JENNINGS — Early registration opens Aug. 1 for the eighth annual Yellow Rails and Rice Festival, which will be Nov. 2-6.
The festival offers birdwatching trips; a bird banding workshop; and socials, including a kickoff jambalaya dinner and a reception at the Welsh Museum. Visitors can also tour the Falcon Rice Mill in Crowley.
“It’s a festival like no other,” said organizer Donna Dittman.
The festival focuses on the yellow rail, a small secretive marsh bird, as well as rice farming and working wetlands.
“The yellow rail is fairly widespread in distribution, nesting in southern Canada and the northern U.S., then migrating south where it winters along southern Atlantic and the Gulf coasts, including Louisiana,” Dittman said.
“It is cryptically colored and rarely allows views because it stays hidden in grassy vegetation. During the harvest, yellow rails are easy to see when flushed from rice fields as they fly to get out of the way of a combine.”
Registration runs through Oct. 27, or until all spaces are filled. Space is limited to 120 people.
“We cap the festival at 120, which takes into account the possible weather and cancellation issues and makes a better participant-to-facilitator/leader ratio,” Dittman said. “The festival retains a small hometown feel that participants really like.”
The festival typically draws visitors from all over the U.S. and Canada to see yellow rails, have a good time and enjoy local venues, Dittman said.
“Initially they come to see a yellow rail, but there are participants who return in subsequent years,” Dittman said. “Some bring friends or just come back to enjoy the atmosphere of the festival, the area or friends that they have previously met.”
Visitors can see many other species of birds, she said. In addition to Jeff Davis Parish agricultural areas, participants will visit habitats such as piney woods and the Gulf Coast to see other bird communities.
In 2009, Dittman and Steve Cardiff of the LSU Museum of Natural Science, along with Kevin and Shirley Berken, a local rice-growing family, launched the festival to draw birders to Louisiana to see yellow rails, which are easily found during the rice harvest.
Jeff Davis Parish was selected as the host site because of its proximity to rice farms. Thornwell, in rural Jeff Davis Parish, was designated “Yellow Rail Capital of the World” by the state Legislature in 2014.
“The event was created to provide a unique venue to show birders an elusive species, the yellow rail, while at the same time promoting Louisiana-grown rice and highlighting the working wetlands — rice and crawfish — as a critical habitat for birds,” Dittman said.
To register or for more information, visit http://ift.tt/2azUN0e and click “Yellow Rails and Rice Festival” or email yellowrailsandrice@gmail.com.
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