monticello_bird_club_charlottesville_virginia

Welcome to The Monticello Bird Club
in Charlottesville, VA

   

The Monticello Bird Club is an informal group of about 150 people who join together to share their enthusiasm for birds. Our monthly meetings feature invited speakers from throughout the state who share their expertise with entertaining and informative presentations. 

Field trips with experienced leaders to local or distant sites take us to where the birds are. You don't have to be a member to join us on any of our birding field trips. Follow this link for information about our currently scheduled field trips.

    The 2010-2011 season marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the Monticello Bird Club. Our meetings and field trips are always open to the public without charge. If you want to learn more about how to identify birds, their behavior and their life histories, or if you just want to talk to others with similar interests, then please join us soon on a field trip or at a meeting.

Please note our new meeting time is 7:00 pm at the Ivy Creek Natural Area.

The Monticello Bird Club will hold the monthly meetings at 7:00 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month, September through June. The location is the Education Building at Ivy Creek Natural Area,  familiar to many  as the location of the First Saturday Bird Walks. The Ivy Creek Natural Area is on Earlysville Road about a half mile from the intersection of Hydraulic Road, just before the reservoir. Plenty of parking, compatible natural setting, easy access. See you there at future meetings!  Click here for a map to the Ivy Creek Natural Area.

Read our current newsletter online here. The editor of the MBC Newsletter welcomes submissions including articles, photographs and notices. Please email information to Doug Rogers at mbcnews@embarqmail.com or call Doug at 434-409-8156.

Check out the 34 page Birder's Guide to Charlottesville and Vicinity.

Get current information about rare bird sightings from the Monticello Bird Alert.

Become a Monticello Bird Club Member
When you join MBC, you will receive ten issues of the MBC Newsletter chock full of
information about field trips, speakers, bird sightings, and more. You will be sent timely
notification of our annual Birdseed Sale. You will know that you are supporting birdfriendly
programs locally and regionally. And you will be among a group of warm, friendly,
and sharing people who have a passion for birds and birding!
Mail in the membership form today.

Click here for Charlottesville and Warren
Christmas Bird Count Information.


All are welcome to join us for our meetings
7 PM at the Ivy Creek Natural Area
the second Thursday of every month Sept - June

Pete Myers to Speak at Bird Club January 12th

   “If you happen to be hiking in Sugar Hollow and come upon an almost-senior citizen jogging up the South Fork of the Moorman’s fire road with binoculars in one hand and iPhone in the other, you’ve met Pete.” That’s the way our January 12th, 2012 speaker, Pete Myers, describes himself.
   Besides being Sugar Hollow’s super tech, Pete is a man of many accomplishments. He has photographed birds from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego in his more distant past, birds of Albemarle County more recently. In photos he will show to the bird club, he will emphasize a perspective inspired in part by Georgia O’Keefe. Pete is also an accomplished user of eBird and BirdsEye, technological applications of great use to birders. Pete in fact helped create BirdsEye. He will include in his talk electronic applications that can enhance birding.
   Pete received a doctorate at the University of California Berkeley, specializing in shorebird ecology and behavior. For seven years he was a research ornithologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. While there, he founded the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, which has worked to protect key shorebird migratory staging areas throughout the hemisphere. From there he went to National Audubon, where he was senior vice president for science. In 1990 he moved to Charlottesville with his family to become director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation, a position he held twelve years. In 2002, he founded Environmental Health Sciences, a web-based science and journalism non-profit that now employs over thirty people.
   Many of you will recall that in March 2011, Pete found a first Virginia record of Violet-green Swallow right here in Albemarle County. Not only that, he got remarkable photos of it. Come hear on January 12th this man we might call the Legend of Sugar Hollow.
   On another subject, many of you will do some travel in the upcoming months. As you travel, remember the bird club. Take some photos, and consider presenting them at the club. You don’t have to be a great photographer or entertainer to be one of our speakers. You never know, you might be a far better photographer or entertainer than you thought. I am always on the lookout for programs. Let me hear from you if you have any ideas. And don’t forget about dinner with the speaker. We are now taking our speakers to The Brick Oven, in Rio Hill Shopping Center. It’s an excellent restaurant that gets food and check to us expeditiously. So far, it greatly outshines other restaurants we have recently tried.


Looking ahead to February 2012, our speaker will be Ron Luque of Charlottesville. Ron’s painting of Redheads, “Early Light,” won the recent state waterfowl conservation stamp contest. Come hear how Ron does his amazing brush work.  

 

Join us for dinner with the speaker before the meeting: The Brick Oven Restaurant
For those who missed it, our first dinner with the speaker at The Brick Oven Restaurant went quite well. The food was good and not overly expensive, and service was excellent. What's not to like! Ellie complimented the restaurant's manager as we were leaving.
The Brick Oven is in Rio Hill Shopping Center, Charlottesville, and is located between the Kroger Supermarket and Dick's Sporting Goods. Come join us at 5:30 PM December 8th to talk to and hear from our speaker John Spahr. Hope to see you then.

 

The Monticello Bird Club Photo of the Month
Please submit your photos to kk@ecoventurestravel.com for a future newsletter.


Barn Swallows by Pete Myers

All members are encouraged to submit photos !

To submit your photo(s) for Photo of the Month just attach it as a jpeg file (.jpg or .jpeg extension) and email it to Ken at: kk@ecoventurestravel.com.
Please include a brief caption for the photo: what it is, where it was taken, under what circumstances, or whatever you find most interesting about the photo. Photos may be cropped and resized as necessary to fit the available space.

 

 

 

2010-2011
Board Members

President: Lou Tanner;
ashokatg@hotmail.com
434-979-1722

Vice President: Joanne Bricker;
mbcnews@embarqmail.com
434-409-8156

Secretary: Peggy Cornett; pcornett@monticello.org
434-984-9816 

Treasurer: Doug Rogers;
doug5996@gmail.com
434-409-8156

Field Trips: Dave Hogg;
dhogg@nrao.edu
434-974-7592

Programs: Stauffer Miller,
stauffer@seepub.com
434-296-5505

Publicity: Gabriel and Mary Mapel; 540-363-5035.
redtailbirder@yahoo.com

Hospitality: Priscilla Kingston; Kingston@cstone.net
434-293-5173 

Newsletter: Peg Watson,
monticellobirdclubnewsletter@gmail.com 434-996-9831

Membership:Lesslie Crowell
Lessliecrowell@aol.com
434-295-1395

Birdseed Sales; Jim Hill jimcarhill@comcast.net
434-975-6523

 

 

Newsletter Submissions:

 Deadline for submissions to the newsletter is the 18th of the month preceding publication. Please email information to:
Peg Watson
monticellobirdclubnewsletter@gmail.co
m 434-996-9831

doug5996@gmail.com