The Monticello Bird Club will hold the monthly meetings at 7:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month. 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 (with dial-up connection approx. 20 sec. to load image).

Read our current newsletter online here.

Dues for 2007–2008 are Due Now. Please return the membership form with your dues.

Our Program this month is:

May Meeting Topic:
Members’ Night: Share Your Photos!
May 8 , 2008

Our May meeting is the traditional Members’ Night. Anyone who would like to share pictures of birds or birding experiences is welcome to do so. There will be a slide projector and a digital projector and laptop for Power- Point presentations. In addition, we will be treated to a short report from Venable Elementary School second grade students. MBC provided these students with materials for a bird feeding station for the first time this school year,

Please join MBC members and our speaker for dinner at Wild Greens Restaurant in the North Wing of Barracks Road Shopping Center on April 10th at 5:45 pm prior to the meeting.

Annual Potluck June 12th
Mark your calendars and join us for the MBC annual potluck supper at the Ivy Creek Natural
Area’s Education Building. Please bring a dish to share. More details to follow in next
month’s newsletter.

THE MONTICELLO BIRD ALERT
Rapid Information Exchange about Rare Bird Sightings in Our Area !

The MonticelloBirdAlert provides birders in Central Virginia with an opportunity to post sightings of rare and interesting birds spotted in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and surrounding counties. Members of the group should only post sightings of birds that are sited on public property or viewed from public roadways. Members may also post a siting of a bird on private property, if the landowner has granted express permission for you to make such a posting to this group.

In just the past few months, birds reported on the MonticelloBirdAlert have included the Loggerhead Shrike, Surf Scoter(!), Fox Sparrow, Common Goldeneye, Horned Grebe, Horned Lark, Red Headed Woodpecker, American Woodcock, Northern Harrier, Bank Swallow and many others.  The Surf Scoter was only here for one day, and appears to be a county record, so rapid information is very important.

To join the group, please follow these steps: 
1) Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/monticellobirdalert/
2) Click on the button: Join this Group
3) If you have a Yahoo ID, sign in and go to "Step 5"
4) If you don't have a Yahoo ID, click on the link: Sign Up.  (It's free.) 
5) Fill in the required information, read the terms of the agreement, and signify your agreement by clicking on "I Agree".
6) Once your a member, you can post messages by sending messages to monticellobirdalert@yahoogroups.com
7) Remember the cardinal rule (stated above) about respecting private property rights.

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.