The second annual Festival of Flight and Flowers kicked off Friday, October 11, 2019 at the Eustis Women’s Club with keynote speakers Jaret Daniels, Associate Curator and Program Director at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity in Gainesville, Craig Huegel, biology professor at St. Petersburg College, and author of Native Plant Landscaping for Florida Wildlife and The Nature of Plants, and Eliana Ardila and Marc Kramer, birders extraordinaire, who went birding by bus for a year in Valentina, their Volkswagen bus.
Workshops on photographing birds of prey, plants for birds, fall blooms and art journaling were the highlights of the Saturday festival at the Eustis Community Center and environs. Presentations on the Monarch butterfly, Florida Wildlife Corridors, snakes and reptiles, and bats (with live snakes and bats) added to the fun.
The Festival offered 20 field trips over the 3 days. Among the field trips on offer were a hike in the Seminole State Forest to visit Scrub Jay habitat, a primer on bringing wildlife to yards at Ellis Acres Preserve, a paddle on Lake Norris and Blackwater Creek, and a walk in the Clearwater Lake Restoration area to see the Red-cockaded Woodpecker.
A huge thank you to everyone involved for a wonderful Festival! Photos below are courtesy of Stacey Kelly, Peg Lindsay, Hiroshi Araki, and others.
by Susan Vergnan
