TheRusticLife
3-day Wings and Wildflowers Festival attracts hundreds to experience wonders of nature
MILLARD K. IVES | Staff Writer
millardives@dailycommercial.com
Hundreds of people experienced wildlife first hand this weekend at the Florida Scrub-Jay Trail in Clermont, part of the three-day Wings and Wildflowers Festival across Lake County. Visitors who attended the Clermont event were able to go on bird watching tours, tag and release butterflies, examine various plants, spy on an array of insects, and do a little geocaching, a treasure hunting game using GPS to hide and find containers.
"It's great to have a festival that would allow this many people to get up so close to nature," said Bruce Brown, who owns the non-profit Scrub-Jay Trail with his wife Cathy.
And of course people were able to get a bird's eye view of a family of scrub-jays, Florida's only endemic bird and a federally threatened species. Virginal Overstreet was one of several visitors to follow Brown on a bird watching tour.
"I wish I had my binoculars," said Overstreet, trying to get a better look of a scrub jay perched in a tree.
Nestled off of Monte Vista Road in Clermont, the Florida Scrub-Jay Trail has been home to the species for 16 years. Brown said he hopes to have it completed in another seven years.
Festival officials said the place serves as the trailhead for a statewide effort to identify existing scrub-jay habitat on private and public lands, while providing linkage to these sites through corridors that allow the expansion of the Scrub-Jay's home range.
Brown, a former producer, and his wife worked in television before deciding to buy the property and turn it in to a refuge for the scrub-jay.
"We're nature lovers," Brown said.
With the help of Cub Scout Pack 988 in Clermont, which was conducting a service project, Saturday's event also allowed visitors to construct birdhouses. It was a big draw for the children, including the Moore family, Lydia, 4, Natalie, 6, and Caroline, 8, who went to the festival with their mother Erin.
"I want to hang it up so birds can fly in it," said Lydia, shortly after building her birdhouse.
The Florida Scrub-Jay Trail isn't just for the birds. Visitors also have a chance to roam around gopher tortoise burrows and examine caterpillars and exotic insects.
"It really looks disgusting," said Paula Kelly, glaring at a brown insect that looked more like a small tree branch.
"It's cool," said her son Elijah with a laugh.
Brown said the three-day weekend event has brought one of the biggest crowds ever to the wildlife getaway. Neil Gardner, part of the cub scout pack, said he's been over all over Lake County, but Saturday was his first day at the Scrub-Jay Trail.
"I will have to come back," said Gardner, standing with his 7-year-old son, Neil Jr.
In its inaugural year, Wings and Wildflowers continues today at the Scrub-Jay Trail and various locations in the county including Hickory Point Recreational Park in Tavares, where people were able to pet skunks, donkeys and armidillos Saturday.
Travelogues, field trips, boat rides, hikes and tours, and along with 60 exhibitors and vendors will be available to offer children face painting and stuffed toy snakes.
Visit www.lakecountyfl.gov/bird_watching/wings_and_wildflowers/ for a complete list of activities. Call 352-429-4755 or email kpagan@lakecountyfl.gov for information.
Thursday, October 11, 2012 - www.dailycommercial.com/rustic