11 am-5 pm
A family-friendly, green-themed celebration of the amazing raptor migration occurring above the Audubon Greenwich center each Autumn. This fun fundraising event feature kids? activities, organic and local foods, eco-friendly businesses, and of course, the famous live birds of prey shows at 1 & 3 pm. This year the presenters will be Bill & Brian Robinson (Sat.) and Talons: A Bird of Prey Experience (Sun.). Plus on Sunday, witness the release of rehabilitated raptors with Wildlife in Crisis at 4 pm. ?$10 for non-members and $7 for current, new, or renewing Audubon members. The National Audubon Society membership is only $35 per family and will be available at the Festival Gate. To get involved as a festival volunteer, corporate sponsor, or as an eco-friendly vendor on-site, contact Jeff Cordulack at 203-869-5272 x239. http://greenwich.audubon.org
ABOUT HAWK WATCHING AT AUDUBON GREENWICH & THE ATLANTIC FLYWAY: ?
Each autumn, 15,000 to 20,000 broad-winged hawks and 16 other species of hawks, eagles and vultures, are spotted as they migrate southwest over the hilltop known as the Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Quaker Ridge count started in 1972 and has become known as one of the most active hawk counting sites on the eastern seaboard.? Audubon Greenwich staffs the site 7-days a week from August 20-November 2 and the peak migration usually occurs around September 15 when 500-3000 Broad-wing hawks can be seen at once as they ?kettle? in circles over the Audubon center.
To celebrate the spectacle, Audubon Greenwich hosts annual?Hawk Festival & Green Bazaar to bring attention to the grassroots conservation work Audubon is doing along the Atlantic Flyway. The Atlantic Flyway is a super highway in the sky from South America to Canada, in which hundreds of species of birds and millions of individuals migrate each season. There are tens of thousands of ?rest stops? along the Flyway and birds depend on these natural habitats to refuel, nest or stay for the winter. On the eastern seaboard of the United States, human populations are dense and habitat destruction, pollution and climate change are a constant challenge for the birds and their habitats.
The National Audubon Society is developing new ways to solve the challenges along the flyway. The Atlantic Flyway Initiative (AFI) is a strategic conservation initiative that targets specific bird habitats within our forests, salt marshes, barrier islands, and coastal beaches. By working with public and private landowners to restore lands and initiate social marketing campaigns, Audubon hopes to change human behavior in a way that will better conserve the existing critical habitats that are identified by Audubon as Important Bird Areas (IBAs).
Tom Baptist, the Executive Director & VP of Audubon Connecticut says, ?From Canada?s northern tundra to the most southerly shores of South America, birds depend upon the abundant food sources and quality habitats throughout the vast landscape we call the Atlantic Flyway. Birds, the most immediate indicators of a healthy ecosystem, are sounding a warning that all is not right and Audubon is responding to the call through its Atlantic Flyway Initiative to ensure the more than 500 species of birds that depend on our shores, forests, and working lands, will survive for generations to come.?
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