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The Karval Community Alliance held their 3rd Annual Mountain Plover Festival on April 24, 25, & 26,2009.
The Festival started out on Friday evening with registration, an ice cream social and sandwiches served by the Willing Workers Club. The school bus driven by Sheri Logan loaded and headed out to find plovers, swift fox and other birds and wildlife. The Star Gazing tour had to be cancelled due to the clouds.
Saturday morning started early at 5:30am with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon & sausage, etc. being served by the Karval Alliance. The early tour started with the school bus loaded with guests, presenters and community residents and driven by Frances Maskus, headed out to find more birds and wildlife. While driving the country roads several birds were spotted and viewed. The drive ended at the Wineinger-Davis ranch. The cool morning finally warmed up and the birds started showing up. Besides Russell's cattle wanting to be feed and following the big yellow school bus and the trailer of port-a-potty, several more birds were added to our list. On the return to Karval the swift fox was waiting for us to spot it. We returned to a lunch provided by the Friendship Circle Club. After that the bus headed to the Hugo State Wildlife area and Kinney Lake.
The Chuckwagon supper on Saturday evening was sponsored by the Karval Sophomore Class and parents. About 83 people enjoyed the supper and entertainment by the Karval music department along with the help of teachers.
The awards for the photo contest was also presented that evening. The contest was made possible with a grant from the Colorado Council on the Arts. Two divisions: Open Class and 12 years of age & Under, & 6 categories in each division were used for the contest. Disposable Camera's were purchased and the prize money awards was made possible thru the grant. Camera's were given to the students to take pictures and enter them in the contest. Awards of 1st place,$15.00; 2nd place-$10.00; and 3rd place-$5.00 were awarded. The Youth that entered pictures also got a camera for next years contest.
The winners in the Youth Division were:
- Animals
- 1st- Elizabeth Thornton
- 2nd- Janna Pelster
- Birds
- People
- 1st-Janna Pelster
- 2nd Joe Pelster
- Farm & Ranch
- Landscapes & Scenery
- 1st- Joe Pelster
- 2nd- Elizabeth Thornton
- 3rd- Janna Pelster
- Plover Festival(Prior Year)
Open Class winners were:
- Animals
- 1st-Mags Carling
- 2nd-Letha Clark
- 3rd-Mark Carling
- Birds
- 1st-Sheila Pelster
- 2nd- Mark Carling
- 3rd- Mags Carling
- People
- 1st-Tammy Thornton
- 2nd-Mags Carling
- 3rd-Karla Yoder
- Most Moving Award-Frances Maskus
- Farm & Ranch
- 1st Tammy Thornton
- 2nd-Sheila Pelster
- 3rd-Mark Carling
- Landscapes & Scenery
- 1st-Bobbi Jo LaForce
- 2nd Sheila Pelster
- 3rd- Mark Carling
- Plover Festival(Prior Year)
- 1st-Betty Lee Bailey
- 2nd- Frances Maskus
- Best of Show Award--Bobbi Jo LaForce
Sunday morning started early with breakfast of pancakes, sausage and eggs served by the Karval Lions. With the school bus loaded we headed south out of town. A one legged Sandhill Crane was spotted at Dean Parker's.
We toured the pasture and ponds with Dan Merewether. A Long-eared Owl was sitting at a homestead place waiting for our arrival. As we drove north on Highway 109 back to Karval, 2 golden eagles were spotted having lunch on a prairie dog. Karval Lake was our last stop of the morning where we added several more birds to our list. Even a Killdeer was protecting their nest which was right beside the bus. Returning to the Karval Community Building for lunch which was served by the Karval FFA. With allot of visiting and promises of coming back next year several departed to go to their homes or explore sights on their own.
It seemed that this years list of birds was to see 70 different species but we fell short by 3 only seeing 67. That was better than last years as we only had 47 on our list.
Plans are already being discussed for next year.
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