Our Bird Club meetings will be in Andrews Hall Room 101 this fall. Our usual room in Millington was not available so we'll be in Andrews Hall, which is actually closer to the Phi Beta Kappa Parking lot.

We've met in this room several times recently, and there are LOTS of seats. So bring your friends and neighbors and sit near the front. We'll have a sign on the sidewalk beside Andrews Hall to direct you in the side door.

PARKING PERMIT: Enclosed in the September newsletter (and here) is a parking permit for the nights of the Bird Club meetings. Please place it in your windshield when you park in front of Phi Beta Kappa Hall, the Art Museum, or Morton Hall. You may be subject to an expensive parking ticket from the William and Mary Parking Services without the permit displayed in your windshield.

Many thanks to Dr. Dan Cristol for arranging meeting space and parking permits for our Bird Club this year.

We look forward to seeing you September 21.

The Williamsburg Bird Club and the Hampton Roads Bird Club have joined forces to "adopt" an Audubon Important Bird Area on the Coastal Plain of VA. The "Western Shore Marshes" stretch from Grandview Beach north to Haven Beach and includes portions of the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Poquoson, Hampton, Gloucester County, York County and Mathews County.

At the Bird Club's September 21 meeting, Ruth Beck and Shirley Devan will describe the areas with photos and maps and discuss the importance of conserving and protecting these areas and the special birds in these habitats. Ruth Beck has been studying the birds at Grandview Nature Preserve and Plum Tree Island for many years, and conducts yearly surveys of nesting shore birds at Grandview.

Our two bird clubs will join forces for future bird surveys and an upcoming "TogetherGreen Volunteer Day" event at one or more of the birding spots in this IBA.

Our Bird Club meetings this year will be in Andrews Hall Room 101 this fall. Our usual room in Millington was not available so we'll be in Andrews Hall, which is actually closer to the Phi Beta Kappa Parking lot. Don't forget to use your parking permit to park in the W&M parking lot.

Bird Club member Inge Curtis' photo of a Tree Swallow that made a nest in a pipe on her pier made "Bird of the Week" at BirdWatchingDaily.com.

Joe Piotrowski took these shots of an Osprey, a Pied-billed Grebe, and a Green Heron at the Newport News Park, August 20, 2011.

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