The Morning Blend
Welcome
Complete Media Kit
SIERRA VISTA — The Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival began spreading its wings at the Windemere Hotel and Conference Center Thursday with around 250 people attending.
“We don’t want this festival particularly to grow. We want to have it at more or less 250, because then people have a quality experience,” said Priscilla Brodkin, emcee for the welcome reception and key note banquet.
Brodkin said they have groups from all over the country attending, including from Kentucky, Ohio, Florida and Maine. There usually have been representatives from Canada, but there are none this year. One couple from Texas experienced flight delays because of remnants from Tropical Storm Edouard.
The event began Wednesday night when field trips to see bugs and owls left to spend time in Carr Canyon and the Huachuca Mountains.
  
|
“They had a great field trip last night. It didn’t rain,” Brodkin said. “The people who had been on it really had a good time.”
Organizers changed the dates of the festival from Aug. 1 to Aug. 5 in hopes of avoiding some of the rain. The trips led by Carl Olson, Bob Behrstock and Joe Woodley are some of the more popular ones, said Brodkin, who said she had to send at least 20 refunds to people who wanted to attend.
The festival also includes an overnight trip to a ranch in Sonora, Mexico, to see birds including some species that are not found in the United States.
“We’re giving to the local economy kind of a hands-across-the-border thing,” Brodkin said.
Sierra Vista’s proximity to Mexico is one of the reasons why the area is so good for birding. There are many species of birds, butterflies and insects that just come into the United States from Mexico here.
“We’re so far west, versus Texas, it’s a really specialized area right here,” Brodkin said.
The lobby of the Windemere has many exhibits and vendors for participants to peruse in between programs, workshops and trips.
The Environment Educational Department of the Arizona Game and Fish Department has brought a variety of live animals from the Adobe Mountain Wildlife Center outside Phoenix to display in one of the conference rooms. Visitors have the opportunity to see owls, hawks and snakes, among other animals, up close and personal.
“Most times we try to get them out in the wild, but sometime they have injuries that don’t heal quite right, and we know they are not going to survive, and those are the animals that we use for education,” said Sam Huselton, and environmental education outreach coordinator with the department.
Members of the state agency also brought wings from birds that did not make it so that people can feel the difference among them. For instance, an owl’s feathers are softer than other birds, so they can fly silently at night.
Representatives from local wildlife areas have information available, while vendors have paintings, books, jewelry, cameras and binoculars available to see.
Also in the lobby is the silent auction which includes many items including optics for birding, lodging, art and restaurant gift certificates.
The keynote speaker slated for Saturday’s banquet is Rick Wright, who also spoke at Thursday night’s welcome reception.
Wright spoke about an Audubon adventurer during the Civil War Thursday night, Brodkin said. This person, who wasn’t exactly a bird watcher as he tended to shoot birds in those days, was a spy during the Civil War, staying with mansion owners in the South and helping slaves get to freedom in the North.
The festival continues through Saturday night, with a workshop for kids at 10 a.m. Saturday, when they will build their own nest box.
The Southwest Wings Birding and Nature Festival is based at the Windemere Hotel and Conference Center. For information on the event, go online to swwings.org.
HERALD/REVIEW reporter Julie Ann Marra can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at julieann.marra@svherald.com.
