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Hastings, Michigan - Cerulean Warbler Festival
Hello All,
Well, it’s already been a month or two since I attended the Cerulean Warbler festival in Hastings, Michigan, so I figure it’s about time I wrote up a review. On June 7 I drove down to Hastings from Grand Rapids. The Yankee Springs State Recreational Area is a lovely area on the shores of Gun Lake in Barry County. I had some trouble following my mapquest directions and got lost in a loop around the Lake area for a while before I found the place. Ha, that was embarrassing 
As soon as I got to the main festival site, I started seeing birds, even in the parking lot. I saw some kind of wading birds, sandpipers or plovers or something like that, my identification skills are so poor.. :(
I also saw (and heard, quite loudly!) a red-winged blackbird as I walked around the area.
The main site for the festival featured booths, a book sale, art sale, demonstrations, and a live display of several different raptors. One of the hawks was quite excitable when he thought another bird was invading his personal space :D that was kind of funny. They had a juvenile great horned owl that was very adorable.
I missed the tour, so I didn’t get to see any Cerulean Warblers for myself, sadly. However, I did get to see a red-headed woodpecker, which was probably my biggest sighting of the day, although I didn’t realize it at the time. I’d seen the redheaded woodpecker in some of my books before, but I hadn’t realized that it was a rather uncommon bird. Knowing that, I now wish I had taken my camera along, since I was quite close and could have probably gotten several good shots. Ah well, hind-sight is 50/50.
