Colourful kayaks dot the waters of Bountiful Pond, nestled in opposition to the far fringe of Farmington Bay’s wetlands on the japanese shores of Nice Salt Lake. The paddlers are quiet, their paddles nonetheless, all eyes on a bunch of American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts. The kayakers sit in revered silence and watch the birds, some with binoculars, earlier than shifting throughout the pond to look at different birds like pelicans, songbirds, and waterfowl. After two hours of this aware birding expertise, the group returns to the shores.
Whereas trying on the group of shorebirds, a participant lowers their binoculars and quietly exclaims, “The Avocet’s legs are blue! I’ve seen Avocets many instances earlier than, however I’ve by no means seen that they’ve blue legs!”
Moments like this—unfettered alternative for folks to expertise birding in a novel method and join with one another, the birds, and the character they’re in—are the aim of hen festivals internationally. And the Nice Salt Lake Chicken Pageant is a premiere instance.
It was a busy Might at Nice Salt Lake—spring runoff contributed to the lake’s ranges serving to attain a seven-year high, the transient window of spring migration moved tons of of 1000’s of shorebirds by way of the lakescape, pelicans returned to Gunnison Island and are nesting on Hat Island for the primary time in additional than 80 years, and birders from throughout the state, even the nation, flocked to its shores to have fun collectively on the 26th Annual Great Salt Lake Bird Festival.
A celebration of Nice Salt Lake, its ecosystem, wetland habitats, and naturally, the thousands and thousands of birds that rely upon these habitats, the Nice Salt Lake Chicken Pageant is a chance for folks to come back collectively by way of their love of birds and study from the specialists of Nice Salt Lake.
“The pageant offers such a novel alternative for folk who don’t usually have the possibility to work together with these professionals to study Nice Salt Lake, its birds, and the conservation points that the lake and the birds are dealing with,” stated Max Malmquist, Engagement Supervisor for Audubon’s Saline Lakes Program.
Max has volunteered on the pageant’s planning committee for the previous 5 years. Alongside Max, greater than 100 different volunteers assist make the occasion potential. They embody subject journey guides, Division of Wildlife Sources Biologists, and the employees at Uncover Davis, the tourism division for Davis County, who set up the pageant annually with the assistance of the committee.
Traditionally, the pageant has garnered attendance from a neighborhood crowd, with birders from throughout the Salt Lake Valley returning 12 months after 12 months. Over the previous 5 years nevertheless, and maybe on account of the 2020 pandemic main extra folks to hunt outside hobbies at the side of the rising consciousness of the challenges dealing with Nice Salt Lake, the pageant has seen rising curiosity and attendance.
“With the rising curiosity in birds, the lake, and the pageant, we’ve actually tried to develop to satisfy that increasing want and curiosity. The previous few years we’ve widened our scope and marketed the pageant and Nice Salt Lake to broader audiences across the nation, and even the world,” Max defined.
This 12 months attendees joined from greater than 20 completely different states, from Maine to Florida to each state within the West, along with Australia, Canada, and Columbia.
“What actually makes this pageant unimaginable, what attracts in people from throughout the nation, is you possibly can see hen congregations on Nice Salt Lake you can’t see anyplace else on Earth,” stated Max, noting that regardless of there being loads of different hen festivals a lot nearer to some attendees, they arrive to Nice Salt Lake due to the distinctive alternatives it supplies.
From shorebirds like Wilson’s and Purple-necked Phalaropes, Black-necked Stilts, and American Avocets, to waterbirds like Eared Grebes, Nice Salt Lake is a birder’s paradise. It’s the most important saline lake within the Western Hemisphere and supplies habitat for tens of thousands and thousands of birds. But, whereas many come for the birds, it’s the group of birders and interface with the specialists that preserve attendees coming again 12 months after 12 months and drawing new attendees in.
There have been 65 subject journeys this 12 months together with 22 new ones, offering a spread of experiences throughout Nice Salt Lake’s Watershed and past.
