2009 VSO Annual Meeting Report
2009 Annual Meeting Report
Hosted jointly by the Fredericksburg Birding Club and the University of Mary Washington, the 2009 Annual Meeting was held May 1-3 in Fredericksburg. Attendance was somewhat sparse compared to previous years, but about 60 VSO members gathered at Gari Melchers Home and Studio, the meeting’s headquarters.
Field Trips
Morning field trips and a Saturday evening owling trip netted 126 species. Some of the highlights were Common Loon and both King and Virginia Rails at Occoquan Bay NWR, Black-crowned Night Heron at Ferry Farm, and a calling Great Horned Owl along Lee Drive in the Fredericksburg National Military Park. Additionally, thirteen warbler species were detected along the Fredericksburg Canal Path, including Bay-breasted and Cape May.
Field trip species counts:
Canal Path: 80 (both Saturday and Sunday mornings)
Crow’s Nest: 57
Ferry Farm: 62 (both Saturday and Sunday mornings)
Occoquan Bay NWR: 85
Spotsylvania NMP: 37
Toby’s Point (Rappahannock River Valley NWR): 70
Programs
During Friday evening’s business meeting, new officers and Board of Directors members were elected. Please visit the VSO’s web site (www.virginiabirds.net) to view the complete list of officers and directors. The speaker was Dr. James Comiskey, Inventory and Monitoring Coordinator for the National Park Service’s Mid-Atlantic Network. Dr. Comiskey presented the NPS’s recent efforts to catalog and manage its biological resources and introduced a pilot program to monitor birds in several Mid-Atlantic NPS properties. This program will be initiated this summer (2009) and will include Valley Forge National Historical Park, Booker T. Washington National Monument, and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Please contact Dr. Comiskey if you are interested in volunteering (jim_comiskey@nps.gov).
Anne Condon, Allyson Jackson, and Andy McGann, all three current or former graduate students at The College of William and Mary, presented their recent research during Saturday afternoon’s paper session. Additionally, Sergio Harding, wildlife biologist for VDGIF, provided an overview of the Birding Bird Survey and solicited help with some vacant routes in Virginia. Please contact Sergio.harding@dgif.virginia.gov if you are interested in covering one of these BBS routes.
The Saturday banquet program celebrated the fusion of ornithology and the arts. Dr. Craig Naylor, a University of Mary Washington Associate Professor of Music, presented his experimental music based on chickadee vocalizations. Claudia Emerson, MFA, the UMW Arrington Professor of Poetry, read some of her bird-inspired poetry. Ms. Emerson is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and is currently serving as Poet Laureate of Virginia. In addition to the banquet program, Karen Mayne and Cindy Schultz accepted the Jackson Abbott Conservation Award on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Field Office in Gloucester, VA, and Andy McGann, College and William and Mary, was recognized for winning a J.J. Murray Research Award. The other recipient of the J.J. Murray Research Award, Diana Soteropoulos, also from William and Mary, could not be present.
Youth Art Show Winners
Best of Show
Andrea Aguilar, Lafayette Upper Elementary School (LUES)
Cassidy Thomas, Walker Grant Middle School
Best in School
Andrew Barnick, James Monroe High School
Benjamin Camber, Walker Grant Middle School
Shaya Mondillo, LUES
Honorable Mention
Kyle Franklin, LUES
Elizabeth Ismail, LUES
Acknowledgements
A special thanks to the following members of the Fredericksburg Birding Club for their invaluable contributions to this meeting. Many of them volunteered in more than one capacity.
Registration Coordinator: Joella Killian
Field Trip Coordinator: Paul Nasca
Field Trip Leaders: Jenn Allen, Donna Finnegan, Kurt Gaskill, Jim Goehring, Mike Killian, Mike Lott, Mark Miller, Paul Nasca, Sandy Spencer, Marty Wright
Registration Desk Attendants: Joyce and Michael Bathke, Linda Chaney, Jack and Merrie Morrison, Sally Knight, Claude Phillippy, Larry Valade
Youth Art Show Judges: Charles Tate, Susan Prescott
Thanks also to Merrie Morrison, VP of Operations for the American Bird Conservancy, for providing ABC tote bags for meeting attendees, and to Michelle Crow-Dolby for her help in preparing the meeting site and organizing paper session refreshments. This meeting would not have been possible without the help of all of these volunteers!
In Memorium
This meeting is dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Thyra Valade, an active member of the Fredericksburg Birding Club, who passed in December 2008. She will always be remembered as a loving wife and mother, a dedicated conservationist, and a wonderful friend to us all. She is survived by her husband Larry Valade, her children, and grandchildren.
-Andrew Dolby, 2009 Annual Meeting Coordinator