I ran my first walk (ever) on Friday April 8 at Great Swamp. I was hoping we would see all of the early migrants such as Tree Swallows, Great Egrets, and Eastern Phoebe. The real goal were Wilson's Snipe and Blue Winged Teal. The night before my walk it rained. The rain was scheduled to end at 8 am. My walk started at 7:30. I considered cancelling it, however, I had to work the weekend so there wasn't a rain date. I figured if anyone showed up we could just suck it up if we got rained on. I had a forty five minute drive to the parking lot it rained the whole time. As I was pulling down the dirt road to the parking area, the rain stopped.
When I got to the parking area there were eight participants that showed up. My friend Tim Metcalf co-led the walk with me. He was also kind enough to keep an ebird list and shared it with the group when we were done. As we started our journey, my target changed from teal and snipe to just being happy we weren't being rained on. As you can imagine, on a wet dreary morning, birding was slow. We did not see any Blue Winged Teal or many ducks at all. However, we did have one Wilson's Snipe. It spooked as we walked around the shoreline. It flew in a circle then out of sight. Some participants got on it while others did not.
Both Tim and I had fun leading a walk and plan on doing another later in the month. Upcoming, we have two other scheduled walks. One is at Great Swamp (it seems many of us love that place) that Patrick Felker is going to lead. Another is at Miantonomi that Jan StJean will be leading. Lastly, we will be doing a Birds and Beer at the Tilted Barn one day in May. I suspect, we will all have a lot of bird stories to talk about.
If you are a member you will receive the specifics on the date and time for these events in the next few days.
If you are a member and would like to lead a walk please let me know. You do not have to be an expert to lead a walk. There are plenty of experts on any walk and there will be lots of eyes and ears. I know many people would prefer to bird with others especially at an unfamiliar location. Bird walks are a great way to introduce people to new locations and to meet other birders. So if you are a member and interested in leading a walk please let me know. My email address is canalrat74@aol.com.
You will have to sign a waiver that you won't do anything stupid and have participants sign a waiver also. However, you can choose the date, place and time. My goal is to get as many events and walks out to our members as we reasonably can.
If you are not a member and would like to become one click here https://www.oceanstatebirdclub.org/become-a-member.html
The cost to join the club is $15 for a household. Walks are free. Many of our walks are limited to fifteen registered participants.
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