Patrick Pitts of Fish and Wildlife Tour Cost $25 Patrick will lead at tour to the W165. West Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility Wetlands (Indian River County) Formerly known as the Indian River County Wetlands Treatment Facility, this bird- and birder-friendly site employs a unique technique to further clean its treated wastewater. After cleaning the water chemically, (which in the past would have been discharged into a river), the water flows instead through a created wetland. Plants like cattail and bulrush remove excess nutrients like phosphates and nitrates, which prevents harmful algae blooms downstream that choke out the native aquatic life. Needless to say, these wetlands are quite productive, and birds love them! Birders will appreciate the 0.25-mile boardwalk, covered pavilion and observation tower on the south side of the wetlands, as well as the 4.8 miles of diked impoundment trails, which allow easy viewing of wading birds (including Limpkin, Sandhill Crane, egrets, herons, ibises and both bitterns), ducks (Wood, Green-winged and Blue-winged Teal, Mottled, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon and Ring-necked) and associated water- and shorebirds (Common Gallinule, Purple Gallinule, King Rail, Sora, Wilson’s Snipe, Black-necked Stilt and both yellowlegs, among others). Sign in at the entrance before birding. Summer birding is productive here, Bring water and sun protection. This tour will be Saturday leaving the Womens Club at 7am...Cost is $25 per person. Plan to carpool and caravan. PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online! David Simpson Bird Tour Saturday: Cost $45 Trip to Captain Forsters Hammock for migrant songbirds as well. Similar timing to the Pelican Island trip. Captain Forsters can be VERY wet in the fall so people will need to be warned. It may not work for that reason. David will be leading a trip there for Pelican Island Audubon the week before, so he will have a better idea of the trail conditions then. PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online! David Simpson Bird Tour Sunday: Cost $35 Leave Downtown Vero, with the group, at 7:30 and make a stop at the restrooms at the north end of Jungle Trail around 8:00. If people are coming from elsewhere, they could meet at 8 at the restrooms, if that works for you. We will plan to be done by 10:30 at the latest so people can be back to the festival by 11. The trip would be similar to what we did in March. Well drive from the restrooms to the Century Trail parking lot and walk from there. Bird life will be a little different. We should have a chance to see some migrating birds like Peregrine falcons and songbirds. The exact route may change with the changing conditions. Well try to get folks on as many birds as we can. PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online! Kristin Beck Bird Kayak Tour Sunday: Cost $45 The trip would leave from the Women’s Club at 8:30 and go to the Oslo Road boat ramp where you would kayak around the mangroves and over to the island with the large rookery.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 01:06:12 +0000