Fifth Annual Monterey Bay Birding Festival “Bridges the Americas”

Contact: Christina Glynn, Communications Director/Film Commissioner
Phone: 831-429-7281, ext. 112, email: cglynn@santacruz.org

July 10, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FIFTH ANNUAL MONTEREY BAY BIRDING FESTIVAL “BRIDGES THE AMERICAS”

WATSONVILLE, CA – Pajaro Valley’s fifth Annual Monterey Bay Birding Festival will take place Thursday, September 24th through Sunday, September 27, 2009. The festival offers over 50 expert-led field trips, specialized birding outings for beginners, “slough safaris” of the Elkhorn Slough via kayak, a trip to Pinnacles National Monument, vagrant chasing at the Carmel River mouth, pelagic trips of the Monterey Bay, excursions to the Big Sur Ornithology Lab to view California Condors and other activities. A stellar line-up of expert birders leading day trips as well as evening presenters are sure to please even the most discriminating birders. To illustrate the festival’s theme, Bridging the Americas, evening presentations will be hosted by birding experts and researchers from South and Central America.

On Thursday evening, Norma Ferriz, will conduct a presentation on the Veracruz River of Raptors project. Ferriz serves as the managing partner of this project, which monitors the health of migratory raptor populations of the Americas. Carlos Bethancourt, Claudio Vidal, and Luis Segura will take attendees on a birding journey through Panama, Chile and Argentina during a Friday evening seminar. Carlos Bethancourt is a Panamanian ornithologist who studies birds of The Canopy in Soberanía National Park near Panama City. Author Claudio Vidal leads birdwatching and natural history tours throughout Chile and is involved in several nature-based tourism projects. Luis Segura is founder and co owner of Trogon Tours & Birding Argentina and organizes bird watching outings in Patagonia, where he lives. On Saturday evening, author, Half Moon Bay resident and featured speaker Alvaro Jaramillo will discuss “The Globalization of Birding”. His recently published Birds of Chile is now the standard field guide for birding in Chile.

The second edition of the Santa Cruz County Visitors Council’s newly revised Birding and Wildlife Watching guide will be available during the festival, featuring a 44-page guide, designed for use by visitors to communities adjacent to the many birding destinations throughout the county. The guide includes information on a variety of habitats, from sandy beaches to lagoons, wetlands and rivermouths, as well as descriptions and photographs of the some of the area’s most commonly seen birds, wildlife and the best times of the year to view them. It also provides maps of birding and wildlife hotspots, points of interest, and itineraries. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 31 percent of Americans engage in wildlife watching as a hobby or recreational activity, an increase of 13 percent from a decade ago.

The free guide is also available at the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitors Council’s main visitor center at 1211 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz, via mail by request through www.birding.travel, or by calling 800.833.3494.

The Birding Festival Web site, www.montereybaybirding.org provides a registration and ticketing, full festival schedule, description of events, and other information. The registration fee for the four-day festival is $40; pricing for a variety of activities ranges from $5 to $130. Visitors can log on to www.birding.travel to help plan their trip.