Bates to host Maine Bird Conference

The fourth biennial Maine Bird Conference, sponsored by Bates College and the Stanton Bird Club, will be held at Bates May 1-2 in the Olin Arts Center. Students, birdwatchers and ornithologists are invited to register for the conference by calling 207-645-4769 or 207-645-4122.

May 1 events:

• The conference begins at 1:30 p.m. with a presentation by William Barnard of Norwich University on Radio Telemetry Studies of the Gray Jay in Vermont.
• At 2:30 p.m., Bill Sheehan and Riche Hoppe of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will discuss, Design and Operation of the Maine M.A.P.S. Program.
• At 3 p.m., Falk Heuttmann of the University of New Brunswick will discuss, Winter Transect off Grand Manan Island.
• At 3:30 p.m., Sarah Bartos, a senior at Bates, will discuss, A Comparison of American Redstart Territory Size and Habitat Selection in Two Forest Types on Kent Island: Implications for the Conservation of the Species.
• At 4 p.m., Andrew P. Weik of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Endangered and Threatened Species Group will discuss Conservation of Grassland Birds in Maine: Field Survey Results from 1997 and Plans for 1998.
• At 4:30 p.m., Victoria Perry of the Cornish Elementary School will discuss, Birding with Children.
• During the 6 to 7:30 p.m. dinner in Commons dining hall, Bonnie Bochan, field ornithologist and botanist and co- director of the Vermont and Maine Breeding Bird Atlas projects, will discuss, Birds of Jatun Sacha: Following the Breeding Birds of North America to the Tropics of Ecuador.

May 2 events:

• At 6:30 a.m., The Stanton Bird Club will sponsor a campus bird walk. Participants will meet in front of the Olin Arts Center.
• At 8:15 a.m., coffee and muffins will be served, and registration will be held in the Olin Arts Center lobby.
• At 8:45 a.m., Thor Hanson of the University of Vermont will discuss, Foraging Behavior of Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches and Golden-crowned Kinglets in Heterospecific and Conspecific Flocks.
• At 9:15 a.m., Peter Vickery and W. Gregory Shriver of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Center for Biological Conservation will discuss, A Regional Survey for Breeding Grassland Birds in the Northeastern United States.
• At 9:45 a.m., Nat Wheelright and Jennifer J. Templeton of Bowdoin College will discuss, When Do Fledgling Sparrows Learn to Forage Independently?
• At 10:30 a.m., David I. King of the University of Massachusetts will discuss, Avian Reproductive Success in Clearcuts and Groupcuts in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
• At 11 a.m., Kyle Apigian of Bowdoin College will discuss Foraging Efficiency and Preference in Black-capped Chickadees.
• At 11:30 a.m., Randall B. Boone and W.B. Krohn of the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Evidence of Transition Zones in Bird Distributions.
• From noon to 12:45 p.m. lunch will be served in Chase Hall.
• 12:45 to 1:30 p.m. Panel discussion on Bird Conservation programs in Maine: Alternative Funding Sources at Work will be held.
• At 1:30 p.m., Thomas Hodgmann of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Bird Group will discuss, Partners in Flight Program: Opportunities for Monitoring Bicknell’s Thrush and Other Mountaintop Forest Birds.
• At 2 p.m., Herb Wilson of Colby College will discuss, The Effect of Supplemental Feeding on Wintering Black-capped Chickadees.
• At 2:30 p.m. Mitschka Hartley of the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Effects of Selective Silviculture on Breeding Songbirds.
• At 3 p.m., Taryn L. Kruger of Bowdoin College will discuss, Nest Box Choice and Site Fidelity in Tree Swallows.
• At 3:30 p.m. Judy Kellogg Markowsky and William Halteman of the Maine Audubon Society and the University of Maine, Orono, will discuss, Roadkilled Birds, Foraging Substrate, Season and Road Type.
• At 4 p.m., David Evers and Peter Reaman of the Biodiversity Research Institute will discuss, Mercury Exposure in Maine Fish-eating Birds.