2025 TBRC Annual Meeting
The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Texas Bird Records Committee (hereafter committee or TBRC) was held at 11:00 AM on 16 August 2025. The meeting was a virtual meeting using Zoom.
Members/Attendees:
● Tony Frank, Chair
● Clayton Leopold, Secretary
● Sheridan Coffey
● Greg Cook
● Mel Cooksey
● Steve Glover
● Jesse Huth
● Arman Moreno
● Matt Heindel
The meeting was convened at 11:02 AM.
Election of Members
Election for Secretary
Clayton has been the secretary for one year and due to his busy schedule and getting ready to build his own house has decided to step down. Blain Carnes (Cook) was the only nominee to replace him and he was elected to serve as both Secretary and as a Voting Member. Since Carnes has not been on the committee in any capacity previously, Eric Carpenter has agreed to help Blaine in his new role along with assistance from Leopold; Frank will also help Carnes with his role. Others also agreed to assist as needed as Carnes takes on this role. The members of the TBRC appreciate the time and effort Clayton contributed during his time as secretary.
Re-election of Chair
Tony Frank is the only nominee for chair and was re-elected by acclamation.
Re-election of Current Members
Huth’s first-term expired at the meeting and agreed to serve a second term; he was re-elected by acclamation.
Election of New Voting Member
Cooksey has served 12 years on the committee over the years, and the second term of his current stay expired at the meeting and must leave the committee for a minimum of one year. Thank you goes to Mel for his dedication to serving on this committee; it is appreciated. There were three candidates to replace him:
Bob Friedrichs (Frank), Willie Sekula (Heindel), and Jeff Sexton (Leopold).
The merits of the three candidates were discussed and then a vote was taken. Willie Sekula was elected to take Cooksey's position.
At the end of the Annual Meeting, current membership and terms of service are as follows:
● Tony Frank, Chair - term expires in 2027, can be re-elected
● Blaine Carnes, Secretary (Voting Member) - term expires in 2026, can be re-elected
● Matt Heindel – 1st term expires in 2027, can be re-elected
● Jesse Huth – 2nd term expires in 2028
● Steve Glover – 2nd term expires in 2027
● Arman Moreno – 2nd term expires in 2027
● Sheridan Coffey – 2nd term expires in 2026
● Greg Cook – 2nd term expires in 2026
● Willie Sekula – 1st term expires in 2028, can be re-elected
The sequence (used primarily for order for oral/4th round records) of members for voting is now:
Sekula, Carnes, Heindel, Huth, Glover, Moreno, Coffey, Cook, Frank
Fourth Round Records
There were two fourth-round records discussed and voted on:
· 2023-140 – Great Black-backed Gull (1) 12 Sep 2023, Quintana, Brazoria County
· 2024-076 Wedge-tailed Shearwater (1) 8 Jul 2024, Lake Conroe, Montgomery County
After lengthy discussion of both fourth-round records above, the results were:
2023-140 Great Black-backed Gull – was not accepted by a vote of 0 – 9. Main reasoning was that this bird just did not feel right for a Great Black-backed Gull and felt more like a Lesser Black-backed Gull. The early date also has members confused as this is early for a Great Black-backed Gull.
2024-076 Wedge-tailed Shearwater – was not accepted by a vote of 6 – 3. (NOTE: During 4th round voting, if the record gets more than one rejection vote, the record in not accepted.) Some of the reasons behind rejecting this record is that the bird is just too far away in the pictures to get a diagnostic view for the members, The write-up was good, but for such an extremely rare Texas bird, several of the members were uncomfortable with accepting and went on the conservative side with their vote.
How to Get More Rare Bird Reports Sent to the TBRC – Discussion
A discussion was held on how to try to get more reports sent in to the TBRC Secretary as for some time now, there are very few reports being submitted – even for extremely rare birds such as the Gray Gull (with only 5 reports) and the Kelp Gull (which only had 3 reports sent to the Secretary). Suggestions that were made during the discussion were:
Ask e-bird reviewer to send out to the reporting observer asking for submission to the TBRC.
See if our committee can work more closely with E-Bird and have a list of TBRC Texas review species put into the e-bird list and when one of these rare birds is reported the form in e-bird opens with request for more documentation, i.e., very close to what is requested by the TBRC record submission form.
Recognition for submission and final acceptance. Can the results of the latest round of voting be put on the TBRC Facebook page, noting the birds that are accepted and who the record submitters for the records were.
Be more forthcoming as a committee as to why records are rejected. This information also could be put onto the TBRC Facebook page when the round of voting has concluded.
Outreach and education of the birders of Texas. This could be done in person, or through various social media sites.
Adjournment
With no other formal business on the agenda and no additional Any Other Business items raised, the meeting was adjourned at 12:34PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Tony Frank
Chair, Texas Bird Records Committee