Birding festival set to take flight

It's showtime once again for Yuma's feathered residents with the annual Yuma Birding and Nature Festival that kicks off Wednesday and goes through Sunday.
 
While the event is expected to attract close to 200 birding enthusiasts from around the country, there's going to be something new this year to help introduce younger members of the community to the natural wonders that surround us.
 
To that end, the Yuma Birding and Nature Festival has added a lineup of free activities for children from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
 
“Youth Nature Day” will be held outdoors at the festival headquarters at the Pivot Point Conference Center, 200 N. Madison Ave. All children’s activities are free and open to all – neither children nor their parents need to be registered for the festival to participate.
 
Special “kid-friendly” activities during Youth Nature Day will include live animal displays provided by the Arizona Department of Game and Fish, building your own bird house from a kit provided by Home Depot, free horseback rides compliments of Saddles of Joy and nature-related arts and crafts activities booths. In addition, traditional dance groups from the Quechan Indian Tribe will perform throughout the afternoon.
 
"It's good to involve children with nature, the Colorado River and natural habitat," said Chris Bedinger, events coordinator for the Yuma Visitors Bureau. "There's a whole world out there many of them have never seen."
 
He continued: “Birding has a reputation as appealing more to older people, so we really wanted to reach out to kids and families. And, since times are tough, we wanted to make sure that whatever we did was affordable for families of all sizes. If a family comes for free events on Youth Nature Day this year, that may spark an ongoing interest in nature or animals or birds, and maybe that parent or child will come back next year for a seminar or field trip."
 
The 2009 Yuma Birding and Nature Festival is being organized by YVB with major sponsorship from the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area and the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
 
One goal is to raise awareness of the  diversity of ecosystems that surround Yuma – desert, mountain and river – because of its location on the Colorado, Bedinger said. Nearly 400 species of birds live or travel along the Colorado River flyway on Yuma’s doorstep.
 
The basic festival registration fee of $35 covers more than 2 dozen seminars and admission to the exhibit and vendor area. Field trips cost extra – but those charges range from as little as $5 to $149 for the most expensive trips, the full-day expeditions into Mexico where lunch is served in a local village.
 
The full schedule of seminars and field trips is available online at www.yumabirding.com/home, along with registration information. To register by phone, call 376-0100 and ask for Peggy.
 
“We have a total of 40 field trips on the schedule," Bedinger said. "Only three or four are completely sold out. We’ll have a wide selection of trips even for those who walk in on the opening day. But it’s always a good idea to call ahead.” 
 
Just how wide? Folks from the Yuma festival will be ranging south into Mexico and the Gulf of California, west to the Salton Sea, north to the Imperial and Kofa national wildlife refuges and east to the captive breeding enclosure for the Sonoran pronghorn antelope.
 
New field trip offerings this year include SegwaYuma Heritage and Nature tours, trips to the Castle Dome Mines Museum ghost town and the Yuma Proving Ground Heritage Center, jet boat trips on the Colorado River, and an evening hike to the Horse Tanks area (on the Kofa refuge) with a carne asada cookout under the stars.
 
The trips into Mexico have been among the festival’s most popular, Bedinger said, and recent concerns about crossing the border shouldn’t deter interested birders.
 
He noted that many of the Mexico trips are led by La Ruta de Sonora Ecotourism Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting ethical cross-border tourism. That means trip leaders are experts in the subject who are also bilingual and culturally adept.
 
“People really shouldn’t worry because the places we go are rural spots where the birds outnumber the people, not the kind of areas frequented by drug gangs or smugglers,” Bedinger said.
 
But you don’t have to cross a border – or even leave town – to find great wildlife watching opportunities, he said. “Yuma has restored hundreds of acres of wetlands right in the heart of the city over the last several years so we have incredible wildlife habitat right on our doorstep, literally five minutes away from the conference center,” he said. “That makes it easy to offer something for everyone – all ages, interests and fitness levels.”

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IF YOU GO ...

• WHAT: Yuma Birding and Nature Festival
 
•  WHEN: Wednesday through Sunday
 
• WHERE: Pivot Point Conference Center, 200 N. Madison Ave.
 
• ACTIVITIES: Seminars and
field trips about birds and other wildlife, history, recreation and
other features of the area
 
•  COST: $35 registration, field trips range from $5 to $149
 
• CHILDREN'S FEATURE: Youth Nature Festival 1-4 p.m. Saturday, free activities
 
• FOR MORE INFORMATION, TO REGISTER: Visit www.yumabirding.com/home
or call 376-0100