Join CBC in Litchfield Beach, SC for the Winter Meeting
Jan 17–19, 2020
Meeting Planners: Mac Williams
By Mac Williams
The Club will be heading out to Litchfield Beach, South Carolina for the 2020 Winter Meeting! We hope that you can join us and enjoy the interesting trips and programs we have scheduled from Friday, January 17 and running through Sunday, January 19.
On Friday evening, there will be a question-and-answer session with Aaron Given and Keith McCullough featuring light refreshments and a cash bar. Come and listen to two South Carolina eBird reviewers tell you everything you always wanted to know about eBird but were too afraid to ask the Carolina email list. Aaron will also answer questions about the Kiawah Island banding project that he oversees, and Keith can answer any Charleston County Parks questions you might have.
On Saturday evening we will enjoy a banquet and our keynote speaker, Dr. Christopher Hill, the Spivey Palmetto Professor of Biology at Coastal Carolina University. Dr. Hill specializes in ornithology, and his research interests include bird mating systems and ecology along with water-bird biology. At various times in his career, he has used tools ranging from binoculars and field notebooks to an automated DNA sequencer to answer various questions in avian biology. He has published more than 15 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, and he also regularly publishes notes in other outlets ranging from newsletters of scientific societies to popular magazines. CBC Members might remember him from birding trips or for his famous “Gull Talk,” which he will again give at our Saturday evening banquet. Don't miss it!
Our Field Trips will be both familiar and new. We will have several trips to Huntington Beach State Park. We'll also have trips to Myrtle Beach State Park, Santee Coastal Wildlife Management Area, and Bulls Island. We will again offer a trip to the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center, normally closed to the public. We're again able to offer a trip to Waties Island on Saturday only. Waties is the northernmost barrier island in SC and it is one of the last untouched places in the state. If you didn't get a chance to go on this trip last time, be sure to sign up as soon as registration opens!
In order to get the group rate, call 1-888-734-8228, and when they ask for the Group ID, it's BIRDCLUB20.
Please note that they will charge one night's rate as a deposit.
If you cancel your reservation inside of 14 days before arrival, you'll lose your deposit.
There will be an all-day “curlew” trip that the boat captain has requested that we not call a “curlew” trip. Additionally, there will be two New Birder field trips led by experienced birders, and one trip especially for Young Birders led by one of our most experienced former young birders. New this meeting, we're including an educational trip to the Center for Birds of Prey, down in Awendaw, SC.
A glance through the list of trips will show you that we've tried to offer trips to a variety of habitats, while still providing ample access to the most popular places that CBC members want to go.
Our host hotel and meeting headquarters is the Litchfield Beach Resort, located at 14276 Ocean Hwy, Pawleys Island, SC 29585. This hotel offers one-bedroom, one-bath suites with pool or lake views.
Please remember to check the schedule posted at registration for more details on all of the weekend's events. And any last minute changes and/or cancellations.