Dear Maryland Birders,

You are cordially invited to attend a ceremony to dedicate Mattawoman
Creek and surrounding forestlands as an Important Bird Area. The
ceremony will take place on Saturday August 21, 2010 at 1:30pm at
Mattingly Park on Mattingly Avenue in the town of Indian Head,
Maryland, as part of the Lotus Blossom Festival organized and
sponsored by The Smarter Growth Alliance for Charles County, of which
Audubon Maryland-DC is a member. The Lotus Blossom Festival will
feature free boat rides to the lotus blossoms, face painting and fish
printing, and folk music by Grace Griffith and Lynn Hollyfield.
Directions and more information are available at
http://mddc.audubon.org/events/1944.

At the IBA ceremony Audubon will recognize the excellent land
management of Mattawoman Natural Environment Area and Myrtle Grove
Wildlife Management Area by Maryland Department of Natural Resources
and the outstanding efforts of the Mattawoman Watershed Society to
promote habitat and wildlife conservation within this Important Bird
Area. National Audubon Society’s Director of Bird Conservation, Greg
Butcher, will speak at the ceremony.

Audubon’s Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program is currently developing
an inventory of the critical sites for bird conservation in Maryland
and DC as part of a global IBA Program coordinated by Birdlife
International. Mattawoman Creek IBA is of statewide importance for
Forest Interior Dwelling Species (FIDS) hosting one of the most
diverse FIDS assemblages on Maryland’s Coastal Plain. Among these
forest-interior birds, three species on the Audubon/American Bird
Conservancy Watchlist have significant populations at Mattawoman
Creek. These are: Prothonotary Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, and Wood
Thrush. Mattawoman Creek is also well known as an area of outstanding
ecological value for other species groups, hosting one of the most
productive fish spawning and nursery areas in the Chesapeake Bay,
uncommon freshwater mussel species, and rare plants, including
impressive populations of the beautiful American Lotus. You can learn
more about the Audubon’s Important Bird Areas Program at our website,
http://www.audubonmddc.org/SciCon_IBAs.html

We hope you can attend this landmark event at this truly wonderful
natural area. If you have further questions, please contact David
Yeany, Audubon Maryland-DC's Important Bird Areas Coordinator at
(410)-558-2473 or by e-mail at 

--
David Yeany II
Important Bird Areas Coordinator
Audubon MD-DC
2437 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224
Email: