About the Club

Mission Statement

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


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The Carolina Bird Club, Inc., is a non-profit educational and scientific association open to anyone interested in the study and conservation of wildlife, particularly birds.

The Club meets each winter, spring, and fall at different locations in the Carolinas. Meeting sites are selected to give participants an opportunity to see many different kinds of birds. Guided field trips and informative programs are combined for an exciting weekend of meeting with people who share an enthusiasm and concern for birds.

The Club offers research grants in avian biology for undergraduate and graduate students, and scholarships for young birders.

The Club publishes two print publications (now also available online). The Chat is a quarterly ornithological journal that contains scientific articles, reports of bird records committees and bird counts, and general field notes on bird sightings. CBC Newsletter is published bimonthly and includes birding articles and information about meetings, field trips, and Club news.

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By becoming a member, you support the activities of the Club, receive reduced registration fee for meetings, can participate in bonus field trips, and receive our publications.

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Field trip info

CBC Winter Meeting Wrightsville Beach, NC
January 26–28 2018

Katherine Higgins

We have some beautiful beaches in North Carolina and many people vacation on them in the summer. But have you ever been to those same beautiful beaches in the winter time? If not, you are in for a treat. Wrightsville Beach is a beautiful, wide, bright-white sand beach and the CBC host hotel is ocean front. You will find that the beach is far less crowded in the winter and it is just as beautiful as it is in the summer. While you are enjoying your morning coffee, you can view Gannets fishing offshore or if you choose a sound-side room you may view a loon or two swimming among the docked boats in the Intracoastal. Our host hotel for the CBC Winter 2018 meeting is the Blockade Runner, located at 275 Waynick Boulevard, Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480. Room rates are $95.00 for ocean-front rooms and $85.00 for sound-side rooms. These rates do not include taxes, but they do include a chef-cooked breakfast in the hotel dining room. You will also have access to the hotel's fitness center, sauna and hot tub areas. The hotel chef will also prepare our Saturday night buffet meal. The cost for the buffet is $32.00. You can check out their amenities and their beach-cam at the hotel web site, but you must call the hotel to make your reservation in order to get our special CBC discounted rates. Call 910-256-2251. Make sure you identify yourself as a CBC member when you call. The hotel will only hold our reserved block of rooms until January 3, 2018; so, reserve your hotel room early.

Our Friday night speaker will be professional nature photographer, writer and ecologist, Dr. David Blevins. He will be selling and autographing both of his new books. Dr. Blevins will be teaching a photography workshop on Saturday morning.

On Saturday night our speaker will be Laura Keene. Ms. Keene did a “Big Year” in 2016. She shattered the “species photographed” record, breaking Neil Hayward's 2013 ABA mark; and she even established a standard for the new ABA area including Hawaii. You might want to watch the movie “The Big Year” to get ready for her talk on Saturday night.

Wrightsville Beach is just across the Intracoastal Waterway from the city of Wilmington, NC. There are some activities that non-birding spouses and birders may want to take advantage of while visiting the area. If you love to ride bikes, check out the Gary Shell Cross City Bike Trail. This mostly paved bike trail meanders for 15 miles from Wrightsville Beach all the way across Wilmington, passing through many of the city parks along its path. And birding can be good when you are riding bikes quietly along the trail.

Wilmington also has a downtown boardwalk along the Cape Fear River. The 1.8 mile River Walk passes historic sites, shops and some great riverside restaurants. While you are downtown, you can take a ride through some of the most historic parts of town in a horse-drawn carriage. Check out www.wilmingtonnc.gov or www.wilmingtondowntown.com for more information. If you would like a ride down the Cape Fear River, boats are available for hire along the River Walk (weather permitting).

The field trip line-up covers the ocean, coastal fresh-water and salt-water marshes, ferry rides, islands, maritime forests, lakes and streams. Register for the meeting online and pick your field trips early to get your first choices. Hope to see you at Wrightsville Beach in January.

Directions to the hotel: take US 74 East until you cross the Intracoastal Waterway drawbridge onto Wrightsville Beach. After the drawbridge, stay right at the fork and proceed onto US 76 East. Cross a smaller bridge over another portion of the waterway and take an immediate right at the stop light onto Waynick Boulevard. The Blockade Runner hotel will be on your left about 0.3 miles south.