A Message from the Festival Organizers
Our hearts go out to the many people whose homes were damaged in Hurricane Helene and Milton. It's been a rough couple of weeks for all of us, but the Florida Birding & Nature Festival is still scheduled.
We've had to rearrange some field trips to areas that were not damaged in the hurricanes, but many of our most popular trips still have open spots. We haven't been able to finalize every field trip, but we do know that field trips to Fort De Soto, Egmont Key, and Honeymoon Island will be canceled because those parks are closed. Gibbons Preserve, essentially a forest, also has been canceled.
Check the website for the trip you want – we'll keep it as up-to-date as possible.
And while our long-time friend Clay Henderson had to cancel his keynote address, we were lucky enough to get David Allen Sibley to replace him. There's a good chance that nearly everyone reading this email has one of his books on their shelves because they're considered the most definitive bird guides written since Roger Troy Peterson.
His focus on the critical details that simplify bird identification even led the Department of Homeland Security to consult with him after Sept. 11 on how to detect irregularities in people that might indicate terrorist activities.
We also had to move the keynote speakers from the Ruskin Fire Station, which flooded in Helene, but St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Sun City Center generously offered their banquet hall to us. It seats 120 people, so there are openings available for both David and Tim Laman, National Geographic photographer and ornithologist.
Laman will lead back-to-back photography workshops Friday morning and speak as our keynote on Saturday night. Although focused primarily on beginner to moderately experienced bird photographers, even experts are likely to gain insights by learning how Laman approaches different situations in the field.
If your trip has been canceled, you can:
Shift to another trip that still has openings
Reserve the same spot for 2025
Donate the cost to the festival which already has incurred many expenses
Ask for a refund.
We'll keep you updated online and on our Facebook page as more information about field trips is finalized. Thank you for your patience and we hope to see you soon!