Our Speaker will be Sahas Barve, the John W Fitzpatrick Director of Avian Ecology, Archbold Biological Station in South Florida. Dr Sahas is the Program Director of Avian Ecology at Archbold Biological Station. There he oversees a 56 year-long study of threatened Florida Scrub-Jays. Previously Sahas has worked on a wide range of taxa and systems including tracking king cobras in south India, bird research in the Himalayas for his PhD from Cornell University, Acorn Woodpecker biology at Old Dominion University, and museum research at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on Himalayan and Andean birds. Sahas is broadly interested in life-history evolution of birds and enjoys communicating research with the public in new and innovative ways. Outside work Sahas is an avid birder and has also won awards in multiple grilled cheese making competitions!  His talk  will revolve around the scrub-jays and their social lives, interesting habits such as food caching – one of the reasons he worked on Acorn Woodpeckers, also a food cacher. As many of our members have been to see the scrub-jays in FL delving into their ecology will make for a very interesting evening. Sahas is an entertaining speaker and comes highly recommended.

On Friday night we’ll have our usual social hour, once again with member photos, plus a workshop, this time on the small plovers that many find hard to separate in the field A quick review of the small peeps to distinguish from plovers will also be part of the workshop. The main outing will be to St Marks NWR, with side outings to Wakulla Springs State Park, with the opportunity for a boat ride along this beautiful waterway. Saturday evening will include social session, the banquet then the speaker. Note that for both evenings drinks will be BYO.

We’ll be meeting at the Magnuson Wildwood Inn and we have a block of rooms held there at a significantly reduced rate. When you call to book a room mention the AOS meeting to get the rate. Note that rooms are only held until 21 December when they will be released for general sale, meaning the price will go back to normal retail. So make sure you book by then. Extra nights will also be at normal retail. Registration for the meeting will be available on our website shortly.