From the Bridgerland Audubon Facebook Group, Matthew Kugel:
Hello all! I hope everyone had a happy holiday filled with love and joy. My name is Matt Kugel and I am the new Activities Coordinator and Chair for Bridgerland Audubon Society! Part of my responsibilities within BAS is to guide birdwatching field trips in and around Cache Valley. I will be doing so once per month and sometimes more! I will post an activities calendar for the year, which will include trips to the Bear River Auto Tour, Logan Lagoons, kayaking the wetlands of Hyrum Reservoir, and more! But for now, see the attached flyer for our January event at the Logan Icon Trail.
Please see the two attached flyers for details!
A bit about me: I am originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and have lived in Logan for almost two years now (Go Pack). I started birdwatching in college for an ornithology course and the passion stuck and has carried me to birding adventures in Arizona, Colombia, and Guatemala, volunteer activities for the World Birding Center at South Padre Island, Texas, and guiding for the Great Salt Lake Birding Festival. I am an open book, so if you want to know more just ask on the field trips! I have some pretty fun stories!
We here at BAS strive to include people from any and all religious, political, cultural, age, language, and gender backgrounds and I want to communicate that these field trips will emulate this openness and acceptance. 🙂 That being said, some of our field trips will have us crossing rough terrain and doing “hard birding”–I am looking at you warblers. I will communicate the physical and birding difficulty of the trips up front and you decide your comfort level. I look forward to sharing my passions for birdwatching, ecology, and botany with all who care to join us on our field trips.
If you have any questions feel free to comment or direct message me. For now, if you are interested please go ahead and comment on this post. I will put together a sign up sheet at a later time this week.
Questions? Contact Matt Kugel at m.kugel@outlook.com
3/9/2023 Owling up Green, Smithfield, Birch, or Lefthand fork canyon depending on activity
Duration: Meet at the trailhead at 7 PM, return to the cars around 10 PM
Join us as we look, and especially listen, for the owls of Cache County.
Bring your headlamps, flashlights, hiking boots, trekking poles, and adventurous spirit!
We will nail down what exact canyon we will be exploring in the end of February, so look for updates!
Questions? Contact Matt Kugel at m.kugel@outlook.com
4/7/23-4/9/23 Snow Canyon State Park/Mojave/Zion-Lytle Ranch Preserve
This will be a joint field trip with the USU Wildlife Society
Jack Greene will be co-leading this trip
We will be focusing on plants, birds, and herps
Where you stay is at your pleasure have it be camping or at a hotel. We will try to reserve a group campsite at Snow Canyon State Park.
We will affirm dates in late February/early March and put out sign up forms for this trip around mid-March.
Dates are subject to change, more information to follow.
Any questions, email jackisgreene@yahoo.com
4/30/2023 Bear River Auto Tour
Duration: 7 AM – 4 PM
Carpool arrangements recommended
Observe the avian migration in close-to or full swing!
One of the top spots to bird in all of Utah
Scopes provided
Date is subject to change with conditions.
More details to come
Questions regarding ebird, field books, identification help, ecology, and so on are welcome! I would like to help anyone become fluent in using ebird!
Any questions, email m.kugel@outlook.com
5/20/2023 Annual Weed Day partnering with USFS, UNPS, and the City of Logan
More information to follow
6/3/2023 Garden Tour on Island Drive
More information to follow
6/10/2023 Bear River Celebration and Free Fishing Day
In partner with USU Extension Water Quality and the Bear River Land Conservancy
7/22/2023 Birds, Butterflies, and Wildflowers at Tony Grove: Explore Tony Grove and its abundance of butterflies, birds, and blooms with Jack Greene and Matt Kugel
“Beautiful flowers with wings”, a phrase frequently used to express the exquisite beauty of butterflies. Join the Bridgerland Audubon Society for a fieldtrip to learn the secret lives of these amazing sparks of life, the flowers they visit, and birds that eat them! Place: Tony Grove meadows. Meet at the US Forest Service parking lot 1500 East Hwy 89 at 9am on July 22nd for carpooling. Return early afternoon. Bring lunch, water, light jacket, hat or sun screen, binoculars, camera, butterfly net (we will have some). Trip leader: local naturalist Jack Greene jackisgreene@yahoo.com or764-4815. Bring binoculars and a lunch. Return by mid afternoon.
10/5/2023 – 10/07/2023 Teton Splendor, Come spend the weekend reveling in natural wonders with us in Great Tetons National Park!
Trip led by Jack Greene and co-led by Matt Kugel.
Witness the Tetons in their best fall dress where rampaging large ungulates (elk, bison, moose, etc.), release their fall passion with grunts, bugles, and a nasty disposition. Fall migrating birds along with winter residents will add to the fun. Several hikes combined with auto tours will be included, and a visit to the Teton Science School Murie Museum. We will be camping at Gros Ventre campground, so bring your own food & gear. Car pool from Aggie Icecream parking lot at 3 pm on Friday, September 29th, return Sunday afternoon, Oct 1. The cost is $10/night/person for the group campsite, or you can reserve your own campsite at https://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/gros-ventre-campground.htm RSVP by contacting Jack Greene: 435-764-4815 or jackisgreene@yahoo.com
