Author Archive
Festin’ Year-Round
Posted by: | CommentsThe 2009 event was stellar, and we’re busy working on making 2010 even more so. Me/Marci/Chair of the RGVBF has been traveling to other Festivals to talk to folks about joining us here in November. Last week of January found me at the Space Coast Birding Festival in Titusville Florida. First week of March I’ll be in San Diego at the Audubon-sponsored Birding Festival there. Also, look for our booth at FeatherFest in Galveston in April.
Here’s a pic of me in Festival-promo-mode:
So, if you happen to be at any of these other events, stop by the RGVBF booth and say hi!
And in November 2010, it’ll be you. Here. With us and the Green Jays.
In the meantime, enjoy cruising about the website. Some highlights:
To see a smattering of fun around-the-event scenes, visit our Flickr page.
To keep tuned for 2010’s even greater event – subscribe to our blog in the orange box to the right.
To become a FAN, visit our Facebook Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival page.
Also, follow us on Twitter.
And, a special thanks to our bloggers-on-site. You can ogle their wonderful words and pix by clicking on their namelinks, below.
Some of the Bloggers who attended the 2009 RGVBF:
Laura Kammermeier from Birds, Words, & Websites
Christopher Ciccone from Picus Blog
Chris Petrak from Tails of Birding
Eric Bruder from Boring Birding
Mike Freiberg from Birding to the EDG
2009: A Good Year for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival
Posted by: | CommentsThe RGVBF, in its 16th year, has aged beautifully. Thanks to all—leaders, speakers, sponsors, vendors, volunteers, and especially, attendees. You are the ingredients that made this Festival rich, robust, and replete with the heady undernotes of success. (Hey, Burning Hawk – like our wine metaphor here?).
Here’s Danny the Prez and Marci the Chair thanking EVERYONE in the world (Okay, yeah, it’s Sunday. We’re a little punchy):
To see a smattering of fun around-the-event scenes, visit our Flickr page.
To keep tuned for 2010’s even greater event – subscribe to our blog in the orange box to the right.
To become a FAN, visit our Facebook Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival page.
And, a special thanks to our bloggers-on-site. You can ogle their wonderful words and pix by clicking on their namelinks, below.
Next year, it’ll be you. Here. With us and the Green Jays.
Some of the Bloggers who attended the RGVBF:
Laura Kammermeier from Birds, Words, & Websites
Christopher Ciccone from Picus Blog
Chris Petrak from Tails of Birding
Eric Bruder from Boring Birding
Mike Freiberg from Birding to the EDG
The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival Goes Beyond
Posted by: | CommentsThe Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival Goes Beyond
Beyond what? Beyond looking at birds. Beyond listing. Beyond the hobby.
Don’t get me wrong—all that is great fun, and fun is what we’re about.
But we want to morph that fun into worthy things that make a difference as well. And one of the main ways we do that is our kids programs.
Once upon a time, I used to be the Education Chair. One year I was hanging the Student Art Contest winners, and Kenn Kaufman stopped to admire some of the amazing stuff these kids had produced. For example:
He said to me,”You are doing the real work of this Festival.” Of course, I puffed right up like a rooster. But it was terrific that the effort of reaching kids was recognized.
These days, Susan Hoehne, who is also Education Director at the nearby Valley Nature Center, does a terrific job of running the kids programs. These include the Art/Writing Contest (prizes including really nice binoculars courtesy of Eagle Optics), a Friday morning school kid program (in which the auditorium is invaded by busloads of happy students getting to see Jonathan Wood’s live birds), the weekend family area of activities we call Kiskadee Korner (face painting this year!), and Saturday morning bird walks (‘so that’s the one I see in my backyard!’).
Even if you just reach one child per year in a solid, positive, enlightening way…well, then the RGVBF has gone beyond.
The Art of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival
Posted by: | CommentsFor sixteen years, the RGVBF has generated amazing and lovely bird art from some of our foremost artists—Kenn Kaufman, David Sibley, John O’Neill, Tony Bennett, to name just a few—always featuring a special Valley bird. I thought it’d be fun to see them all together, so here is a line-up of the entire collection of event posters:
And this year we’ve worked with Oregon’s Ram Papish to offer the vibrant Golden-fronted Woodpeckers that you see on the home page. The original painting will be on display and available for purchase in the Birder’s Bazaar silent auction area. T-shirts in men’s green and ladies cut yellow will be sold. Also, the event poster itself is available, complete with carrying tube.
We’re proud of our ongoing tradition of generating fine bird art. It’s just one of the cool components of the RGVBF.
A Flock of Vendors: The Birder’s Bazaar at the RGVBF
Posted by: | CommentsWho’s happy about the RGV Birding Festival? Our excited registrants, our energetic staff, our enthusiastic leaders, our enlightening speakers, and Santa.
Wait…what…Santa?
Yup. He’s happy because if you shop for Christmas at the Birder’s Bazaar Trade Show, his job is a little easier. And it’s a great place to do so, with some special vendors this year. To highlight a few:
Charley Harper Studios. Featuring a unique graphic style. Prints, cards, etc – there’s no one like him. Above, his Green Jay.
Duckie and the Grackle. The Tiny Birdsongs book, for all ages.
