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Abstract

British Ornithologists' Club meetings in 2020 As previously announced, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic the 2020 meetings programme has had to be substantially adjusted. The current situation is that Prof. Diamond's talk, in conjunction with the Linnean Society has been deferred, subject to his availability, until a date in 2021. We are pleased that the 21 September meeting will proceed via Zoom video-conferencing. Dr Beth Okamura will give a presentation on How birds shape freshwater biodiversity, and will consider how our understanding of dispersal of freshwater invertebrates has improved since Darwin's day. Dr Okamura, who is a Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum, London, and Professor in Aquatic Biology at Univ. of Reading, will focus on evidence for waterbird-mediated dispersal of freshwater animals that are poorly known but have substantial ecological and practical impacts. The talk scheduled for 16 November, planned in conjunction with the Linnean Society and at their premises, is intended to be by Prof. Jon Fjeldså, Univ. of Copenhagen, on evolution of passerine birds. This talk had been designed to celebrate the 1,000th evening meeting of the BOC but, should it go ahead, will now be slightly ahead of the anniversary given the forced cancellation of previous 2020 meetings! At present, we remain very hopeful that the event will occur on schedule via Zoom, but please keep checking the BOC and Linnean Society websites for updates. Friends of the BOC The BOC has from 2017 become an online organisation without a paying membership, but instead one that aspires to a supportive network of Friends who share its vision of ornithology-see: http://boc-online.org/. Anyone wishing to become a Friend of the BOC and support its development should pay UK£25.