Program Calendar

Join Naturalist Tait Johansson for his ever-popular Field Trip to Central Park, a vibrant green refuge in the heart of the city where vast numbers of birds pause to feed and recharge during their long journeys. As we explore, we’ll be scanning the trees and skies for flycatchers, cuckoos, warblers, vireos, kinglets, tanagers, grosbeaks, and other songbirds, as well as the striking Black-crowned Night-Heron. We’ll end at the boathouse, where you can grab lunch or enjoy a meal you’ve brought along, whatever suits your style.

Saturday, May 2, 7:15am-1:00pm. Cost: Free. Level of Difficulty: Easy/Moderate (the walk is easy, but it is long). Please email Susan to register: info@bedfordaudubon.org.

Forests are one of the defining features of Bedford’s landscape—but they are also living systems constantly changing in response to climate, wildlife, invasive species, and human activity. Forester and bestselling author Ethan Tapper, along with Mianus River Gorge’s Rod Christie, will help us see the woods with new eyes, exploring what it really means to care for forests today. Drawing on his experience managing forests in the Northeast, Tapper will explain how forests grow, adapt, and sometimes struggle—and how thoughtful stewardship can help them become healthier and more resilient over time. For anyone who walks local trails, owns woodland, or simply values the wooded character of our community, this conversation will offer a deeper understanding of the forests that surround us and the role we can all play in their future.

Speakers:

• Ethan Tapper, Forester, Ecologist, Bestselling Author, and Digital Storyteller

• Rod Christie, Executive Director, Mianus River Gorge

Join the Mianus River Gorge Preserve for “Bedford Field Notes: FORESTS” on May 7—an evening dedicated to uncovering the hidden and ever-changing dynamics of the forests that shape Bedford’s landscape. 

Get tickets directly with Mianus River Gorge: TICKETS

BONUS EVENT: The community is then invited to join us for a celebration honoring Rod Christie's retirement after nearly 30 years of service to our community. Enjoy a community-centered celebration just outside Historical Hall on the Bedford Village Green with libations, signature cocktails, light bites, and pizza from oHHo/Pizza Girls NY. For tickets to this event ($75), visit here.

Bedford Field Notes is presented by the Mianus River Gorge, in partnership with Bedford Audobon, the Bedford Historical Society, the Bedford Garden Club, and the Rusticus Garden Club.

Learn more about the full Bedford Field Notes series at BedfordFieldNotes.org

We are excited to be invited to join our friends at Greenwich Audubon for their Annual Spring Bird Breakfast, so stop by and say hi to us at our table.

Join us for one of our favorite traditional events to celebrate the peak of spring migration on World Migratory Bird Day! Following our Spring Migration Bird Tours at 7 a.m., complimentary breakfast will be served for all. Materials on bird migration will be available for all attendees and naturalists will be on hand to point out the many colorful migratory birds that will be singing around us.

Breakfast will be served at 9 a.m. following our Spring Migration Bird Tours. Bird Tour attendees will have the option to be led on these guided tours at both our main Sanctuary, Fairchild Gardens on North Porchuck Road, Hemlock Gorge Preserve on Audubon Lane and Gimbel Preserve on Sherwood Ave. To register for the 7 a.m. bird tours visit the link below and select the May 9th tour: https://tickets.audubon.org/events/019bc227-997d-e0b0-5089-430ca478f5af

There will also be LIVE BIRD BANDING demonstrations by licensed volunteers. Starting at 8:30 a.m. and throughout the breakfast period you will have the special opportunity to observe our migrating songbirds up close while being handled by licensed bird banders to learn about the important research bird banding provides us for conservation efforts.

Saturday, May 9, 8:30-11:00am. Cost: Free. Register directly with Greenwich Audubon.

Join Melanie Brocklehurst for our latest book club discussion of We Should All Be Birds: A Memoir by Brian Buckbee, a book about finding healing and meaning through an unlikely friendship with a rescued pigeon, while battling a debilitating, mysterious chronic illness and grief after losing his partner. Published in August 2025, the memoir chronicles how Buckbee, isolated in his Montana home, transforms his life by caring for the bird, which leads to a deeper exploration of love, loss, and resilience, contrasting his former life as an athlete with his new reality. 

Monday, May 11, 6:30pm. Cost: Free. Please email Susan to register: info@bedfordaudubon.org

Naturalist Tait Johansson will lead us along Washington Road in Carmel, which sits within the forested and wetland-rich landscapes of Putnam County along the Atlantic Flyway. In spring migration, mixed habitats such as roadside woodlands, small ponds, and brushy edges provide essential stopover resources for  songbirds moving north, where they rely on insects and sheltered cover to rest and refuel. Tait will be searching for Spotted Sandpiper, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Cliff Swallow, and migrant warblers, possibly including Bay-breasted.

Tuesday, May 12, 7:00am-9:00am. Cost: Free. Level of Difficulty: Easy. Please email Susan to register: info@bedfordaudubon.org