Joanne Smith has sent the following message relating to a follow-up weed pull at Riverton Sandy Bar IBA on August 17th. We had a very successful morning out there in 2016 and are committed to keeping this habitat work going. See here for the 2016 story.

Here is the email:

Hi Everyone,

We hope you can come join us on Thursday August 17th for another morning of pulling weeds at IBA Riverton Sandy Bar.

Our September 30th, 2016 weed pull was a success with fourteen people helping pull sweet clover from an area of the main sand bar. We hope that having a weed free area will help to attract possible future piping plover to the Sandy Bar area. It has been well over twenty years since piping plover last nested in this area but with your help we hope to change this.

We’ll meet at 9:00 am at the parking area and then take the 15 minute walk out to the sandbar area together. We hope to pull weeds (which will most likely involve some birding) for three or four hours, depending on the weather. If you can even help for an hour or two, it would be greatly appreciated.

Please bring gloves, hat, sunscreen, water and a bag lunch. The walk out to the sandbar also involves a short distance through thick willows so it’s best to bring long pants and a jacket for that part.

Of course we’ll also probably be keeping our eyes open for early fall migrants.A few birds from an August 12th, 2016 visit gave us numerous species including:

– semipalmated plover
– stilt sandpiper
– sanderling
– red-necked phalarope
– semipalmated sandpiper
– Baird’s sandpiper

And chances are, there’ll be homemade muffins and a few other goodies to boost our energy.

Directions: take HWY 8 to Riverton, and then turn east on PR329 which goes through Riverton. This will take you directly to Sandy Bar.

Hope to see you there.

Joanne Smith