Experience the thrilling sight of thousands of sandhill cranes, wild geese and ducks plus herons and other birds.  The Refuge has the largest concentration of wintering geese and ducks in the entire state of Alabama!  You don’t need to be a bird watcher to enjoy this outing!  Experienced birders leading the trip will share their knowledge with all.

This 35,000 acre refuge attracts thousands of wintering waterfowl each year.  WNWR is comprised of diverse habitat types including bottomland hardwoods, wetlands, pine uplands, shoreline or riparian woodlands, agricultural fields, and backwater embayments.  These habitats provide excellent feeding, resting, and roosting sites for wintering waterfowl, white pelicans, sandhill cranes and a few whooping cranes as well as nesting sites for migratory songbirds and many species of resident wildlife.

We are highly privileged to have as our guide Dwight Cooley, the retired Refuge Manager.  Dwight will take us on refuge roads behind locked gates as we drive to various bays and sloughs where you can easily see hundreds of ducks and geese in large numbers.  We’ll also see many other types of birds including, hopefully, bald eagles.  We’ll even see a huge flock of sandhill cranes which winter at the refuge each year.  Last winter the Refuge hosted 16,000 sandhill Cranes and 15 endangered whooping cranes.  The gated roads are closed to the public but will be open to our group.

Please bring binoculars, a birding field guide and a spotting telescope with you if you have them.  The leader and Dan Frederick will each bring a spotting scope.

Please bring a mask with you.  You are required to wear it if you are a passenger in the refuge’s van during the outing.  You may wear it at other times during the day, too, if you wish.

The WNWR has issued a permit to Southeastern Outings to visit the refuge behind locked gates on Saturday, January 23, 2020.

Special conditions contained in the permit include to follow current CDC and State recommendations – mask, social distance, use hand sanitizer, stay home if you feel sick or have a fever.  Hopefully, the positive cases statewide will be much lower than they are now, but if there is a high number of cases for this area at the time of the scheduled trip, the permit could be rescinded.  Here are the conditions:

The permittee is responsible for ensuring all COVID-19 precautions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Office of the Governor are followed.  

This permit may be rescinded if one or more counties where the refuge is located is designated as  “Very High Risk” or “High Risk” for the spread of the COVID-19 virus or if precautions are not being followed.  Risk designation can change weekly.  Permittee should monitor the Alabama Department of Health Risk Dashboard (see link below) for updates before proceeding with the activity.   

https://alpublichealth.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/b585b67ef4074bb2b4443975bf14f77d

This outing is rated easy, as there is very little walking involved, and we won’t be climbing any hills or walking through thick brush.  Please dress for the weather.  The wind at the refuge can be biting, blowing across open water on cold days.

Well-behaved, carefully supervised children age 10 and over who can remain quiet for extended periods of time (so as to not disturb the birds and bird watchers) are welcome.

Note-To view photos of what we will see on this trip, please click on this link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SvhqhVBWlcJX5qBL2

Please be sure to click on the link and view the photographs.

Possible optional dinner after the birding trip depending on what time we finish bird watching.

Reservations Required: If you wish to participate in this outing, you are required to call Dan Frederick, 205/631-4680 or email your reservation to seoutings@bellsouth.net by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 21, 2021.  When you contact Dan, please be sure you leave either your phone number or email address.  This outing is limited to 5 motor vehicles.  Dwight Cooley, the retired Refuge Manager and our outing leader, has very kindly reserved a 10-person refuge van to be one of those vehicles.  Therefore we are now allowing a total of 26 people in order to comply with Refuge regulations.  We hope the limitation will not prove to be a problem.

Since the Refuge’s limitation is five vehicles, you must be willing to ride in a full car or vanload of people in order to be eligible to come on this trip.  If you are unwilling to carpool with other people during this outing, please do not register to participate in this event.

People who want to register to participate after the twenty-six person limit is reached will be placed on a waiting list.

If you make a reservation with Dan to come on this trip and then for any reason decide later to not come on this outing, please telephone Dan, 205/631-4680 right away.  If we have 26 people signed up on the day of the outing and, say, we have two people on the waiting list and then two people who signed up don’t show up for the hike, those two no-show people have in effect deprived the two on the waiting list from participating.  Please don’t be a no-show.  If you aren’t coming after making a reservation, please notify Dan.  If you decide to cancel, if you do not inform the leader of your cancellation, and if you are just a no-show, you will not be permitted to participate in any future Southeastern Outings events where the number of participants is limited.

At a later date leader will advise meeting time and place only to those who have signed up for this trip. 

We look forward to seeing many of you on January 23.

Info: Dan Frederick, 205/631-4680 or seoutings@bellsouth.net

DESCRIPTION OF SOUTHEASTERN OUTINGS

Do you wish you had friends who share your active lifestyle and enjoyment of outdoor activities?  Then become active with Southeastern Outings (SEO), a nonprofit organization committed and created to serve people who enjoy being active in the outdoors.  The organization plans, organizes and leads outings such as dayhikes, easy kayak and canoe trips, stream and waterfall walks, bicycle rides, lake events and other fun activities to beautiful sites in our natural environment.  From time to time we also sponsor potluck suppers and other socials.  All events and activities of the group are open to the public.  Participating in SEO activities is a splendid, simple way to make congenial new friends who enjoy the outdoors.

NO DOGS OR SMOKING ALLOWED, PLEASE, ON ANY SOUTHEASTERN OUTINGS EVENTS.

The organization currently has about 300 members.  We scheduled seventy-four events during calendar year 2020 for an average of 6 fun events per month.  We enjoy the outdoors in all seasons throughout the year.

SEO does not charge for participation in any of its outings.  You do not have to be a member to participate in one or two SEO activities.  Dues are only $10.  Please contact Dan Frederick, President, 205-631-4680, or seoutings@bellsouth.net for more information and to obtain three free monthly newsletters with membership application and a complete description of all our outdoor events.

Southeastern Outings now has a website.  Just go to seoutings.org to find announcements of all our upcoming outings scheduled plus some brief, general information about Southeastern Outings, a membership application and 1500 lovely photographs from most of our outings.

Thank you.