[mou] 7th Annual Great MN River Birding Day

[Williams, Bob]

This morning I had a Nashville Warbler in my front yard in Bloomington.
Clearly the birds are on the move.  That means it is time to start to
plan for the 7th Annual Great MN River Birding Day in September.  We try
to get as many birders out into the MN River Valley as we can and ID as
many species as we can.  Last year we had over 100 birders and ID'd 181
species. =20
This year we are birding west of Hwy 15(which runs thru Hutchinson, New
Ulm, Madelia and Fairmont to the Iowa border) on both Friday and
Saturday, Sept. 15th and 16th.  There will be a dinner Friday night at
the Lac Qui Parle WMA HQ for those birding in the western part of the
state.  There will be rallies at the Rasmussen Nature Center in Mankato
at 2PM and at the MN Valley NWR in Bloomington at 1PM for those birding
on Saturday east of Hwy 15.  This event is free and open to the public.
You can join an existing team or bird on your own.  The count area
stretches from Ft. Snelling State Park in the east to Big Stone Lake
State Park in the west and from Walnut Lake in Faribault County in the
south to Inspiration Point in Otter Tail County in the north.  You can
visit the website for the MN River Valley Birding Trail at
www.birdingtrail.org to see many of the sites that will be included.
Please contact me at bxwilliams@cbburnet.com or at 612-728-2232 if you
would like to participate.  Sponsors for this event include Audubon
Minnesota and the Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter.  I hope you
can join us for this opportunity to get out and enjoy the fall migration
in the MN River Valley.
Bob Williams, Bloomington	612-728-2232     =20