Monday, April 25, 2016

Support your Brooklyn Birdathon

Brooklyn Birdathon takes place May 12th. The Brooklyn Bird Club decided on habitat restoration or creation for the Jean Bourque Duck blind at Floyd Bennett Field North Forty, a new blind created over the winter. It needs native plants and border habitat as well as the perimeter

Here's the note from Bobbi , the teams coordinator and BBC President Rob Bate

Birdathon: Saturday, May 14, 2016
The Jean Bourque Duck Blind
May 14th is International Migratory Bird Day - A global event celebrating the beauty of birds and habitats; this event encourages fundraising for conservation causes.  This year, the IBMD theme is “Spread Your Wings for Bird Conservation.” . Every year, the Brooklyn Bird Club participates by holding a birdathon.   This year’s Birdathon will be dedicated to raising funds for the Jean Bourque Duck Blind habitat at Floyd Bennett Field’s North Forty section.  Jean Bourque, a 40+ year member of the BBC, passed away last year.  She, and her husband Ron were singlehandedly responsible for much of the restoration and maintenance work at the Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center.  As a tribute to her, the duck blind at the Return-a-Gift Pond at Floyd Bennet Field was recently restored.  We will augment this work with additional funding to plant new trees around the blind to enhance the habitat and our viewing pleasure.
Please come out in support of this cause!  Anyone can participate, organize a team, join a team, or sign on to donate to a team.  Team members solicit pledges from friends and family, usually an amount per bird, sometimes a flat amount, and the team spends the whole day (or as much as they want) birding in Brooklyn and seeking a high number of species during the busiest birding day of the year.  Results are circulated on the clubs Facebook page (www.facebook.com/BrooklynBirdClub), website and newsletter.
Bobbi Manian will act as coordinator for the Birdathon and would be happy to hook you up with a team or help you organize a team.  Please email her at roberta.manian@gmail.com if you have any questions, to register or to pledge your support.  If you have a car and would be willing to drive to such locations as Floyd Bennett Field or JBWR, let Bobbi know.  If you'd like to be placed with a team, and assuming we have healthy signup, we'll try to match skills and endurance levels.  Please indicate if you are a 'sun-up to sun-down' birder or if 6-8 hours is your limit.  
For those not up for a full day of birding, Michele Dreger's Introduction to Birdwatching group will meet at the Boathouse (in Prospect Park) at noon, and bird for a few hours - all are welcome
 May 14th is a great day to make a special contribution to our cause, and, at the same time, enjoy our friends, the migratory songbirds and our fellow birders on a special day for all of us.  Let’s hope for fall-out conditions on all fronts!
Rob Bate


Heres a reprise of the BBC Bourque memorial walk in honor of Jean

http://bbcprevioustripreports.blogspot.com/2015/06/saturday-june-20th-memorial-to-jean.html

and dont forget there is a Prospect Park walk the same day aside from the teams version

snipeSaturday, May 14th, "The Birdathon Walk" in Prospect Park
Meet: 7:15 am at the Grand Army Plaza park entrance (Stranahan Statue)
Leader: Paul Keim
Note: Participants can elect to support the club theme


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