Chris Coyle - Sunday @ 1:30 Join us for a fun afternoon at the Center
Da...@dhsmall.net
Athol Bird & Nature Club
Field Trips & Meetings 2025
http://www.atholbirdclub.org
Note: September calendar error resolution is explained at the bottom of this email
Field Trips in Brown Text – Indoor Meetings in Black Text
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.
Fridays August 29, September 5, 12, 19, 26, and October 3, 10, @ 7:30 am - Early Bird Birding with Jeff Johnstone. Join Jeff 
for the traditional look at the local fall bird migration. Meet at the Millers River Environmental Center at 7:30 am Call to reserve your spot with Jeff Johnstone - 978-249-9052
The WARE RIVER NATURE CLUB newsletter for August.
It can also be accessed by copying and pasting this link into your browser:
https://www.warerivernatureclub.org/uploads/4/4/1/6/44166651/wrnc_august_2025_newsletter.pdf
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.
New England Shorebird Guide, a photographic guide freely available on the Bird Observer site, now covers 28 species of shorebirds: https://www.birdobserver.org/Better-Birding/New-England-Shorebird-Guide .
Due to severe declines in the populations of most shorebird species over the past several decades, I think it is important that bird and nature-lovers become as familiar as possible with these birds and advocate for their conservation. Shorebirds are reputed to be difficult to identify. This may be true for some species, but it is also partly due to the fact that most shorebird species are highly migratory and travel long distances during the course of a year. Most are in our region for only a few weeks every year, so they are easy to miss and hard to learn to identify.
By learning their habits and habitats, as well as their behavior, shapes, and plumages, most observers can identify 20-plus species—perhaps up to 30 species of shorebird—in New England and adjoining states and provinces each year. To increase the fan base of appreciation for these birds, I created this visual guide to shorebirds of New England, and Bird Observer is generously providing free access on its website.
The guide is designed primarily as a visual aid that can be used in the field on your smart phone; it can also be installed on your tablet or computer. I have prepared a brief user manual for the guide:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u4zUC7Ghrob3bcjI5-v80kVjAOfNNR0o/view?usp=sharing .
Here are instructions for installing an icon on your iPhone that directly accesses the app:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NVpWGWzwt4RXGGGULi7JVxfZlJ5e14WZ/view .
Here are similar instructions for installing the icon on an Android phone:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1noQy7ioyXSDjL61vsqqvywpAjbHhDS4Q/view?usp=sharing
I hope you find this guide useful for finding and identifying shorebirds in our region. It is also important that you communicate to me the shortcomings, errors, and inconsistencies of the guide so that I can improve future versions. You can reach me at sohz...@gmail.com .
New England Shorebird Guide content was created by Soheil Zendeh. Marsha Salett of Bird Observer was the editor. Eric Swanzey, web manager for Bird Observer and other Massachusetts birding sites, created the website/app. Instructions for installing the guide icon on your iPhone were provided by Jay Dia. Instructions for installing the icon on an Android phone were provided by Eric Mueller. The photos in the guide were contributed by many generous photographers.
July, August and September are peak migration period for most shorebirds. Enjoy them right now.
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.
2025 ABNC Calendar Error
As previously communicated, an error was identified on two pages of the 2025 ABNC calendar. The starting day for August was shown as occurring on Saturday, when it should have been Friday. The starting day for September was shown as occurring on Tuesday when it should have been Monday.
There are several options for correcting this mistake:
- Request corrected sheets with an adhesive back peel-off cover for each of the two months. Complete the request on the ABNC website, including your mailing address and the number of calendars you are amending. The sheets will be sent to this address free of charge.
- PDF copies of the corrected months are available on the ABNC website. Simply download the corrected months, print, and either tape or glue the PDF copies over the impacted months. If you would like to have the PDF copies sent to your mailing address, please complete the request on the ABNC website, including your mailing address and the number of calendars you are amending. The sheets will be sent to this address free of charge.
- You can simply make a notation on the impacted months indicating the change in the starting date.
Use this link to request corrected pages - ABNC Calendar Revision - Athol Bird & Nature Club
We regret this error and appreciate your continued support when purchasing this unique calendar.
Dave Small
978-413-1772
Athol Bird and Nature Club
Millers River Environmental Center
100 Main Street, Athol Ma 01331
The Environmental Center is now open by appointment and available for use by our partners
