KOS Spring Meeting
April 27 - 29
The spring meeting of the Kentucky Ornithological Society will be held at Kentucky Dam Village State Park near Kentucky Dam and the Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky. The meeting begins Friday, April 27th with evening programs. Field trips will be offered Saturday and Sunday mornings including a bird banding demonstration at Clark's River National Wildlife Refuge. The meeting concludes Sunday, April 29th at the end of the field trips.
The KOS Saturday night speaker is Dr. Bryan Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Dr. Watts will discuss his work radio tracking Whimbrels as they migrate between wintering grounds in the Caribbean and South America to breeding grounds in Alaska and Canada's Northwest Territories. The birds are fitted with 9.5 gram solar-powered transmitters that allow researchers to track them throughout their range. Dr. Watts and his team have recorded several extraordinary migration events including one nonstop flight of more than 3.200 miles and several birds that have flown through category 3 hurricanes and survived. They have also discovered surprising fidelity to migratory stopover sites along the eastern shore of the U.S with individual birds returning to the exact spot they were captured for banding.
Ohio Valley Birding Festival
April 21-22 and 25-29, 2012
If you would like to go to a birding festival without driving a long distance, consider the Ohio Valley Birding Festival, an Evansville Audubon Society event in partnership with Wesselman Nature Society and John James Audubon State Park featuring guided spring migratory birdwatching hikes in southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky. Areas featured for guided tours include Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area; Bluegrass Fish and Wildlife Area; Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve; Eagle Slough Natural Area; John James Audubon State Park; Lincoln State Park; Squaw Creek Mine; Howell Wetlands; Cane Ridge Unit of Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge including Lake Gibson; Oakland City Unit of the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge: Twin Swamps Nature Preserve; New Harmonie State Park: and a canoe trip to Hovey Lake. A "Big Day" of birding will be offered for the more adventuresome birders.
Membership Renewal Time
Your membership runs from January to December so unless you are a new member and joined in October your membership needs to be renewed. Please pay your dues promptly either by mail or at the meeting. Use the dues envelope or membership form. Please fill out the information carefully so that it is legible especially your email address. Please consider joining as a contributing member.
We are For the Birds!
The Beckham Bird Club, Inc., in existence since 1935, is a nonprofit organization of men, women, and children who are interested in birds, ecology, and nature. It is named for Charles Wickliffe Beckham, the first native Kentuckian to achieve a national reputation as an ornithologist.
Beckham Bird Club members are people who like birds, enjoy watching them, and want to keep in touch with others who also enjoy the sport. Birding can be as relaxing or strenuous as desired. Some prefer backyard birding – others prefer field trips. Either way, birding provides the enthusiast with excitement, the chance to learn, and fun. The Beckham Bird Club welcomes both individuals and families as members.
Meeting Time and Place
Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month (except March and June) at 7:00 p.m. at the Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street off of Frankfort Avenue, in Louisville, KY. (click the link for a Google map) Occasionally our meetings are held at other locations, the newsletter indicates any such changes. Programs are varied and include lectures, discussions, panels, slides, movies and the many phases of ornithological study.
The next meeting of Beckham Bird Club will be on Tuesday, February 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street in the Community Room. Stratton Hatfield, an American that was born and raised in Sub-Saharan Africa, began birding when he was seven years old in Zimbabwe. Since then he has birded extensively in many areas in Africa, most recently in Kenya where his family now lives. He is currently studying conservation, biology and economics at the University of Kentucky. Stratton is going to give an introduction to birding in Kenya by looking at many of the major habitats and birding hotspots in the country. He will be focusing primarily on endemic and localized species. He will also at the end of the program introduce to birders some of the opportunities available to them for birding in Kenya. Hope everyone can join us for what looks to be an interesting and informative program.