September 5, 2024

By Staff Reporter  

This year’s Florida Birding and Nature Festival is being held from Thursday through Sunday, October 17-20. The event will feature field trips, boat excursions, seminars by experts, nationally renowned keynote speakers and a free nature expo. It coincides with the peak of fall migration of birds through Central Florida.

The outings — led by knowledgeable guides and, in some cases, the managers of the nature habitats visited — include walking, boat and canoe trips and a bus tour of Central Florida birding hot spots. Some field trips explore sites not normally open to the public.

A Thursday bus tour will explore the Circle B Bar Reserve and Saddle Creek Park, birding hot spots in nearby Lakeland. A sunset cruise on Thursday will take visitors to Coffee Pot Bayou Bird Island, where great egrets, roseate spoonbills and other water birds roost.

Most of the field trips are scheduled for Friday through Sunday. Among the destinations: Egmont Key, the Cross Bar Ranch in Spring Hill, Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve, Blackwater Creek Preserve, Fort Desoto Park and the Lower Green Swamp Nature Preserve. Last year’s popular trip to the Schultz Nature Preserve is on the agenda again, as is the fascinating session on bird banding.

Field trip space is limited, so early registration is advised.

Legendary environmental warrior Clay Henderson will present the Friday keynote address. Henderson had a long career as an environmental lawyer, educator and writer. He is the former president of the Florida Audubon Society and is the author of Forces of Nature.

World-renowned photographer and ornithologist Tim Laman will be the Saturday keynote speaker and will lead two Friday morning seminars. The National Geographic photographer will share his favorite bird photographs from more than 25 years in the field.

The festival also will offer two days of in-person and Zoom-broadcast seminars with experts who will explore fascinating nature topics, such as the mysteries of wildlife migration, the underappreciated virtues of the vulture, environmental threats to the mighty killer whale and the lessons of 50 years of research into Sarasota Bay’s dolphins.

The nature expo on Friday and Saturday at the Suncoast Youth Conservation Center will feature displays from numerous environmental organizations, nature-related businesses and artists. Exhibitors will sell binoculars, artwork, bird boxes and native plants that attract birds and butterflies.

The festival will be headquartered at the Suncoast Youth Conservation Center, located at 6650 Dickman Rd. in Apollo Beach. For more information and registration, see www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org.