2nd Annual GVAS Fall Birding Festival
It was cold, not cool, with monochrome grey skies, and not a ray of sunshine to be seen.... but at least it wasn’t raining! What a contrast to last year’s festival weather. The hardy folks who showed up anyway were treated to a number of great demonstrations including ABC’s of Birding with Rhonda Woodward, The Citizen Science Screech and Barn Owl Projects with Nic Korte, Binocular and Scope Demos by the Cabela’s staff, and everyone’s favorite: Falconry with Ray Rickard his other falconer friends.
Mary Korte did a wonderful job of organizing this year’s festival, which included a new “Children’s Table” with bird related activities, as well as prize drawings for kids who did show up...(which meant every one of them!) Jan Burch’s grand- son displayed a natural talent for meeting and greeting visitors as he handed out prize drawing tickets. In fact, we would like to invite him to return next year as our official “Meet & Greet” Audubon Ambassador.
Nancy Wilson and Meg Cooper kept visitors fed with bagels, pastries, coffee and juice. The lemonade? I don’t think it saw any takers at all. On this strangely bone-chilling day, people were searching for mittens, hats and extra layers and wishing for hot chocolate, instead.
Kathleen Tadvick and Trina Romero of Colorado Parks & Wildlife kept folks engaged about wildlife at their booth, while the Math & Science Center staff involved visitors with all kinds of hands on demos they had brought along. Western Anglers were tying flies, and good thing they had special gloves to assist them on this chilly day. Larry Collins’ Wild Birds Unlimited booth had a variety of seed and feeders to entice backyard bird feeder enthusiasts. Between Bob Wilson’s “make your own binocular straps” and the Banding Station (no birds netted on this cold day) demonstration, visitors had plenty to see and do, provided they wore their layers!
Special kudos go to Karen Levad for the beautiful Birding Festival Poster design, along with Gini Keller for her work behind the scenes. We owe generous thanks to REI for donation of binoculars, Barnes & Noble for prize donations, City Market, Enstrom’s, Albertson’s, Einstein Bagels and City Market for their generous food donations.
We hope to move the 3rd Annual Birding Festival back to late September when, with luck and cooperation from the weather gods, it will be warm, sunny and perfect for birds and humans.
