70th Annual MAS Banquet
Franciscan Renewal Center
5802 East Lincoln Drive, Scottsdale, AZ 85252-4124
6:00 PM BYOB Social Hour, Raffle, & Silent Auction. Raffle tickets available at the door.
7:00 PM Buffet Dinner.
Cost: $30.00 per person. Reservations required. Deadline to register April 15. No-shows will be billed. You may pay at the door (cash or check), or Paypal or credit card online. Mail checks, payable to Maricopa Audubon Society, to MAS Banquet, c/o Emily Thomas, 2519 Diamond, Mesa, AZ 85204.
Our agenda will include induction of our new Board
Guest Speaker Noah Comet
A Cultural History of Hummingbirds
The hummingbird's abundant fascinations have earned a prominent but under-examined place in cultural history, and that is the subject of professor Noah Comet’s presentation. Reaching back to the pre-Colombian Americas—particularly to the Aztec’s chief god, Huītzilōpōchtli, who was named for and often figured as a hummingbird--and forward, via WWII to the present day, Comet will explain how the bird evolved from a bloodthirsty deity into a transatlantic metaphor and even a physical commodity.
Noah Comet holds graduate degrees from NYU and UCLA, and is a professor of English at the United States Naval Academy. He is widely published in the field of nineteenth-century British studies, his credits including a 2013 book from Macmillan Press and many essays in scholarly journals. He is also a certified State of Maryland Master Naturalist, an avid outdoorsman, and a nature writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Denver Post, the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun. A native of northeastern Ohio, he traces his love of birds to (among other things) a surprise encounter with a Barred Owl in Cleveland, who landed on a branch just inches from his head and shared several minutes with him in silent, mutual curiosity. Since then, Comet has made it one of his life goals to see all of America’s owl species; he’s more than halfway there. He lives in Annapolis with his wife and 12-year-old son.