We had a lovely day for the meeting! It was wonderful to see so many people come out in support of the San Vito Bird Club and to simply enjoy each other’s company.

After Alison Olivieri, one of our founding members and President Emeritus, presented her fascinating and humbling account of the 20 history of the Club to a very attentive audience, as can be see above, I proceeded to put them all back to sleep with some off-the-cuff ramblings before getting down to what I was supposed to talk about — Club Business.

Although we have stopped directly administering the Detectives de Aves program, we are very involved in the community. Last year we provided financial and logistical support to:

• The Wilson Botanical Gardens for their Open House during which we had the chance to promote birding and Detectives de Aves to our neighbors while chatting and doing all of the important and irreplaceable “work” of getting to know people in person.
• The Finca Cántaros Environmental Association for the Migratory Birds Festival. For the third year in a row we provided financial support for the young people’s Drawing Contest.There were over 60 entries from all over the country. Yours truly was also one of the judges — much to the chagrin of the other judges.
• The Christmas Bird Count. The San Vito Bird Club, OTS, The rural tourism cooperative, TURIBRUS, and the Finca Cántaros Environmental Association joined efforts once again to sponsor, promote and organize the official Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count. We had 50 birders participating from all over the country and abroad. After only 3 years this count has become one of the most successful in the country and we have plans to expand it to include even more micro-climates in the area. Coto Brus really is a birder’s paradise. They will soon be beating down our doors to participate in the count. Seriously.
• I have been involved as a representative of the Club with TURIBRUS which is on the verge of opening up the Pittier entrance to the Amistad International Park to legal tourism. This is very important for us since birds are one of the main attractions there, and legal, responsible and sustainable tourism one of the ways to protect them while bringing much needed income to the area. The Club will have a role in helping to promote and improve these efforts.
• And of course we held LOTS of free bird walks!!

Well that was more than I said at the meeting, so you all reading this now know more than those who came to the meeting about what we’ve been doing. That’ll teach me to go off-script!

With your continuing support, effort and friendship we can have another wonderful 20 years. I hope I am here, meaning still alive, to see the 40th anniversary of the San Vito Bird Club and I hope you are too!