Thanks to Galveston’s Ed Ferrin for today’s beautiful cover shot!
FeatherFest, a Galveston tradition for birdwatchers, soars to the Island this week and weekend and they are expecting “a great crowd of folks coming from over 30 states!” As you know, the Galveston area is on every birder’s bucket list.” That’s according to Julie Ann Brown, Executive Director of Galveston Island Nature Tourism Council.
Last year, 243 bird species were identified!
The event is packed with workshops, social events, and birding field trips from High Island, down Bolivar, to the East and West End as well as nature preserves and bayous.
Anyone out to learn, spot and photograph the perfect or rare bird will have plenty of opportunity, whether you are a first-time birder or an old pro, like Ed Ferrin.
Ed’s a go-to on this subject, and he couldn’t be more excited, even though his most recent shot of this Purple Martin is looking a bit grumpy:
Saturday and Sunday offer FledglingFest, just for the kiddos, so you can bring the whole nest!
And new this year is a way for everyone to participate in this spectacular event: Birdability! This wonderful program’s mission is to bring birding to everyone focusing on people with mobility challenges, blindness or low vision, chronic illness, intellectual or developmental disabilities, mental illness, and those who are neurodivergent, deaf or hard of hearing or who have other health concerns.
Texan Virginia Rose suffered a 1973 horseback accident which left her a paraplegic. Virginia would become a high school and college teacher, and discovered birding with her sister in 2003. She began her own birdwalks in 2010 and paired up with the Audubon Society in 2017 creating Birdability the next year.
You can find out much more about Virginia and how FeatherFest and Birdability are working together this year to bring birding to everyone.
Ed Ferrin tells me he’s hoping for a north or northeast wind to help with the migration (the north direction will tire the birds out flying in from the Gulf, so they are more likely to land inland where we can spot them). That wind shift will happen by Sunday.
Enjoy!
Frank
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