ROSCOMMON – The Kirtland’s Warbler Festival is back to celebrate the once-endangered bird, which nests primarily in Northeast Michigan.
The “Home opener” is scheduled for Friday, June 3 from 5-8 p.m. at the Gahagan Nature Preserve, located at 209 West Maplehurst. Enjoy a nature hike, and beer and wine tasting with appetizers. Keynote speaker will be Joyanne Mittig from the American Bird Conservancy, will address visitors presenting Forestry for Michigan Birds.
On Saturday, June 4, the Kirtland’s Warbler Festival will be held at the CRAF Center located at 606 Lake Street in Roscommon from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The day will start out at 7:30 a.m. when bird watchers will board a trolley out to the jack pine breeding grounds of the Kirtland’s Warbler. There, you will see and hear Kirtland’s Warblers and other wildlife, as well as learn about this unique ecosystem. A second tour will leave at 10 a.m.
On site activities at the CRAF Center begin at 10 a.m. There will be plenty of youth activities at the Kids’ Tent, including live animals, face painting, birdhouse building, skulls and furs, coloring and painting, and games including the Kirtland’s Warbler Alliance’s wildly popular Kirtland’s Warbler Migration game featuring gummy worms.
Featured artist Kim Diment will display her artwork, along with featured author William Rapai with his book “The Kirtland’s Warbler: The Story of a Bird’s Fight Against Extinction and the People Who Saved It.”
This year’s presentations are Kirtland’s Warbler videos with an introduction by Bill Rapai, “Dispatches from Paradise: Observing Avian Migration at Whitefish Point” by Alison Világ, and “Michigan Frogs by Sight and Sound” by Jim McGrath.
A $5.00 Kirtland’s Warbler Festival button is required for the trolley tours and presentations. Children 12 and under are free. A button is not required for other outdoor festival activities.For more information and updates about these events, visit our Kirtland’s Warbler Festival Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kirtlandwarblerfestival, or email at kirtlandsfestival@gmail.com.
