M E M O R A N D U M
TO: Texas Bird Records Committee members FROM: Greg Lasley, Secretary, TBRC DATE: April 1, 1992 SUBJECT: Minutes of 1992 Annual Meeting
The meeting was called to order at 9:00 A.M. at the home of the TBRC Secretary, Greg Lasley, in Austin. Members present included:
The first order of business was the election of new members: Barry Zimmer was elected to a second three-year term. David Wolf was elected as a new member to his first three-year term. The status of terms for the next several years is:
Keith Arnold was re-elected as the Academician and Greg Lasley was re-elected as Secretary. Ted Eubanks continues as Chairman for the second year of a two-year term. The TBRC for 1992 will be:
Under old business, the committee made final decisions on two post-third-round records. 1989-229 was a White-collared Seedeater from El Paso. 1989-237 was a Cory's Shearwater from offshore Port Aransas. Both were finally unaccepted after lengthy discussion.
Out of these discussions came two proposals. First, a sub-committee consisting of Eubanks, Zimmer, and Sexton will be looking into the Mexican bird market situation a little more fully to try to come up with some sort of acceptable criteria on records of Mexican vagrants. They will try to devise a sort of scoring criteria depending on the species to better allow us to judge whether or not a particular species has a strong possibility of being an escaped cage bird. More will follow on this later.
The TBRC will write an article for the TOS Bulletin concerning what the TBRC is looking for in a record. Many of the records we review are turned down because the submittal itself is so vague or lacks enough information, not that the TBRC does not believe the record. Eubanks will do a first draft on such an article.
The committee also had a lengthy discussion on 1990-39, a record of a Lesser Black-backed Gull at Laguna Atascosa that had completed two circulations through the TBRC. The committee voted to separate this record into four different records. 1990-39 will be voided and the record will be broken down separately and re-submitted to the TBRC with a cover letter explaining the splits.
Under new business there was a review of the current Bylaws and how they are working. All agreed they are working well. It was pointed out that several other states are forming RBC's and are using the TBRC Bylaws as models for their own.
It was requested that future rounds of votes be limited to no more than 15 total records per round. The Secretary will make sure this is accomplished. A new TBRC sequence of circulation was established. This new sequence is: Zimmer, Whitney, Arvin, Sexton, Haynie, Wolf, Arnold, Eubanks, and back to Lasley. I have enclosed a copy of this sequence list with all TBRC members' addresses for your information. Please be advised that there are still 7 rounds in circulation under the old sequence. PLEASE read the sequence list that is attached with each round to be certain you are sending that round on to the correct person.
A new TOS annotated checklist is something desired by TOS members and many other persons alike. The last one was published in 1984 and is getting quite dated. The committee agreed that work needs to be begun on this project. Arnold will put together a committee of people to begin the project. Much of the 1984 material is on computer and we will need to see if it is still in a useable format or if it will have to be done from scratch. Arnold will co-ordinate this effort.
The President of TOS had requested the TBRC to respond to a request for information on Texas birds from the Texas Organization of Endangered Species (TOES). The Chairman of the TBRC will write a letter to the TOS President explaining that as individuals many of us have already responded to this request, and our annual report already provides considerable information. As a committee we are already swamped with work and do not have the time to take on another such task.
The status of the Baird's Sparrow in Texas was discussed at length (the bird is currently on Review List B). It was decided to again add this species to our main Review List (Review List A) and to request complete documentation for any record.
The Texas status of Ringed Turtle-Dove and several parrot species (specifically Red-crowned Parrot and Green Parakeet) were discussed. The committee voted to continue to gather information on these species for a later determination on whether or not they should be added to the official Texas list. Information of a sustainable nesting population is solicited. Despite popular opinion that the parrots should be on the list, there is little evidence of a sustainable nesting population of either species, at least none that has been submitted to the American Birds editors or to the TBRC. The annual status and distribution of these birds warrants more study, but we need someone who lives in the Rio Grande Valley to do it. Virtually the only information we currently receive on these birds is from out-of-state visiting birders.
Respectively Submitted:
Greg W. Lasley TBRC Secretary 1 April 1992