Bird Fest set for the weekend

The Lee County Bird Patrol welcomes the public to attend its sixth annual Bird Fest on Saturday, March 1, at Lakes Regional Park and also to mark calendars now for upcoming bird-counting trips on Conservation 20/20 sites.

The festival runs 7:30 a.m. to noon with free canoe tours, guided land tours, a workshop on photography and a workshop on building a backyard wildlife habitat. Lakes Regional Park, 7330 Gladiolus Drive, is a feathered nursery in the middle of bustling south Fort Myers this time of year. Herons, egrets, anhinga and ibis are busy building nests and raising young, and the park is teeming with parent and baby birds - overhead, in nests and on the water.

Bird Fest also kicks off nine behind-thescenes tours of Conservation 20/20 land that belong to Lee County.

In addition to offering monthly bird walks at sites such as Lakes Park and Bunche Beach, Bird Patrol volunteers count birds on 20/20 land and report results to track migration and other patterns of bird usage and behavior on selected sites. Once a year, the public is invited to tour several out-of -the-way preserves with Bird Patrol members and Lee County Parks & Recreation staff in conjunction with Bird Fest. Tour details will be available at Bird Fest; the upcoming schedule includes:

• March 4: 8:30 a.m. at Daniels Preserve at Spanish Creek. (239) 482-6250.

• March 8: 8 a.m. at Imperial Marsh Preserve. (239) 482-6250.

• March 11: 8:30 a.m. at Smokehouse Bay Preserve. (239) 482-6250.

• March 15: 8 a.m. at Flag Pond. (239) 482-6250.

• March 18: 8:30 a.m. at Powell Creek Preserve. (239) 482-6250.

• March 22: 8 a.m. at Estero Marsh Preserve. (239) 992-6968.

• April 5: 8 a.m. at Estero Lagoon Preserve. (239) 542-6007.

• April 12: 8 a.m. at Bunche Beach. (239) 454-1598.

• April 19: 8 a.m. at Charlotte Harbor Buffer Preserve. (239) 218-3467.

• April 26: 8 a.m. at Hickey's Creek Mitigation Park. (239) 482-6250.

The Conservation 20/20 Program is a willing seller program in which land owners nominate their own property to be acquired by Lee County. Land is paid for with funds from a self-imposed tax Lee County voters approved in 1996 to preserve green spaces. Today, the program incorporates 34 preserves and more than 18,500 acres. Learn more at www.Conservation2020.org