Snowfest
2023-12-02 09:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | North Straub Park, 400 Bayshore Dr. NE., St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, United States
The holiday fun continues with Snowfest on Saturday, Dec. 2, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in North Straub Park. Enjoy toboggan slides for adults and children, inflatables, arts and crafts tents, food trucks and more.
The $5 wristband includes all activities and can be purchased online or at any City recreation center through Friday, Dec. 1, at noon. Admission is free.
Click here to purchase wristbands online.

Holiday Nature Crafts & Music & Treats!
2023-12-02 12:00 - 15:00 | Moccasin Lake Environmental Education Center, 2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater, FL, United States

Cookies with Santa
2023-12-15 17:30 - 20:00, 2023-12-16 17:30 - 20:00 | Pinellas Pioneer Settlement, 3130 31st Street South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33712, United States
Decorate holiday cookies, meet Santa and his elves, and browse small gifts for sale for friends and family!
Free gift wrapping provided.
$5 per child. Free admission for parents/guardians. All ages welcome!
Must register online. Please contact 727-893-7326 with any questions.

Reserve your spot! Space is limited for this event.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE.

Come "Sea" Santa
2023-12-16 12:00 - 18:00 | Seaside Seabird Sanctuary, 18328 Gulf Blvd, Indian Shores, FL, 33785, United States
Join us at the Sanctuary on December 16th from 12pm-6pm for pictures with Santa! We will also have our Avian Ambassadors for presentations, local vendors, food and drinks, and Gingerbread Houses for decoration.

RAPTOR FEST
2024-02-03 10:00 - 16:00 | Boyd Hill Nature Preserve Classroom, 1101 COUNTRY CLUB WY S, St. Petersburg, FL, 33705, United States
Join us for the Tenth Annual Raptor Fest at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve! Watch trained raptors in free flight, learn about Florida’s native raptor species, take a photo with live birds of prey, learn from local environmental exhibitors, enjoy activities for children and families, take a bird walk and much more!
Flight shows will begin at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m.
Free parking and shuttle services will be provided at Lakewood High School and Lake Vista Recreation Center.

Botanical Bash
2024-03-10 13:00 - 16:00 | Tampa Bay Watch Marine & Education Center, 3000 Pinellas Bayway South, Tierra Verde, FL, 33715, United States
Join us on March 10th at Tampa Bay Watch for the inaugural Botanical Bash. This unique event is designed to immerse you in the beauty and versatility of native gardens, offering a series of engaging activities and educational experiences.

What To Expect:

Native Plant Swap and Sale: Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just beginning your botanical journey, our native plant swap is the perfect opportunity to exchange propagated plants, clippings, and seeds. Enhance your garden with unique finds from local nursery vendors, and dive deep into the world of Florida natives.
Educational Resources and Exhibits: Discover the latest in sustainable gardening practices and learn how to incorporate native plants into your own garden landscape. Our exhibits are packed with information to help you grow your green thumb.
Plant Scavenger Hunt: Embark on an adventure across the Tampa Bay Watch property with our plant scavenger hunt. Identify native species, capture their beauty with your camera, and win unique prizes.
DIY Native Wildflower Seed Bombs: Get your hands dirty at our activity table by crafting your own Florida native wildflower seed bombs. A fun, eco-friendly way to spread beauty in your garden with minimal effort.
Refreshments and Mingling: Enjoy delicious refreshments while connecting with local garden experts and fellow plant enthusiasts. It’s the perfect setting to share tips, stories, and celebrate our community’s love for gardening.

*Tampa Bay Watch members enjoy FREE admission. Cost is $10 for non-members

Registration

Earth Day Birthday!
2024-04-20 09:00 - 14:00 | Brooker Creek Environmental Education Center, 3940 Keystone Road, Tarpon Springs, FL, 34688, United States
A Springtime Conservation Celebration!
Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center and the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve Present: Earth Day Birthday: A Springtime Conservation Celebration!
Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center and the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve are pleased to announce a special celebration of the Environmental Education Center’s 20th birthday and the Friends’ 30th year providing support for the Preserve.
Join staff, volunteers, and your fellow community members to explore the Education Center, hands-on activities, and the wonders of Our Wildest Place!
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Ongoing Activities:

Touch-a-Truck: Meet staff from the Florida Forest Service and some of the equipment they use when fighting (or starting!) fires in natural areas.
*Build a Pollinator House: Some of our smallest wildlife needs your help! Learn about native bees, how important they are and how you can help provide habitat. *while supplies last
Green Careers in Pinellas: Meet staff from several Pinellas County Government departments and non-profit organizations who will share their work and experiences with you.
Free Trees: Pinellas County’s Urban Forestry will have a variety of trees available to take home for planting and preservation of our urban forest.
Injured Wildlife: Meet ambassador animals from Owl’s Nest Wildlife Sanctuary and learn the dos and don’ts of wildlife rescue from local experts.
Crafts and Quests: Visit the Exhibit Hall for crafts and pick up a plant quest to enhance your hiking experience.

