Our third pop-up outing will be at the west Essex Sewage Lagoons. (These lagoons have public access and no permit is required.)

One of our main targets will be shorebirds, since the lagoons serve as a stopover for migrating shorebirds that feed on the muddy banks. However, there is a good assortment of wildflowers and insects that can be seen along the main path to the lagoons as well.

We will meet at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 5, at the parking lot on North Malden Road just west of Highway 3. The parking lot and trails are gravel and the lagoons are a short walk from the parking lot. The main path is mostly flat with a couple of gradual slopes. We will have a scope available but highly recommend bringing your own if you own one. There are no public washrooms at this site.

Pop-up outings are intended to be informal, casual and social, and will take place at various locations around Essex County. They will usually be announced at least a week before the date of the pop-up. They will not have an official leader but rather we hope those in attendance will share their own knowledge, since Club members have such a wide range of experiences and interests.

One or more members of the Membership Committee will be in attendance to meet at the start of the pop-up. We will also spend some time using the iNaturalist app and the ECFNC iNaturalist Project, so if you have a smart device, we encourage you to bring it along to help identify anything interesting we find and contribute to the project.

If there is light rain, we will go ahead with the outing but if it is storming, the outing will be cancelled.