Silver Breeze. A jewelry maker specializing in inlaid silver pieces. Really lovely stuff.
Daniel Adams. A bird artist who’s recently chosen the Valley as his home, and hails from a long time career with Disneyworld.
Petal Paddles. Designing interesting woodcraft plant pot holders—hang ‘em, stack ‘em….
Mesquite Coastal Carvings. Birds and sea creatures still holding the spirit of the wood. Picture below.
Plus the Birder’s Bazaar is always THE place to upgrade your optics. Visit these booths:
Buy a new field guide or the latest book. Plan your next trip. Bid on bargains in the silent auction. And all while you win a door prize, sip a little wine, ogle a live owl or hawk. Thursday 12th – Sunday 15th. Join in the fun of this friendly event.
Valley Specialty Highlight
Posted by: | CommentsKingbird sp.
Or so it says on the CBC form. Because if the Couch’s and Tropicals aren’t singing (the former’s voice being stronger and shrill, the latter more tremulous and twittery), it’s a toughie. Always an animated topic of conversation among birders is just how much one can tell them apart without voice—by clues like bill size, amount of yellow, robustness of chest. Even the experts parry and banter. All in friendly fun, hopefully.
My husband Terry and I have our own term for the collective two: Couchicals.
Here’s one of each. But which is which?
BIRDS…BUTTERFLIES…and YES! ODONATES—RULE the RGV
Posted by: | Comments
The butterflies are busting out down here in The Valley, and the Mission Butterfly Festival is going on. It’s hard to turn attention from those lovely flutterbies, but I promised an ode post.
Odes…odonates…dragonflies and damselflies. They’re sort of the frontier among nature IDers – whether hobbyist or scientist. And like our birds and butterflies, The Valley boasts many unique species. In fact, new U.S. records are ticked off often.
Raise your binos, and really LOOK at one of these critters. Pretty eye-popping:
When you’re at the RGVBF, there’s always something winged to look at.
There’s still some good airfares. Both Southwest and Continental fly into Harlingen, via Houston. If you’re coming from MN/WI area, Sun Country starts their charter service Nov 1 – always a good non-stop choice out of Minneapolis.
A SWAP: Sabal Palm Sanctuary for a Secret Jewel
Posted by: | CommentsRio Grande Valley Birding Festival ‘09 Trip Announcement
Texas Audubon had to close its Sabal Palm Sanctuary temporarily in May. They had hoped to reopen it by mid-October, but unfortunately that cannot be so.
The Nature Conservancy's Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve
The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival trips scheduled to visit Sabal Palm will instead visit The Nature Conservancy’s Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve [Southmost]. Southmost is located just east of Sabal Palm, not even a mile away, and has very similar habitats and birds. This jewel is normally closed to birders and the public, but we have made special arrangements for Festival-goers to be able to visit this preserve.
TNC’s “Secret” Southmost Preserve
Both properties have well deserved reputations, with Southmost a well-kept “secret” among the locals here in South Texas. We regret the necessity of moving this trip, but we are sure that you will enjoy the rare opportunity to visit TNC’s “Secret” Southmost Preserve!
MANY TRIPS CLOSE TO FULL – DON’T MISS OUT – REGISTER NOW!
Let’s Meet!
Posted by: | CommentsRGVBF Volunteer: Lupita Lucio
Lupita Lucio wears many hats for the Festival – literally! She’s our cap/t-shirt/patch person. But she also spearheads the fun Kiskadee Kordial social, provides coffee and goodies for our vendors, and she and her husband are long-time supporters of the Festival.
A retired R.N., she was born and raised right here in Harlingen. Both her community service and world travels are wide-ranging. So are her interests—cooking, gardening, birding, dancing, and exercise. She has run the Honolulu Marathon twice.
Special guests vie for her guesthouse, situated behind her lovely home that looks out over the native brush of the Arroyo Colorado, which you can see in the background of the picture. Her yard and gardens support a variety of wildlife, including bobcats, scores of our special birds, and an interesting damselfly, the Smoky Rubyspot.
Lupita says, “Come on down to Harlingen! We will have fun!”
For the Kiskadee Kordial, Burning Hawk Wines from California joins us, pouring red and white. The RGVBF recently paired them up with the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, a partnership combining a percentage of wine sales and migratory bird conservation. Just one of the significant ripple effects of the event…beyond the pure fun of it…
Rarities and the Rio Grande Valley
Posted by: | CommentsHere in the Rio Grande Valley, every few years, patternless in the way of vagrants, one of these is seen:
Jabiru
Also, one of these:
Rose-throated Becard
And maybe, one of these:
Northern Jacana
We are the sub-tropics here, a land of palms and bougainvillea and Gulf winds. Because of that, we have our wonderful unique residents – the Great Kiskadee, the Green Jay, the Chachalaca – but for those of us that live here, the possibility of rarities really pumps the blood.
Of course, one never knows when one will appear, almost like a mischievous Scotty beams it over. But starting in November and through the winter, that’s when we start looking south, wondering what the winter cold snaps might shove our way…
—Thanks to Jeff Bouton, DigiDude of Leica, for the Becard and Jacana pix—
*COMING UP on the ADVANCE PURCHASE for GOOD AIRFARES. GRAB a BIRDING BUDDY and a TICKET to HARLINGEN TODAY!
