Hummingbird Messenger May 2023 | |
Male Costas showing off - Lisa Meyers Swanson - The Hummingbird Whisperer | |
Tickets are on sale, now! | |
We are so excited for this year's Sedona Hummingbird Festival! Tickets went on sale May 1st. Be sure to get yours soon while they last. Especially the Early Morning Birding Trip tickets as those are very limited. Our website has been updated with all on the new presenters, exhibitors, garden tours, and more. We hope you can all join us! Click button below poster to visit our festival page on our website. | |
What's New for the
Sedona Hummingbird Festival?
| We have a plethora of new presenters that will be covering multiple hummingbird topics, exhibitors with plenty of hummingbird treasures for everyone, and so much more. We will be sharing them with you over the next few months. | |
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We have the honor of listening to master bander, Kate McLaughlin, give TWO talks at the festival this year. She does amazing work in Cordova, Alaska. We are so happy she will be sharing her knowledge with us. She will also be a bander at the festival this year!
Description (Talk 1)
The Alaska Hummingbird Banding Project - 15 years of Discovery.
"Kate McLaughlin, Founder and Director of the Alaska Hummingbird Banding Project, a 501 c (3) scientific and educational non-profit, will discuss the life history and current status of rufous hummingbirds and her work operating the northernmost hummingbird banding stations in the world."
Description (Talk 2)
The Winter Hummingbird – Anna’s in Alaska
"In this presentation Kate will discuss how Anna's hummingbirds have been rapidly expanding their range into southcentral Alaska."
BIO
Currently based in Cordova, Kate McLaughlin has been a resident of Alaska since 1998 and began working with hummingbirds in 2007 on Evan’s Island in remote Prince William Sound. After receiving her Master Hummingbird Banding certification in 2015, Kate created the Alaska Hummingbird Project, Inc., a 501 c (3) scientific and educational non-profit organization. When not chasing hummingbirds, Kate spends her time birding and foraging in the woods for berries and mushrooms. When the weather is too rough to play outside, she enjoys drinking tea and trying to write with a cat on her lap.
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We are thrilled to hear from Rick Taylor this year. He recently published a book in 2022, Birds of Arizona, that will be available at the festival!
Presentation - A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of Arizona
With 17 documented species in recent history, Arizona hosts a wider variety of hummingbirds than any other region of the United States. Habitat preferences play a major role in creating this cornucopia of diversity and abundance. Rick's talk will cover the polychrome males, as well as identification clues that distinguish the females and the immatures in this unique family.
BIO
In 1977 Rick Taylor began eight summers of research into the life history and ecology of Elegant Trogons in Arizona. His studies took him progressively farther south of the border to look at populations of these and all other trogons in the Americas, as well as the communities of other birds that share their habitats. In 1980 he founded Borderland Tours, an international birding tour company dedicated to responsible ecotourism. Rick is the author of Location Checklists for the Huachuca and Chiricahua Mountains as well as the American Birding Association’s A Birder's Guide to Southeastern Arizona. His field guide Birds of Southeastern Arizona appeared in 2010, and his new book, Birds of Arizona, featuring all 17 recent Arizona hummingbirds, was published in 2022.
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Presenter - Beth Kingsley Hawkins | |
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The Executive Director of The International Hummingbird Society, Beth Kingsley Hawkins, has been the epitome of perseverance and hard work with furthering the society's conservation and education efforts over the last few years.
Presentation - Everything I need to Know I Learned from Hummingbirds - Except Share
David Attenborough speaks of hummingbirds as the messengers of plants, carrying the pollen from flower to flower to help them thrive. Beth will address, in word and image, how they can also be messengers for us - modeling concepts such as: ‘Stand still and be fully present in the wonder of the moment’ ‘Search for the sweetest nectar’ and ‘Let a little joy into your life by bringing joy to others.’ She will also speak to the mystical, spiritual dimension, sharing meaningful stories of how hummingbirds can be messengers that connect us to our loved ones in Spirit to help us understand that love never dies. As Dorothy said to her dog, in the Wizard of Oz, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. …we might be somewhere over the rainbow.”
Beth has written a definition of the hummingbird as she sees them through her eyes.
Hum·ming·bird / hŭm´ ĭng bŭrd (family Trochilidae)
n. an unusually small bird with wings that sing;
a winged messenger; a flutter of hope; a flurry of joy;
a glimmer of grace; a whisper of love; a delightful surprise;
a tiny miracle; a spark of the Divine.
