TOS Spring Meeting April 26-28, 2024
Join us in Knoxville for the TOS Spring Meeting April 26-28, 2024. Great birding, great people, great part of the state, what’s not to like?
We’ll have a Friday evening reception, field trips Saturday and Sunday mornings (and possibly a Saturday afternoon outing), Board of Directors Meeting Saturday afternoon, and a banquet and plenary speaker on Saturday evening. Saturday’s business meeting, dinner, and speaker will be on the grounds of the historic Ramsay House (https://www.ramseyhouse.org/) in east Knoxville. We will only be able to accommodate 70 people for the dinner and speaker program on Saturday evening, so register soon. The Board meeting is tentatively scheduled for 2:30-4:00 p.m.
The host hotel will be the Hampton Inn Knoxville-East (7445 Sawyer Lane, Knoxville, 37924, 865-525-3511). The Friday reception will be at the Hampton, and all field trips will leave from there. This is at Exit 398 off of I-40. Room block at the Hampton is no longer available, but the Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Best Western off Exit 398 are all reasonable options.
KTOS will provide a variety of foods at the Hampton Inn Knoxville -East (7445 Sawyer Lane, Knoxville, 37924, 865-525-3511) from 6:30-8:30 pm for those not looking to search up a local restaurant. Don’t expect a sit-down dinner, but one should be able to get enough to eat. Registration packets, name badges, and field trip sign-ups will be available during the reception as well as in the morning prior to field trips.
Tiffany Kersten of Nature Ninja Birding Tours is currently scheduled to be our featured speaker. Tiffany is a professional bird guide based in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. She is a Wildlife Ecologist, certified Interpretive Guide, and long-time environmental educator. She did a Lower 48 States Big Year in 2021, and her presentation “Birdie Big Year: Elevating Women Birders” will touch on the adventures inherent in such an endeavor with emphasis on a woman’s perspective and the special challenges women face chasing birds near and far. Tiffany will also join us for field trips on Saturday and Sunday. Learn more about Tiffany at https://tiffanykersten.blogspot.com/p/contact.html.
Dinner on Saturday evening will begin at 6:00 p.m. It will be catered by Bissel Catering (https://www.bisselcatering.com/). The menu will include grilled chicken, pork tenderloin, grilled portobello mushrooms (for non-meat eaters), red mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, house salad, rolls, and banana pudding. When you register, you’ll need to indicate your preference (meat or veggie).
There will be field trips to Sharps Ridge and Seven Islands State Birding Park (two local hotspots) on both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday’s Seven Islands walk will include an opportunity to observe bird banding. A third walk on Saturday will go to Cove Lake State Park in Campbell County, which often has Swainson’s Warbler and a nice variety of birds. A third trip on Sunday will be west of Knoxville likely including Gupton Wetlands and possibly hitting a number of other lesser known locations. Expect field trips to leave from the Hampton no later than 7:30 a.m., and some may opt to start earlier.
To register, complete the registration form below and mail it and payment to:
KTOS (c/o Dawn Headrick)
1512 Hall Acres Drive
Knoxville, TN 37918
Make checks payable to KTOS.
You can email the information to Dawn or Chris at cwelsh@retiree.utk.edu; mdheadrick@aol.com
To pay online, you would need to go to the KTOS website and under membership, select “Pay Online”. https://www.knoxbirds.org/pay-online/
That will take you to a screen where you you’ll see an option for Custom Payment. Click Pay Now, and the next screen will have a spot to enter the amount.
Enter the amount and click Continue.
The next screen will take you to the PayPal payment page. You do not need to have a PayPal account to pay online. Just select “Pay with credit or debit card”, and it will take you to a page to enter your card info.
TOS Spring Meeting Registration
Name(s) of attendees _______________________________________________________
Contact info (phone or email) ________________________________________________
TOS Chapter affiliation (n/a if none) ___________________________________________
Number of attendees _______ x $10 per person registration fee = __________
Number for Saturday dinner _______ x $22 per person = _________
Dinner preference: meat _____ vegetarian _____
Total: Registration _______ + Dinner ________ = _________
Questions? Email Chris Welsh or Dawn Headrick (cwelsh@retiree.utk.edu; mdheadrick@aol.com)
We hope to see you in Knoxville at the end of the month!!