For the last couple of years Southeast Georgia has been home to a wonderful annual birding and nature festival. The event spotlights the numerous bird species that make use of the different Georgian habitats and caters to almost everyone – from causal nature enthusiasts to more experienced birders.

This year will be no different. The plans have been drawn up and the bookings have been made for Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival 2008. Pete Dunne has been chosen as the keynote speaker for the festival and already the birds are arriving, promising birders a great opportunity to see as much bird life as possible. In fact the area is just teeming with life. Salt marshes, woodlands, freshwater wetlands, shorelines, barrier islands, tidal rivers and old rice fields are all home to fascinating and often distinct bird communities that make for fantastic bird watching. The 2008 festival will feature field trips to more than 25 different natural areas, enabling visitors to make the most of this fantastic natural area. When you combine the exciting field trips with the informative seminars and great association, you’ll find that Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival is an unbeatable gem that simply shouldn’t be missed!

Not everyone who attends the festival is strictly a bird watcher. The show caters to nature lovers of all kinds and you’ll find that nature day activities combine birds with other elements of nature to appeal to all kinds of people. Beach and marsh walks provide the perfect way to while away a few hours, while the raptor show will provide ample inspiration for anyone who gives the beginning birding course a try. There will be reptiles, sharks, animal tracking and even a segment that deals with the role that Southern Birds have played in Native American culture. Add to that the bird watching opportunities and field trips and you’ll find you’ll run out of time before you run out of things to do. Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding and Nature Festival will be held on Jekyll Island in Georgia from October 9 to 13, 2008. Book your accommodation now to make sure that you don’t miss out on this great birding and nature event!

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Organizers of the Pinewoods Bird Festival are looking forward to welcoming amateur and expert birding enthusiasts of all ages to the historic Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville Georgia on 13 to 15 April 2008, to enjoy a great program of bird watching events. Visitors can participate in field trips, tours, workshops and enjoy live animal shows and banding demonstrations. Children can enter the art contest and enjoy activities that have been designed to educate and entertain. The festival will include an art show, plant sale, market stalls, horse-drawn wagon rides and much, much more.

In an effort to give personal attention to participants, the field trip groups have been kept to a limited number and each day of the Pinewoods Bird Festival starts off with pre-registration for field trips on a first-come-first-served basis. Field trips on Friday 11 April include the Century Forest Tour, which takes the tour group through an untouched forest with 300 year old pine trees. Visitors can see thrushes and warblers in their habitat in an old-growth magnolia forest on the Woodyard Hammock Tour, and a trip to a cave in the early evening with the Bats and Night Creatures Tour will be rewarded with the sight of hundreds of bats emerging from the cave in their nightly search for food.

Activities arranged for the Saturday program of the Pinewoods Birding Festival include the Pebble Hill Plantation Butterfly and Botanical Tour, as well as the Birds of the Pinewoods Tour. Workshops and demonstrations throughout the day include Birding by Ear, Birdhouse Workshop, Digiscoping and Photography, Hummingbird Banding Demonstration and a Binocular Workshop. The Backyard Wildlife Plant Sale will give handy hints on plants that attract birds to urban backyards. Other activities for the day include tours of the Pebble Hill Plantation Main House, Horse-drawn Wagon Rides, and a reception featuring the Bird Art of Audubon and Sutton.

Saturday’s pre-registered Field Trips and workshops include a very early morning look at the rare Red-cockaded Woodpecker and banding of the Bachman’s Sparrow. The Birding 101 workshop encourages the entire family to learn the basics of bird-watching, which will provide the foundation for hours of fun outdoor family time. The Gamebird Tour shows participants how to trap and band Bobwhite Quail and other gamebird species. Deviating slightly from the birding theme, participants can join the Herp Tour team as they search for and identify snakes, salamanders and lizards.

The Pinewoods Birding Festival program for Sunday repeats some of the previous tours and workshops for the benefit of visitors who were unable to join in before. Additionally, with an early morning start, the Birding Bonanza sets participants the goal of spotting 140 different species in one day. Other activities include a tour through the Birdsong Nature Center and a Kayak Bird Watching Trip on the Wacissa River. Mountain bike enthusiasts can bring their own bikes and join in the dirt-road Red Hills Bird Watching Bike Tour.

The 2008 Pinewoods Birding Festival is the sixth anniversary of this increasingly popular bird watching event and organizers are confident that it will be a great success. So, whether you are an expert or still learning about the joys of birding, the Pinewoods Birding Festival is the place to be.

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