The 20th Huron Fringe Birding Festival has come to a Close.

Many sunny days and fantastic leaders helped the participants of the 2017 festival see or hear 180 species of birds this year. The feedback we received will help organizers make the 2018 festival an even better event.

The second weekend of the festival highlighted many of the birds that stay in the area to nest and raise their families. As many of us saw, nests were being constructed in some locations and young birds were already showing up in other locations. This time of the year is a very busy time for the birds as they fly north, pick a partner or join up with their original partner, build a nest and raise their families.

There were still beautiful birds to be seen by the participants as they hiked through the wilds of Bruce County finding new birding locations to visit and new wonders of nature to appreciate.

Our festival bird, the American redstart was singing its heart out as it showed up often to entertain the birders and their binoculars. The female redstarts were busy building nests and the males were protecting their territory as they flitted about overhead.

This year there were several Black-billed cuckoos seen moving from tree to tree checking out the numerous tent caterpillar nests in the fruit trees. Although the cuckoos are quite quiet a few posed for photos before flying off to hide in a distant tree.

Even the Chimney swifts cooperated and gave several groups a fly-over as they were enjoying their lunches and the sunny weather.

The Bobolinks come all the way from Argentina for our festival and never failed to entertain the hikers as the birds trilled their happy tunes.

These are just a small sample of the birds that showed up for the second weekend of our event to make the photographers as well as the birders enjoy each day.

Next year as you can see from the following line card our speaker for Saturday dinner will be Michael Runtz. Plan to come out next year and enjoy his talk as you enjoy a wonderful dinner and the companionship of others who love birding and nature in general.

Thanks for making the 20^th Huron Fringe Birding Festival a VERY special event indeed and come on out next year for even more fun in the wilds of Bruce and Grey Counties.

Remember to check out the links under the ‘Blogroll” heading of this blog to keep up to date with the birds and events in this area during the year ahead.

 

Hope to see you all again next year and don’t forget to tell your friends all about our festival!