
Wood ducklings, photo by Jim Williams

Wood ducklings, photo by Jim Williams
Meet volunteers and staff from MEP member organizations, including Audubon Minnesota, discuss collaborative legislative priorities, and hear from legislative and agency leaders about their views on current environmental issues. Enjoy an appetizer buffet and a cash bar. Bring your friends! Everyone is welcome!
6 pm: Reception
7 pm: Program
$20 in advance; $25 at the door
Crowne Plaza Hotel: 11 East Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul
For more information or to register, go to the MEP website:
Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis has arranged to have tours of the Bell Museum’s Ornithology Laboratory on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. One tour will be on Wednesday, January 27th at 6:00 p.m. and another on Tuesday, February 9th at 6:00 p.m. Since space will be limited, please sign up by calling or e-mailing Jerry Bahls at 763-572-2333, jobaud@comcast.net, or Susan Tertell at 612-729-1566, stertell@gmail.com. Information on the meeting place will be give when you sign up. The tour will be at the Ecology Building on the St. Paul campus. There is a small amount of metered parking adjacent to the building, and also a pay parking lot accessible from Buford Circle.
Big Waterbirds Galore
Arnie Fredrickson
Everything you wanted to know about water birds and more! Arnie Frederickson will be presenting a slideshow on sandhill cranes, trumpeter and tundra swans, snow geese, and white pelicans. Arnie is retired from the University of Minnesota where he served as a member of the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. He got hooked on photography at the age of 32 when he received a Kodak Instamatic camera for his birthday. Arnie started out photographing wildflowers and landscapes. He discovered white pelicans at age 66 and was hooked. Soon he included tundra and trumpeter swans, herons and egrets, and sandhill cranes in his passion for the big birds. Arnie also serves as the volunteer trumpeter swan monitor for the Three Rivers Park District.
Tuesday, February 2, from 7:00 to 9:00. Coffee and cookies are provided, and everyone is welcome.
Programs are at the Mayflower Church which is located at:
109 East Diamond Lake Road
… just west of 35W on Diamond Lake Road.
Enter through the main entrance and go downstairs to the big room.
Upcoming programs:
March 2, 2010
Birding Sites in Minnesota - Kim Eckert, author of “A Birder’s Guide to Minnesota”
April 6, 2010
Captivating Bluebirds - Stan Tekeila, author of “Birds of Minnesota”, “Captivating Bluebirds”, and many more
May 4, 2010
Saving our Wetlands and Bird Habitats - Tom Cooper, U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Phenology is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as “the study of periodic biological phenomena, such as flowering, breeding, and migration, especially as related to climate”.
This is certainly a topic of interest to birders, from the casual to the devoted. If you notice something that you think will be of interest to other birders, please submit a comment and we will post it. Have you seen a flock of flickers in your nearby park? Or maybe a slew of cedar waxwings in your cedar trees. Whether it is the first or last robin of the year, or the nest you have in your tree, another birder will find it of interest.
Thanks for your submissions, and remember, there are still interesting birds to see this time of year – and always!
March 2, 2010
A Birder’s Guide to Minnesota
Kim Eckert
Kim Eckert, with over 45 years of birding experience throughout the U.S. and Canada, has now been guiding birders or teaching bird identification classes for more than 30 of those years. Since the 1980s, he has led tours to places like Newfoundland, Churchill, California, Arizona, Florida, locations in the Great Lakes and Great Plains, and to Texas – a favorite and frequent winter destination. He has authored four editions of A Birder’s Guide to Minnesota, and he has written numerous articles, notes, and seasonal reports for the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union journal The Loon and other publications, such as Birding and North American Birds. He also operates the Minnesota Birding Weekends program of birding tours (now in its 25th year), has been a member for three decades of Minnesota’s Records Committee, and for 20 years he served as Naturalist at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve in Duluth. A Minnesota resident since attending St. John’s University in the 1960s, he has resided in Duluth since 1977.
Kim will provide a general overview of the best birding sites in the state, along with the sought-after species that Minnesota is renowned for.
The meeting is Tuesday, March 2, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Coffee and cookies are provided, and everyone is welcome.
Programs are at the Mayflower Church, which is located at:
109 East Diamond Lake Road
just west of 35W on Diamond Lake Road.
Upcoming programs:
April 6, 2010
Captivating Bluebirds
Stan Tekeila
Author of “Birds of Minnesota”, “Captivating Bluebirds”, and many more
May 4, 2010
Saving our Wetlands and Bird Habitats
Tom Cooper, U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service
The National Audubon Society is holding its annual meeting of members on Friday, January 29, in Dallas, TX. All members are welcome to attend. For more about the meeting, go to the NAS website. At the meeting, members will elect the Board of Directors. If you can’t make it to Dallas, you can vote by proxy either online or by mail. If the NAS has a current email address for you, you should have received an email containing an unique proxy number and instructions on how to vote. If you receive the Audubon magazine, the Nov/Dec and Jan/Feb issues contained postcards for voting by mail. Regardless of which method you use, remember your vote needs to be received by Monday, January 25.
Design with Nature – Creating healthy communities above and below ground
Saturday, February 27, 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Radisson Hotel Roseville, 2540 North Cleveland Ave., Roseville
The St. Croix Oak Savanna and Twin Cities chapters of “Wild Ones” are partnering with the Minnesota Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (MASLA), and “Blue Thumb-Planting for Clean Water” to present noted speakers Douglas Tallamy, Ed Plaster, Welby Smith, and Evelyn Hadden speaking about creating healthy communities above and below ground. Our experts will share the latest research in designing beneficial habitats using native plants to provide essential support for insects, birds, and wildlife. Also featured are exhibitors from native plant nurseries, natural landscape designers, and environmental organizations. Please join us for an exciting day of ideas in preparation for spring.
Space is limited so sign up early. For more information, and to register, visit: http://for-wild.org/chapters/twincities/expo.html. Register by Feb. 22nd by mail or on-line. Cost is $40 for Wild Ones and MASLA members, $45 nonmembers. Price includes buffet lunch. For additional information call 612-293-3833 or email: designwithnature.conference@gmail.com.
Stan Tekiela will be a presenter at the April meeting of the Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis. You might also be interested in attending this program.
Wild about Birds with Stan Tekiela
Join author, naturalist and wildlife photographer Stan Tekiela as he presents fun facts about common backyard birds. Stan will challenge your ideas about some common birds such as the European Starling, the American Crow and much, much more. You will never look at these birds the same way again.
January 21, 7-8 p.m. at Lebanon Hills Regional Park – Visitor Center, 860 Cliff Road, Eagan.
$6/person, ages 5 and under free. Registration required.
More information and link to register at: