WASFieldTrips

April 26th Field Trip to someplace fun, TBA
Started out with snow in the morning but the weather improved and we had a great day
We went south of Mitchell and west to the Kiowa WMA on CR F, checked out the ponds and Kiowa WMA. Then went to the Morrill Sandpits where we found the Cinnamon Teal and Black-necked Stilts, later checked out Acres Draw and Schmidt Implement Pond where the Marbled Godwit were spotted See the field trip list for species

May 24th, Scotts Bluff County Spring Bird Count
Meet at 27th and Ave I, Scottsbluff (RCI) at 6am, back by 1;00
We will probably go back out after lunch to continue counting

· May 31st, Carter Canyon (S402)
Meet at the old SunMart in Gering at 6am, This will be a half day trip

· June 14th, Morrill County (M401, M404)
Meet at SunMart in Gering at 6am, all day trip bring lunch and drinks

· June 21st, Kimball County (K409, K404)
Meet at SunMart in Gering at 6am, bring a lunch and drinks

· June 28th, Sioux County (S816)
Meet at 27th & Ave I (RCI) in Scottsbluff at 6am, bring a lunch and drinks

August 17th, Wildcat Audubon’s Annual Picnic at DeLara’s at 5:00pm
Bring a covered dish and table service.
We will have a fieldtrip to the Wildcat hills for poorwills at dark

September 20th, Scotts Bluff County Fall Bird Count
Meet at Arby’s at 7am, should be back by 1:00

October 18th Field Trip to Lakes for Sandhill Crane and Waterfowl
Meet at Arby’s at 7am, should be back by 1:00

December 20th, Scottsbluff Christmas Bird Count
Meet at Arby’s at 6:30am, this is an all day count, we will come back to town for lunch then continue in the afternoon.

PREVIOUS FIELD TRIPS

September 22nd 2007
Scotts Bluff County Fall Bird Count
We had 11 participants for the fall bird count. Alice Kenitz, Helen Hughson, Dean & Phyllis Drawbaugh, Ruben Seigfried, Charlotte Herrel and grandson Jason, Ed Newberry, Bonnie Schoen and Bob & Kathy DeLara. We saw 67 total species.
We birded Lake Alice, Winter's Creek Lake, Lake Minatare and areas in between. In the afternoon we check out the Mitchell, Morrill areas including Kiowa, CR F & G ponds, Morrill Sandpits and CR D west of South Morrill Rd.
Winter's Creek Lake and Kiowa was were we saw most of the ducks listed and 500+ American Coots at Winter's Creek Lake. Around a hundred or so White Pelicans were seen at Lake Alice. At Winter's Creek Lake we saw an Osprey carrying a fish then land on a tree branch to eat it. Later we saw another one at the lake and a third one south of Morrill near the river bridge.
Near a pond at the end of CR D we saw several hundred Barn Swallows, they were sitting on the power lines, fences, olive trees, road and in the corn field. See the complete bird list on Kathy's web site

October 20th, 2007
Scotts Bluff County Lakes and Ponds
We had a great morning, the weather was very nice, much better than predicted.
We had 10 people on the fieldtrip, Alice Kenitz, Helen Hughson, Dean & Phyllis Drawbaugh, Ann Duey, 'Sully' Sullivan, Ruben Siegfried, Brent Nelson, Bonnie Schoen and Kathy DeLara.
At the beginning of the field trip we saw several flocks of blackbirds/grackles. By mid-morning we began to see Sandhill Crane flying over. There were many, many flocks for some time. A cold front was coming in and that seemed to be moving the birds. One Osprey is still at Winter's Creek Lake and we saw a Bald Eagle at Lake Minatare. The ducks are beginning to come into Winter's Creek Lake, the water is higher than normal for this time of year. See the list of birds seen at Kathy's web sit