Upcoming Meeting
MOS Fall Meeting
September 27-29, 2024
The Fall 2024 MOS Meeting will be in Greenville, MS, September 27-29, with special guest speaker Erik Johnson, Director of Conservation Science for Audubon Delta. Birding field trips will take advantage of the diverse wildlife refuges and WMAs in the area, which attract a wide array of wading birds, shorebirds, and migrating songbirds during fall.
ACCOMMODATIONS
We do not have a block of rooms at a single hotel for this meeting, because available prices were better when making individual reservations. We recommend making a reservation online, using a travel website such as Hotels.com, Expedia, or AirBnB. One reasonable option, and where we will depart for Saturday morning field trip, is this one: Tru by Hilton Greenville; 600 Rayner Rd, Greenville, MS 38701; Google Maps link. When we last checked, the Tru by Hilton, Harlow’s Casino, and the Holiday Inn Express & Suites were all about $140/night on Expedia.
FRIDAY EVENING, September 27
~5:30 – ~7:30 p.m. Informal happy hour & food meet & greet at a local restaurant in Greenville. Location will be announced by email, the week before the meeting. Cost is not included in registration–just show up to hang out; come and go any time.
SATURDAY, September 28
7:30 a.m. Meet in parking of Tru by Hilton hotel, Greenville, for departure on morning field trip (likely to Muscadine Farms WMA and Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge). Tru by Hilton address: 600 Rayner Rd, Greenville, MS 38701. Google Maps link.
~12:00 noon: Lunch at Roy’s Store on Lake Washington (cost not included in registration)
6:00 p.m. Dinner & Species Tally: Downtown Grille: 525 Washington Ave, Greenville, MS 38701; Google Maps link
6:45-7:45 p.m. Program: Erik Johnson, “Native Plants for Recovering Birds – Community Science Nest Monitoring is Providing New Insights”
SUNDAY, September 29
7:30 a.m. Meet for optional field trips. Meet-up and field trip location(s) will be discussed and announced on Saturday at the banquet.
COSTS
Lodging
Lodging rates will depend on where you make reservations. We do not have a single central block of hotel rooms for this meeting.
Meals
The Saturday evening banquet dinner cost is included in meeting registration fee (see below). All other meals are at your own cost, or included in your hotel.
Meeting Registration
Registration fees are $35/person for students, $50.00/person for non-student MOS members, and $70 for non-members (you can join MOS before the meeting to receive the member rate). Meeting registration includes the Saturday evening banquet and presentation. If you have special dietary restrictions please let us know by email: mcwulff@gmail.com
Special Guest, Erik Johnson:
Erik joined the National Audubon Society in April 2011 as a Conservation Biologist for the Mississippi Flyway and Gulf Coast Initiative and currently serves as the Director of Conservation Science for Audubon Delta, a regional office of the National Audubon Society that includes Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Before coming to Audubon, Erik’s graduate work at Louisiana State University included researching the effects of forest fragmentation on Amazonian bird communities and understanding the effects of fire management on grassland birds in pine savannas of the southeastern U.S. Erik seeks to understand how birds respond to habitats altered by humans and uses this knowledge to inform conservation policy and advocacy campaigns with Audubon. Erik lives in Sunset, Louisiana.
To register for the meeting, please use the online tool below. Registration is less expensive for MOS members, and you may join the Mississippi Ornithological Society on our website here:
https://missbird.org/membership-2/
If you have questions about your membership status, please contact Wayne Patterson, Membership Committee Chair, at wrp6@att.net