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 [email protected] 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
