Yesterday I attended a planning meeting for the upcoming Hudson River EagleFest. This annual event promotes the importance of a healthy Hudson River and the return of Bald Eagles. Scheduled for Saturday, Feb 9th the event needs colder weather that will freeze lakes and ponds farther north and force eagles down to open water around Croton.
The EagleFest has grown in popularity every year and last February attracted around 5,000 attendees. That is an amazing number of people for an event that is organized and operated primarily by volunteers. Representatives from a dozen different environmental and nature-related organizations participated in the planning meeting with the goal of making this winter’s EagleFest be bigger and better than ever.
The number of eagle viewing sites along the river are increasing. The southern-most location will be RiverWalk Center in Sleepy Hollow; the northern-most is Boscobel in Garrison. There is even a site on the western side of the river at Steamboat Dock Park in Verplanck. Each official site will be manned all day by knowledgeable eagle spotters equipped with spotting scopes.
An innovation from last year was a dedicated car on a Metro North train from Grand Central Station that brought 80 people from NYC to celebrate eagles. A naturalist from New York City Audubon pointed out sightings along the way. This year two cars will needed.
There will be at least three live raptors show including the most popular show with a live eagle that allowed visitors up close for photos. There are activities all day from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm including bird walks, naturalist-led bus tours to multiple eagle locations, lectures and presentation (there are two separate theaters that seat 100 and 250 people), as well as hands-on activities for children. Most programs are free, although there is a small charge for some. Tickets for the most popular programs sell out early.
Mark your calendar. And save the day. Saturday, February 9, 2013
birdsoup 
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