Visions for Clarendon and Audubon Arkansas are gearing up for Clarendon’s seventh annual Big Woods Birding Festival Saturday, May 17, 2008, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Audubon Arkansas’s Director of Bird Conservation, Dr. Dan Scheiman, and expert birder and nature writer Mel White are leading bird walks on the levee and to Louisiana Purchase State Park. The first levee bird walk begins at 7 a.m. and will be led by both Dan and Mel. A second round of walks will begin at 8:30 with one group on the levee and another taking a bus to the state park. Spring migrants should be in abundance including Baltimore Orioles, Prothonotary Warblers, White-eyed Vireos, Acadian Flycatchers, Indigo Buntings, and more!

Many annual activities will featured at this year’s festival. The youth fishing derby will be held at the Donald Branch Fishin’ Hole from 7-9 a.m. Children will have the opportunity to catch catfish provided for the derby by Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Prizes for the biggest fish, most fish caught, and first fish caught will be awarded at the festival main stage on the courthouse lawn at 9:30 a.m.

Also returning will be the Little Rock Zoo’s Bird of Prey program. The informative and educational program features a variety of live birds of prey including hawks and a Bald Eagle. This program will be held from 11-12 noon on the main stage at the courthouse.

Musical entertainment will include a returning favorite, the Cummins Prison Band, which will play from noon till the end of the festival at 3 p.m. New this year is the local band Crash of the Conspiracy, composed of Clarendon High School students who will be featured on the main stage from 10-11 a.m.

Another new item is a children’s concert at the City Welcome Center at 10:30 a.m. Children’s musicians Brian and Terri Kinder of Little Rock will perform a rollicking fun concert for children and their parents. This concert is being sponsored by the Clarendon American Legion Auxiliary.

As always, the festival will include free children’s activities such as making bird feeders and bird houses, a duck pond, ring toss, button making, craft frames and coloring books. A clown will also be strolling through the children’s area giving away free balloons. Other children’s activities that will require tickets will be the ever popular mechanical bull rides and various inflatable attractions. The Boy Scouts cake walk will be held in front of the Monroe County courthouse from 11 a.m. till noon.

The pie-in-the-face booth will also be featured at the festival from 1-2 pm.

Anyone who would like to volunteer at the festival is encouraged to contact Clarendon City Hall at 870-747-5414.

Photo:  Audubon’s Yellow Rumped Warbler

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