NOVEMBER 1999

NEXT MEETING: Friday November 5, at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Meeting House on Spring Hill Road in Storrs. Sam Fried will present a slide program called "Amazonian Basin of Ecuador." Sam is an award winning nature photographer whose work has been published in many of the leading birding magazines. He and his wife also lead trips to various locations in North, South, and Central America through their Flights of Fancy Adventure Tours. Last year he presented a program to NOS on a trip he had led to Belilze. Dolores Hilding has offered to bring refreshments for the meeting.

At the October meeting the following slate of officers was elected:

President…………………………………Bruce Carver 456-1662

Vice-President/Program Chair…………Rebecca Goettel 423-0803

Treasurer…………………………………Carol Sutton 875-1968

Secretary and Web Page Editor……… Steve Morytko 429-9600

Field Trips………………………………..Larry Marcus 429-7195

Newsletter……………………………… "Sam" Higgins 455-0063

The long anticipated new edition of The Birds of Storrs is ready for the publisher! George Clark has agreed to speak at the December meeting and present a program on the birds of Storrs. We are hoping to have a reception at the Dodd Center at that time as well as a book signing but the details are yet to be worked out. See this newsletter for more information about exactly where the December meeting will be and what it will entail, but that is the rough idea at this point .

The post office box is once again up and running so a dues renewal notice is included in this newsletter. Please try to have your dues paid before November 20^th and I will include the Membership List in the December mailing; along with the Rare Bird Alert. Everyone with up-to-date, paid dues will receive a December newsletter.

Saturday, November 13: An all-day trip to Plum Island in Newburyport Massachusetts. Leader, Larry Marcus. Places to explore include Joppa Flats, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, The Seawall in Newburyport, Salisbury State Park, and the Cherry Hill Reservoir in West Newbury. Meet at 6:30 am at the Audrey Beck Building, Mansfield Town Hall. The parking lot is on the south side of the building near the intersections of Routes 195 and 275 in Storrs. This is an excellent place to see wintering sea ducks, loons, grebes, and some late lingering shorebirds. There are also many species of dabbling ducks in the freshwater impoundments of the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. This is also a very good place for beginning birders to see winter birds. It can be very cold here - but one year, we sat on the grass and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the sunshine while we watched a river otter swimming nearby. If you are interested in attending, please call Larry to let him know.

Sunday November 14: Bruce Carver will lead a local trip he is calling The Mansfield Hollow Stomp. Meet at 7 am at the parking lot at the Recreation Area to explore all the areas described in the forthcoming book, Birds of Storrs, edition 3. This will be a half day trip.

This year marks the 100^th National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count. There will be counts taking place throughout the United States and Canada between December 17, 1999 and January 3, 2000.The dates have been picked for both of the upcoming counts that are sponsored annually by NOS. The Storrs Count, Steve Rogers, curator, will be on Saturday December 18. The Edwin Way Teale Trailwood Count, Sam Higgins, curator, will be Sunday January 2, 2000. We will both have maps and forms available at the meeting Friday night. If you are interested in participating in one or both of these counts please speak with Steve or me at the meeting or call one of us before the count date. If you are not familiar with what a CBC is: counters are out in the field during the hours between midnight and midnight on a designated date. Area captains are assigned a territory and teams count the individual birds that are seen. Birds are also counted during a period three days before and three days after the Count Day. If you want to participate but do not wish to go out in the field, you may count the birds at your feeder (if your feeder is within the count circle). The circles are approved by National Audubon and have a radius of 7 ½ miles The NOS circle is centered at the Storrs Congregational Church and Trailwood is at the intersection of Route 6 with Church Street in Brooklyn, CT. There is a chart of the birds seen on the Storrs CBC through the years on the NOS web page at:

http://members.tripod.com~NOS98/NOSCBC.html

Trip to Africa Judy Hyde has asked me to inform you that there is room on a professionally led tour of Kenya that she is organizing for the 23rd of January for 11 days to celebrate the millennium. There will be a maximum of 6 persons on this trip. If you are interested in more details, please call Judy at 742-8338.

OTHER AREA EVENTS

Birds Live And Spectacular at the Museum of Natural History on November 6 and 7, from 1 pm to 5 pm at the Gant Physics Building on the UConn campus. There are lots of events and talks, highlighted by an appearance by Veedor, a live Andean Condor. He will be there both days and if weather permits, he will be taken outside to fly. This is free to museum members and $5 for adults, $2 for children who are not members.