When my wife, Priscilla, and I moved to Hereford from southern California ten years ago – we felt that we had come home.  We had birded in this area since the mid 60’s and on the day I retired we made a bee–line for this area, the most biodiverse in the United States.  Our yard in beautiful Carr Canyon, right on Carr Wash is a constantly changing panorama of bird, mammal, reptile and insect life.  We have documented 148 bird species and 117 butterfly species.  And the Mexican state of Sonora is only a few miles away.  We feel truly blessed!  And we hope to share our enthusiasm for the area with all of you.

Last year the Festival moved back to Sierra Vista.  It had more participants than any other SouthWest Wings Festival so far.  We hope to duplicate and build upon that success in 2008.

The Windemere Hotel and Conference Center has been most cooperative – giving every strange request that we made a resounding “We can do that!”   It is a perfect place to hold a Festival such as ours with everything occurring under one roof, plenty of parking, and proximity to all of life’s many necessities – and it is really close to some of the best birding in the country!.  The Sierra Vista Convention and Visitors’ Bureau is also giving us substantial support and has welcomed us with open arms.

We would also like to thank all the local businesses, government agencies, and NGOs that have supported us by advertising in this brochure and with financial support and hope you will stop in, say hello and tell them that you are in town for the Festival.  Our special thanks also go the Arizona Lottery Heritage Fund through the Arizona Game and Fish Department who has been more than generous this year!  Our neighbors, the Mesquite Tree Restaurant, is giving us support and is providing a special discount coupon in the brochure (see next page) for participants of the Festival.

Many thanks also to the private donors who have helped us out this year and to all the wonderful volunteers who are supporting our efforts by doing a lot of the grunt work.

This year Dr. Rick Wright, now Managing Director of the Wings bird tour company, will be our keynote and welcome reception speaker as well as being the guest co-leader on a couple of the field trips.  Those of you who have seen Rick’s talks know you are in for a treat!

One of the reasons our Festival was so successful and will be again was the generous gift of time given by many of local people who volunteered.  Dave and Sherry Cunningham, our registrars, will again head up a committee of hard working volunteers to see that as many of you as possible get to go on the trips you want.  Ann Hartfiel will again handle our capacity group of vendors and exhibitors.  And Mel Emeigh has offered to organize a much expanded Silent Auction.  My personal thanks also go to Bob Behrstock, a veteran of many nature festivals, for putting together the field trips.

I would like to acknowledge the Festival’s Board of Directors.  We are fortunate in having representatives of the BLM, the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Sierra Vista education community and a few people who just want to help any way they can.  Thanks, folks!  And I must mention my wife, Priscilla, whose hard work and devotion to this Festival really made it possible, much more so than anything I have done!

And I would especially like to single out the Sierra Vista office of the BLM who is partnering with us and providing the vans and audio-visual equipment for our presentations.

We have a wonderful selection of speakers and field trip leaders again this year and we all have one goal – to see that the participants have a great time, see lots of birds and have a truly educational experience. I look forward to meeting you this August!