REPORT OF THE SEVENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE COOPER ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY
The Cooper Ornithological Society held its 74th annual meeting at the La Crosse Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin, 5–8 May 2004. Eileen Kirsch chaired the Local Committee, and Todd Arnold chaired the Scientific Program Committee. There were 150 registrants. The program consisted of four symposia, two plenary talks, 88 papers, and 22 posters. Thirty-five presentations were by students.
The Society's award for lifetime achievement in ornithological research, the Loye and Alder Miller Research Award, was presented to Alexander Skutch. Bonnie Bowen, President, read the full citation, and banquet attendees viewed an inspiring video about Dr. Skutch's work on the natural history of tropical birds. Mercedes Foster (chair), Carl Bock, Robert Fletcher, Patricia Parker, and Van Remsen served on the Miller Award Committee
Mewaldt-King Student Research Awards were presented to Victoria Garcia, University of Arizona, for “Effects of food and ectoparasites on age of natal dispersal in Burrowing Owls,” and Shannon Bouton, University of Michigan, for “The effect of multiple environmental stressors on the physiology, behavior, and development of nestling Cliff Swallows.” Pat Kennedy and Tara Robertson assisted Bruce Dugger, the Mewaldt-King Award committee chairman, with the selections this year.
Grinnell Student Research Awards were presented to Johel Chaves-Campos, Purdue University, for “Factors promoting philopatry in Ocellated Antbirds,” and Melissa Bowlin, Princeton University, for “Wing shape and energy efficiency in the migratory Swainson's Thrush.” Cameron Ghalambor was the Grinnell Award Committee chairman.
The Cooper Ornithological Society presented four awards for outstanding student papers: the Brazier Howell Award, the Frances F. Roberts Award, and two Board of Directors awards. Kathryn P. Huyvaert, University of Missouri-St. Louis, won the Brazier Howell Award for her paper (with coauthor Patricia G. Parker), “Genetic dynamics at varying scales: population-genetic structure and parental relatedness of the Waved Albatross.” Daniel R. Ardia, Cornell University, won the Frances F. Roberts Award for his paper, “Tree Swallows trade immune self-maintenance for offspring quality.” Board of Directors Student Paper Awards were presented to Page Klug, University of Nebraska, for her presentation (with coauthors L. LaReesa Wolfenbarger and John P. McCarty), “The effects of grassland patch and landscape characteristics on the nest predators of grassland bird nests,” and to Adam D. Smith, Boise State University, for his poster (with coauthor Alfred M. Dufty, Jr.), “Multilevel variation in the stable-isotope composition of feathers: relevance to the prediction of breeding and natal origins of migrating Northern Goshawks.” Matthias Leu chaired the Student Paper Awards Committee and Robin Tyser, Scott Stoleson, and Barb Kus served on it.
Student travel awards were presented to Amanda Bakin, Utah State University, Amber O'Neal, University of California-Riverside, Daniel Ardia, Cornell University, Danielle LeFer, Virginia Technical University, Jay Carlisle, University of South Dakota, Jill Sporrong, Oklahoma State University, Karen Bagne, University of California-Riverside, Kevin Matson, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Kristina Ecton, Northern Arizona University, Lorelle Berkeley, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Nathan Thomas, University of South Dakota, Page Klug, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Roy Churchwell, Oklahoma State University, Valeria Ojeda, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina, and Who-Seung Lee, KyungHee University, South Korea. Matthias Leu chaired the selection committee and was assisted by Scott Pearson, Scott Stoleson, and Susan Earnst.
Through annual balloting by all members of the Society, Margaret Petersen, Peter B. Stacey, and Luis Miguel Renjifo were elected to 3-year terms on the Board of Directors.
In the Board of Directors' meetings, the following were elected to, or continue in, office: Bonnie Bowen, President; John T. Rotenberry, President-elect; Eileen M. Kirsch, Secretary; Carol Beardmore, Assistant Secretary; Kimberly A. Sullivan, Treasurer; Thomas C. Edwards, Jr., Assistant Treasurer, David S. Dobkin, Editor of The Condor, and Carl D. Marti, Editor of Studies in Avian Biology.
The next annual meeting of the Cooper Ornithological Society will be held at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California, 15–18 June 2005. T. Luke George is chairman of the Local Committee and Matthew D. Johnson is chairman of the Scientific Program Committee.
BOARD OF DIRECTOR NOMINATIONS
2003 NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE
Joseph C. Ortega (chair), Kathryn Purcell, and T. Luke George.
The following people (in alphabetical order) have agreed to be nominated for the Cooper Ornithological Society (COS) Board of Directors, to serve from 2005–2007.
