International Migratory Bird Day

On International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD), May 11, 1996, hundreds of citizens groups, national wildlife refuges, national forests, national parks, and local businesses will celebrate the return of migratory birds and raise awareness of declines in their populations. A sampling of IMBD events scheduled for communities across the country follows.

Chincoteague NWR is expected to draw well over 5,000 visitors to its third annual IMBD event taking place throughout the town of Chincoteague, VA during the entire weekend of May 10-12. IMBD activities include: bird walks, marsh walks, habitat hikes, guided canoe trips, tours to special management areas, shorebird identification, wildlife photography, landscaping for birds, boat cruises to observe pelagic birds, and wildlife safari land tours. Junior Refuge Manager and Junior Birder Programs will offer children the opportunity to obtain badges upon completion of a series of activities. Chincoteagues IMBD events are sponsored by eight public and private partners.

The beautiful Baltimore (Northern) Oriole, after which Marylands famous baseball team is named, is also the state bird and a Neotropical migrant. The National Aquarium in Baltimore will celebrate the return of the brightly colored orioles, along with many other species of migratory birds to Marylands forests, with a gala celebration on the Baltimore aquarium pier. The Oriole team mascot is expected to pay a special visit. Eight different conservation groups will showcase exhibits on the Aquarium pier. The California-based native plant seed company, Shepards Seeds, has donated large quantities of native seed packets. Presentations on migratory birds will be ongoing throughout the day in the Aquariums rainforest forest exhibit.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Atlanta-based regional office will celebrate IMBD with a migratory bird art contest. Award winning artwork will be on display at the headquarters office on IMBD, May 11. Participants may select from a CD Rom-generated images of six birds or a bird of their choice. Contest entries will be accepted in four age categories and submissions will be evaluated by a formal judging panel and first, second, and third place prizes awarded in the four age categories.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Chicago field office along with the Forest Preserve of Cook County, and the Prairie Woods Audubon Society, will hold its IMBD at the Forest Preserve District Crabtree Nature Center. Activities include indoor and outdoor learning stations. Indoor exhibits allow participants to learn about migratory birds while outdoor exhibits, set up on the parks trails, will enable to observe birds in their natural habitats.

The city of Boulder, often considered a mecca for new trends, new technology, and new age products, is also a primary gathering for migratory birds making their way north along the front range of Rocky Mountains. Boulder County Audubon Society and the local wild bird center store will celebrate IMBD with a day-long festival including native plants exhibits, habitat restoration activities, a dawn chorus bird walk, bird banding demonstrations, tours of a birds of prey raptor rehabilitation facility, and hikes to view cliff nesting raptors in the Flat Irons Park District.

The state of New Mexico provides important breeding habitat for enormous flocks of migrating Snow Geese, a large portion of the worlds Sandhill Crane population, ass well as many other Neotropical migrant and resident species including the familiar Roadrunner. New Mexico will celebrate IMBD at the RioGrande Nature Center in Albuquerque with bird walks, bird banding demonstrations, workshops on birding by ear, slide shows, presentations on beginning birdwatching and identification, and backyard landscaping for hummingbirds and other birds. Participants can also take part in habitat restoration projects or the North American Migration Count, an all day bird count being held at various locations throughout Bernalillo County.

Some 70% of all the shorebirds in the Pacific Flyway winter or stop at the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, along with enormous numbers of waterfowl and wading birds. The San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is teaming up the U.S. Forest Services Coyote Creek Riparian Station, and Santa Clara Audubon Society, in offering a full day of fifteen IMBD events. Activities include presentations on migratory birds on the Farralon Islands, migratory shorebirds at the refuge, a habitat restoration work party of degraded wetlands, bird banding demonstrations, bird walks, wildlife photography hikes, book signs, a wildlife art sale, traditional Latino music, and a migratory bird poster contest involving local school groups. Events take place at the San Francisco Bay Education Center.

The City of Portland is hosting an extensive IMBD celebration extending over a ten day period from May 1 through May 12 and including over fourteen separate events. Entitled Migratory Bird Awareness Week, Portlands IMBD includes a kick off press conference, May 1, educational bird walks, bird identification seminars, "Tweet Dreams" bird house building contest featuring bird houses and feeders built by the Portland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and awards sponsored by the World Forestry Center, and a "Songbird Migration and River Sensation" program to showcase the newly established Tualatin River NWR. Portlands IMBD is coordinated jointly by over eight different public and private partners.

Covering over 700,000 acres, the Copper River Delta in southern Alaska is vitally important to the more than 5 million shorebirds which stop to rest and refuel. Recognizing its international significance, the Copper River Delta has been established as a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve site. Since 1990, the Copper River Shorebird Festival has been annually coinciding with IMBD. The Festival ha educated hundreds of hundreds of citizens from throughout the United States about the importance of the delta to shorebirds and other Neotropical migratory birds. In 1995, the Copper River Shorebird Festival provided over 3,000 hours of educational programming for nearly 2,000 participants and generated nearly $45,000 to the local economy. This years event will extend from May 1 to and May 5 and feature guided birding trips, educational speakers, childrens workshops, and live bird demonstrations.

Other IMBD Events

The Savannah Coastal Refuges teem with eagles, Brown Pelicans, herons, egrets, and many other species of migrating birds. This coastal barrier refuge complex will celebrate IMBD in conjunction with the Hilton Head Museum with the dedication of a new exhibit on Neotropical migratory birds, funded through a matching grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Ecosystem Services office in Asheville will celebrate IMBD, May 18th, at the North Carolina Zoological Park. The Nature Conservancy, Audubon Council of North Carolina, U.S. Forest Service, and North Carolina Museum of Natural Science are contributing to the days worth of activities including a Birds in Jeopardy game, bird walks, native plant exhibits and presentations, information booths, face painting, and much more.

