Big "O" Birding Festival
March 30, 31 and April 1, 2007
Glades & Hendry Counties, Florida

Glades County's bird diversity is supported by vast wetlands of Lake Okeechobee on the east, the braided riverine ecosystem of Fisheating Creek (hosting the largest Swallow-tailed Kite migratory concentration in North America), large tracts of native prairies, scrub, and pine flatwoods, and agricultural lands that can host a great variety of bird life.

Writer, naturalist and activist Susan Cerulean will give the Keynote address Saturday, March 31, 2007 during the sixth annual Big O Birding Festival. Cerulean's latest book is a nature memoir entitled Tracking Desire: A Journey After Swallow-tailed Kites published by the University of Georgia Press in March 2005. Besides offering a pilgrimage through the much-reduced homeland of the swallow-tailed kite, the book weaves science, family history and interior musings with the fabric of the kite's life history. Tracking Desire was named Editors' Choice by Audubon magazine (March 2005). Says writer Janisse Ray "Here is a book as lovely as the bird it follows: a pleasure from beginning to end.

Dubbed Florida ‘s “photographer laureate,”photographer, writer and editor John Moran will share the keynote spotlight Saturday, March 31, 2007, giving a presentation based on his latest book, "Journal of Light: The Visual Diary of a Florida Nature Photographer," a 20-year collection of photos and essays, published by University Press of Florida in 2004.A major traveling exhibitor of the Florida Museum of Natural History, the longtime photographer with the Gainesville Sun left the world of photojournalism in 2003 to concentrate full time on photographing the best of vanishing natural Florida. Other projects in the works, include a Suwannee River rafting adventure from the swamp to the sea, and a book on the Old Florida of writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Kicking off the lecture series during the Big O Birding Festival, Friday, March 30, 2007 is renowned bird artist Lydia C. Thompson. A native of Natchez, Mississippi, Ms. Thompson began her studies of art, birds and nature along the banks of the Mississippi. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Mississippi State University in 1976, and after several years of extensive traveling and continued studies, she settled on St. Simons Island, Ga. One of the most recognized and loved artists in the coastal area, Lydia is also a popular columnist for the “Jekyll Golden Islander,” and Executive Director for the “Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding & Nature Festival.”

Aided by a bald eagle, burrowing owl, caracara and other birds of prey native to the region, Lynda White of the Audubon Birds of Prey Center, will give a presentation on the Center’s Eaglewatch volunteer citizen scientist program at noon on Saturday, March 31, 2007. Eagle Watch is designed to educate volunteer participants in general eagle nesting biology, applicable laws, the identification of nest threats, monitoring techniques and the verification of previously unrecorded active eagle nests. This data is compiled and used to assist the state’s Mid-winter Annual Bald Eagle Nesting Survey as well as the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.

Growing up in south Florida in the ‘50s, Robert Fulton, Jr. was able to fish from and camp on the local public beach, roam expanses of the Everglades, and what is now the Big Cypress Preserve. His love of the outdoors led him to a career as an outdoor writer and avid birder. Author of Swamp Drifter, which details his work with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s research team in the Cache River section of Arkansas last April, Fulton will speak on the continued search for the Ivory billed Woodpecker, during a special “mini keynote” presentation, Sunday, April 1, 2007.

http://www.bigobirdingfestival.com/