This winter day trip will be spent birding along the Walcott Tract in the Green River Gamelands, as well as the wetlands around Lake Adger. Walking will be easy, but it’s always best to bring comfortable footwear and dress for the February weather.

The Green River Gamelands sit on the Blue Ridge Escarpment and contain quite the variety of managed habitats, from mixed hardwood to pine forest, and early successional to floodplain forest. As such it holds a fantastic mix of both mountain and lower elevation species. We will begin higher up in the Escarpment looking for Red-headed Woodpeckers, which are very rare nesting birds in the area. Wintering sparrows should include Song, White-throated and Swamp and if the day is warm, Pine Warblers may be singing their trilling songs.

We will make our way all the way to Lake Adger, where we will look for additional wintering sparrows, Wood Duck and other wintering waterfowl, and maybe a wintering Common Yellowthroat. We will also keep our eyes out for a Bald Eagle around the lake as well as the usual species of Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, Fish Crow, Red-shouldered Hawk and others. We may even get lucky and see one of the few Common Mergansers that have bred in this area the past few years.

Join Clifton for what an interesting day in and around the Thermal Belt of Polk County.