Celebrating International Migratory Bird Day
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Contact: Stacy Vallie, 307-344-2015
National Park Service Yellowstone National Park ---------------------------------------------------- Yellowstone National Park Celebrates International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) is an annual event to celebrate and support migratory bird conservation. Like clockwork, each spring many migratory birds return to or fly over environments like Yellowstone National Park en route to their breeding areas. Yellowstone and the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center staff will celebrate IMBD on Sunday, May 10, with programs and a field trip that are open to the public. The day will begin at 8:00 a.m. inside Yellowstone National Park at the picnic area at Madison Junction. Participants will meet for a ranger-led, bird-watching car caravan along the Madison River, featuring birds of lodgepole pine forests and grassy riparian meadows, sandhill cranes, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, songbirds and a bald eagle nest. The field trip will conclude at noon. Suggested items for the field trip include warm clothes, water, binoculars and a snack, if desired. IMBD programs, games and crafts will take place from 1:00 p.m. through 5:00 p.m. at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana. Children of all ages can play the migration game "It’s a Risky Journey," create bird masks and origami or participate in other activities. At 1:00 p.m., a Discovery Center naturalist will give a live raptor program using a rough-legged hawk and western screech owl, followed by a presentation titled "Not-so-bird Brained: The Mysterious Raven" at 2:00 p.m. Join National Park Service Ranger Katy Duffy at 3:00 p.m. for a presentation on the birds of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The day will conclude with another captive raptor program at 4:00 p.m. The activities are free of charge, but those wishing to explore the rest of the Discovery Center will be required to pay a fee and field trip participants are required to pay the park entrance fee of $25 per vehicle. For further information on IMBD programs or field trips call Katy Duffy at (307) 344-2754. - www.nps.gov/yell - |
Did You Know?
Yellowstone contains approximately one-half of the world’s hydrothermal features. There are over 10,000 hydrothermal features, including over 300 geysers, in the park.