The fifth annual Rivers & Bluffs Fall Birding Festival gets underway today in Lansing. Co-organizer Ric Zarwell says the festival is a chance to see thousands of migratory birds. He says they usually have 15 to 18-thousand tundra swans, along with 250 to 300-thousand other waterfowl, as it’s a staging area for their migration.
Zarwell says they all kinds of events to help people view the birds. Zarwell says they have half-day field trips and indoor presentations to get people ready for what they’ll see outdoors. Zarwell says they have presentations on birds by experts.
Zarwell says one of the presentations compares the Mississippi to areas of Mexico, and then there’s a live hawk presentation that concludes the program on Sunday. Zarwell says the festival has gained more and more attention each year. Zarwell says they’ve had people come from 21 different states, and Canada. Zarwell says they had 281 people attend the event last year.