On September 18, 2018, we got a chance to share some of our birding experiences and photos with each other and really enjoyed it.

Joe & Maggie Tieger on Australia

First up was Faye McAdams Hands, who had a really great trip to Papua-New Guinea with stops in Australia.  With just a cell phone, she managed to capture the magic of that alternate universe including Yellow Robin, Whipbird, Bowerbird, Topknot Pigeons, and Birds of Paradise, as well as being in the right place for a total lunar eclipse seen only on that side of the planet!

Lisa Pedersen showed slides of her trip to the Galapagos with her daughter and brought in her talented artist daughter’s comics from that trip, as well as other souvenirs.  Multi-media!

Joe & Maggie Tieger went way south again and brought back Rockhopper Penguins and Albatross, as well as a video of the dance of the Blue-footed Boobies.

Newlyweds Eric Dudley and Mary Kay Elfman showed slides from their pre-honeymoon cruise of the Galapagos, a totally different type of experience from Lisa’s trip which was land-based.  They showed educational photos of various Darwin’s finches, among many others.

Kathleen Miller showed some terrific slides from Bolsa Chica in southern California, including a stunning shot of a winter-plumaged American Avocet.

Kathleen Miller stands as Ryan Wiese shows her slides

John Riegsecker showed a few shots from his massive collection of birds with prey, not for the faint-hearted.  He actually knew what the prey species were in most cases, too.  He ended this display with an Osprey projectile-muting.

A real ending to John Riegsecker’s collection!

Blair Bernson was our final presenter, giving a hint of the Big Year he’s in the middle of, starting with his Big Month.  He has big plans for bird travel, and ABCers were able to give him some tips.  We look forward to more about this when we do our Big Year reports in January.

Blair Bernson gives us some provocative hints of the Big Year he’s doing

We had such a good time with this program that we may do it again next year.  We even finished on time!