Hello, Birders.
Can you believe it?--we’re barely a week from the annual birding highlight in Colorado. That’s right, the 2013 CFO convention in Cortez, Montezuma County, is practically upon us. Here are 10 tips for enjoying your 2013 CFO convention experience: 1. Before you head out, learn about Montezuma County in particular and southwestern Colorado in general. Here’s an overview of the birding possibilities in Colorado’s most southwesterly county: http://tinyurl.com/ColoCoBirding-Montezuma And here’s the county checklist: http://tinyurl.com/ColoChecklist-Montezuma 2. Prepare for your field trip(s). Here’s a handy listing of all field trips: http://tinyurl.com/CFO-2013-Trips Click on your trip, find out who’s on your trip, and be in touch with your field trip leader with any questions you might have. (Many of you have already heard from your field trip leaders.) 3. See where you’re going. This is a great new functionality for CFO convention attendees! Once you’ve clicked on your field trip (See #2, above), click on “Link to Map.” Is that cool or what? 4. Bring your convention brochure with you. If you’ve lost the brochure, download it here: http://cfobirds.org/downloads/conventions/CFO_Brochure_2013_web.pdf 5. If you’re driving from, say, Boulder County, Cortez is really, really far away. If you’re driving from Sedgwick County, Cortez is even farther. Don’t expect just to “leave work a few hours early,” and get to Cortez in time for cocktails. What to do? Make a long day of it, and bird along the way! Figure out your route here: http://coloradocountybirding.com/county/index.php Chances are, you’ll be driving through some relatively little birded regions of Colorado, so: Please, please, please, document your bird sightings. Upload them on eBird, post them to CoBirds, share them on Facebook. Seriously, a May day spent birding in, say, Chaffee County is a lot more “valuable,” in terms of promoting our knowledge of Colorado’s avifauna, than a May day in Pueblo County or--dare I say?--Boulder County. 6. Wear your name badges! Another new offering this year (see #3, above) is spiffy name badges for all convention attendees. Please wear yours at all times. We CFOers are all friends, but we don’t all know everybody’s names. So wear your CFO name badge, and greet your birding friends by name. 7. Be on time for your field trip. Unless instructed otherwise by your leader, be onsite at the Baymont Inn and Suites parking lot fifteen minutes prior to your trip’s scheduled departure. Have your water bottle, insect repellant, sack lunch, and--this is important--lavish gifts for the field trip leader on your person, not vaguely in your room or campsite somewhere. 8. A word or three about carpooling. Please, do it. Many field trips will be burning up the miles, and it’s so much easier to carpool with five cars than with fifteen. Also, there’s the matter of our carbon footprint, which, let’s face it, is going to be considerable; carpooling will help. Finally, carpooling is fun! Is the person in the green Outback a perfect stranger?--well, how often do you meet a perfect human being! Greet the person by name (name badges...), and ride together for the whole day. 9. The Weather. Three little words: Spring. In. Colorado. Prepare accordingly--especially for Wolf Creek Pass. ’nuff said. 10. Everything Else. CFO field trips are great, but they’re not the be-all and end-all of the CFO convention experience. Be sure to attend the Thursday evening barbecue (event is free, but pre-registration required), the Friday evening Bird ID Team Challenge, the Saturday afternoon scientific paper session, and, of course, all the events associated with the Saturday evening banquet. See you--and your name badge--in Cortez! Ted Floyd [email protected] Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
