Great Salt Lake Bird Festival 2011

For the ninth year I was involved again this year in the Great Salt lake Bird Festival in three events.

Larry teaching the kids about Migrations

First was Those Wild Wetlands, a workshop originally for scouts to pass of requirements for their different badges. About 6 years ago I changed the program to include all youth, though scouts could still pass off their requirements I wanted to see more girls and other boys participate who may not be involved with scouts. I decided this year to make it my last to be in charge of this event, for about 8 years it was run by myself and Larry McClurg one of the other volunteers. He and I both want to pass this off to some different volunteers and give some of them a chance, so this year we recruited several of the other volunteers to take part and it was one of the best events we have ever done.

John teaching the kids about wetland plants

Double-crested Cormorant taking off during our bus tour

The second event I was part of was a bus tour of Farmington Bay. For the last tree years I have gone along while Rich Hansen the manager of Farmington Bay, leads this tour of the interior of the Waterfowl Management Area, where the public is usually not allowed to go. This is a leisurely event for me I sit in the back of the bus to answer questions and help people identify birds we see. Here are some pictures from the tour.

This Barn Swallow stopped and posed for us

This female Brown-headed Cowbird was also cooperative to have her picture taken

Probably the highlight of the tour was this black-crowned Night Heron who posed for a long time to let us take pictures.

Nesting Great Blue Herons

Forster's Terns

American White Pelicans

Who doesn't love baby geese?

The third event is one I started about 6 years ago it is a Birding For Families and Dutch-oven Dinner. This event is a lot of work, it is a fun event and I have enjoyed doing it. We start with a Dutch-oven dinner of my Grandma Casdorph's Pulled Pork Barbeque a recipe handed down from grandma to my mom. Cole Slaw, Baked Beans, Dutch-oven Potatoes and end with three Dutch-oven dump cakes to choose from. I didn't get to do any birding during this event, again I recruited several of the Volunteer Naturalists to lead bird walks and teach the participants about the wetlands.

This is what I envisioned years ago when I decided to do this event. Whole families even little kids enjoying the nature Center and the Birds.

The event would not have been a success without these volunteers who worked hard to make it a success. This is Shyloh helped me prep the food and lead a bird walk, Terri helped with a bird walk and helped with clean up, MarJean who was our bird guide for the night and Holly with her back to us, she is an intern and helped all day long, she put in a long day.

This is Holly she does an amazing job at the Nature Center

This is Verma and her family, she did an excellent presentation on Macro-invertebrates

Here are some pictures of the participants this year.

Larry and his daughter

This gentleman has participated for the last 3 or 4 years with his family.

MarJean our bird guide for the night

Shyloh and his lovely wife

Terri

Nery and I. Nery shows up every year to help me out and keep me straight. I would never have been able to do any of these dinner events without her. she is AWESOME and a good sport.

Thanks to all the volunteers for your help, thanks to Holly for all you did for us this day, and thanks to all who signed up and participated, I hope you all had a wonderful time and hope that you will return often to the Nature Center and Farmington Bay. Most of all thank you Nery for your help and support.