Bird festival set in Utah’s Dixie

Bird lovers from much of the Southwest will flock to St. George, Utah on Jan. 28-31 for the seventh annual St. George Winter Bird Festival.

This community outreach program of the Red Cliffs Audubon Society offers all ages and experience levels opportunities to delve deeper into their avian interests. All activities are free, except for the banquet Jan. 30.

Headquarters for the festival are centered at the Tonaquint Park and Nature Center in St. George, where there will be exhibits, sales, presentations and workshops Jan. 29-30. The Southwest Wildlife Foundation and Hawkwatch International will bring live birds. Other programs include beginning birding, optics, condors, making your landscape environmentally friendly, desert buteos, owls, wildlife photography, birds of prey and building birdhouses.

Dave Livermore, state director for The Nature Conservancy of Utah, will speak on "Preserving Utah's Biodiversity" at 7 p.m. Jan. 29 at Dixie State College. Under Livermore's direction, the conservancy has completed more than 150 conservation projects preserving nearly 900,000 acres of private and public land in Utah.

Keynote speaker at the Jan. 30 banquet is Ranee Van Buren, specialist on endangered plants and animals in Washington County and an avid birder. The banquet starts at 8 p.m. at Best Western Abbey Inn, and costs $20. Register through the St. George Recreation Center, (435) 634-4560 or www.activityreg.com under programs, Tonaquint Nature Center.

Also on Jan. 29-31, there are field trips to good birding locations throughout the vicinity. To view and print a brochure, schedule of events, and photo contest forms go to www.redcliffsaudubon.org or www.sgcity.org/birdfestival. For further information, contact the festival chairman, Marilyn Davis at (435) 673-0996 or e-mail mkdavis028@msn.com.