BIO
As Executive Director of the non-profit International Hummingbird Society, Beth is continuing the vision of her late husband Ross Hawkins, who founded the Society in 1996, and is deeply dedicated to the Society’s mission of education and conservation. She is also sole-proprietor of her ‘for-profit’ Sedona Hummingbird Gallery from 2006 to the present, featuring her photography and everything hummingbird.
Hummingbirds have been a source of inspiration for Beth who has traveled to experience and learn about them, to capture their essence through photographing them in their natural habitat, and to give talks and share stories about them. She is the author of two books, Anna’s in the Snow and Hummy, the Magnificent, how a hummingbird learned to read and is completing her third book, Hummingbird Messengers, a Dance with Spirit, designed around her definition of a hummingbird.
Beth has a background in the healing arts, with a master’s in music and music therapy for studies at the Orff Institute at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She is a Reiki master and worked for eight years as a music therapist in hospice. She was a music therapy professor at Immaculata College in PA and worked as a music therapist in Geriatrics, with skilled care and Alzheimer’s patients. She has an ongoing private practice offering individual sessions in the Bonny method of Guided Imagery and Music and specializing in the Personal Totem Pole work, identifying the animal allies in each of the chakras of the body.
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Butterflies are pollinators, too! Excited to have Becky Hardy educate us on her experiences, facts, and observations on butterflies.
Presentation - Observations from a Lifelong Butterflier
Join Becky Hardy for a fun and informative presentation about her observations and interactions with butterflies. She will share stories of her experiences while educating attendees on the four life cycles of butterflies: Egg, Caterpillar, Chrysalis and Adult Butterfly. Some may surprise you!
BIO
Becky Hardy is neither a biologist, a naturalist, nor a lepidopterist; just someone who has had a lifelong passion, interaction and observation of butterflies. Over the years, Becky has reared thousands of butterflies across multiple species. She was a member of the local chapter of the North America Butterfly Association and tended to her certified Monarch Waystation garden when she lived in California, which included eighty percent native host and nectar butterfly and hummingbird plants. She is currently laying the groundwork for a foundation, whose mission will be to educate the Sedona and surrounding Verde Valley communities about our native plants, butterflies and birds; as well as be involved in conservation of all three.
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Hidden Forests Art Gallery | |
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“Wishes for the Future” Allen’s Hummingbirds with thistle 10 x 20”
Oil on Masonite - By Gamini Ratnavira (This paining will be available at the festival)
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Gamini Ratnavira
Renowned Sri-Lankan-American wildlife artist, Gamini, will be exhibiting his original paintings of hummingbirds and painting the dazzling Marvelous Spatuletail as his presentation for the Sedona Hummingbird Festival. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Gamini’s art will be donated to the Hummingbird Society. Check out more of his hummingbird paintings, below!
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Kate McKeough
I've always been drawn to the sparkly, whether beads, crystal or rocky quartz on sandy beaches. My journey as a bead artist began when, on a trip to NYC in the early 1970s, I purchased my first vial of beads. It was in 1988, when I moved to NM, that I learned the various Native American jewelry beading techniques and began creating beaded jewelry.
Graduating to window décor in 1995, and continuing to this day, I blend beadwork & gemstones with antique, vintage & new chandelier crystal prisms dangled off hand-woven dreamcatchers or crystal focals, creating unique window chandeliers & suncatchers.
Of special fun are my hummingbird sun catchers and window chandeliers which I continue to exhibit in stores, galleries, art shows in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, and on my website, and Etsy store.
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The Lookout (Formerly Jay's Bird Barn) | |
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The Lookout is a wild bird and nature gift store with two locations: Prescott, Arizona.
They specialize in products to attract wild birds in order to observe them, including bird feeders, seed, hummingbird and oriole supplies, field guides and more.
They are an authorized Swarovski and Vortex Optics dealer.
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Is a rainforest experience, located in Scottsdale, Arizona
As one of the largest butterfly conservatories in North America, Butterfly Wonderland is a lush, tropical paradise alive with thousands of friendly butterflies from all over the world. It is one of the best activities for families and visitors of all ages.
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Check out this amazing PBS special called the Hummingbird Effect! Discover how tiny hummingbirds influence their many flowering kingdoms and their ripple effects on macaws, quetzals, monkeys, tapirs and more. It is set in the exotic landscapes of Costa Rica. The Hummingbird Effect premiered on April 12, 2023. | |
We are so thrilled to be a part of Clark's Market Non-profit Monday in the Village of Oak Creek. We will be there on May 15th for most of the day. Drop your receipt into the box on our table and Clark's Market will give us 5% of that day's sales to further our mission. You can learn more about the society and festival. Come say hello! | | | | |
