Bird Experts to Flock to Wild Center’s WildFest ‘07

TUPPER LAKE, NY (06/28/2007)(readMedia)-- Loons are valued in the Adirondacks, inspiring and captivating people. Understanding this bird, its habitat and threats to its environment are part of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Adirondack Loon Conservation initiative. The WCS, along with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the High Peaks Audubon, and the Adirondack Nature Conservancy, will showcase their bird expertise and latest research at the “Wings Tent” during the Wild Center’s WildFest ‘07 on July 4th. The free, day-long festival opens at 10:00 a.m. adjacent to the Museum’s campus in Tupper Lake, New York.

Joining these leading bird research and educational organizations at the “Wings Tent” will be wildlife rehabilitator Susan Sattler and staff from the Land Trust Adirondack Ecological Center.

According to Stephanie Ratcliffe, Wild Center managing director, “WildFest ’07 visitors will get to meet national and regional bird experts – all under one tent -- who will provide the most up-to-date information on what makes birds the most watched animals around. This year’s WildFest celebration is also a great time to unveil our new Wings over the Adirondacks bird-themed experience, which explains why birds flock to the Adirondacks for cleaner waters, clearer air, forested mountains and wilder lands.”

Staff at the Wild Center traveled the country meeting with some of the nation’s top ornithologists to help shape the Wings over the Adirondacks experience. The Adirondack region is unique because of the vast tracts of land where birds can exist without habitat interruption. It is possible to see more than 70 species on the Museum campus alone, and these birds have amazing stories, such as how some influence the ecology of the Adirondack forest from as far away as South America, or how a bird native to Southeast Asia made its way to the Adirondacks. Through the Wings over the Adirondacks experience, the Wild Center offers visitors the opportunity to see how birds actually drive the systems around them.

WildFest ‘07 will also feature live music beginning at 10:00 a.m. and the ceremony to open Wings over the Adirondacks at 11:00 a.m. Visitors will be treated to a preview of the Wild Center’s planned Bird Skywalk and Skytowers, and tours of what is now one of the ‘greenest’ buildings in the Adirondacks. When the Skywalk is complete, it will showcase nearly 100 bird exhibits, and will take visitors up to the top of the tree canopy.

WildFest’s musical headliners include legendary musician Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys and the great live performer Martin Sexton. Other bands will feature music from the places Adirondack birds migrate to, including music from the well-know Latin jazz band, Rick Davies & Jazzismo.

There will be a children’s tent featuring the Zucchini Brothers, a musical group lauded as “the Beatles of kid music.” The day will include free flight bird shows with live birds.

For more information on WildFest ’07, the Wings over the Adirondacks experience and the Wild Center, visit www.wildcenter.org or call the Museum directly at (518) 359-7800. North Country Public Radio is the media sponsor for WildFest ‘07.

The Wild Center is a new kind of natural history museum that mixes the indoor and outdoors in unusual ways. There are waterfalls inside, and exhibit labels in the woods outside. Hiking trails outside the Wild Center are like museum exhibit halls, except they are in the forest, with labels that trained staff can change daily. Live otter and bird sounds mix with the splashing cascade of falling water from a trout-filled stream. Films from field scientists doing research in the Adirondacks showcase the world that surrounds the Museum. The Wild Center is open year round.

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Contact:

Lela R. Katzman Full Spectrum Communications (518) 785-4416 fsclela@verizon.net