During the peak migration, up to 100,00 sucks can be seen everywhere on the refuge covering the water and filling the air. The refuge also supports Tundra Swans, Bald Eagles, Canada and Snow Geese, as well as endangered Peregrine Falcons, which now nest successfully in Cleveland and Toledo. Migrating warblers that follow the lake Erie shoreline are expected to peak this year on IMBD. Ottawa NWR will celebrate IMBD in conjunction with the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Activities include an auto tour, shorebird and general bird walks, a Trumpeter Swan release, "marsh wagon rides," and programs and presentations on decoy carving and songbird banding.

Six rivers flow through Shiawassee NWR, providing habitat for over 50,000 migratory ducks, 25,000 geese, bald eagles, tundra swans, and many other species of birds. Shiawassee NWR will jointly coordinate a second annual IMBD event with the Green Point Environmental Learning Center and will include a bird identification contest for children with bird silhouettes hidden throughout the refuge; bird house and feeder building projects sponsored by local boy scout troops; live raptor presentations featuring hawks and owls; exhibits and presentations by local bird retail stores on enhancing backyard feeding stations; restoring habitat on private lands; and a special presentation on the 10th Anniversary of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, scheduled May 14.

Tamarac NWR is known for recovering populations of Trumpeter Swans which were once on the brink of extinction and now fly freely at the refuge. Tamarac NWR will hold an IMBD Open House including a "Birds and Blooms" program by Roland Jordahl, field editor for Birds and Blooms magazine, and an evening "Owl Prowl" with refuge biologists leading a search for Barred Owls. Also included in the days events are a family scavenger hunt, guided refuge tour, bird walks, and exhibits of childrens migratory bird posters and local photographers works.

Up to 60% of North Americas population of Tundra Swans, and 70% of the worlds population of Canvasback Ducks as well as thousands of other migrating birds rest and feed at Upper Mississippi River NW&FR during migration. This yea, the refuges IMBD activities are going mainstream by holding IMBD events at the local mall. Exhibits include interactive displays presented by refuge employees and local bird club volunteers. Presentations will include instruction on use on binoculars and scopes as well as am interactive computer display showcasing bird song identification software.

Jagged ridges, deep canyons, flowing creeks, unique Sonoran Desert plants of the state of Arizona attract millions of birds and thousands of visitors each year during spring and fall migration. The Coronodo National Forest ranger district, located in the Santa Catalina Mountains, will stage its IMBD event to raise awareness of the plight of Neotropical migratory birds and the economic importance of these species to the areas economy among Tuscan-area residents including strongly Hispanic populations. The ranger district has established a unique partnership with the Tuscan-based Walmart store outlet in which Walmart will display literature on migratory birds and IMBD and will provide hummingbird feeders to the Forest for IMBD. Coronodo Forest staff expect up to 1,000 visitors to the canyon on IMBD. They will conduct entrance and exit interviews to assess levels of awareness of Neotropical birds.

The National Bison Range, located on the west slope of the Rockies, supports a great diversity of migrating birds including: lazuli buntings, Lewis woodpeckers, Clarks nutcrackers, dusky flycatchers, grasshopper and vesper sparrows, Townsends solitaires, Red-breasted and Pygmy nuthatches, mountain chickadees, mountain bluebirds, red crossbills to name just a few species. The refuge will celebrate, IMBD, and the opening of the Red Sheep Mountain Drive, with a full day of bird walks and hikes, banding demonstrations, presentations on bird identification featuring bird skins and skulls, and bird house building instruction.

This four -refuge complex will kick off IMBD with a introduction to bird watching seminar on May 11, at the Barnes and Noble Book Store in Roberts, Idaho. Guided tours of the refuges and state wildlife management areas will be ongoing and displays will be on exhibit in Roberts, Idaho throughout the entire week.

Utah, home of the Great Salt Desert whose dominant form of wildlife was once dinosaurs now attracts hundreds of species of migrating birds. Twelve different areas throughout the state will feature IMBD activities in conjunction with the "Utah Wetlands Riparian Habitat for Breeding Birds" events. Activities will include bird and wetland tours at each site, pointing out the types of insects that birds feed on and other bird feeding habits, distribution of pamphlets and state posters and maps celebrating wetlands and migratory bird conservation, and visits to classrooms across the state to promote migratory bird education in the classroom.

Unbelievable numbers of migratory birds gather at Bear River NWR including the largest concentrations of Tundra Swans anywhere, thousands of Golden-tufted Eared Grebes, half million swallows, and hundreds of Marbled Godwits and Long-billed Dowitchers. Nearby Brigham City will celebrate IMBD with its third annual Songbird Banner Contest. In this unique contest, over 200 students from kindergarten through ninth grade submit banner designs featuring songbirds which migrate to and breed in the area. Ninety winners are chosen from among the submissions. Winners transpose their designs onto six-foot canvas banners at Songbird Banner Party sponsored by Bear River National Wildlife Refuge. A local senior center provides the finished stitchwork for the banners which ultimately hang from light posts along Main Street in Brigham City for the entire IMBD week. The 1995 banners attracted the attention of nearly all pedestrians including state and local politicians. All materials and support services are donated by local businesses and civic groups.

Homer, Alaska

Homer, Alaska, will celebrate IMBD with the dedication of two new Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network(WHSRN) sites at Kachemak Bay. Kachemak Bay is a major stopover site for more than 100,000 migrating shorebirds. The dedication ceremony will include the WHSRN dedication ceremony; kayak birding trips, bird walks, shorebird carving contest, "bird-less barbeque," and more.

FWS