OFO weekend was great!!!

Had an exceptional amount of fun at the OFO convention this weekend (Presqu'ile edition) - weather was some of the nicest we've had in 2012, and the actual convention part was very successful (as far as I could tell)!

I drove out with Kentucky, and met up with most of his family contingency.. Along with the digimaster and his ladyfriend...

Some of the birding:

Saturday we hit up one of my favourite places: The Point Petre area in extreme southern Prince Edward County.. Given the weather, the birding was slower than expected, but still extremely pleasant..

Many thanks to Mike for doing some ebird lists for us:

Hawks were really good at Point Petre:

http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S11594405

Nearby Charwell Point is also very enjoyable for birding, and we hit it up, stopping along the road first:

http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S11594408

Then the point itself, which was lacking a bit in waterbirds, but had great habitat:

http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S11594409


Sunday was a few quick stops around Presqu'ile before Ken tucky and I headed for home:

Owen Point was hopping early:

http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S11595101

The lighthouse seemed active as well, but also enjoyable was chatting with several people:

http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist?subID=S11595102

(if you aren't using ebird, you should start! It's awesome!)

Quick edit of a Variegated Frit... Our B-fly highlights by far! Had a Red Saddlebags at Prince Edward County too... 

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The convention dinner at Coburg was pretty sweet! Portions were a bit small, but the drinks were a great supplement. The "Business" aspect of the convention was very very popular as delivered by Robert Maciver, along with some of the astonishing things that Jim Richards has accomplished (the distinguished ornithologist)...

Mike Runtz was the main speaker for the evening, with a wicked combination of incredible photographs, an enlightening talk about birds, and a heavy dose of stand-up comedy... One of the best talks for an OFO convention ever, I'm sure!


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Also had the chance to talk to numerous friends and new faces while Ken and I manned a table for the OBRC prior to the dinner! I think it went really well, as we informed people about what we do, showed off some examples of reports and documents, had a few cool specimens (Thanks to Ron Ridout and Bird Studies Canada) and discussed some new methods to document rarities.

One of my favourites, although I didn't use it very much, was my "real-time" OBRC report video, which I made for the Common Teal at Hillman back in March (video):

I can really see this type of thing becoming more popular in the future when it comes to documentation of rarities, and hopefully something we start seeing more with the OBRC and submissions!


Anyways, how was your OFO weekend? I'm going away for the week (work), but the weather is slowly looking more and more exciting as we get into the fall season !!! By the time I get back, 50 days of rare will start soon!