We had a great time and it was fun to meet Bill Thompson, III, Sharon Stiteler a.k.a. BirdChick, Jerry Liguori, and to catch up with Bill Fenimore, I hadn’t seen him for several years.
The festival was well attended and there were many very interesting field trips and workshops offered. Field Trips to Farmington Bay, Antelope Island which is located in the Great Salt Lake, 4 Mile Ranch, Deseret Ranch, and Jordnelle to name just few offered birders the opportunity to bird in diverse habitat. Workshops on digiscoping were given by Sharon Stiteler who offered her expertise and shared about Swarovski’s newest equipment. Other workshops included: Backyard Birding, Build Your Pond Right the First Time, Photographs with Impact, Butterflies for Beginners, Falcon Identification, and much more.
I was especially impressed with the workshops and activities for youth. These included: Making Birdhouses, Those Wild Wetlands, and live bird flight exhibits.
Two birds that were “spotlighted” at the festival were the Western Tanager, and Flammulated Owl, workshops and field trips focusing on these species were offered.
Forty vendors had displays and were very eager to share about their art work, photography, tours, books, and birding related optics.
In total over the course of the festival 180 species were reported in 1,622 separate sightings.
The Great Salt Lake Bird Festival is well organized, educational, and it is a great opportunity to get into some of the areas of Farmington bay that are generally closed to the public. I highly recommend attending this festival. You will enjoy spending time with the hard working people that organize it and you will enjoy being with birders from near and far. The dates for next year’s festival are: May 17 to 21, 2012. See you there!
You can learn more by visiting www.greatsaltlakebirdfest.com
Here are some images from the bird festival and from birding at Antelope Island and the Bird River WMA.
Bill Thompson III, pictured here with the spotting scope was the primary leader of the "Behind the Gates" field trip at Farmington Bay. Other leaders were Paul Lombardi and John Bellmon.
Bill Thompson III "scoping out" the Western and Clark's Grebes in the bay, Zeke Watkins and Poo Wright-Pulliam are behind him waiting for the report of what he is seeing.
There were many species to spot and observe on the Farmington Bay tour and there were many photo opportunities as well.
Zeke and Michelle having a quick conversation with another birder about the festival schedule.
Zeke, Poo, Michelle, and Robert Mortensen (he used to live in Idaho) enjoying the birding and discussion about the numerous species they were seeing. Check out Robert's Birding Is Fun blog, it's great!
This is a shot of Robert Mortensen and Bill Thompson III making sure that all the species are getting onto the trip list.
This small island in the bay had so many Great Blue Herons on it that a challenge was issued to see who could correctly count them.
The birds and the view of the bay and mountains were just great!
A California Gull soars past us.
Robert Mortensen took this shot of me scanning for waterfowl.
Bill was fun to bird with and he didn't mind a bit when we wanted to have our pictures taken with him. This is Poo with Bill. A close look at Bill’s binoculars reveals how he displays his annual “Duck Stamp”. The purchase of a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation stamp is a great way to promote wetlands conservation. Birders should do this because since this program started in 1934 revenue from the sales of “Duck Stamps”, over $670,000,000 has made it possible to purchase or lease 5.2 million acres of waterfowl habitat that is now included in the National Wildlife Refuge System. The stamps are available for purchase at the Post Office for $15.
Zeke and Michelle Watkins with Bill.
In this shot Bill is signing my copy of, Identify Yourself, his book about the 50 most common birding identification challenges.
Jerry Liguori was also signing his book, Hawks from Every Angle. Bill Fenimore was signing his books too but my picture of him wasn't sharp. I took the book signing images with my cell phone.
Poo and Bill.
A flotilla of Red-necked Phalaropes off the Antelope Island causeway.
One of the live bird displays included this Bald Eagle. I learned from talking with the man who brought the eagle to the festival that the white feathers of Bald Eagles raised in captivity never turn completely white.
An energetic Golden Eagle.
This adorable Western Screech-Owl was a big hit with everyone.
Bill was the keynote speaker at the dutch oven dinner held on Saturday night. He spoke about his 40 years of identifying and feeding birds. Bill is the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest. He is also an accomplished musician.
The crowd really enjoyed it when Bill sang, "Mother's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowbirds".
This is a shot of a Western Grebe that I took at the Bear River WMA on the way home after the festival.
The light was just perfect at Bear River to capture the iridescence of the feathers of the White-faced Ibises. 
An ibis with one wing stretched out.
This is a Forster's Tern hunting over a flooded field in the Bear River WMA.
A closer view of a Forster's Tern.
Good views of American Avocets were possible at several swallows at Bear River.
This Black-necked Stilt struck an impressive pose and I was able to capture the moment before it continued foraging.
A Clark's Grebe was hunting small fish near one of the bridges at Bear River.
Blue on Blue...a Great Blue Heron lifts off with the Wasatch Range in the background.
Wow Kathleen! What a nice post about the GSLBF! Thanks for all of your kind words! Hope to see you (and your mug) again sometime!
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