January 23 - Space Coast Bird and Wildlife Festival

It was kind of a shock, after spending several days getting up at O-Dark-Thirty and driving through the snow in 25° temperatures, to sleep in until 7:30 local time, and get up to a 70° day!  We are staying with friends in Melbourne, and I took a walkabout around the Mandarin Lakes neighborhood

Palm Trees in January

to limber up after sitting on airplanes yesterday.  Instead of cold rain or snow, I was treated to a tropical awakening.  The folks who live here thought that it was pretty cold, but I was in shorts and T-shirt.

The trees are alive with Myrtle and Palm Warblers

Western Palm Warbler

and wading birds are constant fly-overs

Glossy Ibis

After breakfast, I drove up to Titusville and checked in at the East Florida State College Campus

Which was the Headquarters for the Space Coast Bird and Wildlife Festival.  I’d never attended a Birding Festival, so was favorably impressed with this outfit.  The check-in went smoothly, and there was a trade show with vendors of birding optics, other equipment, guiding services and local environmental groups.  I stopped at the Zeiss Optics booth, to ask about how to get repairs for the eyecups on my 8x42 Conquest HD binoculars.  Zeiss Rep Bill Graham just reached into a drawer and got a pair of replacement cups and installed them in 5 minutes!  What a great way for me to start the Festival!

I watched a couple of the talks.  One was a presentation on Discover Texas, #1 in U.S. for Terrestrial Birding by Keith Hackland from Texas Birding, followed by World Wide Birding from Cruise Ships by Ken Burgener from Carefree Birding.  I walked a bit around the campus to stretch my legs, then drove back to Melbourne, where Brent and Michaela took Marty and I out to a couple of brew pubs, including supper at Hell ‘n Blazes.  Then, back to the house to get to bed early for an early start tomorrow.