Birding festivals offer birders the opportunity to visit top birding locations. The festivals provide guided field trips to local birding hotspots. Attending a festival is an excellent way to see new species, improve your skills and meet new friends. There are about 200 different birding and nature festivals in the United States and Canada.
Professor Bird's Top 10 Birding Festivals
1. Rio Grande Birding Festival , South Texas (November)
5. Southwest Wings Birding Festival , Arizona (August)
8. Hummingbird Celebration , Rockport, Texas (September)
9. Horicon Marsh Bird Festival , Wisconsin, (May)
10. Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival (September)
Additional birding festivals, bird trails and bird observatories, visit the Bird IQ web site ....
Do you enjoy observing nature...hearing the song of the chickadee...watching hummingbirds fill up on nectar from trumpet vines...listening to the chattering of squirrels...seeing the beauty and grace of a monarch butterfly perched on a milkweed... experiencing the antics of a Mockingbird...the cooing of the Mourning Doves...the swiftness of the Cottontail...and the brilliance of a Cardinal or Baltimore Oriole?
If the answer is "yes", you'll probably want to landscape your property for wildlife so you can experience even more from Mother Nature by attracting more wildlife to your property.
Wildlife doesn't just randomly appear in a given area. It is there because of favorable habitat. The essential elements that you must provide in your habitat are food, water, cover and a place to raise a family. To attract the most wildlife, you need native trees, shrubs, groundcover, vines and wildflowers, many of which will provide food and shelter.
Native or indigenous plants naturally occur in the region in which they evolved. They are adapted to local soil, rainfall and temperature conditions, and have developed natural defenses to many insects and diseases. Because of these traits, native plants will grow with minimal use of water, fertilizers and pesticides. Wildlife species evolve with plants; therefore, they use native plant communities as their habitat. Using native plants helps preserve the balance and beauty of natural ecosystems.
Remember the function served by plants and structures is more important than their appearance. In other words, don't base your planting decisions solely on what a plant looks like. Following are WindStar Wildlife Institute's plant recommendations for wildlife habitats in Louisiana:
TreesTall - Mockernut Hickory, Pecan, Shagbark Hickory, Hackberry, Persimmon, American Beech, American Holly, Black Walnut, Sweet Gum, Black Gum, Oak (Scarlet, Burr, White, Red), Live Oak, Bald Cypress, Longleaf Pine, Loblolly Pine, Eastern Red Cedar
Medium/Small - Box Elder, Horse Chestnut, Paw Paw, Flowering Dogwood, Pagoda Dogwood, Downy Hawthorn, Carolina False Buckthorn,Winterberry
Red Buckeye, Prickly Ash, Beauty Berry, Chinquapin, Buttonbush, Northern Spicebush, Winged Sumac, Smooth Sumac, Black Elder, Viburnums
White Snakeroot, Red Columbine, Wild Ginger, Milkweeds, Coreopsis, Blue larkspur, Shooting Star, Purple Coneflower, Trout Lily, Joe Pye Weed, Woodland Sunflower, Gayfeather, Cardinal Flower, Wild Lupine, Wild Bergamot, Penstemon, Carolina Phlox, Black-eyed Susan, Goldenrod, Wild Asters, Tall Ironweed
Partridgeberry, Golden Ragwort, Wild Strawberry, Fragrant Bedstraw, Goldenseal, Trailing Arbutus, Spreading Dogbane
Peppervine, Crossvine, Trumpet Creeper, Virgin's Bower, Yellow Jessamine, Trumpet honeysuckle, Virginia Creeper, Passionflower
Big Bluestem, Bushy Bluestem, Split-beard Bluestem, Broom Sedge, Side Oats Grama, Stalk-grain Sedge, Rice Cut Gras...