Birders Who Blog Tweet and Chirp and Talk and Laugh...

Sorry for the delay in getting this post out. I've been having computer issues that prevented me from downloading photos to my laptop. Thanks to some fine tweaking from Art, I finally got them ready. Last Saturday Dawn and Jeff Fine brought their RV through Minnesota on their way west. It was Dawn's inspiration to put together meet-ups of birders who use various media to communicate about birding, Birders Who Blog Tweet and Chirp. A wonderful group of birders assembled Saturday morning at the Lowry Nature Center in the Carver Park Reserve in Victoria, Minnesota. Roger Everhart of the blog Minnesota Birdnerd was on hand to demonstrate bird banding. Unfortunately, the windy,warm weather did not bring birds to the nets but Roger spent time explaining the banding program and telling of his experiences in banding.

Here's our group proudly holding a copy of WildBird Magazine (Hi Amy!) . Maybe you'll see our photo in the magazine in the future!

Left to right, front row:

Dawn from Dawn's Bloggy Blog

Lizette from Mike and Lizette's Travels and Thoughts

Virginia from Bees in the City

Penny from Penelopedia

Jeff (Dawn's hubby)

back row:

Me!

Hap in New Hope

Mike from Mike and Lizette's Travels and Thoughts

Richard from At the Water

Ruth from Nature Knitter

Dave (Penny's hubby)

Roger from Minnesota Birdnerd

not pictured:Sharon, aka "the other Sharon" or Hellziggy (who came later)

Volunteer handlers showed us the education raptors including this beautiful Merlin-

and this lovely mellow Barred Owl.

I believe these serious looking birders were gazing at an American Redstart high in the branches. After a leisurely morning at Carver, we all headed over to a local restaurant for a fabulous lunch. Laughter and lots of chatting filled the time and a delish lunch filled our stomachs. Our plans for the afternoon were to drive east to Bloomington and the Hyland Park Reserve for more birding. Right away in the parking lot as we arrived we got to watch an Eastern Kingbird hunting for dragonflies.

After the dragonfly was caught the Kingbird spent a bit of time trying to bash the wings off before it could be eaten.

We spent a lot of time on the dock overlooking the turtle pond. There was lots to look at and talk about. Sharon let me try out her 2X converter on my camera and lens. Here's a photo of a pair of Mergansers and a Mallard that I took using Sharon's converter. The auto focus wouldn't work on my lens with the 2X in place so I had quite a bit of trouble focusing. I have not used my camera on the manual focus mode so I felt like I was all thumbs, but maybe with more practice...

Turtles chillin'.

Some of our group had to leave early but most of us went to dinner at Merlin's Nest to meet the Birds and Beers folks. Another great meal and more conversation and laughter, it was a perfect ending to a wonderful day. I learned something from every person throughout the day. Birders are fun loving, big hearted people. We're planning to get together again for more birding and talking and laughing...

Thanks everyone for coming, some from long distances to make this day so wonderful.