Florida Ornithological Society

Fall 2006 Meeting

Titusville, FL October 27-29, 2006 

Hosted by Brevard Nature Alliance and Space Coast Audubon Society

Pictures from the Fall 2006 meeting will be posted shortly

Hotel and Registration: Best Western Space Shuttle Inn, 3455 Cheney Highway, Titusville, Florida 32780, (321-269-9100); Special FOS rate: $69.00 plus tax / double occupancy. Make reservations before October 13 for this rate - Identify yourself as an FOS member. Complimentary Continental breakfast included daily.

Click here for the Registration Form.

Click here for the Printer Friendly Announcement and Schedule.

Schedule of Events

 

Friday, October 27

 

Registration
Board Meeting
1:00 – 5:00 PM at Best Western Space Shuttle Inn (Main Lobby)Cabot Lodge lobby. Special Bird Book Sale and Silent Auction-approximately 70 bird books donated by Helen and Bill Dowling will be available for sale or bid.
2:00 – 5:00 PM at 2nd floor conference room of Best Western Space Shuttle Inn
Field Trips
2:00 – 5:00 PM Jetty Park or Blue Heron Wetlands

see details below.

Dinner
On Your Own
Flocking
7:00 – 9:00 PM at Space Walk of Fame Museum, East Main Street, downtown Titusville

Parking will be in the Wachovia Bank parking lot across the street. Refreshments provided

by Dixie Crossroads.

Note - Due to the uniqueness of this location for the initial Flocking, the

usual member slide show will not take place!!!

 

Saturday, October 28

 

Field Trips
7:00 AM – 12:00 Noon
Elizabeth Martin

Dunlin foraging behavior and predation risk at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Business Meeting
2:00 – 2:15 PM
Scientific Session
2:15 – 5:00 PM
Eric Stolen - moderator
Saturday Social
Banquet
Speaker
6:00 – 7:00 PM
7:00 – 8:00 PM

see details below.

Lunch
On Your Own
Brad Smith

Snowy Plover Nesting and Recreational Beach Use on Sanibel Island

Lindsay Addison

Lease Tern (Sterna antillarum) colony characteristics and reproductive success on beaches and rooftops in

southwest Florida

Eric Stolen

Costs and benefits of group foraging in piscivorous egrets

Rena Borkhataria

The importance of early wet season water levels to juvenile wood storks in south Florida

8:00 PM

David Breininger,  Senior Ecologist,  Kennedy Space Center, Florida. “Florida Scrub-Jay population and Habitat Dynamics Along Central Florida’s Atlantic Coast."

Special Bird Book Sale and silent auction concludes - winning bidders announced and final book purchases concluded.

FOS Business Meeting- American Police Hall of Fame Special Bird Book Sale and Auction continues

12:00 Noon - 2:00 PM
Garth Herring

Constraints of landscape level prey availability on physiological condition and productivity of Great Egrets

and White Ibises in the Florida Everglades.

Sunday, October 29

 

Field Trips
7:30 AM – 12:30 PM +

see details below.

Field Trips

Friday Afternoon, October 27

Jetty Park Canaveral Locks
2:00 – 5:00 PM
Visit Port Canaveral for two areas of great birding for  terns, gulls, wading birds and shorebirds.  Manatees and dolphin are often seen at the Locks and Black-crowned Night Herons nest nearby at Avocet Lagoon.  Pick up some interesting history about the space program as well.  Leave from Hotel lobby at 2pm. Entrance fee/car: $5 county residents, $10 non. Jason Frederick, Jim Meyer, leaders
Blue Heron Created Wetlands Great Outdoors
2:00 – 5:00 PM
Drive the dikes around 292 acres of engineered wetlands for water reclamation. Gull-billed Tern, Purple Gallinule, bitterns, Bald Eagle, night herons, and Roseate Spoonbill are but some of the 100+ species seen here. Then explore a few of the many trails next door at the Great Outdoors RV Park for migrating warblers, etc.  Leave from Hotel lobby at 2pm. Lora Heyden, leader

