Summer fun continues
Da...@dhsmall.net
Athol Bird & Nature Club
Field Trips & Meetings 2025
http://www.atholbirdclub.org
We love our Garlic and Arts volunteers.
We hope you will join us once again on September 27th and 28th in 2025 to work with the Organizers on the field. Sign up to volunteer as an individual or a team.
Field Trips in Brown Text – Indoor Meetings in Black Text
Friday, July 25th 2:00-4:00 p.m. (Note time adjustment) Family Stream Walk at Gifford Family Memorial Forest, 101 Tully Road, Orange. 
Parking is available at the opening just south of the Gifford Family Memorial Forest entrance and along the road just to the north. Free, all ages. Please rsvp to Caitie at dwyer-...@mountgrace.org.
Join Mount Grace in an adventure with Athol Bird and Nature Club Board member and biologist Cathy Szal with science teacher Katrina Walton for a family stream walk in Gifford Memorial Forest by the West Branch of the Tully River. We’ll explore the stream and look at the aquatic invertebrates living within it. We’ll discover what the invertebrates can tell us about the stream’s health. Did you know that you can read a stream?! Cathy and Katrina will teach us how by looking at its banks, bottom and water flow patterns. We’ll have fun child-friendly activities at the stream side. Boots or water shoes are suggested. Prepare for bugs. Long sleeves, hats and perhaps bug repellent might be helpful. https://www.mountgrace.org/get-involved/events/event/family-stream-walk
Directions to Gifford Family Memorial Forest: From Main Street in Athol, drive north on Exchange Street for 1/3 mile, then take a left onto Pinedale Avenue. Pinedale Ave turns into Tully Rd. Continue on Tully Rd for 2 miles just past Noel’s Nursery. The Gifford Family Memorial Forest sign is on the left (west).
Friday July 25, 2025, 7:00 PM – Dinner “meet and greet” Los Agaves Grill, 491 Main St, Athol, MA 01331. Neurocordulia (Shadowdragon) hunt on the Millers (sunset is around 8:30) Email Da...@atholbirdclub.org if you want to reserve a seat for dinner.
Saturday July 26, 2025, 9:00 AM Leverett Co-op (180 Rattlesnake Gutter Rd, Leverett, MA 01054) and carpool to Brightwater Bog Shutesbury – (GPS address: 727 Wendell Rd, Shutesbury, MA.) limited parking and no cell phone coverage/
Saturday July 26, 2025, Noon -Lunch at Bub’s BBQ (676 Amherst Rd, Sunderland, MA 01375) Search Sunderland site for Tiger Spiketail Cordulegaster erronea
Sunday July 27, 2025, 9:00 am – Meet Millers River Environmental Center (100 Main Street Athol) carpool to Riceville Dam, Tom Swamp and sites in Petersham as Time allows. Lunch at Petersham General Store.
Sunday July 27, 2025, 1:00 PM –presentation - Dragonflies of the Ware River Watershed Sheila Carrol. Millers River Environmental Center
Sunday July 27, 2025, 2:30 PM explore the Tully/Millers River confluence (walkable from the Center parking lot)
These events are free and open to all. Field events may involve wading in shallow water. Bring a camera, an insect net, and a sense of adventure. Questions should be directed to organizers Josh Rose op...@mindspring.com and/or Dave Small Da...@atholbirdclub.org
Sunday August 3, 2025, 1:00 PM , in-person Junior Duck Stamp open house -Please join us in celebrating the 2025 Junior Duck Stamp Artists on Sunday August 3, 2025, between the hours of 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. at the Millers River Environmental Education Center, 100 Main Street, Athol, MA. The MREC is wheelchair accessible. No RSVP required.
Attend this open house to leisurely enjoy the artwork of students in grades K-12. Take some time to meet other student artists, educators, and guests. In addition to the artwork, you are invited to enjoy the natural history exhibits, native pollinator gardens, and the adjacent Alan Rich Environmental Park. Lite refreshments will be offered.
The intention of the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation through the Arts Program is for students to communicate visually what they have learned 
about waterfowl, habitat, and wetland conservation by creating and submitting artwork of a native North American duck, goose, or swan. In Massachusetts, the Junior Duck Stamp Program is sponsored by MassWildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with support from the Massachusetts Sportsmen’s Council.
Sunday August 24, 2025, 1:30 PM Chris Coyle had the wonderful experience of growing up part of each year in Maine in 
a rustic backwoods cabin. In the days before cell phones, computers, and even before his folks owned a television set, he found my own amusement and learned from the world around him.
Chris has recently completed a book, We Lived in the Woods, a memoir from a bygone era and time, with a chapter written by Chris’s father, Bob Coyle, founder of the Athol Bird and Nature Club. The book was published by Haley’s of Athol.
On August 24 Chris will present a program about how the book came to be, show some images from the book and tell a few stories about this special time in his life. Books will be available for purchase.
Wednesday 7:00 pm September 10th, The Impact of Rodenticides on Wildlife in New England.
A zoom presentation with Stephanie Ellis and Laura Kiesel. Hawks, owls, eagles, foxes and other predators are highly effective at keeping rodent populations in check and ecosystems in balance. But the increased use of rodenticides, particularly second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, poses a growing threat to wildlife. These highly toxic and persistent pesticides are having a wide-ranging impact on predator and prey species in both urban and rural environments, sickening and killing non target species and becoming widespread in the wildlife food web. Several states have introduced legislation to restrict or ban anticoagulant rodenticides, and some municipalities in Massachusetts have successfully worked to pass regulations restricting or prohibiting their use.
Stephanie Ellis, wildlife rehabilitator and Director of Wild Care, Inc. in Eastham, and Laura Kiesel, journalist and founder of Save Arlington Wildlife and the nonprofit Save Massachusetts Wildlife, will lead a discussion around the reasons behind the rise of the use of anticoagulant rodenticides, how they are impacting wildlife, and how citizens can advocate for safer and more effective alternatives to rodent poisons in their communities.
The WARE RIVER NATURE CLUB newsletter for July is available with the link below.
It can also be accessed by copying and pasting this link into your browser: wrnc_july_2025_newsletter_plus_inserts.pdf
Dave Small
978-413-1772 cell
