-By Nancy Nabak (WSO 2020 Convention Chair)-
Thursday night of the 2020 WSO Convention is going to be a grand evening like never before. We’ll start with our traditional picnic – greeting old friends and having an opportunity to meet and make new ones. This is a time to socialize, meet members of WSO’s Board of Directors and ask questions, and get familiar with Two Rivers, the community you’ll call home for convention weekend.
Immediately following the picnic will be a stunning performance by the Oneida Nation Smoke Dancers, sponsored by the Bay Area Bird Club out of Green Bay. The 10 dancers and musicians will appear in handmade Native American regalia accompanied by a master of ceremonies who will explain what each dance represents and the history of how it evolved culturally. He also will describe the ways that Native Americans in general, and the Oneidas in particular, think about and interact with wildlife and the natural world, including birds.
WSO is welcoming the public from the Two Rivers area to attend the free performance as well as the annual Passenger Pigeon Awards ceremony that will follow. This recognition for outstanding Wisconsin citizens and organizations that have made great strides in avian-based research, education, awareness and conservation will cap the evening. WSO members are encouraged to help recognize such contributions by participating in the nominating process. For further information about individual awards or the awards process, contact Awards Chair Wendy Schultz at awards@wsobirds.org.
We’re looking forward to Great Birding on a Great Lake so mark your calendars now for May 14-17 in Two Rivers and plan to join us!
Among the other convention partners are the Woodland Dunes Nature Center, the Lighthouse Inn and Conference Center, the Manitowoc Area Visitor and Convention Bureau and the Two Rivers Main Street program.
The convention committee previously announced that the keynote speaker for the Saturday night banquet will be Dr. Ben Zuckerberg, associate professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Zuckerberg, whose UW lab has found overwhelming evidence that wildlife populations are responding to climate change, will discuss what future actions are suggested by data gathered from breeding bird atlas work.
Two Rivers has three stops on the Lake Michigan segment of the Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail: the Woodland Dunes Nature Center, Point Beach State Forest, and Two Rivers Harbor and Neshotah Park.
Woodland Dunes, an Important Bird Area, contains more than 1,500 acres of hardwood and conifer forests, wetlands and prairies located between Two Rivers and Manitowoc. It features seven miles of hiking trails, and its 14 ridges and swales are home to or important stopover habitat for neo-tropical songbirds, Monarch butterflies, bats, amphibians, mammals and more than 400 plant species.
--This is one of several timely articles in this month's Badger Birder newsletter; don't miss out on the latest birding and conservation news. Become a WSO member today! https://wsobirds.org/support/become-a-member--
