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1999 FORT MYERS CONFERENCE REPORT

14-18 January 1999

The Regional Conference in Fort Myers promised a respite from winter weather and a great variety of interesting birds — and it delivered on both counts! While much of the upper half of North America was deep in the grip of nasty winter weather, participants at the Conference enjoyed "chamber of commerce" weather. We had to deal with early morning fog and a cool breeze one day, but the rest of the time we were treated to nice warm evenings and sunny 80 degree days! More importantly, the birding was also excellent and included many birding highlights. Field trips visited all of the key habitats in the area and, including "heard only" birds, we tallied a very respectable combined total of 154 species. In addition, we saw two established but yet not "countable" Florida waterfowl (Mallard and Muscovy Duck) and the Great White Heron, currently a sub-species of the Great Blue Heron likely to be "re-split" in the future. Keepers of "year lists" for 1999 got theirs off to a great start!

A few of the birding highlights include the following species which were seen well by nearly every attendee: Anhinga, Magnificent Frigatebird, Reddish Egret, Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, Mottled Duck, Snail Kite, Purple Gallinule, Limpkin, Sandhill Crane, Snowy, Wilson's, and Piping Plovers, Red Knot, Sandwich Tern, Black Skimmer, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Monk Parakeet, Burrowing Owl, Florida Scrub-Jay, and Shiny Cowbird. Three vireo and 14 warbler species were also seen by many of the attendees. As will always be the case, some species of special interest were only seen by some lucky groups and not by others. These included Short-tailed Hawk, Crested Caracara (picking up a road-kill snake and then almost loosing it to one of last year's youngsters), King Rail, Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Sedge Wren, Louisiana Waterthrush (very unusual in winter), and Painted Bunting.

A full plate of outstanding programs helped make the Conference a success and provided an excellent compliment to the birding. Lee Snyder kicked things off the first night with an overview of the various habitats in the area and the birds that make their homes in those habitats. The following evening, Steve Nesbitt brought us up to date on the status of the program to reintroduce a viable non-migratory population of Whooping Cranes into the southeastern United States. On Saturday afternoon, participants were treated to two outstanding programs. Don and Lillian Stokes took us beyond identification into the fascinating world of bird behavior, and Jon Dunn followed with a shorebird identification program which focused on plovers, dowitchers, yellowlegs, and winter peeps. Glen Woolfenden wrapped things up that evening with an entertaining program on the Florida Scrub-Jay. On our final evening at Fort Myers, Ted Below presented an excellent program called "Sun, Sand, and Politics" — particularly appropriate because it centered on one of the areas everyone had enjoyed birding earlier in the week.

– Ken Hollinga