88^th Annual Meeting

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Program

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Nice Plenary

Student Travel Awards

Student Presentation Awards

The Wilson Ornithological Society will hold its 87th annual meeting Thursday, 22 March to Sunday, 25 March 2007 at the Sheraton Colonial Hotel & Golf Club Boston North in Wakefield, Massachusetts, at the invitation of Mass Audubon. On Saturday, 24 March, WOS will meet jointly with Mass Audubon's Annual Birder's Meeting.

Contributed paper sessions will take place during the morning and afternoon on Friday, 23 March, at the Sheraton. The poster session will take place during an extended break in the middle of the same day.

Margaret Morse Nice medal activities will take place at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, on Friday evening, 23 March. Medal recipients P. L. Shwagmeyer and Douglas Mock (University of Oklahoma) will deliver the Plenary Lecture entitled "Not exactly your Nice sparrow" about their research on the evolutionary and behavioral ecology of House Sparrows (7:30 PM). There will be an associated reception at the Harvard Museum of Natural History with access to the collections and art exhibits (6 - 7:30 PM). Registrants of of the WOS/MAS meeting will be bussed from Wakefield to Cambridge and back for this event.

Student Membership Awards: In 2007 the WOS will for the first time offer free Student Membership for one year to all students who present a talk or a poster at the Annual Meeting (and who are not currently members of WOS).

Undergraduate Presentation Awards: In 2007 the WOS will for the first time award the Nancy Klamm Awards for the best talk and best poster presented by undergraduates at the Annual Meeting.

On Saturday, 24 March, the morning program hosted by Mass Audubon will feature the following speakers:

• Stephen Brown: Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• William Burt: Secret Marshes, Secret Birds
• Robert Askins: Conservation of Birds in Open Habitats in New England
• Kevin Karlson: Shorebirds by Impression: A Simpler Method of Field Identification

The afternoon program on Saturday will involve a WOS symposium (convened by Bob Beason) on "Radar Ornithology" with the following speakers:

Bill Evans: Comparison between acoustic and radar migration data Ron Larkin: Not everything on your radar is birds Dave Mizrahi: Flight patterns of migrating birds in the Appalachian Mountains and mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain: a comparison using portable X-band radar Sid Gauthreaux: The seasonal temporal pattern of Purple Martin roosting behavior in relation to latitude Rhonda Millikin: Avoidance of wind turbines by night migrating birds Mike Begier: Nocturnal movements of waterbirds along the North Carolina coast

Field Trips

Informal birding opportunities will be available on foot in the vicinity of the Sheraton Colonial Hotel on Friday and Saturday morning.

On Sunday, 25 March Mass Audubon staff and associates will lead field trips to two premiere eastern Massachusetts birding destinations. Attendance will be limited, so register early.

• Option A: Newburyport/Salisbury and Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (Plum Island) - Waterfowl, possibility of Barrow's Goldeneye, Bald Eagle, Snowy Owl, early shorebird migrants Iceland Gull, and early spring passerines; one of the premiere birding destinations in Massachusetts.
• Option B: Cape Ann (Rockport & Gloucester) - Fine waterbird locality, with possibility of Northern Gannet, Great Cormorant, Harlequin Duck, King Eider, Purple Sandpiper, alcids, and "white-winged" gulls.

Trips will depart and return to Sheraton Colonial Hotel: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.; a brief stop will be made at noon for a fast-food lunch.

Weather

Massachusetts weather in mid-March is highly variable, ranging from raw, showery, and often breezy with temps in the low 40s °F, to mild and sunny with temps near 60°F. Be prepared for most any conditions at this time of year in the Boston area.