Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are recipients of a 2017 Mindful Birding Award for their efforts to promote bird conservation through their 25th annual Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival May 4-7.
The festival, held annually at Homer, offers a variety of bird watching field trips to connect participants to nature through the splendor of birds. The festival plans to distribute its code of ethics to field trip leaders and attendees to provide guidance on how birders can achieve safe and gratifying bird watching experiences without altering the ability of birds to behave naturally.
By strengthening participants’ connections to nature, and providing guidance on ethical birding and nature conservation, the festival serves as a model for other birding festivals and helps attendees become stronger supporters of conservation.
Mindful Birding is a charitable project of the Morrissey Family Foundation that presents ethical birding guidelines from around the world, and offers awards to birding festivals that demonstrate improved or superior ethics.
