You may have noticed that the December issue of The Badger Birder did not include its usual four-page schedule of field trips for the coming year. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic makes it impossible to plan a regular field trip schedule, so WSO's Field Trip Committee will be scheduling events on an as-possible basis and will continue to use the COVID-19 protocols it implemented for two field trips last fall.
The 2021 field trip season will begin on Jan. 17 with our annual winter birding trip along Lake Michigan.
This outing will visit a variety of lakefront locations from Milwaukee to Port Washington. Field Trips Co-chair Tom Schultz reports that we'll check the wintering gull flocks for Lesser and Greater Black-backed Gulls, as well as Glaucous and Iceland Gulls. We also have a good chance of seeing a Snowy Owl, along with an assortment of waterfowl, including Long-tailed Duck.
WSO has relied on the guidance of medical and government experts to help us craft our field trip protocols, which will require online registration and limit the number of participants to 20.
Due to the attendance limits, field trips will be open to members first, then later to non-members, if space permits. Please reference the online field trip registration available at https://wsobirds.org/what-we-do/field-trips to familiarize yourself with timelines for registration, the process involved, social distancing guidelines expected of participants, and our new waiver, which is intended to protect the membership, trip leaders and the organization itself.
Details on specific meeting locations and times will be emailed to registered participants shortly before each trip.
As with any outdoor group activity, we encourage each participant to determine if it’s appropriate for them.