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Scheduled Activities: *Registration required, space is limited. Click on an activity to register.

Bio-Blitz at 9am: Learn how to be a citizen scientist, gathering data on the flora and fauna of the Preserve!
Guided Hikes at 9am, 10am, and 11:30am: Explore “Our Wildest Place” on a nature hike. There are four separate hike options to choose from!
Native Bee Hunt at 10am: Join UF field researcher Clint Gibson on a search for rare and elusive native bees!
Bird Nest Box Workshop at 10:30am: Learn how to build your very own nest box for a Great Crested Flycatcher!
Dish Gardens at 1pm: Put together a pollinator buffet using small native plants to create a pollinator garden perfect for a small space! Sponsored by the Florida Wildflower Foundation.
Architecture Tour at 1pm: Learn about our buildings with the architect of the project!

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Happy Birthday to us at 2pm! Stay for cupcakes and celebrate with the County officials who work to keep the Preserve Wild!
Parking is first-come-first-served all day in the main parking lot. No pets are allowed on Pinellas County Preserves. Pedestrians only on boardwalks and trails.

2024 Florida's Birding & Photo Fest
2024-04-24 - 2024-04-28 | Celebration Hall at St. Anastasia, 5205 A1A S, St. Augustine Beach, FL, United States
Nearly 100 exciting photography & birding events including field workshops and classroom seminars.

The 2024 Birding & Photo Fest will feature the return of festival favorites, world-class photographers along with new professionals and instructors who will offer technical training opportunities and more birding in-field programs than ever before.
As always, festival participants will benefit from insights and instruction from a collection of upper echelon international nature and wildlife photographers — a group that continues to solidify Florida’s Birding & Photo Fest as one of the premier events in North America. And of course the community of St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and all of Florida’s Historic Coast is welcoming bird lovers and photography aficionados with the friendly hospitality you’ve come to expect.
The 2024 event will be held April 24-28, 2024 at Celebration Hall, St. Anastasia Located at 5205 A1A S., St. Augustine Beach, FL
For more information go to https://www.floridasbirdingandphotofest.com
>>> REGISTER HERE <<<

EARTH DAY AT MOCCASIN LAKE
2024-04-27 10:00 - 15:00 | Moccasin Lake Environmental Education Center, 2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater, FL, United States
Celebrate Earth Day with Moccasin Lake Nature Park!
There will be music, presentations, children’s crafts, reptiles and birds of prey, and food trucks!
Free event.

EPC Clean Air Fair 2024
2024-05-02 11:30 - 13:30 | FL
Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission is holding its Clean Air Fair at Poe Plaza in Downtown Tampa. The fair includes community exhibits, prize drawings and complimentary refreshments. Tampa Audubon will have a booth at the fair.
For details, go to https://www.epchc.org/divisions/air/clean-air-fair

World Oceans Day Celebration
2024-06-08 10:00 - 14:00 | RumFish Beach Resort, 6000 Gulf Boulevard, St. Pete Beach, FL, 33706, United States
Join Keep Pinellas Beautiful and Tradewinds Island Resort as we celebrate World Oceans Day on June 8th! Come meet and greet with local organizations working hard to protect our oceans, and learn how YOU can help!
Vendors will include:

Blacktop Surf Shop
Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Covanta
Department of Environmental Protection
Eckerd – Remora
Florida Native Plant Society – Pinellas Chapter
Friends of Pinellas Master Naturalists
KPBYAC
Marine Exploration Center
Minorities in Shark Science
Ocean Conservancy
Oceana
Pinellas County Public Works / Environmental Management
Pinellas County Solid Waste Facility
Roots and Shoots
Sans Market
Sea Turtle Trackers
Seaside Seabird Sanctuary
Sharks4Kids
St. Pete Urban Forestry
St. Petersburg College, STEM Center
Suncoast compost
Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition (SUAC)
Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges
Tampa Bay Watch
Tampa Bay Waterkeeper
Tradewinds
Trash Caulin
Trash Turtles
USF College of Marine Science
USF programs about sustainability/Eco-Hospitality Program
USFSP Environmental Club

Autumn Harvest Festival
2024-10-12 10:00 - 15:00 | Pinellas Pioneer Settlement, 3130 31st Street South, St. Petersburg, FL, 33712, United States
Join us for the 18th Annual Autumn Harvest Festival at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, where fall fun meets nature’s beauty. This year’s event will include an array of activities for the whole family, including games, food trucks, crafts, and hayrides!
– Saturday, October 12
– 10 AM – 3 PM
– Pinellas Pioneer Settlement, 3010 31st Street S.
ALL ages welcome.
Cost: $5 | Free entry for attendees 3 years of age or under.
Entry fee includes all activities. Merchandise and food sold separately.
For additional information, call 727-893-7326 or visit: boydhillpreserve.com

