At the November meeting Bill Leaning will present a program titled New Zealand, The Living Land. Bill, originally from New Zealand, is a retired veterinarian and enthusiastic nature photographer.

Plan to join us on November 16 at 7:30 pm in Room 101, Andrews Hall, on the W&M campus.

Mary Anne Fennell will be providing the refreshments.

Don’t forget to use your parking permit.

The Hampton Roads Bird Club and the Williamsburg Bird Club have teamed up to adopt the Virginia Important Bird Area the Western Shore Marshes. On November 5, 2011, the two bird clubs as well as volunteers from other organizations (listed below) visited the area for an initial survey of birds, and to clean up any debris in the area.

[flickr photo=6339352996 align=center size="small"]

Participating organizations:

See more photos at Shirley Devan's Flickr site

The 35th Annual Williamsburg Christmas Bird Count will be on Sunday, December 18, 2011. If you wish to participate, you will be part of a team in a sector. The sector leader will be an experienced birder and knows the route and protocol. Extra eyes and ears are always welcome. You can spend a full day in the field or a half day -- just coordinate it with your sector leader. Cost is $5.00 and it goes to National Audubon Society to cover the expenses of compiling and publishing the count results every year. Bill Williams is the coordinator for our 9 sectors. Please contact Bill Williams if you can help out: Bill will assign you to a sector if you did not participate last year or if you want to be in different sector. If you want to contact of Bill Williams, please contact us and we will give you his phone number or email address.

The Williamsburg Bird Club requests applications from Williamsburg, James City County, and York County students in grades 5 to 12 for the Bill Williams Nature Camp Scholarships, two full tuition (approx. $750) scholarships for a two week summer camp program in 2012 at the Nature Camp in Vesuvius, Virginia.

Download the scholarship application form below. The completed form should be submitted along with a 300-word essay about the student’s interest in nature and a letter of recommendation from the student’s science teacher. The application form includes additional details about requirements and camp expectations. Essays will be evaluated for the best age-appropriate expression of interest in nature and anticipated benefit from attending the camp.

The deadline for applications is January 17, 2012. The Williamsburg Bird Club will contact the students who earn the scholarships in early February 2012.

Download scholarship application (.pdf)

The Williamsburg Bird Club and Hampton Roads Bird Club will join forces this Saturday for a fun event for habitat conservation -- a bird survey and beach/road cleanup at Bethel Beach and New Point Comfort Natural Area Preserves in Mathews County. Advanced registration is required!

The Western Shore Marshes Important Bird Area has the largest concentration of saltmarsh habitat in the lower Chesapeake Bay and the largest in Virginia outside the Eastern Shore. These 12,590 acres are spread out over York, Gloucester and Mathews counties as well as in the cities of Hampton and Poquoson. The area provides habitat which serves as home to a variety of saltmarsh birds such as Clapper rails and many migratory birds and hundreds of other native plant and animal species.

Right now Saturday's weather is projected to be great with a few clouds and temperatures in the low 60s.

The plan for the day will be as follows: If you want to carpool from Williamsburg, meet at 7 am at Colony Square Shopping Center. We will meet the rest of the group in the parking lot next to Mathews High School at 8:30 AM. Before we depart, we will go over some administrative details and everyone must complete a liability/photo release form. We should depart Mathews HS no later than 9:00 AM and head to New Point Comfort. We will initially perform the bird survey, followed by a clean-up of the adjacent area. Trash bags will be provided, and we will separate the trash and recyclables. We will then proceed to Bethel Beach and follow the same routine. We should be finished for the day by mid afternoon.

Your participation is important for this IMPORTANT BIRD AREA. Please bring your own insect repellant, sunscreen, hat and snacks, lunch water as necessary. Additionally, for the bird walk and survey, if you are able and willing to bring along a scope or binoculars to help with marsh bird identification, that would be greatly appreciated Sign up in advance! Please contact Dave Youker of the Hampton Roads Bird Club to register or gain additional information such as directions. If you use the contact page, we will forward your message to Dave.