One of the most diverse and interesting Tennessee Ornithological Society Annual Winter Meetings ever offered is just around the corner. TN-Birders and TOS members should quickly make reservations and plan to attend the meeting which will be held at Dayton, TN. Members of East Tennessee bird clubs have teamed to produced this exciting weekend. You have to be there ! Everyone is invited. You need not be a member of the society to participate. The TOS Annual Winter Meeting is set for January 28-30, 2005 at Dayton. The meeting is being jointly coordinated by members of the Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Bristol chapters of TOS. We welcome college students, researchers, young birders, families, beginning birders, backyard birders, skilled and experienced birders and persons who have a conservation interest in Tennessee birds. You do not have to be a member of the Tennessee Ornithological Society in order to attend. No fee is required. No advance sign up. Just walk in the door and say hi. You will be on your way to one of your most exciting weekends of the winter. Here is your chance to get the most out of your birding enjoyment. You do not need to own a bird book or a pair of binoculars. Just come along and have a super January weekend for just the cost of the room and your meal. If you are within driving distance you will not even need a hotel room. Everyone is truly welcome. We are a warm and caring group of birders! Field Trips: Field trips will be held Saturday and Sunday morning. Destinations include Yuchi and Hiwasee wildlife refuges. Field trip leaders will be Daniel Moss of Clarksville, TN who is a biologist at Fort Campbell in Montgomery Co.,TN and Charlie Muise, senior teacher naturalist at Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is believed that at least 10,000 Sandhill Cranes are in the 10-mile area over which our field trip leaders will be leading birders. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will be providing access to some key habitat, while also assuring that we are very careful not to create disturbance problems for the cranes. Just within the last few days a single Whooping Crane has been in the area. Wallace Coffey, of Bristol and moderator of TN-Birds, will provide a rock bottom field trip for the beginning birders who want to learn the basics about birding. There is plenty for everyone. This is our version of the "No Birder Left Behind" initiative. You will drive home with a smile on your face. The opening speaker on Saturday evening will be Jeff Dixon, director of development, of the Canadian-based Operation Migration, a non-profit organization that, among other things, guides endangered Whooping Cranes from their summer home in Wisconsin to their winter home in Florida with the use of ultra-light planes. With Jeff will be Chris Mahoney, the Tennessee point person and contact person for our own state group of "Friends of the Cranes." Chris is from Chattanooga. She has been working with an effort to develop a Tennessee outlet for Operation Migration merchandising. Proceeds from merchandise sales help to fund the Operation Migration reintroduction work A delegation of biologists from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency region field offices and the state headquarters at Nashville will be making presentations and participating in a round table discussion about the management of Tennessee birds on Saturday evening. Richard Kirk, State Nongame Coordinator from Nashville, will present and overview of the state Wildlife Plan and then discuss more about the plan, in particular how birds are treated in the plan. Other questions may be posed to the group. Michael Roedel, TWRA State Ornithologist, will lead the round table discussion Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Others coming for the discussion will be Jim Harrington of TWRA Region 1 Jackson; Pandy English, TWRA Region 2 Nashville; Polly Rucker, TWRA Region 2 Nashville and Kirk Miles, TWRA Region 3 Crossville. No one is scheduled to attend from TWRA Region 4 Morristown. Headquarters and Lodging: The meeting headquarters will be the Best Western Dayton Hotel. A special TOS rate has been established at $45.00 + tax for a Single, and $49.00 + tax for a Double. For reservations, call 1- 800-437-9604 (Ask for TOS rate --you do not have to be a TOS member for the rate). The hotel address is Best Western Dayton 7835 Rhea Co. Hwy., U.S. 27 North Dayton, TN 37321. Directions: From I-75, Exit 40, TN State 30 West to US 27, then North on US 27 to hotel on the left. From I-40, Exit 347, U.S. Hwy 27 South to the hotel on the left Don't miss visiting the TOS website at: http://www.tnbirds.org/Winter05-meeting.htm for more details and excellent maps of the areas. President-elect Danny Gaddy has said that standing state committees are encouraged to meet face to face in public session during the Winter meeting. Members of the Conservation and Research Committee have been encouraged to attend by Charlie Muise, chairman. Members of the Financial Committee, including Mac McWherter, Treasurer, George Payne, David Trently, and Danny Gaddy, TOS President Elect, plan to attend and meet on Saturday afternoon. Stay tuned to this list for more detailed meeting announcements which will follow in the next few days. Let's all go to Dayton. We have a tremendous effort invested and many wonderful presenters, leaders and more to come. We need everyone's support. Let's go birding...... Wallace Coffey Bristol, TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================