On Saturday, May 13th, Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge invites everyone to the Refuge for our Annual Birding Festival to Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD)! Each year the Refuge celebrates WMBD to encourage support for migratory bird conservation. The theme for this year’s installment of the annual celebration is “Water: Sustaining Bird Life”.
The festival runs from 7:00am to 12:30pm on Saturday, May 13th. Join us for a few hours or for the whole celebration. This is an event for the whole family! Some of the activities include early bird hikes at 7:00 and 9:00 am and a Discovering Birds and Beyond 10:30 am hike for kids between the ages of 4-12 and birding beginners. There will also be bird banding demonstrations, a DIY fun and easy bird feeder session, and The River Valley Raptors will be there with live raptors! We will also have the 2023 Jr Duck Stamp Exhibition for participants to admire and “A Bird’s Eye View” presentation at the Outdoor Wonder Learning Center at 10:30am.
Hiking groups will be limited to twenty participants and ALL bird hikes during WMBD require pre-registration. There will be three simultaneous hikes starting at 7:00 am followed by three simultaneous hikes starting at 9:00 am and one hike at 10:30 am on Saturday May 13th. Please call (608) 539-2311, ext. 1 to register your spot in the festivities of this year’s WMBD!
WMBD will take place rain or shine but may be cancelled if there’s a high probability of thunderstorms. In the event the entrance road is flooded and closed, access to the refuge for WMBD will be through an alternate entrance. Please check our website or Facebook page for flood updates.
Kick off this year’s annual birding festival by attending Craig Thompson presentation titled, “Putting the Kibosh on Extinction: The Power of Birds”. Sponsored by The Friends of Trempealeau Refuge. This presentation will be held on May 12th at Elmaro Vineyard and will begin at 6:30pm, no registration required.
World Migratory Bird Day events take place across our community and across the world to raise awareness for the need to conserve migratory birds and their habitats. Learn more on our national website: https://www.fws.gov/story/2023-04/world-migratory-bird-day-2023.
For more information regarding the refuge, visit our website at https://www.fws.gov/refuge/trempealeau or call (608)539-2311, ext. 1.
The mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System is to administer a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management, and where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans. Please visit the Trempealeau National Wildlife and Refuge website at https://www.fws.gov/refuge/trempealeau or call (608)539-2311, ext. 1.
