By Adam Wilson
ABAS donated $1,410 toward the Greenfield Birders’ birdfeeder project.
If you have been a birder for at least one year, you have likely found “your patch” — a local place where you like to lose yourself in nature. That magical spot where you can expand your experiences with nature and knowledge by getting lost amongst the birds. Thornwood Nature Preserve is that place for me.
Located on the south end of Greenfield, Thornwood is a 40-acre woodland, donated by Herb and Judy Brown. There is a prairie near the parking lot, a few creeks throughout the woods, and a number of well-maintained trails. Since this location became an eBird Hotspot in 2017, it has had 158 confirmed species! This is the habitat where I learned my bird calls and observed their behaviors, nest building, displaying, as well as many other actions of migrant and resident species.
In late 2024 the Greenfield Parks Department opened a Nature Center at Thornwood. As Amos Butler has done many times in the past, they contacted me and Sara (my better half) about ways to enrich the Nature Center, having proactively obtained a grant for that specific use. This opportunity to give back to the preserve was very exciting!
As a first step, we worked with the talented Rachel Brent to create a wonderful, lifelike taxidermy piece featuring woodpecker species from the preserve: a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker and Pileated Woodpecker all perched on a single mount! It is absolutely my favorite piece in the Nature Center. However, we still had funds remaining.
After a month of pondering, we decided to explore expanding and modernizing the bird feeder station they had started, similar to the beautiful setup at Eagle Creek. I am ecstatic to announce that the feeder station upgrade was installed in mid-April this year and has been a great success! Wild Birds Unlimited was a great partner to work with to outfit the nature center. We added a couple of large pan feeders, and hopper feeder, more suet feeders and a couple of squirrel-proof tube feeders. These feeders will allow for visitors to the preserve to see, up close, some of the wonderful species this land hosts.
Enriching and expanding the birding community in Greenfield has brought me so much joy since initially finding my place in our local birding community. Big thank you to Rob Ripma for initiating conversations at a Birds & Beers gathering in in 2017 (if I remember correctly). If you ever see a chance to leverage your passion to fan the flame of others, I highly recommend it.
