BY JANE BLOODWORTH ROWE
VIRGINIA BEACH — This year’s Winter Wildlife Festival offers a chance to connect with nature through excursions, workshops and children’s activities.
The festival is expanding from a weekend to a week-long event. It includes more than 50 programs and events, including boating trips, speakers and a photo contest, the latter of which has a special category for young people, according to Katie Webb, festival coordinator for the Virginia Beach Department of Parks and Recreation.
It runs from Saturday, Jan. 28, through Sunday, Feb. 5.
This year’s keynote speakers are literary naturalists J. Drew Lanham and Jamie K. Reaser, editors of the anthology Dawn Songs: A Birdwatchers’ Field Guide to the Poetics of Migration. They speak at Virginia Wesleyan University’s Goode Center from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 29.
This year’s keynote address differs slightly from previous years because it includes two speakers, Webb said. They have backgrounds in literature as well as in ornithology, and they are interested in topics that explore the intersection of nature, people and aesthetics.
The festival features boating trips and other excursions, including a nighttime tram tour and hike of False State Park, as well as a whale-watching boat tour, birding boat trips and walks and an excursion into the Dismal Swamp. Registration is required. Some events have fees.
The photo contest opened on Sunday, Jan. 1 and extends through Sunday, Feb. 5. Competitors can submit photos of wildlife, landscapes or other nature-based subjects in Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore.
Area birders can also form teams to compete in challenges that require observation of as many birds as possible within a specified period. There is a $15 fee per person.
Story walks, scheduled at various locations throughout the week, invite children to get outside, observe nature and read. Illustrations and pages from books, including Winter Dance by Marion Dane Bauer and Birds by Carme Lemniscates, will be placed at various points along the trail.
Workshops, activities and exhibits for children, teens and adults are also scheduled throughout the day in the Princess Anne Area Library and the Princess Anne Recreation Center on Saturday, Jan. 28. Vendors will include First Landing State Park and Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Events will include hands-on activities that offer participants a chance to learn more about wildlife photography or birdwatching. Children will have the chance to make a birdfeeder and engage in other crafts, and other library events will be scheduled throughout the week.
This year’s activities will also include a service project, although details are still being finalized, Webb said. Volunteers will participate in trail improvements at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, a project suggested by Reese Lukei, winner of the 2022 Mary Reid Barrow Wildlife Advocate Award. It is given each year at the festival.
Speaking of Lukei, Webb said providing people with the opportunity to observe wildlife “is something that’s very near and dear to his heart.” She noted that last year’s project involved picking up trash at Stumpy Lake Natural Area.
The winner of this year’s award will be announced at the keynote address, Webb said.
Visit www.vbgov.com/winterwildlife for a full listing of this year’s events and information on registration.
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