Date: April 20, 2008
Weir Preserve Hosts Spring Bird Walk
Naturalist Frank Gallo of New Canaan will lead the annual Spring Bird Walk in the Weir Preserve adjacent to Weir Farm National Historic Site on Sunday, May 4, beginning at 7:30 AM. Birders will meet at the preserve’s main entrance on Nod Hill Road, just north of Granite Drive in Wilton, near the Wilton-Ridgefield border. The walk will be held rain or shine and will last about 90 minutes. Children are welcome. There is no fee. Weir Farm National Historic Site, Connecticut’s only National Park, is co-hosting the event.
This annual outing is timed to encounter late migrating birds, according to Gallo, who is Director of Coastal Education at the Connecticut Audubon Society in Milford. Among species to be sought are warblers, flycatchers, tanagers, thrushes and hawks. First stop on the walk will be the edge of Indian Hills Swamp, which abounds with avian life in May. The group will proceed on trails through woodlands and open fields of the preserve and neighboring Weir Farm NHS. In previous years more than 40 species have been identified.
Frank Gallo is a noted birder in this area and he has led tours in South and Central America, South Africa and New Zealand for the New Canaan Nature Center and Connecticut Audubon. He has led numerous bird walks and owl prowls in Weir Preserve and has the calling skills to attract birds to the walkers.
Birders are encouraged to bring binoculars, field guides and questions. Limited parking is available along Nod Hill Road at the main entrance.
Weir Preserve is a 110-acre conservation area assembled by Wilton residents beginning in 1969. Weir Farm National Historic Site is managed by the National Park Service with the assistance of the private Weir Farm Art Center which assumed ownership and management of the preserve from The Nature Conservancy Connecticut Chapter in 2005. Both properties are named for J. Alden Weir, a leading American Impressionist painter at the turn of the last century, whose farm covered much of the historic site and preserve. Weir Preserve was initiated with a land donation by Cora Weir Burlingham, daughter of the artist.
