Dear Ospreyers,

As part of next Friday's ceremonial reopening of Fort Smallwood Park, Audubon Maryland-DC will be holding a brief ceremony to recognize the park as an Important Bird Area  of statewide significance for springtime raptor migration. Fort Smallwood  is one of the prime raptor migration sites in the mid-Atlantic region during the northward spring migration, and the average total spring count of 11,000 raptors is well above the threshold number of 8,000 per season required to qualify as a Maryland-DC IBA. 

You can read more about the Maryland-DC IBA program, including an ornithological summary of Fort Smallwood and the other 13 IBAs so far recognized, at the Audubon website http://www.audubonmddc.org/SciCon_IBAs.html

Sue Ricciardi askes me to let people know that entrance to the park will be free of charge next Friday for the reopening event but an entrance fee will be charges from April 1st onwards.

Dave


David Curson, PhD
Director of Bird Conservation,
Audubon MD-DC,
2437 Eastern Avenue,
Baltimore  MD  21224
Tel: (410) 558 2473
E-mail: