‘Festival for the Birds’ Comes to Tuckerton

WHAT: The Festival for the Birds, a celebration of Migratory Bird Day. Activities include self-guided nature drives down Great Bay Blvd., children’s craft activities, decoy carving and educational displays, – all free. A bird walk at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge is available for $5. 

WHEN: Saturday, May 9, 8 a.m. for the bird walk, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for everything else 

WHERE: The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, 130 Great Bay Blvd., Tuckerton, N.J.

WHO: Biologist Pete McLain, former director of the Division of Fish and Wildlife in the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the driving force behind legislation and policies that brought the osprey and the peregrine falcon back to New Jersey. He will give a talk and show a video about ospreys at 10:30.

BACKGROUND: International Migratory Bird Day is a project of Environment for the Americas, a non-profit group working to increase awareness of birds and their conservation throughout the Western Hemisphere. The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, managed by Rutgers University, is one of 27 such reserves in the United States and Puerto Rico developed to protect, understand and educate the public about estuaries. This is the first year the JCNERR has participated in International Migratory Bird Day.