Kearney Meeting Report

[Chris Merkord]

The Association of Field Ornithologists, the Cooper Ornithological Society, and the Wilson Ornithological Society held their annual meetings in joint conference 9-12 Mar 2011 in Kearney, Nebraska.

 

The scientific program included 193 oral presentations organized into 33 topical sessions and 4 symposia on Cerulean Warblers, Prairie Grouse, birds and agriculture, and management of Piping Plover and Least Terns, and 76 poster presentations.

 

There were three plenary lectures:

• For AFO, Gary L. Krapu presented “Sandhill Cranes and the Platte River: a local and global perspective”
  
• For COS, Thomas B. Smith presented “Diversification along ecological gradients in the tropics”
  
• For WOS, the winner of the Margaret Morse Nice Medal was Richard N. Conner, who presented “The ecology of the Red-cockaded woodpecker, by necessity a multidisciplinary study.”
  

Student travel awards were presented jointly by the three societies to CATHERINE ALSFORD and KYLE HORTON, Canisius College; TAZA SCHAMING, Cornell University; ANTHONY DALISIO, Emporia State University; TYLER BECK, Florida Atlantic University; JOHN POURTLESS, Florida State University; STEPHANIE KANE, Fort Hays State University; ERIK JOHNSON and JARED WOLFE, Louisiana State University; LAURA KEARNS, DAVID SLAGER, JENNIFER THIEME, and KAREN WILLARD, The Ohio State University; AUBREY ALAMSHAH, Ohio Wesleyan University; EMILY THOMAS and ANDREW WEBER, Pennsylvania State University; MEGAN SHAVE, Stonehill College; JENNIFER MA, SUNY-ESF; JESSICA KLASSEN, Texas A&M University; BLAKE GRISHAM and JANICE KELLY, Texas Tech University; MELISSA CREASEY, Trent University; JHERIME KELLERMANN and CHRIS MCCREEDY, University of Arizona; JULIE JEDLICKA, UCLA-Santa Cruz; MDUDUZI NDLOVU, University of Cape Town; NICHOLAS PER HUFFELDT, University of Copenhagen; CHRISTINE REGA, University of Delaware; JESSICA OSWALD, University of Florida; TERESA LORENZ, University of Idaho; WENDY SCHELSKY, University of Illinois; LINDA LAIT, University of Lethbridge; EMILY PIPHER and MAGGI SLIWINSKI, University of Manitoba; STEFANIE BERGH, MEADOW KOUFFELD, BAILEY MCKAY, and GOPI SUNDAR, University of Minnesota; ANNA PETERSON, University of Minnesota-Duluth; DIANE LANDOLL, University of Oklahoma; KATERINA TVARDIKOVA, University of South Bohemia; THAN BOVES, University of Tennessee; MATTHEW HAYES, University of Wisconsin-Madison; LAUREN THROOP, University of Wyoming; and MONIKA MAIER and STEPHEN PETERSON, Utah State University.

 

 

 

 

The Alexander Wilson Prize for the best student oral presentation ($300) was awarded to Nicole M. Davros, University of Illinois at Urbana-Chamgaign, for “An experimental test of density-dependent reproduction in Prothonotary Warblers, Protonotaria citrea.”

 

The Lynds Jones Prize ($300) for best student poster presentation was awarded to Valerie Steen, University of Alaska Fairbanks, for "Potential effects of climate change on the distribution of wetland-associated birds in the Prairie Pothole Region, U.S.A."

 

John A. Pourtless IV, Florida State University, received the Nancy Klamm Best Undergraduate Student Oral Paper Award ($100) for "An interpretation of the tenth skeletal specimen of Archaeopteryx," and A. B. Anderson, The Citadel, received the Nancy Klamm Best Undergraduate Student Poster Award ($100) for "Hormonal correlates of West Nile Virus seropositivity in House Finches.”