fate AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ROOSEVELT ROAD AND LAKE SHORE DRIVE, CHICAGO 5, ILL. 
Number 102 June, 1957 
The Annual Meeting — 1957 
By Mrs. ANNE DOUGLAS BAYLESS 
THE NORTH CENTRAL Illinois Ornithological Society of Rockford, host group 
for the Illinois Audubon Society’s 1957 Annual Meeting, began to demon- 
strate immediately the infinite care and planning they had undertaken. 
When members began to arrive at the Burpee Art Gallery, Rockford, the 
morning of Saturday, May 18, they were greeted by plenty of hot coffee, 
fresh doughnuts and cookies, and a group of eager young men ready to 
direct them on short birding trips in the Rockford area between the time 
they had registered and the beginning of the meeting proper that afternoon. 
Registration began at 10:30 a.m., with each member receiving a name tag 
and an envelope containing dinner tickets, a field trip map, and a folder 
about Rockford. While others pursued the warblers present in Rockford in 
some numbers, the 11 I.A.S. directors held a board meeting. 
The afternoon session began with greetings from David L. Burdick, presi- 
dent of the North Central Illinois Ornithological Society, and from Paul 
Downing, president of I.A.S. Mr. Burdick noted that his group, founded in 
1945, had been a member of I.A.S. for only two years. Mrs. Bertha Huxford, 
chairman of the Annual Meeting committee, presided over a program de- 
voted to bird observation and records. 
John Helmer of Evanston began by telling how to get the most out of 
using binoculars for bird observation. Among his suggestions: Wear a hat 
with brim to shade the eyes; keep the strap short; try a rubber eye shield 
to keep out stray light if you wear glasses; use the binoculars without 
glasses if you can, to get full width of field. Mr. Helmer showed how he has 
marked the focus settings for 25 and 50 feet so he can turn to them quickly. 
Karl Bartel of Blue Island told of 29 years of bird record keeping. He 
soon quit using 3x 5 cards because of the difficulty of making comparisons. 
He now keeps a checklist card with birds for each year checked; an annual 
notebook with dates, numbers seen, and other data; and a master book in 
which all birds are listed with columns for records of each year. The first 
part of the page is for spring and the last part, fall; rare or unusual date 
records are kept on the reverse. He can compare months or years easily. 
Miss Helen McMillen, president of the Evanston Bird Club, told of the 
club’s records, dating back to the club’s founding in 1919 but fairly com- 
plete only since 1948. She noted that only about half of the records tell 
where various birds were found. She suggested that useful records should 
include where birds are found, something of the weather and other nature 
notes, such as wildflowers blooming at the time, or indications of changes 
in environment of areas often birded. 
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