Bird Festival Continues Today with More Boat Trips, Optics Display, Decoy Carving Exhibits -- and More

This year's "spotlight bird" at the 4th annual Great Stratford Bird Festival is the semi-palmated plover, a short-billed gregarious wading bird species.

And on day two of the 3-day event, Saturday, Oct. 1, birders will take to Stratford Point to try and spy a glimpse of the bird. That particular event starts at 8 a.m. and costs $5 a car.

The list of things to do at the festival -- which has Emmy Award-winning media personality Phil Donahue as its honorary chairman -- is expansive, and is reflective of the number of birding habitats within Stratford. Miles of riverfront, several hundred acres of marsh, the state's only town-owned forest as well as its largest barrier beach are the habitats that will be explored by bird lovers this weekend.

The festival officially kicks off at noon Friday with a one-hour Housatonic River boat trip that will start at the Birdseye Boat Ramp. Naturalists and historians will be onboard to teach patrons about Stratford's waterfront history and the birds behind it. The fee is $10 a person.

A complete list of events and costs is attached to this article via a PDF.

Festival organizers -- including Hank Sprouse, who was recently profiled on Patch for placing second in an international bird carving competition -- are billing Saturday night as the "capstone of the festival." That's when Donahue will speak at the "Feed the Flock" dinner at the Beardsley Zoo. The dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. and is $50 a head.

Click here for more information on the bird festival, or email info@stratfordbirdfestival.com.

Do you plan to attend an event? If so, which one(s)? Tell us in the comments section below.