WFO’s annual meeting was held in Santa Cruz, California, 29 September–2 October 1983. The meeting was co-hosted by the Santa Cruz Bird Club, whose members assisted the local committee. Debi Love Shearwater was convention organizer and did an outstanding job. Jerry Langham ably introduced speakers at the papers presentation which included Birding Santa Cruz County, Aging Jaegers, The Manx Shearwater Group, UCSC Predatory Bird Project, Farallon Islands Birds, and the Survey of Central and Northern California Seabirds: 1980–1983. The banquet speaker, Bruce Eilliott, brought home the need for people like WFO members to assist with management of nongame species by providing good and otherwise unavailable information.
To the many people who made the meeting and field trips so successful and enjoyable, I’m sure over 100 persons who attended will add thanks to mine. Field outings included pelagic trips which featured the impressive flocks of storm-petrels and other birds and many marine mammals on Monterey Bay, land and water birds of the Santa Cruz area, and a cooperative Sharp-tailed Sandpiper hung-out long enough to allow meeting attendees to see it during off-hours excursions. The weather saved northern resident WFO members from suffering heat-stroke and there was even enough rain to bring a touch of nostalgia.