Chillin’ with Bedford Audubon: July Programs

Gardeners and would-be gardeners needed!
Please join us for weekly Garden Volunteer Hours where you’ll work alongside professional native gardener Missy Fabel and fellow volunteers to help maintain this beautiful habitat throughout the season. Garden tour guides are also needed… we can train you!
Every Tuesday from 9:00-11:00am. You’re welcome to drop in, or email Susan  to add your name to our list of garden volunteers to stay in the loop on all garden volunteer work.  We have tools and supplies, but please bring your own gloves if you have them.

Let the fireworks begin!
Bring in July with the birds! Join Naturalist Tait Johansson bright and early for his First Wednesday’s Bird Walk at Deans Bridge in Somers. We’ll be tracking the changing seasons through the birds we see in the surrounding water, wetland, grassland, and woodland habitats. Some possibilities this month include Wood Duck, Pileated Woodpecker, Brown Creeper, Warbling Vireo, Yellow-throated Vireo, and Indigo Bunting.
Wednesday, July 3, 7:30-9:30am. Cost: Free. Level of Difficulty: Moderate (this walk includes a steep incline). Please email Susan to register.

Spend a summer evening on our patio, for art’s sake!
Back by popular demand! Enjoy a fun and creative summer evening at Bylane overlooking the native garden and sanctuary as you paint your own nature-inspired masterpiece. Charlotte Holden will lead this summer’s Paint Night, going back to the roots of her relationship with Bedford Audubon. No experience needed… Charlotte will guide the group in creating a beautiful painting on personal canvases. Sign up with friends or make new ones on this special evening! Sign up early, as this event tends to sell out quickly.
Thursday, July 11, 6:30-8:00pm. Cost: $35 (includes all materials including easel, canvas, painting supplies, and refreshments). Limited to 12 participants. Click here to purchase your ticket online or email Susan to pay by check. Please note that your spot is not confirmed until payment is received.

The American Lady butterfly feeds on nectar from flowing plants such as aster, goldenrod, marigold, and common milkweed; larva feed on pearly everlasting, ironweed, and more.
Enroll in our Butterfly Workshop with Naturalist Tait Johansson to learn about the American Lady butterfly and so much more! Indoor instruction will include the natural history and identification of local butterflies followed by a walk in our native garden and surrounding sanctuary. We hope to see Red-spotted Purple, Great Spangled Fritillary, Mulberry Wing, Black Dash, and possibly Dion Skipper. Bring binoculars, close-focusing ones if you have them, and lunch if you would like. Need to borrow binoculars? Just ask when registering.
Saturday, July 13, 10:00am-1:00pm. Cost: $20 for members, $55 for non-members (this includes a year’s membership); fee includes a take-home butterfly ID resources. Limited to 8 participants.  Click here to purchase your ticket online or email Susan to pay by check.

Results from the Cornell Lab’s Project Tanager indicate that in the heart of the Scarlet Tanager’s range in the Northeast, it can be found in small forest patches; in the Midwest, similar sized forest patches tend to have no tanagers.
This means we have a chance of spotting one on Naturalist Tait Johansson’s monthly Third Thursday’s Bird Walk. This month, we also hope to spot Indigo Buntings and other breeders that might still be around including Spotted Sandpiper and Pine Warbler. Of course, we’ll start off by checking out the dam’s resident Cliff Swallow colony. This is a popular, easy walk – and a perfect way to connect with nature before heading into the rest of your day.
Thursday, July 18, 7:30-9:30am. Cost: Free. Level of Difficulty: Easy (this walk is mostly flat with only a gently incline). Email Susan to register.

Spend the happiest of hours in our backyard!
Meet our flock! Join us for Birds, Blooms, and Botanicals outside on our patio to meet fellow Bedford Audubon members, staff, and Board members over cold drinks and nibbles while learning about the birds and plants that call Bylane Farm home. Summer Field Biologist, Arden Schneider, will be on hand to help with using citizen science apps such as Merlin, Seek, and iNaturalist to identify what we see and hear, and Summer Garden Intern Diansen Zhang will be there to show you around the newly-restored Bedford Audubon Habitat Garden. Talk shop with fellow birders, or simply relax and enjoy the summer evening sights and sounds of the sanctuary surrounding Bylane Farm.
Thursday, July 18, 6:00-8:00pm. Cost: Free. Please email Susan to RSVP.

We’re doubling down on a summer field trip to the sound!
This is a trip not to be missed! Join Naturalist Tait Johansson and incoming Board President John Hannan on a Field Trip to the Coastal Center at Milford Point. Milford Point is part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge and is adjacent to CT DEEP’s 550-acre Wheeler Marsh Wildlife Management Area. Together, they provide some of Connecticut’s finest wildlife viewing opportunities. The site is a haven for year-round and migratory wildlife with nesting species like Piping Plovers, Bald Eagle, and Peregrine Falcon while annually supporting between 10,000-20,000 migrating shorebirds, including the Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Sanderling, and Dunlin, and offers extraordinary opportunities for wildlife viewing. Purple Martins nest just yards from the parking area, and we’ll be looking out for American Oystercatchers, Willets, along with Least and Common Terns which should still be watching over fledging birds that are just beginning to fly and hunt on their own.
Saturday, July 20, 9:00am-12:30pm. Cost: Free. Level of Difficulty: Easy. Email Susan to register. Cars will leave from Bylane Farm at 7:30am. Parking is limited at Milford Point so please carpool. You can let Susan know when registering if you are interested in sharing a ride.

Something to “coo” about…
Join us for a discussion of our July pick for the Bylane Book Club: A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching by Rosemary Mosco. This book is part field guide, part history, part ornithology primer, and altogether fun. Pigeons are amazing, and until recently, humans adored them. We’ve kept them as pets, held pigeon beauty contests, raced them, used them to carry messages over battlefields, harvested their poop to fertilize our crops—and cooked them in gourmet dishes. Rediscover the wonder of pigeons by reading this book! They coo, peck and nest all over the world, yet most of us treat them with indifference or disdain. So Rosemary Mosco, a bird-lover, science communicator, writer, and cartoonist, is here to give the pigeon’s image a makeover, and to help every town- and city-dweller get closer to nature by discovering the joys of birding through pigeon-watching.
Monday, July 22, 6:30pm. Cost: Free. Email Susan to register.

Life is fleeting, especially for some butterflies.
Many adult butterflies have a life-span of one month, with the smallest living only a week or so, and a few, such as the Monarch, can live up to nine months. Learn even more about these beautiful insects by joining Naturalist Tait Johansson for a summer Nature Walk to Explore The Butterflies of Bylane in the newly renovated Bedford Audubon Habitat Garden and surrounding sanctuary. We will be hoping for sightings of Viceroy, Mulberry Wing, Black Dash, and Zabulon Skipper.
Wednesday, July 24, 10:00am-noon. Cost: Free. Level of Difficulty: Easy. Email Susan to register.