This family friendly event is our main one with expertly guided field trips, pre-festival Jamboree, free programs, including some new ones just for kids, exhibitors, vendors, live animals and Keynote Buffet Dinner.

The small-group guided field trips will be mainly in Group Vans but there will also be several Car Caravan style, in participants' own vehicles, to nearby easily-accessible locations. Each trip is led by an expert guide and this year we welcome two special guest guides, Greg Homel and Rick Wright.

Schedule of Events:

​7:30-9:00 AM: Gordon Lam: Beginner Birders Fun-damentals! Bird Walk Sponsored by Swarovski Optik

"Hey – what are you folks looking at?" Have you ever wandered through a park, saw a bunch of people all dressed alike in khaki-colored clothes, and wondered what the heck are they looking at?  Well, it’s time to find out!  Whether you’re experienced or novice, young or old, or own an old pair of opera glasses or the latest in optics, we invite you to join our favorite NY transplant Gordon Lam for a free, 90-minute stroll to get some fresh air, meet likeminded people, learn how to use binoculars, and maybe even identify a few birds!

Meeting place: Parking Lot at Garden Canyon Linear Park

​9:00-10:15 AM: Flyways - a PBS Nature special

This PBS Nature special highlights some of the more spectacular migrations of bird species around the world. Flyways spotlights the migrations of Hudsonian Godwits in the Americas, Far Eastern Curlews in Asia, and Red Knots in Europe. These birds travel hundreds or even thousands of miles every year, often flying non-stop without food or water. But their populations are crashing amidst climate change and urban development. Follow a conservation movement of bird-loving experts and citizen scientists as they mobilize to the challenge of understanding and saving shorebirds.

​10:30-11:45 AM: Glenn Minuth: How Birds’ Systems Work: The Avian Nervous System

We consider the avian nervous system to consist in the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system.  In the whole, these system elements are charged with the coordination and control of functions including movement, behavior, digestive and sensory processes, and reproduction. A bird's nervous system is uniquely evolved to enable them to fly, with a larger higher brain mass to body mass ratio than other animals, together with a significantly larger reliance on sight and hearing. These adaptations empower birds to familiarize themselves within their environment while executing complex behaviors, such as catching food and migration. The importance of these adaptations facilitates special abilities to allow birds to survive and adapt while literally “on the fly.”

​12:00 - 1:00 PM (at the STAGE Inside The Mall at Sierra Vista)
SPECIAL KIDS EVENT!

Tamela Birdle: Ballads, Birds and Adventure!

A fun, interactive musical performance for young explorers! Join Tamela Birdle's expedition on a quest for hidden treasures and the discovery of birds through songs, stories, and poems.

​12:00-1:15 PM: Greg Homel: Birding Mexico the Safe Way

Only a short flight from the US lies a fascinating treasure trove of endemic Mexican bird species as well as many rare US species which are common. Ranging from sea level to over 8,000 feet, the birding in the Puerto Vallarta area is magnificent. Greg will tell you all about where to safely find them in the heart of their ranges in Mexico.

​12:00-1:15 PM: Deb Liggett: National Park Nerds: Things to Know and Tell

Amaze your friends, influence politicians, be in the know. Join retired park superintendent Deb Liggett (the horse’s mouth) as she reveals important things to know and tell about the national parks. Have fun, test your knowledge, but learn the things you need to know to be the best advocate for parks (and the birds that live there.)  Fair warning: Deb once set her pants on fire at a an evening program — true story — but she has learned fire safety in the intervening years.

​1:30-2:45 PM: Charles Melton: Wings and Stings - Ground-nesting Wasps of Arizona

Wasps are often feared and avoided because of their stinging nature. This ability is used not only for defense but also to paralyze hosts to feed their young. The video and photos in this program will reveal the fascinating lives of these secretive insects. We will follow the construction of nesting burrows, the capture of prey, and the development of young for a variety of species. We will also see how these wasps deal with predators such as ants and flies.

​1:30-2:45 PM: SPECIAL KIDS EVENT!

Callie Caplenor: Birds and Bats of Southeast Arizona

They both fly, but just how similar are birds and bats? Join National Park Service ranger Callie Caplenor for a family-oriented program comparing these amazing two-winged creatures. Together we will observe different parts of their anatomy and talk about the behaviors and characteristics of birds and bats that come through the Sky Island region. There will also be an arts and crafts activity with the opportunity to create your own bird or bat and a story reading at the end.

3:00-4:15 PM: Mark Hart: Borderlands Jaguars

Southeast Arizona has the greatest biologic diversity in a state that arguably has the greatest biologic diversity of the lower 48. Doubters need look no further than the presence of four cats in the wild here: jaguar, ocelot, mountain lion and bobcat. This presentation examines the largest and charismatic of the four. Here and southwest New Mexico are the only locations in the United States where jaguars have been sighted in the past twenty years. In late 2016, two jaguars were present in the region, one in the Huachuca Mountains and the other in the Dos Cabezas. Earlier that year a video surfaced of a third jaguar in the Santa Rita Mountains. The video caused an international sensation, but that jaguar returned to Mexico, as did the Huachucas jaguar. Meantime, the Dos Cabezas jaguar has persisted south of Willcox since, and a new individual was sighted in the Huachucas and the Whetstone Mountains in 2023. This presentation examines how having this endangered species in the region poses unique challenges for wildlife and land managers, and how they have made even more popular among the general public trail camera technology.

​3:00-4:15 PM: Mike Foster: San Pedro River Beavers

Beavers were returned to the San Pedro River in 1999 by the Arizona Game and Fish on BLM property. Since then Mike Foster has been doing surveys on the 45 miles of the San Pedro River National Conservation Area near Sierra Vista. In the last few years this survey has been picking up steam with Cochise College and Watershed Management Group from Tucson joining the cause. In the last year this became an international effort with numerous Mexican conservation groups joining the cause in the first international beaver survey. The uppermost San Pedro is in Mexico. Some reservoirs on ranches there appear to have become repositories for beaver populations.

Click here to Register.