From the Antelope Island Owl Prowl the place attendees looked for Nice Horned, Barn, Burrowing, Lengthy-eared, and Brief-eared Owls, to looking for Sandhill Cranes within the high-altitude moist meadows, marshes, and riparian areas of Swaner Ecocenter, and Birding by E-bike alongside the Jordan River Parkway, knowledgeable birders to newbie birders all had the possibility to get out and study birds.
Figuring out and recognizing birds isn’t the one focus of those fieldtrips. Many intention to let folks expertise Nice Salt Lake’s completely different habitats and ecosystems whereas participating with lake specialists by way of behind-the-gate alternatives in locations like waterfowl administration areas they’d in any other case not have the ability to entry.
Aly Denittis, Senior Land Administration Coordinator for Audubon’s Gillmor Sanctuary, and first-time volunteer on the Nice Salt Lake Chicken Pageant’s Planning Committee, co-led a Conscious Birding by Kayak fieldtrip on Bountiful Pond the place past birding, additionally they acquired to speak about habitats, how birds use them in several methods, and why they’re vital.
“We had an exquisite combine of individuals with a spread of birding and kayaking expertise take part. There have been those that had been coming to the pageant for years, those that it was their first time, and even those that had by no means been in a kayak not to mention on waters of Nice Salt Lake and its wetlands,” Aly stated.
“It’s experiences like this that assist folks fall in love with birds and the habitats they rely upon, giving them house to essentially begin excited about conservation and how one can shield these species and locations.”
The precarious state of Great Salt Lake gained nationwide consideration in 2022, because it balanced on the precipice of ecological catastrophe, making many individuals, particularly birders, conscious and anxious of the challenges dealing with the lake. Guided experiences at this 12 months’s pageant reminiscent of kayaking or the Nice Salt Lake Ecosystem Boat Tour helped join folks to this endangered ecosystem in a profound method, serving to to construct a brand new cohort of advocates for Nice Salt Lake that extends past native communities in Utah.
Whereas the express function of birding festivals is to have fun birds and birding, and foster the following technology of birders, it additionally serves to construct advocacy for precarious ecosystems like Nice Salt Lake.
“One of many causes I’m concerned with the hen pageant is I really like doing no matter I can to offer alternatives for younger folks to study and expertise birds,” Max stated as he defined the advantage of the household day that the Nice Salt Lake Chicken Pageant supplies—a day of free academic actions for households with children of all ages to come back and study in regards to the lake and its birds.
“Perhaps solely 2 or 3 out of each 100 children who expertise the pageant will come to like birds and hen conservation, however my hope is that the pageant will present the spark which is able to gasoline the following technology of people that will love birds and the habitats they rely upon.”
And in an age of know-how and disconnect, inspiring the following technology of birders couldn’t be extra vital as birds join folks not solely to nature and wildlife, however folks to folks as properly—a theme that pulsed by way of Diego Calderón-Franco’s keynote tackle at this 12 months’s pageant.
An expert hen information and conservationist from Colombia, Diego spent a night regaling the group along with his story of being kidnapped by FARC (The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) to years later, exploring, therapeutic, and birding by way of areas beforehand forbidden with the very individuals who stored him captive for 88 days.
Whereas Colombia and Nice Salt Lake solely share a number of migrating species, the themes of connection and inspiration all through his speak rang acquainted to the viewers and pageant attendees.
(Try The Birders Show YouTube Series, co-hosted by Diego, for an upcoming episode on the Nice Salt Lake Chicken Pageant.)
Because the Nice Salt Lake Chicken Pageant got here to its shut, pleasure and positivity unfold by way of attendees. Aly captured this sentiment as she mirrored on her expertise this 12 months, “you don’t should know something about birds or birding to have the ability to come and luxuriate in a hen pageant and study. There’s one thing for everybody.”
Missed this 12 months’s Nice Salt Lake Chicken Pageant? Try different upcoming hen festivals throughout the nation: