The Cooper Ornithological Society held its 84th Annual Meeting jointly with the American Ornithologists' Union and the Society of Canadian Ornithologists in Estes Park, Colorado, at the YMCA of the Rockies from September 23 to 27, 2014. Susan K. Skagen and Sara Oyler-McCance, U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, cochaired the Committee on Local Arrangements. Diana F. Tomback and Michael B. Wunder, University of Colorado, Denver, cochaired the Committee on the Scientific Program. There were 926 registrants, including 355 students. The program included 4 plenary lectures, 201 papers in 20 symposia, and 436 contributed papers (311 oral papers and 125 posters).
The 85th Annual Meeting of the COS will be held jointly with the AOU at University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, from July 28 to August 1, 2015.
Special Guest of the Cooper Ornithological Society
The Cooper Ornithological Society, whose name commemorates an early Western naturalist, James Graham Cooper, has grown from a small band of naturalists in 1893 to the internationally recognized scientific society it is today. The success of the COS depends essentially on those who, first and foremost, are passionate about birds. We were reminded of our heritage and that passion for birds when David Martin Cuntz, Jr., a 12-year-old bird enthusiast and great-great-great nephew of James Graham Cooper, joined us as a special guest along with his parents, David and Jenny, and sister, Ana, at the annual meeting in Estes Park, Colorado. James Graham Cooper's father—Martin's great, great, great, great grandfather—is William Cooper, namesake of the Cooper's Hawk and founder of the New York Natural History Lyceum. Young Martin is an avid birder whose natural history project “Saving the California Condor” was selected by his school last year to present at the Fort Lewis College–Colorado Southwest Regional History Day. This past summer, Martin was introduced to bird banding at a MAPS station near his home in Durango, Colorado. We hope that you had a chance to visit with Martin at the Estes Park meeting or to hear him and his Dad and sister play bluegrass at the Bird Band Jam.
COS Honorary Member Recognition
Honorary Membership in the Cooper Ornithological Society is bestowed on those who have made significant contributions to the Society and to ornithology. On the occasion of the joint AOU/COS/SCO meeting in Estes Park in 2014, the Society bestowed Honorary Membership on Dr. Abby Powell. Abby is currently an Assistant Unit Leader with the Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and Professor in the Department of Biology and Wildlife at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Abby is actively engaged in avian conservation research and endangered species management; her work has focused on a variety of species, including Common and King eiders, Arctic-breeding Dunlin, and prairie-pothole-nesting Black Tern. She has been very active in the COS, including service on the Local Committee for the 1996 annual meeting in San Diego, as a student award judge several times, as a member of the Society's Board of Directors, and, since 2008, as the Society's Secretary. This recognition of Honorary Membership is well-deserved.
Elections
One colleague was nominated and elected to Honorary Membership: Abby Powell.
The members of the Society, through online balloting, elected Jill Deppe, Jeff Kelly, and Matt Johnson to three-year terms as members of the Board of Directors. Many thanks go to retiring board members Anna Chalfoun, Victoria Dreitz, and Scott Sillet.
In the Board of Directors' meetings, the following individuals were elected to or continue in office: Frank Moore, President; Martin Raphael, President-elect; Abby Powell, Secretary; T. J. Fontaine, Assistant Secretary; Barbara Kus, Treasurer; Mary Whitfield, Assistant Treasurer; Phil Stouffer, Editor-in-Chief of The Condor: Ornithological Applications, and Brett Sandercock, Editor of the Studies in Avian Biology.
Awards
First awarded in 2009, the Society's Young Professional Award recognizes early-career researchers for their outstanding scientific research and contributions to the ornithological profession. In 2014, the society awarded Young Professional Awards to Conor Taff, University of California–Davis, who presented “Sexual signals reflect telomere dynamics in a wild bird,” and to Mary Stoddard, Harvard University, who presented “Avian vision and the evolution of bird eggs: Cuckoo mimicry and host defenses.” See the separate article in this issue on the Young Professional Awardees.
The Society's Loye and Alden Miller Research Award for lifetime achievement in ornithological research was presented to Ellen Ketterson, Distinguished Professor of Biology and Senior Fellow in the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University, who studies the role of hormones in the evolution of mating systems and reproductive behaviors, particularly in the Dark-eyed Junco. See the separate article in this issue on the Miller Awardee.
The Society's Grinnell Award went to Sarah Cleeton Schneider, University of Illinois, for her proposal “Exploring the role of migratory songbirds in the range expansion of black-legged ticks and the Lyme disease pathogen.”
