Columbus Audubon

Upcoming Programs

Sampling the Goodies at the CA Potluck Dinner

Join us Tuesday, February 16, for our annual meeting and potluck dinner at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center! As usual, CA members and others will show off their culinary skills. And as usual, many of us will eat way too much as we sample a variety of delightful dishes. The evening's festivities also include presentation of Columbus Audubon's annual awards to local conservation heroes and an exhibit by a guest artist.

Dinner starts at 6:30 pm, but come early to get your food on the table and find a good place to sit -- doors open at 6:00. Please bring an appetizer, main course, side dish, or dessert to serve 12. Columbus Audubon provides coffee, but bring anything else that you would like to drink. Be sure to bring your own table service (plate, utensils, napkins, cups and glasses).

Tonight's Program:

Dr. Andy Jones with Boreal Owl

For us, a visit to Central or South America will cost several thousand dollars in airfare, hotels, food, and souvenirs. This price, as well as the time commitment, can be prohibitive and prevents many of us from taking a vacation here as often as we would like. For some five billion individual birds, an annual trip to these continents from North America is an absolute requirement, and a stunning annual accomplishment. Birds weighing less than your pocket change hatch in the boreal forest, eat as many insects as they can manage, and just weeks later find themselves within a tropical forest that is home to competitors and predators that they have never seen before. Many will perish during this migration.

Why do birds undertake this costly annual trip? How do they manage to find their way to a wintering ground that they have never seen before? Our speaker tonight, Dr. Andy Jones, Curator of Ornithology for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, will answer these questions in his talk entitled Migration All Around Us: How Birds Navigate the Americas. Andy also will detail how ornithologists study the phenomenon of migration. Whatever your level of knowledge of birds and migration, you are sure to find Andy's presentation fascinating and informative.

Ohio Natural History Conference

The 2010 Ohio Natural History Conference, sponsored by the Ohio Biological Survey and the Ohio Division of Wildlife, takes place on February 20 at Big Walnut High School in Sunbury, Ohio, just north of Columbus.

This year's conference runs from 9:00 - 4:00 pm and kicks off with a keynote address by renowned birder Kenn Kaufman. Other topics through the day range from a report on Winter Raptors on Reclaimed Strip Mines through a review of Science and the Law to a discussion of Spiders in a Residential Lot. For more information and a complete list of topics, see the Conference Agenda. To register, print and send the Registration Form with your payment.

Waterfowl Symposium: Last Chance Hotel Rates

Ann Oliver

Waterfowl Symposium

You say you've been meaning to register for the CA / OOS Watgerfowl Symposium on Feb 26 - 28 -- but have not quite gotten around to it? Time is running out! Fortunately, we have nogotiated a deadline extension for our great rate on a hotel room. Book your room by midnight on Feb 12 to get the most favorable rate.

Last Chance for Young Birder Scholarship

Time is running out for young birders (12 - 18 years old) to apply for a scholarship to the Waterfowl Symposium on February 26 - 28. Scholarship applicants must submit a brief essay by February 1 -- there's just time to do that using email! For details, please review the Young Birders Waterfowl Symposium Scholarship Announcement. Good luck!

John Flicker Steps Down as Audubon President

B. Holt Thrasher, Chair of the Board of Audubon, has announced that John Flicker has stepped down as President and CEO of the National Audubon Society. Audubon is beginning a nationwide search for a new leader. Meanwhile, Dr. Frank Gill, a well-known ornithologist, current Audubon Board Member and former Audubon Chief Scientist, is serving as interim President.