To everyone attending the TOS meeting, here are some details. Driving
directions from Knoxville:
*I-40 East*
*I-81 North* towards Bristol
*Exit 57B* for I-26 towards Kingsport
*Exit 3* (MeadowView Parkway). Turn right at the end of the exit ramp and
turn right into the MeadowView Marriott Conference Resort & Convention
Center.
Please plan to join us on Friday at Eastman Recreation Area at Bays
Mountain, Shelter #9, for a social at 5 p.m. and a dinner buffet at 6 p.m.
The cost of the dinner is covered in your registration fee. Registration
sheets for the weekend field trips will be available. The shelter is
handicap accessible. An added treat for the evening will be a continuous
slideshow of our guest speaker’s photographs featuring the birds and
wildlife of Costa Rica.
*Directions from MeadowView Hotel*: Turn left onto MeadowView Parkway and
continue straight on Reservoir Road. Follow signs to Bays Mountain,
turning right onto Bays Mountain Road. Continue straight at Eastman
Recreation Area sign. Bear right at the Registration kiosk. Cross a
little bridge and bear right. Go past the ice machines and Shelter #9 will
be on your right. You’ll see a TOS sign. You can also park at Shelter
#10. It’s a very short walk. It is an 8-minute drive and 3.1 miles total
distance from the hotel.
If you are staying at MeadowView, you have a couple of options for
breakfast each day. Call “At Your Service” from your room phone on Friday
evening for Saturday delivery which begins at 6:00 a.m. Also, Starbucks
Coffee Shop is located inside MeadowView’s lobby. They offer pastries,
fruit cups, yogurt, and coffee. It opens at 6:30 a.m.
For those staying at the Hampton Inn, a complimentary hot breakfast begins
at 6:00 a.m.
On Saturday, we’ll have three field trip options, all departing from
MeadowView Hotel parking lot (front lot nearest MeadowView Parkway on the
right end next to the interstate). Look for leaders and signs. Driving
directions for the field trips will be in the brochure in your gift bag.
(You may pick these up on Friday at the dinner or at your hotel that
evening.) We suggest carpooling for all field trips on Saturday.
(1) Roan Mountain – departs at 6:30 a.m.
(2) Holston River Weir Dam and Osceola Island; South Holston Dam – departs
at 7:00 a.m.
(3) The Best of the Greenbelt / Kingsport Birding Trail – departs at 7:30
a.m.
Followed by lunch at Riverfront Seafood Company for anyone
interested. Lunch is at your own expense.
On Saturday afternoon, the Board of Directors will meet at 2:30 p.m. at
MeadowView in the Nolichucky Conference Room. A paper session by Dawson
Rader will be in the same room at 4:30 p.m. His topic is “Relative
Abundance & Habitat Use of Swainson’s Warblers (*Limnothlypis swainsonii*)
in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee”.
On Saturday evening beginning at 6:00 p.m. in MeadowView Warriors Path
Amphitheatre, we’ll have a dinner buffet followed by our keynote speaker.
Attire is casual. There will be a cash bar outside the room in the foyer
beginning at 5:15 p.m. and a group photo at 5:45 p.m. We’ll also have door
prizes after dinner. Pre-registration is required for the dinner (the
deadline is 9/20). Paco Madrigal, Co-founder and master guide of Cotinga
Tours in Costa Rica, is our guest speaker for the evening. He will share
his experiences as a birding guide and help us better understand why there
is such diversity in birds and wildlife in the region. He will also share
photographs of some of the protected areas in Costa Rica and the importance
of conservation to the region. Paco also leads birding trips in Panama.
NOTE: If you are only attending the TOS Board meeting, paper session, or
Saturday’s dinner and are driving from Knoxville, when you get off Exit 3
from I-26, go right at the end of the exit ramp then take a fairly quick
right. Bear right and go around the side of the building. Drive a short
distance and turn left into the parking garage. Walk up the brick sidewalk
and enter at the glass doors. Turn right and follow signs to the rooms –
the Nolichucky Conference Room is on the left and the Warriors Path
Amphitheatre is on the right. (It is a bit of a walk if you enter the
hotel at the main front entrance, even though there will be TOS signage.)
On Sunday, we’ll offer two field trips, both about a 30-minute drive from
the hotel.
(1) Steele Creek Park – departs at 6:55 a.m.
(2) Jacob’s Nature Park – departs at 7:30 a.m.
*Weekend Contacts*:
Betty Bailey – 423-677-2757
Gary Bailey – 423-677-2836
Susan Hubley – 423-612-1389
Helen Sirett – 423-765-5954
