
To support research on birds of the Carolinas and their habitats.

Membership is open to those interested in the study and conservation of wildlife, particularly birds. Is that you? Then join the club.

The Club meets three times a year (Spring, Fall, and Winter) at different locations in North or South Carolina, or occasionally in neighboring states.