Florida Birding & Nature Festival
2024-10-17 - 2024-10-20 | FL
Early birds catch the worms — and the discounts!
We’ll be highlighting the trips that sold out first last year in a series of emails, but the entire schedule is online at https://www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org/schedule.html so you can take advantage of the early-bird pricing through July.
Pre-festival bus trip Join four of the state’s best birders — Dave Goodwin, Jim Eager, Bob Snow and Cole Frederick — on a day-long excursion to Saddle Creek Park and Circle B Bar Reserve, where you can expect to see dozens of species, (Visit https://www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org/schedule.html) for the full list.) This is definitely an early-bird excursion, with the bus boarding at 7 a.m. to take advantage of a full day of birding.
Coffeepot Bayou Bird Island Audubon’s Jeff Liechy takes the helm of Tampa Bay Watch’s Discovery Eco-Tour Boat for an evening trip and a close-up view of colonial waterbirds. (They won’t be nesting so we won’t disturb them.)
Outback Key and Lower Terra Ceia Bay Eric Plage and Holley Short will lead this boat trip to two of the region’s prime birding spots. An ephemeral barrier island, Outback Key isn’t easily accessible so the birds are extraordinarily comfortable with visitors. The Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge is a roosting site for Magnificent Frigatebirds.
Fort De Soto by land David Goodwin and Jim Eager are back again with trips for advanced birders on Saturday and Sunday morning. Fort De Soto is a 1,136-acre park covering five connected islands that is a haven for migrating neo-tropicals as well as diverse shorebirds.
Lower Green Swamp by wagon Once a working cattle ranch, the 12,800-acre preserve is being restored by Hillsborough County. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes view because the staff working on the restoration will lead the trip. You’ll cross grasslands, open wooded areas, pine forests and a large wetland area, so you’ll see an amazing diversity of birds, from Bald Eagles to Bachman Sparrows.
Check out https://www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org/schedule.html and grab those spots while you still can!
Seminars & Free Nature Expo!
While field trips get the most attention, we have an incredible lineup of presentations planned along with a free Nature Expo featuring local organizations and naturalists. You can attend as many seminars as you like for the cost of registering for one day — and they’ll all be on Zoom if you can’t make it to Apollo Beach or if you’re out on a field trip and then available afterward or if you’re out on a field trip.
Check out these highlights:

A worm’s eye view of Tampa Bay, what sediment invertebrates can tell us about the health of our bay. Dave Karlen and the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County have been studying these largely invisible creatures for 30 years.
Conserving Florida Scrub Jays. Once phosphate mining is complete, Mosaic reclaims land and then manages it with fire to provide optimum habitat for the endemic species.
Marc Minno literally wrote the books on Florida butterflies. Join him for this presentation and then a field trip through the Fred and Idah Schultz Preserve where diverse habitats make it THE place for a wide variety of butterflies.
Dan Huber at the University of Tampa is an expert on the biomechanics of sharks and how understanding their mechanical functions contribute to their position as an apex predator for millions of years.

Keynote speakers you won’t want to miss!
To be published in September, Audubon’s Birds of Florida is the latest from Clay Henderson, former president of Audubon Florida. Henderson followed Audubon’s footsteps and paddled in his wake to look for birds in the same places. His previous book, Forces of Nature, celebrates the people and organizations who made Florida a leader in state-funded conservation and land management.

Participants in last year’s birding festival logged a total of 145 species of birds, ranging from Wild Turkeys to Magnificant Frigatebirds. It’s not likely that one person saw all of them in the four days of the festival, but our schedule during peak migration season means that we’ll see birds that we otherwise would miss. Our expert field trip leaders will be scouting their locations in advance to make sure you get to see the most birds possible.
Click here for the full list.

Fall-o-ween
2024-10-26 15:00 - 20:00 | Moccasin Lake Environmental Education Center, 2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater, FL, United States
Halloween and Fall fun at Moccasin Lake Nature Park.
There will be food, music, a costume contest, arts & crafts, Halloween karaoke and more!

Holiday Lights in the Gardens 2024
2024-11-29 17:30 - 21:30, 2024-11-30 17:30 - 21:30, 2024-12-01 17:30 - 21:30, 2024-12-02 17:30 - 21:30, 2024-12-03 17:30 - 21:30, 2024-12-04 17:30 - 21:30, 2024-12-05 17:30 - 21:30, 2024-12-06 17:30 - 21:30 and 7 more dates | Florida Botanical Gardens, 12520 Ulmerton Road, Largo, FL, 33778, United States
This winter fundraiser runs from Friday, November 29th, 2024-Saturday, January 4, 2025 from 5:30-9:30 PM nightly.
There is a suggested donation of $10 per person, with kids 12 and under free.
The Florida Botanical Gardens will sparkle with 1 million, twinkling, LED lights in a multitude of colors. Vibrant laser lights and lighted figures round out our display to wow guests of all ages. The opening of our new Majeed Discovery Garden will take this already awesome event to the next level. You won’t want to miss it! Interested in being a sponsor? See the information below.
Kids Activities
There will be free kids activities in the Majeed Discovery Garden every Sunday and Thursday evening throughout the month of December.
Participate in this community event while enjoying the twinkling lights. Learn more about volunteering here: www.flbgfoundation.org/volunteer.
