We only have two trail monitor meetings a year and one of them is our famous Fall Potluck Meeting! This year it is scheduled to be held on Sunday September 13th at 5:30 at a new location for us. It will be at Sandy Ridge Reservation's Johnson Wetland Meeting Room located at 6195 Otten Road, North Ridgeville, Ohio 44039. (Hoping wifi will be better!) We will plan to be set up and ready to enjoy supper together by 6pm and then have our meeting from approx. 7-8pm. There will be plenty of time for any clean up and packing up take home boxes either before or after the meeting. It's always a wonderful meal! We will provide at least two entrees as well as plates, napkins, plasticware and several types of drinks (including coffee, soft drinks, water and iced tea) . If each of you will bring a favorite dish to share, our meal will be delicious! It could be any type of side dish or dessert or whatever is a favorite!

Please make sure you also bring your trail monitor's weekly notes to turn in for our Nestwatch entries and also bring the filled-out end of year trail summary which is attached to this email. If you have sparrow spookers that need repairs, please bring those too so we can work on them this winter and have them ready for next year's nesting season.

We will be discussing maintenance that has been done on the trials this year and will be planning for any needed fall maintenance that should be done. Each of you have walked your trails many times in the past 4-5 months so you know better than me which boxes might need to be moved because of heavy house wren or house sparrow competition, or because the area is getting too brushy or overgrown. Maybe you know of some nestboxes on your trails that are looking worn and cracked and need to be replaced before next spring. We have brand new boxes ready! Bring you ideas and thoughts about what you need /want to have done on your own trail so we can arrange to get it done while the fall weather is favorable.

This will also be a time to just talk about our trails- what was great, what was challenging and what paperwork or process could be tweaked or improved upon. Come with ideas! 

Lastly, I hope to get a group photo. These are always my favorite photos of the year and it will be a guaranteed entry in the next Bluebird newsletter!  Smile!

Please RSVP to my email or text message! I hope to see ALL of you at the meeting though! .

If you absolutely can't make it to the meeting, please contact me to make arrangements to give me your trail notes and trail summary sheet before the meeting date and also any of your needed trail improvement ideas.

Thanks for making this group the best in the state ( in my opinion!) 

Sincerely,

Penny and Fritz Brandau

BRAS bluebird program coordinators