The group is mixed with a few elderly and then most others are of working age. It's surprising when new people show up and say they've always birded but wanted to bird with a group. Most of the time they are excellent birders.
Saturday , Sept 8 we went to a location called Nova Nature Trail.
We have several large petrochemical plants here , one of them being Nova. Nova was built in the seventies and has expanded several times since. Now when large plants are made they buy a lot of land near them. They rent it back to the farmers.
That's where the Nova Nature Trail comes in. The 255 acres was probably rented out for pasture. The company decided to make the land into a nature trail. They've done an excellent job. There are 10 to 15 km of trails The habitat varies from grass to brush to trees and riparian. There is a sleepy little stream the goes through the property. Beavers like this so the dams make some excellent wetlands.
Saturday was cloudy, a bit windy and 14 C. Nine of us went out and had a great time. We found 24 bird species The garter snake that one of us nearly stepped on was and extra.
The following photos were taken by Lynette Asselstine Braun.
Off we go
Look in there!
Shoveller
A grove of aspen
A general view of the area. The company has build great trails and walk ways near the wetlands.
With many sets of eyes and some very competent birders we can find quite a few species
