Birding Festival

Thursday was the start of the birding festival weekend with Thursday being the day for school children.  That was the best day for the entire weekend, at least weather wise.

The theme for the day was "birds have tools."  

Thursday was a beautiful day...no rain during our event.  Whoopee!!!

Our job Wednesday, in the rain, was to place 16 bird pictures on 4 different trails for the children to go on a bird walk Thursday.

As soon as we finished putting the birds in the trees...it stopped raining.  Ah, the best laid plans.

Here we are getting our instructions.

  
This is inside the YCC building where all events are held.  We are parked next door for the summer.  Our first job was to clean this building...looks nice doesn't it?  

Arrangements were made to greet over 100 children from 4 different schools.  The arrival times were spread out to accommodate them in an orderly manner.  The children from Eastport were the first to arrive.

Each group was welcomed by Bill Kolodnicki, project leader here at the refuge.

After that, they were given an owl presentation.

With the first owl being a Barred Owl.

I enjoyed watching the children.  They were so attentive.

Then they were given time at the touch table.

We had a volunteer from each group come up to the front of the room.  As we dressed him in a bird costume, Bill talked about the tools birds used to eat, fly, perch, etc.

This was the woodpecker costume.  The kids got a laugh out of that segment and the volunteers did a good job of flapping their wings.

After that, they were released to go out in the great outdoors to go on their bird walk.  They were divided up into 4 groups, one group for each trail, and they were to find the birds "perched" in the trees along the trail.

After finding each one, discussion followed.  That was a  great bird walk for children.  They seemed to enjoy the day, and hopefully they went away a little more knowledgeable.  

Our Law Enforcement Officer, Amanda, was there to park the buses and keep order.

Everything went off like clock work...very orderly.

It rained the whole weekend for the rest of the festival, but that did not stop people from showing up and going out for walks.

Opening ceremony given by Bob Duchesne.  He is a great bird guide who we had the pleasure of going with in the summer of 2011 to Pittstown Farm...a wonderful time!!!

Until next time...