Welcome to The Monticello Bird Club
in Charlottesville, VA
Birding Before Work:
Spring Migration is underway!
Check the schedule on page 2 of our current newsletter and join others to see this annual spectacle. Anyone interested, even complete beginners, are encouraged to join in the excitement. Experienced birders will be on hand to help identify the birds.
Contact us for more information: birders@monticellobirdclub.org
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 2012-2013 season marks the twenty-seventh 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 Peg Watson at monticellobirdclubnewsletter@gmail.com, or call 434-996-9831.
Check out the 34 page Birder's Guide to Charlottesville and Vicinity.
Get current information about rare bird sightings in the area 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.
The website for the newly formed Blue Ridge Young Birders Club is www.blueridgeyoungbirders.org
They are a group of young birders from Charlottesville, Virginia and surrounding areas between the ages 12-18, that share a passion for birds, birding, bird watching, bird photography, adventure and everything and anything else to do with birds and nature! Check them out!
All are welcome to join us for our meetings
at the Ivy Creek Natural Area
the second Thursday of every month Sept - June
Member’s Night May 9th
The May 9th program of the bird club will be the work of our members, our so-called Member’s Night. I urge you to bring approximately ten slides—on a zip drive is good—of your travels, your yard, most any topic that relates to nature. All of us will enjoy seeing them. Since Member’s Night is a collective effort, we need your participation to make this night work. Don’t make it a bust. If you don’t have slides, bring a favorite reading, present a poem, put on a skit. All activities, within certain boundaries, are permissible.
As I end another year of arranging programs for the club, I thank those who have helped me. Janet Paisley, Nancy Newman and Dan Bieker gave me program ideas. Peg Watson, Ken Klotz and the Mapels, in their respective newsletter, website and publicity roles, have been a pleasure to work with. I welcome any ideas for future programs. Coming up with eight programs for 2013-2014 is a challenge. Let me hear from you if you have ideas. Also, what programs of the past year did you most like. Were there some you did not care for? Also, it may be time for someone else to take over for me. If you would like to arrange programs, or serve on a programs committee with me, let me know. It’s really a rather easy job. See you on Member’s Night.
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The Monticello Bird Club
Photo of the Month
Please submit your photos to kk@ecoventurestravel.com for a future newsletter.
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Eastern Bluebird
Ken Klotz photo
All members are encouraged to submit photos !
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Membership dues are now due -
Please join or renew your membership now.
It is that time of year again when you are needed to be known to the Treasurer. Be sure to join and keep your membership current to insure you receive all of the latest information about field trips, speakers, and other club activities at the earliest possible time. Your newsletter will be emailed or mailed directly to you and you will not miss out on anything.
The membership application form is included in this Newsletter. Please note the change for Individual Memberships. Use this form to both renew your membership and to join as a new member. If you don't know whether your dues are current or not, please email me at doug5996@gmail.com.
Our Club pays its bills and contributes to other like-minded organizations with funds received from members' dues and our only fund-raiser, the Bird Seed Sale. During the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2012 our Club contributed a total of over $2,200 to American Bird Conservancy, Ivy Creek Foundation, Audubon CBC, The Nature Conservancy and the VSO. In addition, we paid an honorarium to our excellent speakers that totaled around $1,000. Revenue from membership dues and our net profit from the Bird Seed Sale paid for all of this.
This coming year we will again have exciting Field Trips, great presenters and we are investigating the possibility of forming a Junior Monticello Bird Club with members from 12 to 18 years of age. We will continue to contribute to the organizations mentioned above
and make a difference in our community. And we will continue to share our birding skills, have great camaraderie and create memorable experiences in birding.
Dear MBC Members,
I am your membership chair, again making a plea for saving natural resources as well as MBC resources by switching your newsletter from a mailed to an emailed copy. For those who prefer having the paper copy, I suggest printing your own from the emailed version.
We have revised the 2012-2013 Membership Form—included in this newsletter--so that the category of Individual member paying $15 dues and requesting a mailed newsletter is asked to include an additional $10, which about covers the cost of printing and mailing the newsletter for one year. Under this plan, an individual's dues will support speakers and club projects with the full $15 rather than with only $5. Those members unable to receive the newsletter electronically will not be required to pay the additional $10.
For questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me at Lessliecrowell@aol.com or 434-295-1395.
Sincerely,
Lesslie Crowell |
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