Saturday Morning, October 28

7:00 AM – 12:00 Noon
Destination will depend on prior scouting but may include Black Point Wildlife Drive, Hammock Trails, and/or Shiloh Marshes.  Ducks, shorebirds, waders, and migrating warblers are possibilities, as well as FL Scrub-jay. Leave from Hotel lobby at 7am.  MIWA volunteer leader, TBA
North Brevard Hotspots
6:30 AM – 12 Noon
Explore local hotspots, including the newly acquired Indian Mound Station Sanctuary. This 85-acre EELs property is a warbler magnet and contains an Ais Indian burial mound. Judy Gregoire (EELs Program) will join us there for special access. Eastern Bluebirds, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Carolina Chickadee, FL Scrub-jay, Wild Turkey, Meet at McDonalds at I-95 and SR 46 at 6:30am. Arrive earlier for breakfast, opens at 6am. Doug Stuckey, Andy Bankert, leaders
7:00 AM – 12 Noon
Journey through the mosaic of marshes, swamps, pine flat woods and hammocks that support wading birds, marsh birds, waterfowl, raptors and pineland specialties such as Bachman’s Sparrow, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Eastern Bluebird, and Red-headed Woodpecker. Leave from Hotel lobby at 7am. Laurilee Thompson, Sarah Linney, leaders
Viera Wetlands
7:00 AM – 12 Noon
Home of the first US record of Mangrove Swallow, the Wetlands is a series of connected ponds created to treat wastewater from the Central Brevard area.  Crested Caracara, Bald Eagle, Limpkin, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Purple Gallinule, and Sandhill Cranes, along with a variety of ducks and waders are likely.  Check the ponds on the north side of the facility for migrating shorebirds and ducks.  Leave from Hotel lobby at 7am.  Dave Freeland, Murray Gardler, leaders.

Sunday Morning, October 29

Jetty Park Canaveral Locks
7:30 AM – 12:30 PM +
Visit Port Canaveral for two areas of great birding for  terns, gulls, wading birds and shorebirds.  Manatees and dolphin are often seen at the Locks and Black-crowned Night Herons nest nearby at Avocet Lagoon.  Pick up some interesting history about the space program as well.  Leave from Hotel lobby at 7:30am. Entrance fee/car: $5 county residents, $10 non. Jason Frederick, Jim Meyer, leaders
Smyrna Dunes (Turtle Mound/Ponce Inlet, optional add-ons)
7:00 AM – 12:30 PM +
Take a two-mile hike via boardwalk over pristine coastal dune habitat out to the shoreline and rock jetty.  Boardwalk spurs pass through a salt marsh area on the way out to the estuary.  Shorebirds, gulls, terns, Bald Eagles, ducks, gopher tortoises, sparrows. $5/car entrance fee. Leave Hotel lobby at 7:00 am.  Murray Gardler, Andy Bankert,  leaders
Merritt Island NWR
7:30 AM – 12 Noon
Destination will depend on prior scouting but may include Black Point Wildlife Drive, Hammock Trails, and/or Shiloh Marshes.  Ducks, shorebirds, waders, and migrating warblers are possibilities, as well as FL Scrub-jay. Leave from Hotel lobby at 7:30 am.  MIWA volunteer leader, TBA

 

Directions:

Directions to Best Western Space Shuttle Inn:  Exit I 95 at Route 50 east onto Cheney Highway.  Look for the Best Western sign on the right side of the road. The hotel is located on the right shortly after Windover  Way

Directions to the Police Hall of Fame: From Best Western Parking lot, turn right and head toward Walmart.  Turn right at the first traffic light onto Challenger Parkway.  Keep going for about 5 miles toward the Space Center.  You will come to an overpass that goes over US 1, keep on going.  After you go over the overpass, you will see the both the Astronaut Hall of Fame and the American Police Hall of Fame on the right.  You can't miss the big Space Shuttle.  The Police Museum is the western building.  Please allow 15 or 20 minutes for travel time and to be able to park.

The operators of the Police Hall of Fame have generously offered for FOS members to be able to tour the facility free of charge either before or after our meeting or on a break.  Please take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy this fabulous tribute to American law enforcement.  

 

Created on July 21, 2006 | Last updated October 17, 2006