Connecticut Ornithological Association Annual Meeting this Saturday

Connecticut Ornithological Association Annual Meeting this Saturday

Submitted by: "COMINS, Patrick" pcomins@AUDUBON.ORG

The Connecticut Ornithological Association Annual Meeting will be this Saturday at Middlesex Community College in Middletown.

The public is invited to attend.

Registration opens at 8:00 AM with a complimentary continental breakfast; events are scheduled from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, including a raffle of birding equipment and artwork. For the meeting schedule, directions, and registration $20.00 at the door go tohttp://ctbirding. org

Below is some additional information, or you can see more details here:

http://www.ctbirdin g.org/2010docs/ 2010COA_AnnualMt g.pdf

The Connecticut Ornithological Association will hold its 26th annual meetingon Saturday, March 20, 2010 from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, at Chapman Hall on the Middlesex Community College campus in Middletown, CT.

The meeting will feature four speakers, led off by Dr. Alan Brush, Professor Emeritus at UConn, who will describe how the plumage of birds is affected by pigment chemistry. Dr. Brush has worked with some fascinating species on some of the most basic questions of color and plumage in the field. He will take these insights on pigment chemistry and weave them into a larger world of function and evolution, such as how the stunning colors of the Scarlet Tanagerevolved and role of diet on House Finch pigmentation.

Luke Dempsey author of "A Supremely Bad Idea" will discuss his tale of birding mania. It began with a weekend house; then weekend trips. Then the occasional meeting rearranged in favor of a morning in Central Park, just while the spring migration was on. Before Luke Dempsey knew it, he had spiraled down into full-on birding mania - finding himself riding along with two like-minded maniacs in a series of disreputable rental cars and even nastier motel rooms, charging madly around the country in search of its rarest and most beautiful birds. A Supremely Bad Idea is the story of that search, and those birds, and those maniacs, and that country, and (to a much lesser extent) those rental cars. Luke Dempsey is the Editorial Director for Ballantine Books, a division of Random House. A graduate of Oxford University, he moved to the United States in 1995, since when he's held a number of editorial positions in the publishing industry. He is the proud father of twin girls, both of whom love birds, too, and a proud member of the modern beat combo The Railbangers. This is his first book.

Dr. Margaret Rubega, Connecticut State Ornithologist, will present an introduction to the biology and conservation of chimney swifts. Chimney swifts have adapted with spectacular success to nesting in human-built structures, but their populations have been declining steadily. Dr. Rubega will describe current projects aimed to help the swifts.

Finally, Greg Hanisek and Mark Szantyr will lead a panel discussion of the art and science of rare bird identification. Both have served as secretary of the Avian Records Committee of Connecticut. The emphasis will be on birds that pose identification problems in Connecticut. Mystery photos will serve as a focus of discussion.

Patrick M. Comins
Director of Bird Conservation

Audubon Connecticut
185 East Flat Hill Road
Southbury, CT 06488

pcomins@audubon. org
http://iba.audubon. org/iba/viewStat e.do?state= US-CT

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