On-line Registration opens on July 4, 2016 at 7 a.m. PDT
This year’s festival takes place Friday, September 23, through Sunday, September 25, 2016, and promises to be one of the best ever, with stimulating field trips, workshops, and speakers, including multiple new offerings. Strategically hosted during fall migration, the festival provides participants with over 250 bird species, as well as whales, dolphins, and otters on pelagic tours of Monterey Bay.
Serious birding enthusiasts can add California specialty life-list birds such as the California Thrasher, California Towhee, Bell’s Sparrow, Oak Titmouse, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Elegant Tern, and the endangered California Condor. Birders who enjoy combining birding with tasting olive oil or wine in boutique groves and vineyards will appreciate the new tours. Local birders will have unusual access to private lands on some trips, and new birders will find supportive leaders and trips to boost skills quickly.
This year’s exceptional speakers include:
- Alvaro Jaramillo, researcher, author, and owner of Alvaro’s Adventures, presenting: Birding the Blob: Effects of Weird Warm Weather and the Drought on Birds
- Karine Tokatlian, Director of San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory’s Plover Program, presenting: Breeding Success of San Francisco Bay’s Western Snowy Plovers in the Wake of a Changing Environment
- Kate Marianchild, author and naturalist, presenting: California’s Oak Woodlands…Tantalizing Tidbits about “Boring” Birds.
Entertaining and practical workshops include:
- Birding photography techniques for beginners through advanced
- Birding optics demystified
- Bird sketching in the field
- Bird identification through bird sounds
- Nature poetry.
These workshops and many more complement over fifty field trips and educational lectures to be offered.
To round out activities, the festival will hold:
- “A Taste of the Pajaro Valley” reception, featuring delicious locally grown foods and wine
- “Family Days,” hosted by the City of Watsonville Nature Center, offering family fun for kids of all ages; a tasty pancake breakfast hosted by community volunteers
- A day of soundscape programs, films, and workshops hosted by the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory.
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The Monterey Bay Birding Festival Association, Inc. is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting bird watching, conservation and education through hosting the annual Monterey Bay Birding Festival and other activities throughout the year. Learn more at www.montereybaybirding.org.