Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Autumn Weekend: Saturday

Facing another rainy morning, Birdchick and I walked to Uncle Bill's Pancake House for a tasty start to the day. The waitresses brightened the atmosphere with their fun costumes -- a cow, a prom queen, a housewife and other whimsical attire.

The Flock (Susan, Delia, Susan and Laura) also enjoyed breakfast at Uncle Bill's and stopped by our table to gab about Birds & Beer the night before. Birdchick savored her pumpkin pancakes while I indulged in potato pancakes with sour cream and applesauce -- mmmm.

While tending a booth in the Cape May Convention Hall, sometimes little things become bigger in importance. Those little things might include the quality of the candy at your booth or that of your neighbors. Yes, our perspective might have been reduced to this when visitors to the convention hall dwindled.


The number of visitors decreased for a very good reason: The sun finally came out. Woo hoo! When the show closed at 5 p.m., I began walking on the promenade to the Grand Hotel for the evening's activities. Isn't this glorious?


The Saturday night program started with a social and a book signing, the first to which I was asked to participate. I contributed an essay ("Think like a migrating bird" on page 75) to Good Birders Don't Wear White (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) and earned a spot at the table between Kevin Karlson and Chuck Hagner. Kevin needed to leave temporarily, so Michael O'Brien, his co-author on The Shorebird Guide (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), signed copies of that photo-filled resource.

Here are left to right: (back row) Pete Dunne, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Bouton, Clay Sutton, Lisa White, Sheri Williamson; (front row) Kevin Karlson, Chuck Hagner, Jessie Barry, me and Louise Zemaitis. I'm happy to note that Pete and Kevin participate on WildBird's advisory board, Jeff B. writes the "Adventures with Austin" column in each issue, Sheri contributes her expertise to the annual hummingbird issue, and Jessie writes reviews for Book Nook in each issue.

After the signing, we adjourned to the evening meal before adorning the stage as a panel presentation. For the evening program, we briefly spoke about our respective topics (mine being our responsibility to prepare for field trips with rest, water and snacks so we can better enjoy the birds and avoid becoming hangry -- hungry and angry).

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