North Coast Nature Festival Get a Bird's Eye View! The North Coast Nature Festival is next weekend, along with a great weekend of nature related presentations, exhibitors and vendors, hikes, live animals, digital photo scavenger hunt, and more, we have the day-long birding field trip (5 spots still remaining) on Saturday, April 25. Get a Bird's Eye View of our fine-feathered friends. BIRDING THE NORTH COAST - 5 SPOTS STILL REMAINING! Saturday, April 25; 6 a.m. - 5 p.m. $40 (includes transportation, stop at the nature festival, leadership, lunch, and snacks) Join local birders Ken Gober and Bill Deininger for a day-long exploration of some of the best birding hot spots in Greater Cleveland, including: Headlands Beach State Park in Lake County and Sandy Ridge Reservation in Lorain County. We hope to see a wave of colorful Neotropical migrants, including prothonotary and black-throated green warblers, flycatchers, gnatcatchers, blue-headed vireos, and more. red-headed woodpeckers, sandhill cranes, and Bald Eagles are all possibilities on this full day in the field, too. At 3 p.m. we'll venture back to Rocky River Nature Center to report our sightings to "North Coast Nature Festival" participants. Binoculars required. Spotting scopes highly recommended. Space is limited to 16 participants. For more information and to register, call 440-734-6660. North Coast Nature Festival Friday, April 24 - Special Presentation . 7 p.m. & repeated at 9 p.m. . Free! Saturday, April 25 & Sunday, April 26 . 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. . Free! John J. Donnelly Rocky River Nature Center . Rocky River Reservation . North Olmsted Celebrate the rebirth of spring and nature at Cleveland Metroparks "North Coast Nature Festival" - a free event beginning Friday evening, April 24 through Sunday, April 26 at John J. Donnelly Rocky River Nature Center in Rocky River Reservation in North Olmsted - featuring a variety of programs and activities for novice to experienced nature enthusiasts, and includes "The Nature & Art Show" on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to "The Nature & Art Show" activities, visitors have the opportunity to enjoy Special Evening Presentations on Friday night, April 24 at 7 p.m. and repeated at 9 p.m. with nationally-known Nature Photographer & Author Bill Thompson, III with "The Perils and Pitfalls of Birding," and a special 'Wetlands and Amphibians' night hike on Saturday night, April 26 at 7 p.m. (pre-registration required for hike). Friday, April 24 . 7 p.m. & repeated at 9 p.m. Bill Thompson, III - "The Perils and Pitfalls of Birding" . Special Presentation A humorous narrative about the many mistakes, accidents and embarrassing situations Bill Thompson, III has experienced in his 30+ years as a bird watcher. He urges the audience to avoid these same perils and pitfalls and even offers tips on how to do so. This light-hearted talk pokes fun at how bird watchers have their own language, dress code and food preferences. It's guaranteed to generate laughs or Bill will clean the binoculars of everyone attending. The Friday evening presentations are free. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and seating is limited for both. Saturday, April 25 . 7 p.m. Wetlands and Amphibians Night Hike . Special Night Hike Enjoy an evening walk through wetlands in the Rocky River Valley looking and listening for amphibians with naturalist David Dvorak. Discover the life history of frogs, toads and salamanders on this 1.5-mile walk. The Saturday night hike is also free, but requires pre-registration and space is limited. "The Nature & Art Show," on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., both days, features a great variety of presentations by guest speakers, along with nature art/photography exhibits and sales, exhibits of nature minded organizations and vendors, a digital photography scavenger hunt (bring your digital cameras or camera phones), a fishing demonstration, hikes for all ages, live animal presentations, musical entertainment, children's activities, and more. "The Nature & Art Show" features exhibits of nature-related organizations and other nature-minded vendors, including: Back to the Wild (Saturday only), Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Dodd Camera, Eagle Optics, EarthWatch Ohio, Las Gralarias Foundation, Lake Erie Nature & Science Center (Sunday only), Leave No Trace, National Wildlife Federation, Northern Ohio Association of Herpetologists (NOAH), Northeast Ohio Sierra Club, Ohio Prairie Nursery, Rocky River Watershed, Wild Birds Unlimited, Western Reserve Wild Ones, and Year of the River. Festival-goers can also enjoy nature art/photography exhibits and sales from: Begin Designs, Burdz-I Nature Photography, Earth Art Pottery, Eco Deco Ceramics, Environmental Photography with Mary Sandmann, glass frames by Faye Stevanus, Jennifer Lee Studios, jewelry by Barbara Gorman, K. Berkheimer Photography, painter Anne Frost, painter Mary Ryan, painter Jackie Hixon, Pens, Etc., quilts by Sara Cooley, Rag Bags, SW Camera Club, Shooting Star Photography and The Bat Farm, The Fleece Shop, and This N That. Cleveland Metroparks EarthWords Nature Shop will feature their spring-line of nature merchandise and a kid's nature print booth (nominal fee). Cleveland Metroparks Institute of the Great Outdoors will be on hand promoting their summer schedule of outdoor recreation programs and trips. Guest speakers featured on Saturday and Sunday, include: Mike Durkalec on "Fish of Cleveland Metroparks" at 11 a.m., "Native Ecosystems for Sustainable Landscaping" with Bob Kehres at 12:30 p.m., "No Child Left Inside: Birds as a Doorway into Nature'" with Bill Thompson, III at 2 p.m., "Birding Field Trip Recap" with Ken Gober (Saturday only) at 3:30 p.m., and "Life Lessons of Birds" with Jen Brumfield (Sunday only) at 3:30 p.m. Additional programs and activities also take place at the outdoor Trailside Theater, featuring live music with Foster Brown (Saturday) and Gary Lee (Sunday) and live animal programs presented by Back to the Wild (Saturday) and Lake Erie Nature & Science Center (Sunday). Children's crafts and activities, face painting by NOAH and a honeybee demonstration will also be featured in the outdoor area. Hikes are offered at: 8 a.m. on Saturday or 7:30 a.m. on Sunday - Bird Hike with a Cleveland Metroparks Naturalist and Bill Thompson, III (Saturday only), 10 a.m. - Photography Hike with Cleveland Metroparks Photography Club, 11:30 a.m. - Family Bird Walk, 1:30 p.m. - Family Garlic Mustard Pull Hike, and 3 p.m. - Family Wildflower Hike. And, from sunrise to noon on Sunday there are bird banding demonstrations with Tom Bartlett. For more information and complete schedule of activities, call 440-734-6660 or visit http://www.clemetparks.com/events/northcoastnaturefest.asp Spring is in the air and nature is in full bloom at the "North Coast Nature Festival" event in Cleveland Metroparks - part of your life, naturally! And to all our social networking friends and those that want to be our friends, be sure to join the social networking site Facebook and become a Cleveland Metroparks fan at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cleveland-OH/Cleveland-Metroparks/23882518 602. And, check out our Twitter page at http://twitter.com/clevemetroparks. Thanks - Dan Cleveland Metroparks Marketing Specialist, Events & Promotions 4101 Fulton Parkway Cleveland, OH 44144 216.635.3274 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]