Sat, Apr 19 2014 - Hiking and a little volunteer work at beautiful Mill Creek Nature Center (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Charlie Cottingham Participants: Charlie Cottingham, Frank Wiggins

We felt very lucky to have no rain at all during this delightful event, and even a little sunshine despite the wet forecast.  Spring was "bustin' out all over," and it was fun joining the expert birders at Mill Creek for a guided hike.  From the boardwalks, bridges and trails of the lovely wetlands nature preserve we identified more than 25 avian species including bluebirds, cardinals, tree swallows, redheaded woodpeckers and cedar waxwings - also witnessed a Canada goose building her big nest by the pond.  A special treat during the birding was spotting the spherical nest that a tiny blue-grey gnatcatcher had built in the tree adjoining the observation tower and camouflaged it by encrusting it with the same grey lichens growing on the tree - later I discovered that this was the very photo (with mama bird on the nest!) I had chosen for my AOC article's "promo photo" from the Mill Creek website.
  We also enjoyed pitching in with about a dozen other energetic volunteers - jointly cutting and removing more about a ton of of invasive Chinese privet trees and shrubs from the Nature Center's creek banks. Thanks to our GA Wildlife Federation friends for doing such a fine job hosting this special Earth Day celebration event!  Afterward we joined some of them for a mouthwatering BBQ dinner at "Praise the Lard" BBQ restaurant in Buford.  We look forward to more nice AOC events at Mill Creek in the future.