The Society's Mewaldt-King Awardees were Sara Bombaci, Colorado State University, “The ecological consequences of bird reintroductions: The effect of patch size and frugivore diversity on bird-mediated seed dispersal”; Glaucia Del-Rio, Universidade de São Paulo, “Distribution, occupancy, density, and habitat selection of São Paulo Marsh Antwren (F. paludicola): Some clues for the conservation of a species on the verge of extinction”; Jennifer Smetzer, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “Demographic structure of songbird migration in the Gulf of Maine: Implications for offshore wind energy”; and Theodore J. Zenzal, Jr., University of Southern Mississippi, “The effects of climatic variation on the availability and nutrient content of fruit used by Gray Catbirds during fall migration.”
The Joint COS/AOU/SCO Presentation Awards Committee was chaired by Anna Chalfoun (COS, chair), Matt Carling (AOU, cochair), and Joe Nocera (SCO, cochair). Stephanie Aguillon, University of Arizona, received the Frances F. Roberts Award for “Resource-mediated behavioral dynamics among kin drive dispersal in first-year Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana).” Shawn Billerman, University of Wyoming, received the COS A. Brazier Howell Award for “Behavioral influences on a sapsucker hybrid zone.” Board of Directors Awards were received by Libby Megna, University of Wyoming, for “Environmental niche divergence for hybridizing and non-hybridizing passerines”; and by Shannon Walsh, San Diego State University, for “Genetic and phenotypic divergence of the Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) on the California Channel Islands.”
The Joint Committee on Student Travel Awards (including the AOU's Marcia Brady Tucker Travel Awards) was chaired by Matt Carling (AOU, Chair), Rolf Koford (COS), and Ryan Germain (SCO) and granted awards to 83 students to help defray expenses for transportation to the annual meeting. The committee is pleased to announce that the winners for 2014 were Stephanie Aguillon (University of Arizona), Alexandra Anderson (Boise State University), Priya Balasubramaniam (University of California–Riverside), Christopher Battey (University of Washington), Elizabeth Beckman (University of New Mexico), Lisha Berzins (University of Northern British Columbia), Alyssa Borowsek (University of Connecticut), Andy Boyce (University of Montana), Kathryn Brautigam (University of Arkansas at Monticello), Laure Cauchard (Université de Montréal), Antonio Celis-Murillo (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Kristen Covino (University of Southern Mississippi), Merle Crombie (University of British Columbia), Claire Curry (University of Manitoba), Catherine Dale (Queen's University), Petra Deane-Coe (Cornell University), Alana Demko (University of Windsor), Rachael Derbyshire (University of Guelph), Bryant Dossman (The Ohio State University), Shawn Dubay (University of Chicago), Rachael Eaton (Michigan State University), Elisa Elizondo (Oklahoma State University), Lisa Elliot (University of Minnesota), Katie Faust Stryjewski (Boston University), Molly Folkerts (Louisiana State University in Shreveport), Erick Gonzaelz-Medina (UNAM), Brendan Graham (University of Windsor), David Grunzel (University of Maine), Sarah Gutowsky (Dalhousie University), Michael Hallworth (Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute), Rebecca Harris (University of Washington), Michael Harvey (Louisiana State University), Kristina Hick (University of Windsor), Amanda Holland (University of Georgia/SREL), Kate Johnson (University of British Columbia), Kristin Jones (Oregon State University), Luke Klicka (San Diego State University), Eunbi Kwon (Kansas State University), Diane Landoll (University of Oklahoma), Anna Lehmicke (University of Georgia), Carl Lunblad (University of Idaho), Sarah Maclean (UC Berkeley), Jennifer Malpass (The Ohio State University), Nicholas Mason (Cornell University), Jennifer McCabe (University of Maine), Molly McDermott (The Ohio State University), Ashley Ozelski (City University of New York), Kathryn Peiman (UCLA), Jennifer N. Phillips (Tulane University), Jennifer L. Phillips (UC Davis), Jeannine Randall (University of Northern BC), Angela Ricono (Florida Institute of Technology), Karla Rivera-Caceres (University of Miami), Angelina Ruiz-Sanchez (UNAM), Katharine Ruskin (University of Maine), Luis Sandoval (Universidad de Costa Rica), Jason Sardell (University of Miami), Sarah Saunders (University of Minnesota), Taza Schaming (Cornell University), Alma Schrage (UC Berkeley), Heather Skeen (Loyola University Chicago), David Slager (University of Washington), Robert Spaul (Boise State University), Maria Stager (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Rebecca Stanton (University of Sashatchewan), Andrew Sweet (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Anna Tigano (Queen's University), Pascal Title (University of Michigan), Jorge Tomasevic (University of Washington), Brian Trevelline (Duquesne University), Anna Tucker (Virginia Commonwealth University), Jason Unruh (University of Regina), Bram Verheijen (Kansas State University), Lauren Walker (University of Washington), Jennifer Walsh (University of New Hampshire), Shannon Walsh (San Diego State University), Alex Wang (University of Hawaii–Hilo), Ryan Weaver (Auburn University), Emily Weiser (University of Otago), Alana Westwood (Dalhousie University), and Ben Winger (University of Chicago).
