Monthly Meetings

Meetings begin at 7:00pm with light refreshments and a social “half-hour”, followed by a brief business meeting. The main program will begin by 7:45 pm. Meetings are held at the Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin, DE, the third Wednesday of each month. Different venues and dates/times will be announced in the Flyer and on this website
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Birding Colombia
Matt Sarver & Lauren Morgens
DOS Vice President Matt Sarver and his fiancèe Lauren Morgens will recount their recent birding trip to Colombia in the company of Delaware hawk-counters Forrest Rowland and Cyrus Moqtaderi. The group flew into Medellín, the former home of the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar, and spent two weeks roaming the Andes in search of rare Colombian endemics. In cooperation with Fundación ProAves, and armed with notebooks, binoculars, cameras, and sound recording gear, the group visited several bird preserves and traveled into a few areas never before explored by modern ornithologists. Join us for an evening of adventures in the Andes!

Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Why Delaware Fish and Wildlife Matters to Birds....And Why Birders Matter to Delaware Fish and Wildlife!
Karen Bennett
Karen Bennett, Program Manager of Natural Heritage, Endangered Species and Private Lands Programs for the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife, DNREC, will highlight some of the Division's most exciting and challenging bird conservation projects. Learn how the birding community makes many of these projects possible in obvious and not-so-obvious ways, and how birders can help the state protect bird populations.

past events
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Radio Tracking Turkey Vultures
David Barber
David Barber, research biologist at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary will give a presentation on research in the tracking of Turkey Vultures using radio telemetry.



Wednesday, 20 January 2010
CBC Roundup **At the DuPont Environmental Education Center**
Jim White
** Please note: this month our meeting will be held at the DNS' DuPont Environmental Education Center, on the Wilmington waterfront**
Join us for the annual wrap-up of this year's Christmas Bird Counts. There will be great stories, and interesting tallies of bird numbers and species. Find out what is happening to some of your favorite species. Take the chill off by sampling the fare as we continue the tradition of our Annual Chili Night!



Wednesday, 16 December 2009
DOS Member's Night
DOS Members
By DOS, for DOS! Members present their own bird-related experiences. This year we feature:
  • Delaware Records and Rarities 2009 by Frank Rohrbacher
  • Ashland Hawk Watch 2009 by Joe Sebastiani
  • Shorebird Research in Alaska by Sadie Ulman
  • Delaware Dunlins Year of Birding Fun by Derek Stoner




Wednesday, 18 November 2009
The State of Pennsylvania's Breeding Birds: a preview of the results of the 2nd PBBA
Robert Mulvihill
The 2nd PBBA was completed in 2009, 20 years after the end of the first breeding bird atlas. More than 3,300 volunteers and a dozen paid field staff conducted formal and informal surveys in all 4,937 blocks in the state, submitted over 850,000 records, and documented 219 species. Although the data are still being checked, edited, and analyzed, there already are many interesting and important results that the project Coordinator, Bob Mulvihill, will share with us during this program. The published atlas is a year and a half or two away, so you don't want to miss this sneak preview of coming attractions!



Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Forrest & Jeff's Excellent Ecuadorian Adventure
Forrest Rowland & Jeff Gordon
In March of 2009, 9 intrepid local birders joined Forrest Rowland & Jeff Gordon for a 2 1/2 week tour through northern Ecuador, visiting many of that country's most celebrated birding sites. Along the way, they encountered mudslides, giant earthworms, and a rainy season that just wouldn't quit. Join Forrest and Jeff for a lavishly illustrated recounting of their adventures from the peaks of the Andes to the humid Amazonian lowlands.



Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Nocturnal Migration of Birds In The 21st Century
Bill Evans
A discussion from the front lines of research and conservation of night migrating birds. Bill will review the astounding phenomenon of nocturnal bird migration, present selected research from his studies monitoring avian night flight calls, and update the DOS on conservation efforts toward minimizing the impacts of wind turbines, communications towers, and artificial light on night migrating birds.

Bill Evans has spent more than 20 years studying the nocturnal flight calls of migrating birds in North America. He initiated the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's avian night flight call research in 1994 and in 1998 founded the nonprofit called Old Bird. The current focus of this organization is in using acoustics for long-term monitoring of various songbird species and for mitigating bird mortality at tall man-made structures. In addition, the organization provides instructions and tools for anyone interested in establishing their own night flight call monitoring station. Bill's work has been described in The New York Times, New Scientist, NPR, BBC, PBS, Science and many popular conservation and birding magazines. Descriptions of his works and publications related to nocturnal bird migration may be found at www.oldbird.org





* Please help!* If you'd like to help out with the monthly meetings (set up refreshments, etc.), please contact Matt Sarver or Derek Stoner.