[three_fourth]On May 14th, I had the great pleasure of attending the official reception for International Migratory Bird Day, 2013, hosted at the spectacular Canadian Embassy in Washington DC. Susan Bonfield of Environment for the Americas organized the event and was the Master of Ceremonies. The Honourable Gary Doer, Canada’s Ambassador to the United States of America provided some entertaining opening remarks.  Ambassador Doer is by no means a stranger to conservation, having achieved many significant conservation ‘gains’ during his tenure as Premier of Manitoba including setting aside the east side of Lake Winnipeg as a protected area and banning logging in 71 of 73 provincial parks. Dr. Russell Greenberg, Head of the Migratory Bird Centre at the Smithsonian Institute, joined Susan Bonfield to recognize a large number of sponsors and leaders of IMBD both within and outside the government, including Nature Canada.  Nature Canada is the official Canadian partner of IMBD which we call “Welcome Back Birds.” With initial support from the Gosling Foundation, we successfully supported nearly 30 IMBD events across the country attracting thousands of people. In the coming years we plan to grow IMBD into a major national celebration of birds and nature.[/three_fourth][one_fourth_last]

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