Saturday, August 13

 

Family Birding Day with the Southeast Arizona Birding Festival – FREE!

• 9:00am-11:00am
• Gene C. Reid Park, Ramada 4 (Just south of the Cele Peterson Rose Garden in the southwest corner of the park)

Share the joy of birds with your family! Come join Tucson Audubon at Reid Park on Saturday, August 13 for Family Birding Day. Families and children of all ages are welcome to join!

• Learn about the superpowers of birds with two interactive children’s activities
• Join us for a family-friendly bird walk around the park (walks will leave every half hour and will be offered in English and in Spanish)
• Explore on your own with our birding Bingo card and see how many species you can find
• Afterwards, check out the Southeast Arizona Birding Festival Nature Expo across the street at the DoubleTree Reid Park and see LIVE animals with Reid Park Zoo and Arizona Game & Fish

Register for FREE and let us know you’re coming!

Pajareando con la Familia en el Festival de aves del Sureste de Arizona ¡Este evento es Gratuito!

• 9:00am-11:00am
• Gene C. Reid Park, Ramada 4 (al sur del jardín de Rosas de Cele Peterson- en la esquina sur oeste del parque)

Unase a la sociedad Audubon de Tucson en el parque Reid (Reid Park) el sábado 13 de agosto para un día familiar de observación de aves. ¡Familias y niños de todas las edades son bienvenidos!

• Estaremos llevando a cabo dos actividades interactivas para niños, y aprendiendo sobre los superpoderes de las aves.
• Participe en nuestra caminata de observación de aves (¡Pajarear!) alrededor del parque Reid. (las caminatas se llevarán a cabo cada media hora y serán ofrecidas en espanol e ingles)
• Explore individualmente con el juego de Bingo de aves y averigüe cuántas especies puede encontrar en el parque.
• Continúe aprendiendo acerca de estas aves en el Festival de Aves del Sureste de Arizona- justo enfrente de él Reid Park- en el hotel Double tree. Nos estarán acompañando nuestros amigos del zoológico del Parque Reid (Reid Park Zoo) ¡con animales en vivo! – Al igual que nuestros amigos de Arizona Game and Fish.

¡Registrese Gratis y confirme su asistencia!

 

Nature Expo is Open with Festival Friends & Partners

• 10:00am – 5:30pm
• Free—no need to register

Explore the festival’s Nature Expo after a morning (or day!) of birding. Check the “Big Boards” (birds and wildlife checklists) to see if you can mark off any new birds, snakes, or butterflies seen that day on your field trip and engage with our exhibitors and volunteers who are happy to share their expertise and hospitality with you.

 

Birds & Animals at the Nature Expo

• 10:00am – 5:30pm
• Free—no need to register

Festival partners, Reid Park Zoo and Arizona Game & Fish, will be on-site with a variety of birds and animals for close-up viewing and interpretation. Perfect wildlife viewing for kids—and adults!—and you’ll be in a comfortable air-conditioned room. Reid Park Zoo will be on-site from 10:00am – 1:00pm, and Arizona Game & Fish will be on-site from 10:00am – 5:30pm.

 

Art Workshop: A Splash of Color with Artist Christina Baal of Drawing 10,000 Birds

• 10:00am – 12:00pm
• $20/person

This workshop takes place at The Drawing Studio. Drive time to meeting location from festival venue is about 15 minutes, specific meeting instructions will be emailed beforehand.

Birds are amazingly vivacious and colorful. Drawing and painting birds not only helps explore our emotional attachments to these winged wonders- it makes us better birders! This art workshop will explore how to overcome the anxiety of the blank page with fun, expressive drawing and watercolor painting techniques. Intended for beginners and intermediate artists, but all are welcome! Be prepared to get a little messy. Art Materials: paper, pencils, and watercolors. Limited to 20 people.

 

 

Panama: A Birding & Nature Paradise with Carlos Bethancourt

• 10:30am – 11:30am
• Free with Festival Registration

Panama, though scarcely the size of South Carolina, but perfectly positioned as a narrow land bridge between North and South America, is blessed with an incredible natural beauty and biodiversity second to none.  Over 1010 bird species, hundreds of mammals, reptiles & amphibians, and a staggering 10,000 plant species have been recorded here.  Join knowledgeable and entertaining Canopy Family senior guide Carlos Bethancourt on a photographic journey of the tropical birds, bizarre mammals, unusual reptiles & amphibians and spectacular habitats from the former Canal Zone of Panama, to the foothills of western Panama and into the wilds of the Darién lowlands in eastern Panama.  From toucans to hummingbirds, Panamanian Night monkeys, Kinkajou, Carlos will keep you spellbound with his stories of discovery and vivid images.  Come experience why Panama is indeed a birding and nature paradise!