Mercedes S. Foster is a Research Zoologist and Curator in charge of North American collections for the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC. She received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and after additional graduate work at Berkeley and the University of Chicago, received her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida (1974). She joined the Society in 1964 and presented her first scientific paper at a COS meeting in 1967. Before moving east she regularly attended meetings (and if elected would do so again) and has participated in society committees (she is the current chairwoman of the Miller Award Committee). She was an Associate Editor of The Condor and continues to review papers for the journal. She has more than 80 publications (six in Condor) and has coedited four books, including Neotropical Ornithology and three on biodiversity monitoring. Her research interests focus on lek behavior, frugivory, and molt, especially in Neotropical birds. She is a Fellow of the AOU (1980), and was a Founding Director of the American Bird Conservancy. She has a special interest in promoting scientific ornithology as well as bird conservation in Latin America, and has carried out extensive research in Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay.
Fritz L. Knopf is a Senior Scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center, and a Faculty Affiliate at Colorado State University, the University of Colorado, and the University of Wyoming. He holds a B.A. from Hiram College, plus an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. from Utah State University, where he was recently awarded the College of Natural Resources Career Achievement Award. After a stint as Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University, Dr. Knopf went on to study avian species and assemblages in wetland, riparian, sagebrush, and prairie ecosystems. He has published more than 160 technical papers and topical reviews including 15 papers in Condor, BNA accounts for the American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) and the Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus), a paper in the centennial Studies in Avian Biology (SAB 15) identifying declining grassland birds as a conservation issue, and the books Prairie Conservation (Island Press, Washington, DC) and Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates (Ecological Studies 125). Over the last 30 years, he has been an active COS member, chairing Conservation and Publications committees. A COS Life Member and elected Fellow of the AOU, Dr. Knopf's passions are birds in landscapes and the conservation of those landscapes. He especially enjoys working at the interfaces between academia, natural resource agencies, and nongovernmental organizations and views the COS as the leading society providing information on the basic and applied ecology of birds.
Barbara E. Kus is a Research Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center in San Diego, California, and a Research Professor of Biology at San Diego State University, where she supervises graduate research in avian ecology and behavior. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California-Davis in 1985. Dr. Kus's primary research interests include the ecology and demography of the Least Bell's Vireo (Vireo belli pusillus) and other endangered riparian songbirds, the response of endangered species to cowbird management, the effectiveness of habitat creation and restoration as a tool for conserving riparian bird communities, and landscape-level analyses of the impact of urbanization on regional bird populations. She has worked extensively with wildlife and regulatory agencies, and is a member of several scientific advisory boards and endangered species recovery teams. She has been a member of COS since 1981, and regularly presents the results of her research at annual meetings. She has published in and reviewed papers for Condor and Studies in Avian Biology, coedited Studies in Avian Biology 26, Ecology and Conservation of the Willow Flycatcher, and is the Book Review Editor for Condor. She served on the COS Board of Directors from 1996– 1998, cohosted the annual meeting in 1996, chaired the Student Awards Committee from 1999–2001, and served on the Nominating Committee in 2003. As a board member, she would like to continue promoting the participation of students and new professionals in the Society.
Eric Linder is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. He has a Ph.D. from Brigham Young University (1999) and did postdoctoral work at the University of Tennessee. His primary research includes investigating the impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on population and community dynamics at a range of spatial scales and their implications for conservation biology. Previous research focused on examining population and community dynamics in aspen stands, GIS-based habitat modeling, and landbird macroecology. Dr. Linder's current research includes population and community dynamics in bottomland hardwood forests and established grassland field borders of Mississippi, and along environmental gradients in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Dr. Linder recently initiated a project on Hyacinth and Blue-and-yellow Macaws (Anodorhyncus hyacinthinus and Ara ararauna) in Brazil. He has been a COS member since 1995 and has irregularly attended COS meetings, but would attend all if elected. As a board member, he would favor streamlining the review process and increasing membership, both domestically and internationally.
Nils Warnock codirects the Wetland Ecology Division of PRBO Conservation Science. He has a Ph.D. in Ecology awarded jointly by San Diego State University and the University of California-Davis (1994), focusing on the winter ecology of the Dunlin (Calidris alpina), and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Colorado-Boulder (1983). His current research focuses on the ecology and conservation of Pacific Flyway birds with an emphasis on endangered species, wetland birds, habitat restoration, shorebird conservation, and bird migration. Dr. Warnock has been a member of COS since 1991. Since his first coauthored paper in Condor on the migration of Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri), he has authored or coauthored seven papers in Condor and Studies in Avian Biology, and more than 45 other peer-reviewed scientific papers. He regularly reviews manuscripts for Condor, Studies in Avian Biology, and a host of other journals. Dr. Warnock served as a member Harry R. Painton Award Committee (2003). He believes that sound scientific monitoring and research will always be the basis for effective conservation. He supports efforts to make COS publications and other outreach items accessible electronically, especially to our neighbors in other parts of the world.
