A very successful and enjoyable 4th Pan-European Duck Symposium was recently held in Hanko, southwest Finland. The conference was organised by Mikael Kilpi, Aleksi Lehikoinen, and a number of other Finns and attended by 71 people from 15 European countries, Morocco, Canada and the USA. Visits took place to the Hanko Bird Observatory and the Bengtskar lighthouse, 25km out into the Finnish archipelago from Hanko, followed by a truly memorable banquet with the inimitable Petri Nummi and his Rolling Stones tribute band! The famous Finnish environmental cartoonist Seppo Leinonen was also on hand to draw personalised cartoons for delegates!
The DSG was pleased to be able to support the attendance of eight delegates and, with support from Tour du Valat and Bloomsbury Publishing, also offer a number of prizes, which were won by the following delegates:
Best student talk – Erik Kleyheeg
Second best student talk – Matthew English
Best student poster – Mia Vehkaoja and Stella Thompson
Second best student poster – Diego Pavon Jordan
Best talk from the Mediterranean region – Imad Cherkaoui
Best student talk on conservation – Sari Holopainen
Congratulations go to all of the prize winners, and the conference organisers for hosting a very memorable conference!
The conference abstracts are available here.
Thanks very much to all concerned for a truly wonderful conference: great atmosphere, perfect venue (one cannot complain about White-tailed Eagles 20 m above the conference venue), excellent talks, perfect atmosphere and memorable excursions. You did us very proud and gave us great memories! Congratulations to all the prize winners, also to all contributors of talks and presentations and to Seppo for his great company and personalized cartoons! However, our especial thanks must go to the organizers for making this conference such a treat, especially the banquet and Petri’s amazing band. Quite a fund of great memories!