 

Borderlands Jaguars with Mark Hart of Arizona Game & Fish

• 11:30am – 12:30pm
• Free with Festival Registration

Southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico are the only locations in the United States where jaguars have been sighted in the past twenty years.  In late 2016, two jaguars were present in the region, one in the Huachuca Mountains and the other in the Dos Cabezas. Earlier that year a video surfaced of a third jaguar in the Santa Rita Mountains. The video caused an international sensation, but that jaguar hasn’t been seen since. Although the Huachucas jaguar came to a bad end in Mexico, its return there was biologically significant. Meantime, the Dos Cabezas jaguar has persisted south of Willcox since.  This presentation will examine how the presence of these endangered species in the region pose unique challenges for wildlife and land managers, and how they have made even more popular among the general public trail camera technology.

 

Identifying Barriers to Youth Involvement in Conservation with Ruby Lenertz

• 12:00pm – 1:00pm
• Free with Festival Registration

As a high school student, Ruby encountered barriers to becoming more involved in conservation despite her desire and ability to do so. As a Youth Engagement Intern with Tucson Audubon, she sought to explore this issue by surveying 290 students from Tucson to examine and bring awareness to the most important barriers students face that prevent them from becoming involved in environmental conservation. She’ll discuss what she discovered and what steps conservation organizations can take to bring young people into the conversation.

 

How to Protect Birds at the Ballot Box with Conservation Advocate David Robinson

• 1:00pm – 2:00pm
• Free with Festival Registration

Birders know the vital importance of having pro-bird, pro-environment policymakers in office. From legislation such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, to climate-change urgency vs. climate-change denial, to environmental justice for historically overburdened communities, the response to issues we care so deeply about depends overwhelmingly on elected officials and the people they appoint. And yet millions of environmentalists don’t consistently show up to the polls! In this interactive workshop, Tucson Audubon’s Conservation Advocate, David Robinson, will present the facts about environmentalists and voting, and will teach attendees how to take part in highly effective, nonpartisan efforts to turn inconsistent environmentalist voters into environmentalist super-voters in time for the upcoming midterms — all while having fun with fellow bird-lovers!

 

Hummingbird Photography Workshop with Stephen Vaughan

• 1:30pm – 2:30pm
• $10/person

Hummingbirds can flap their wings up to 80 times a second, which can present quite the challenge for a photographer. This is the perfect opportunity to learn the specialized techniques needed to create stunning images of hummingbirds. We will cover ambient light, fill-flash and high-speed flash photography techniques. Join professional nature photographer Steve Vaughan for this fantastic opportunity to experience the joys of photographing these flying jewels. You can email Steve at StephenHVaughan@Gmail.com if you have questions.

 

How to Misidentify the Birds with Rick Wright

• 2:30pm – 3:30pm
• Free with Festival Registration

Face it. Most birds, especially in North America north of Mexico, are easy to identify: just a matter of matching the right name to the feathered creature before us. There are exceptions, though, some of them right here in southeast Arizona. The local thrashers, female hummingbirds and orioles, and those devilish ravens can have birders tearing out their hair, especially those of us who get to see them only on our occasional late summer ornitho-pilgrimages. But it is precisely these birds we learn the most from—whether we get them right all the time or not. Join Rick Wright for a light-hearted but informative look at some of Arizona’s most challenging field identifications and the lessons to be learned in confronting them.

 

Mastering Bird Photography Workshop with Lee Hoy of Wildside Nature Tours

• 3:00pm – 4:00pm
• $10/person

Join Lee Hoy, OM-D Pro Ambassador, as he helps you understand how to master your autofocus settings, birds in flight settings, understand why mirrorless cameras are so beneficial for bird photography, and a list of simple tricks, tips, and techniques for improving your bird photography. This is designed for bird photographers of any skill level and with any camera gear/system.

 

Festival Celebration in the Nature Expo

• 4:30pm – 5:30pm
• Free—no need to register

This is the last hour of the festival Nature Expo! Prepare for your next birding adventure by talking with your favorite birding guides from around the world. You’ll have a chance to win some special door prizes and receive our final update on festival bird sightings before your last day of field trips. A cash bar will be on-site along with free appetizers.

 

Southeast Arizona Birding Festival Banquet & Culmination with special guest, Jennie MacFarland

• 6:00pm – 8:00pm
• $60/person

Wrap up your festival experience with us as we celebrate more than just the new birds we’ve seen, but also the movement that birding is becoming—all over the world, and right here in Tucson. You’ll enjoy a delicious meal, visit with friends, and hear from special guest, Jennie MacFarland, Tucson Audubon’s Bird Conservation Biologist.

Jennie’s talk, “The Ties That Bind: How Birds Inspire Conservation and Community,” centers on how birds have captured our attention and wonder across millennia and cultures. Their flights and migrations are the core of legends, and their songs and plumages are metaphors of beauty and inspiration for art across the world. We are increasingly replacing their homes with our homes and therefore often find birds in our urban spaces. Many of our societal activities affect their lives and populations, but how do they affect us in return? Birds inspire awe in those who love them. How can we expand this community for the benefit of bird conservation?