Feathers Over Freeport Birding Festival 2025: Saturday, May 17 at Bradbury Mt.

Saturday, May 17, 2025
Bradbury Mountain State Park
8:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Bradbury Mountain State Park
528 Hallowell Road, Pownal, Maine 04069 / (207) 688-4712

8 - 10 am - Bird Walk: Join us for a walk in the woods to seek out spring migrants and woodland residents. All birding levels welcome. Bring your own binoculars. Several binoculars will be on hand to borrow. Walk led by a Maine Audubon Naturalist. Meet at the Group Picnic Shelter.

10 am - 3 pm - Educational Displays: Get bird posters, while they last, courtesy of the Maine Wildlife Park and Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Learn what other Maine State Parks have to offer! Located in the Day Use Area.

10 - 11 am- Bird Walk for Children: Birding is cool! Birding is fun! Imagine something you can do anywhere. You hear a bird, tilt your head to listen, and are able to name the species just from the sound or a quick glimpse. Your friends will be impressed! Join a naturalist on this beginning bird walk designed just for kids (children must be accompanied by parents or adults over 18). We will help you learn some of the basics of identifying birds. Meet at the Group Picnic Shelter.

10 am - 3 pm - Birding Fun & Games: Build a bird house or make a backyard bird feeder while supplies last. On-going hands-on activities and crafts designed for children and families of beginning birders will be available. Program led by the Bureau of Parks and Lands staff and volunteers. Located in the Group Day Use Area and the Playground.

10 am - 3 pm - Kid Banding Station: Get banded by Kenzie Roeder, Songbird Biologist with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. This interactive, hands-on activity will engage children (of all ages) and teach them about bird banding. At the station, kids can learn how banding works by viewing examples of bird bands and even participating in a mock banding demonstration. We provide each participant with a bracelet featuring colored beads that simulate color bands. Each bead represents a specific data point (such as age, height, and “wingspan” measured by arm length), allowing us to demonstrate how data collected from banding contributes to conservation efforts.

10 am - 3 pm - Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife booth: Stop by to get information about Maine's Wildlife, learn how you can get involved in data collection, and get free materials.

10 am – 11 am - Calling All Birds led by the Chewonki Foundation: No matter where you live, you're sure to have birds nearby! Covering the basics of bird adaptations, we will learn about coloring, beak shape, feet shape, and of course bird calls! Focusing on how we can begin to recognize birds by their sounds, we will test your knowledge on some common and not so common bird sounds. This presentation is for birding experts and novices alike. Meet at the Group Picnic Shelter.

10:00 am - 4:00 pm - Brickyard Hollow Food Truck will be serving their scrumptious pizza.

12:00 pm – 1pm  Biomimicry led by the Chewonki Foundation: Many of the engineering challenges facing humans today are similar to difficulties that exist in the natural world. Plants and animals have evolved through generations of successes and failures resulting in remarkable adaptations to overcome these challenges. Join us as we explore the ways engineers have taken advantage of nature’s bright ideas through biomimicry. And meet some live animals that help us draw comparisons between human-made products and animal adaptations.  As we look for creative solutions to future problems, perhaps we can find inspiration by observing nature in our own backyard! Located at the Group Picnic Shelter.

1 - 2:30 pm - Vernal Pool Exploration - Wading into the Woodland Waters: Vernal pools are temporary water bodies which fill from snowmelt and spring rains and provide breeding habitat for amphibians including wood frogs, several species of mole salamanders and invertebrates such as fairy shrimp. Vernal pools make up an important base of the food web and provide a vast amount of biomass to the landscape. Join Maine Master Naturalist Bryce Hach to journey through this wonderful and incredibly important wetland habitat. We will learn how to identify a vernal pool and the critters that live in them. Be prepared for wet conditions and wear appropriate footwear for a hike of about 1.4-miles round-trip. Meet at the Group Picnic Shelter.

2:30 - 3:00 - Bird Call Contest: Get ready to show off your best bird mimicry skills by joining in our bird calls contest. All bird calls must be made without the help of any devices. Our judges will decide the winners and award prizes. All ages welcome! Start practicing now! Contestants please meet 10 minutes ahead of the program to sign-in to participate. Audience and contestants, please meet near the pavillion at the Bird Call Contest sign. Bring a folding chair or blanket if you want to be seated.

3 - 4:00 pm - Birds of Prey: Our Talon-ted Friends by the Center for Wildlife: What is the difference between a hawk and a falcon?  Do we have vultures in Maine?  What is our smelliest owl?  What is our largest hawk?  Where do they live?  Using our amazing live non-releasable bird ambassadors, posters, and hands-on-materials, we will discuss the kinds of birds of prey found in Maine, their habitats, habits, place in the food chain, and why need to protect them.  This hour long program will connect the audience with these beautiful ambassadors of their species as well as provide their natural and personal histories and empower audience members to help to steward the environment that we all share.  Meet at the group Pavilion.  Bring a folding chair or blanket if you want to be seated.