December President's Message

President’s Message

By Tom Atkinson, IRAS President

We have experienced our first blast of cool weather to remind us that migration is almost over and that our resident winter birds are here. With cooler weather here there is no excuse for not getting out to enjoy the wonders that central Florida offers. Our chapter has one of the most ambitious field trip schedules of any chapter in the area, due to the efforts of our field trip coordinator, Jason Frederick. The field trips are free and open to birders of all levels of experience. If you haven’t been on one of the chapter’s field trips, now with this great weather and the abundance of birds in the area, is the time to go. I would particularly like to encourage you to think about introducing a young person to the joys of bird identification. Field trips are the perfect opportunity to meet and mingle with enthusiastic, appreciative birders. What is holding you back?

I trust you had a chance to enjoy the Space Coast Wildlife and Birding Festival in Titusville. The festival was well run and very well attended bringing birders from all over the world. Our chapter display booth at the Festival was a roaring success. Not only did we get a chance to meet a lot of nice people and pass out our literature, we actually made a profit by selling new and previously owned books. We made $303.30, which included one new membership, a do-nation, and the book sale. This was not a lot of money, but our only expense was for the booth. Getting our message out would have been worth it if we had not made any profit whatsoever.

We all owe a great big thanks to Charlie and Barbara Venuto, Julie Seberry, Dee Fairbanks, and myself for donating books, and Bill and Pat Meyer, Dee Fairbanks, Marsha Tripp, Eileen Riccio, Martha Newton, Jan Allen, Jane and Dick Schnoor, Karen Weichman, and myself for working the booth from Wednesday through Sunday.

Attendance at our general membership meetings has been outstanding this year. Last year October and November attendance was 36 and 42 respectively. (I did not include September because this is our pot luck and no one really counts noses when people are eating) This year for October and November the counts were 85 and 72. Collectively this is an increase in attendance of over 100%. This increase is due to the quality of programs we have been fortunate to attract. Both Bill Belleville and Dr. Merle Kuns presented outstanding programs which were well received. Vice President Fairbanks arranges our programs and deserves a hearty round of applause.

The IRAS board has been following the progress of the Significant Environmental Areas and Crucial Habitat Ordinance that is being considered by the Brevard County Commission. This ordinance must be adopted if we hope to conserve some of the remaining habitat vital to wildlife here in our county. Public hearings have been held throughout the county, at which most of the people speaking have expressed opposition to the ordinance. This is because real estate people and developers in our county are better organized than we are. If you believe that preserving green space, water shed, and habitat for bird and wildlife is important, now is the time to act. Write or call your commissioner and say that you support the SEA ordinance. The next meetings where you can give support are the Brevard County Local Planning Agency (LPA) meeting on December 15 at 4:00 p.m. at the county center and tentatively the County Commission meeting on January 27. You can obtain additional information on the web at http://www.brevardcounty.us/natres/index.cfm. See also the article by Sarah Linney in this issue. Please take the time to express your support.

Our chapter has received a donation of a fabulous reproduction of local artist, Spence Guerin’s, famous oil painting entitled, Tootoosahatchee. The original painting took the artist nine months to paint and measures 48 by 60 inches and is now in the collection of Brevard Museum of Art and Science in Melbourne. This superb reproduction is professionally framed and measures 32 by 37 inches. If our chapter owned a building, I’m sure that this painting would hang in a place of honor and be with us forever, as it is that beautiful. Unfortunately, because we have no place to display it, we will instead raffle it off to raise money for Audubon educational materials for school children. Come to our meeting December 12 and see it for yourself.

Bob Brown, of Beau Jean’s and the Strawberry Mansion is once again inviting us to hold our annual spaghetti dinner fund raiser. The tentative date is February 22, 2004. As usual we will need a lot of workers and dessert contributors. Please mark your calendars. This really is our only big fund raiser during the year.This event has always been well received and we are deeply grateful to Mr. Brown for making his popular restaurant available.

And finally, in these rather turbulent times it is a joy to be able to get out of doors and enjoy the natural wonders that surround us. I want to thank you for keeping your membership up and for providing support to those who are trying to pass on to the next generation an appreciation for the natural world.