WSO Convention 2012 – Schedule
Thursday, May 10
- All-day field trips, rain or shine, from 4:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., leaving from Holy Wisdom – click for more information
Friday, May 11
- All-day field trips, rain or shine, from 4:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., leaving from Holy Wisdom – click for more information
- 3 to 7 PM
- Convention registration at Holy Wisdom
- Field trip sign-ups for Saturday and Sunday mornings most limited to 20 people
- WSO Bookstore will be open, accepting cash and checks only; no credit cards
- Silent auction viewing
- Dinner on your own
- 7 PM
- Mike McDowell: “Welcome to Pheasant Branch Conservancy.” Widely-known for his digiscoped photos of Wisconsin’s birdlife, this sports optics specialist at Eagle Optics here in Middleton gives convention-goers a preview of one of the state’s true birding hot spots. It’s one of our special places to visit during the convention.
- 7:30 PM
- Charlie Luthin: “Funding Bird Protection in Wisconsin.” The executive director of the Natural Resources Foundation embodies the theme of this year’s convention. Recent national reports describe the plight of birds as grim, but not hopeless …. IF we act quickly and effectively to reverse their demise. Wisconsin’s Bird Protection Fund supports projects that do just that, by advancing bird conservation at the statewide level.
- 8:15 PM
- Mike Mossman: “Leopold-Pine Island IBA.” Mike, a DNR forest ecologist, previews another potential convention destination. This Important Bird Area has a wild character with few human habitations, yet much of it is intensively managed and researched for wildlife conservation. It harbors most of the breeding-bird species representative of the natural floodplain and adjacent upland of this central Wisconsin landscape
- 9 PM
- Bonfire! (weather permitting)
Saturday, May 12
- Half-Day field trips – Rain or shine, various starting times, but returning by 10:30 AM – click for more information. Sign-up sheets at registration desk will indicate time, destination and meeting location.
- 10:30 AM
- Convention registration continues at Holy Wisdom Monastery
- Field trip sign-ups for Sunday morning; most limited to 20 people
- WSO Bookstore will reopen through 4 p.m.
- Silent auction viewing will resume through 6:45 p.m. (Payment will be by cash or check only.)
- 11 AM
- Lunch, included in registration fee; soup, salad bar, dessert and beverage
- Noon
- Academic presentations with questions and answers
- 1 PM
- WSO Annual Meeting, with election of officers
- 2 PM
- Academic presentations resume
- 3 PM
- Andy Paulios: “Badger Birdathon.” The coordinator for the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative (WBCI) discusses why the time is ripe for converting the public’s interest in birds into financial resources for bird conservation. The goal is to provide an engaging way to attract donors and to maintain donor interest over the long-term.
- 3:30 PM
- Jan Hansen: “Greatest Show on Earth: Birds of Northern India and the Himalayan Foothills.” Green Bay native and Otus Asio trip leader has some extraordinary photos, and a look at population and environmental issues.
- 4 PM
- Bill Mueller: “Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory” has gotten off to a fast start in its efforts to advance knowledge of bird and bat populations through coordinated research, monitoring and education.
- 4:15 PM
- Joe Schaufenbuel and Ryan Brady: With the surge of eBird, a new WSO website and changeover within the WSO Records Committee, the process of reporting and documenting birds to the state’s ornithological database is perhaps as confusing as ever. Or is it? WSO’s Bird Reports Coordinator will simplify the process by tracking your data from field observations to WSO archives. And the Records Committee Chair will highlight important changes to the state’s Review List and discuss what the committee expects of birders when documenting rare birds.
- 5 PM
- Free time to prepare for evening activities.
- 5:45 PM
- Get-together: Wine, beer, soft drinks; donations encouraged
- Silent auction closes at 6:45
- 6:45 PM
- Banquet buffet: $25 per person. Braised beef tips and vegetables served with mashed potatoes; stuffed eggplant rolls with grains and vegetables baked in tomato sauce; grilled vegetables; bread; roasted pear salad with dried cranberries, pecans, goat cheese and a mustard vinaigrette; assorted cakes; coffee, hot tea, lemonade and iced tea
- 7:45 PM
- Presentation of Awards
- 8:15 to 9:15 PM
- Keynoter Craig Thompson: “On Southern Wings.” The road to protecting Wisconsin’s birds runs through Latin America. Craig is the DNR’s coordinator of Southern Wings, an international program working to strengthen habitat protection for birds that winter in Latin America. Since 2006, he’s led conservation birding tours to Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Peru to raise awareness about the need to protect winter homes for Wisconsin’s neotropical migrants.
Sunday, May 13
- Homeward-bound half-day field trips (details follow) Sign-up sheets at registration will indicate starting time, destination, and meeting location.
