Field Trips for 2023

Augusta Aiken Audubon Society – Field Trips

Here are the field trips for the first part of 2023.

Posted by Lois Stacey

Jan 7 – Brickyard Ponds – we’ll meet at the Popeye’s at Walton Way and Gordon Hwy at 8am to carpool. We’ll check out the ponds for waterfowl and possibly bird the paved road for woodland birds.

Jan 14 – Silver Bluff Quail Trail – meet at the visitor center at 8am. We will walk the Quail Trail looking for winter residents including sparrows. We may turn this into Sparrow 101 depending on how many we see. If you want to learn how to identify sparrows, this trip is for you.

Jan 21 – Phinizy Swamp Waterfowl Drive – this is a Phinizy trip, there is a $5 charge. Meet at the parking lot at 8am to drive around the property looking for waterfowl and bitterns among others.

Feb 11 – Lover’s Lane – Meet at the Popeye’s at Gordon Hwy and Walton Way at 8am. We will carpool to bird Lover’s Lane and the Levee looking for woodland birds.

Feb 18 – Phinizy Wetlands – meet in the parking lot at Phinizy at 8am. We will walk the wetland cells looking for waterfowl, bitterns and rails.

Feb 25 – Brickyard Ponds – we’ll meet at the Popeye’s at Walton Way and Gordon Hwy at 8am to carpool. We’ll check out the ponds for waterfowl and possibly bird the paved road for woodland birds.

March 4 – Kathwood Ponds – meet at the Kathwood Ponds at Silver Bluff at 8am. We will walk around the ponds looking for woodland birds, waterfowl and shorebirds. We may bird along the road after depending on time.

March 11 – Lover’s Lane Meet at the Popeye’s at Gordon Hwy and Walton Way at 8am. We will carpool to bird Lover’s Lane and the Levee looking for woodland birds.

March 18 -Crackerneck WMA – Meet at the sign-in station to bird the property looking for winter residents and early arriving migrants.

April 1 – Lover’s Lane Meet at the Popeye’s at Gordon Hwy and Walton Way at 8am. We will carpool to bird Lover’s Lane and the Levee looking for woodland birds.

April 15 – Phinizy Loop – We will meet in the parking lot at 8am and walk the 2.5 mile loop through the wetlands and the woods looking for migrants and others.

April 22 – Jackson Landing Rd – Meet at Silver Bluff at 8am sharp (cars will pull out at to carpool to bird Jackson Landing Rd. This road can be wonderful in migration, especially near the swamp. Bring bug spray, long pants and long-sleeve shirt, it can be very buggy.

May 6 – Aiken County spring migration count – details to come.

May 13 – Road Trip to Anderson County – We will meet at 7am at the gas station at I-20 exit 1 to carpool. We will drive approximately 2 hours north to Dobbins Farm Road in Anderson County, SC. We will primarily be looking for Dickcissel and Grasshopper Sparrows, both of which breed here and can be found sitting on fence posts signing. Bring a lunch and we’ll stop at Beaverdam WMA to eat. https://www.carolinabirdclub.org/sites/SC/townville.html

May 20 – Silver Bluff Quail Trail – meet at the visitor center at 8am. We will walk the Quail Trail looking for winter residents including sparrows.

June 3 – Lover’s Lane – Meet at the Popeye’s at Gordon Hwy and Walton Way at 8am. We will carpool to bird Lover’s Lane and the Levee looking for woodland birds.

June 10 – Jackson Landing Rd. – Meet at Silver Bluff at 8am sharp (cars will pull out at to carpool to bird Jackson Landing Rd. This road can be wonderful in migration, especially near the swamp. Bring bug spray, long pants and long-sleeve shirt, it can be very buggy.

The field trips for the remainder of 2023 will posted at a later date.

All of Augusta-Aiken Audubon’s field trips are free and open to the public. However, we also are a chapter of National Audubon and you can help support the chapter by becoming a member.

If you join National Audubon (www.audubon.org) you will automatically become a member of your closest Audubon chapter. In the CSRA that is us! This will get you the Audubon magazine and a few other perks.

If you don’t want to join National but you want to support the club, participate in member only events and such we do offer a chapter-only membership. The form for the local chapter-only membership can be found at

http://augustaaikenaudubon.org/…/chapteronlymembership.pdf.

Please consider joining us.