The Ohio Ornithological Society's annual conference, coming up in just a month, features keynote talks by Lukas Padegimas (Lukas de Fevrale) and Kevin Karlson. Kimberly and I have known Lukas for several years, since he has been one of the most active members of the Ohio Young Birders Club (OYBC). His intelligence, wit, and knowledge of the natural world have made him a natural leader in the club. We saw an earlier version of his shorebird talk at the big OYBC conference last November, and I can guarantee that everyone will find his presentation both informative and entertaining.

The other keynote speaker, Kevin Karlson, is well known in the birding community. Most of you probably know already that he is a brilliant photographer, an engaging speaker, and an expert on shorebirds and on field identification, but I want to tell you something else about him.

I met Kevin Karlson for the first time in the 1980s. I had just moved to Philadelphia, and since I was in the area, I planned to compete in the World Series of Birding next door in New Jersey. Not knowing much about the birding spots there, I went to scout the area, and at one of my first stops I ran into Kevin. He was already a leading New Jersey birder, a veteran of the World Series, and he was going to be competing also. So what did he do? He spent 45 minutes giving me detailed information and advice on where the best migrant traps were located, where to find the difficult birds, how to get from one place to another without getting stuck in traffic, and so on. Even though we were going to be on rival teams, he was totally generous in sharing valuable information. We've been friends ever since, and I can tell you that his generosity to other birders has never faltered.

To me this represents an example of birding at its best: it's about cooperation, not competition. I'd like to see this kind of approach become universal in the Ohio birding community. We have a lot of bird-related organizations in the state, and none of them should be competing; we all have the same basic goals of helping birds, birders, and conservation. As many of you know, my wife Kimberly and I are heavily involved in the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, and that takes up so much of our time that we haven't been very active in the Ohio Ornithological Society. But we are members, we are looking forward to attending the OOS Conference, and we hope that as many Ohio birders as possible will come out to enjoy the conference and to support OOS.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, OH





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