THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Birds, Birds and Humpback Whales

12 – Day Birding & Natural History Trip: January 14 – January 25, 2011

Day 1 – Friday, January 14: Raleigh/Durham to our US Gateway City and on to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Our adventure begins at Raleigh/Durham International airport with our flight to Miami. Please arrive at RDU no later than two hours prior to our scheduled departure time. Dave Davenport and John Gerwin will be there to meet you and help you get checked in. Upon arrival at Miami’s International Airport we will transfer to our departure gate for our flight to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Once we arrive in the Dominican Republic we will clear customs and immigration before we meet Kate Wallace, our guide/driver, and transfer to the Hotel Palacio. The rest of the afternoon will be free to relax prior to dinner. After dinner we will return to our rooms at the hotel for a night of much needed rest. The Hotel Palacio occupies a 17^th century mansion complete with stone-walled walkways and an interior courtyard. The rooms are comfortable and the service is excellent. (D)

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Wake Audubon volunteers supervised the efforts of 20 engineering students from North Carolina State University to remove invasive plants at Anderson Point Park on Saturday, March 27. Raleigh Parks staff followed our groups as we moved through the woods and helped by safely applying herbicide on each of the cut stems.
In total we cut or pulled 3000 individual Privet and/or Eleagnus plants from the park during our 3-hour effort. We also pruned dead stems from the remnant population of Mountain Laurel, and added a mulch and peat moss topdressing for those shrubs and the Galax that carpets the forest floor among them. All in all it was a wonderfully successful partnership.
Special thanks to those Wake Audubon volunteers who helped with these efforts: Erik Thomas, Sue and Dan Harvey, and Valerie Waters. John Connors