Back and better than ever, the Florida Birding and Nature Festival is scheduled for October 20 through October 22 at the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission Suncoast Youth Conservation Center at 6650 Dickman Rd in Apollo Beach, near the Manatee Viewing Center. Field trips and hikes to the region’s top birding spots will feature expert leaders. They range from easy boardwalk hikes at Newman’s Branch, a wagon ride through Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve and a behind-the-scenes visit to the Florida Aquarium to more adventuresome trips to Fort De Soto for advanced birders, Schultz Nature Preserve searching for butterflies and a field photography workshop at Circle B.
Boat trips abound as well, including tours of Coffepot Bayou, Outback Key, Egmont Key, Shell Key and Frog Creek at Terra Ceia by kayak.
“The field trips are filling up fast,” said Ann Paul, president of the event. “This is an outstanding opportunity to see Tampa Bay’s best birding spots — during the peak fall migration when up to 180 species will be coming through the region — with the experts who know where to find them.”
The festival will also offer two days of live seminars featuring talks on reddish egrets, fiddler crabs, sharks, Florida butterflies, scrub jays, manatees, field ornithology, black bears and citizen science. Two keynote speakers will share their expertise at evening events: Stephen Shunk will talk about woodpeckers’ critical roles in our continent’s forests and woodlands, and Carl Safina will discuss cognition, emotion, and culture in non-human beings.
A free Nature Expo will feature booths and displays from 50 organizations like the Little Red Wagon Native Plant Nursery, Wild Birds Unlimited and two binocular companies, Swarovski Optiks and Kowa Sport Optics, where you can “test drive” the latest technology. They’ll also have information booths hosted by local environmental groups like the Audubon chapters, the native plant society and Tampa Bay Watch, plus environmental agencies including the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
For more information and to sign up for the festival, visit www.floridabirdingandnaturefestival.org