Presenting Keynote Speaker John Acorn
Acorn, the Nature Nut
He's not so nutty after all
By Rick Pilger
 You turn on the TV and here's this guy with a guitar. He's dressed up in a cowboy outfit, and he's serenading a daisy out by some bush. "I could be your tall lungwort, baby," he warbles, inserting the names of wildflowers into the country music cliches of his song. The guy's obviously some sort of nut, you say -- and you're right. He's Acorn, the Nature Nut.
"I've had a fanatical interest in nature since I was a kid," says John Acorn, '80 BSc, '88 MSc. "I can remember being absolutely fascinated by a book about insects when I was five years old." Fortunately for his ever-growing and loyal television audience, his parents didn't discourage that interest: "I think most kids are interested in bugs when they're young, but then they're given that message that it's time to quit. I guess I was never given that message."
 Acorn: The Nature Nut, is produced by Great North Productions in Edmonton and is broadcast on the Discovery Channel and several independent stations across Canada. It has also been sold to The Learning Channel in the U.K., to Arab-speaking countries in the Middle East, to Malaysia, and to various independent PBS stations in the U.S.
While he has dealt with everything from microscopic life (for that episode, he dressed up as Antoni Van Leeuwenhook, the inventor of the microscope) to dinosaurs ("Giant Dumbos of the Past") on his shows, Acorn remains particularly fond of insects. "They're easy to wrangle," he says. "And they're good for the camera -- you can get right up close."
Acorn has been putting on silly costumes and strumming his guitar in the interest of communicating science ever since he started work as a park interpreter at Sir Winston Churchill Park near Lac la Biche, Alberta in the summer of 1977. "What I am doing on television is exactly what I was doing when I was a naturalist for the Parks system," says Acorn, who also hosts Twits and Pishers, a bird-watching show that's also produced for the Discovery Channel by Great North and seen as far away as Japan.
While his often-zany antics in front of the camera sometimes obscure the fact, the Nature Nut is a serious scientist. He has degrees in entomology and paleontology, contributed a 16-page dinosaur article to Compton's School Encyclopedia, is the author and photographer of The Butterflies of Alberta, collaborates with U of A professor emeritus George Ball on research into beetle evolution, and is president of the Edmonton Natural History Club. And as for being a nut -- Acorn is doing exactly what he loves, having a great time doing it, and getting paid. If that's nutty ...
2007 Shorebird Festival Art & Education Fair, Vendor Information & Application Form - Click here for this year's vendor information and application form. Deadline to apply is March 30th. Return completed applications with payment by fax, mail or in person to the Homer Chamber of Commerce, fax: 907-235-8766, 201 Sterling Highway, Homer, AK 99603. Applications by e-mail will not be accepted. Contact shorebirdster@gmail.com with any questions.
Hope to see you in 2007!
Complete details of the 2007 Festival, including speakers, event descriptions and costs, and the registration form, will be available in late March/early April. Please check back here during that time for all the highlights of the 15th Annual Festival. To have a Festival program, including registration form, mailed to you, e-mail your contact information to shorebirdster@gmail.com with SHOREBIRD FESTIVAL in the subject line. |
Photos courtesy of Fish and Wildlife Service
Homer Area Birding Website!
Find out about birding opportunities, bird count results and species listings on the new birding website for the Homer Area at birdinghomeralaska.org
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The Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival
Alaska will experience a special celebration of spring when the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, the state's largest wildlife festival, kicks off in early May. Festival participants can choose between over 50 different events, from advanced ornithology workshops, beginning backyard birding presentations, field trips and boat tours to arts events and children's activities
 Hundreds of thousands of shorebirds, representing over 25 species from as far as Asia, Hawaii and South America use sites around Kachemak Bay as feeding grounds during their spring migration. Shorebirds commonly seen during the festival include Western and Least Sandpipers, Dunlins, Short-billed Dowitchers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Common Snipe, and Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers. Over 100 species of pelagic, coastal and woodland birds have been seen in one day during the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, including Aleutian Tern, Red-faced Cormorant, Kittlitz's Murrelet and Eurasian Wigeon.
Let's Celebrate Spring!
The whole community and visitors from around the state and the country gather every year to witness the return of the shorebirds and to take part in the festivities. Join us for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival.
The Place
 Located on the beautiful shores of Kachemak Bay, the Homer Spit is one of the most accessible places for shorebird viewing in Alaska. Access available via a scenic 5 hour drive south of Anchorage, or take one of the many daily flights from Anchorage International Airport to Homer.
The Birds
Over 100,000 shorebirds migrate through Kachemak Bay. Many travel thousands of miles resting and feeding at a very few specific critical stop-over points such as the base of the Homer Spit on their journey to the breeding grounds in the Alaska tundra
Shorebirds
Roadside viewing of over 25 species and flocks numbering several thousand birds is possible.  Shorebirds to look for during the festival include: Black-Bellied, American Golden, Pacific Golden and Semipalmated Plover; Hudsonian, Marbled and Bar-tailed Godwits; Red Knots; Surfbirds; Western, Least, Pectoral, Spotted and Semipalmated Sandpipers; Red-necked Phalaropes; Ruddy and Black Turnstones; Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs; Common Snipe; Dunlins; Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers; Whimbrels; and Wandering Tattlers.
Other Species
 Besides the "Guests of Honor", the shorebirds, many of the 236 species of birds recorded for Homer can also be seen in early May, including Arctic and Aleutian Terns, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels and Tufted and Horned Puffins. Red-faced Cormorants and thousands of Common Murres and Black-legged Kittiwakes are assembling near their nesting sites on Gull Island. Common Eiders, Pigeon Guillemots, Marbled and perhaps Kittlitz’s Murrelets should be on the Bay. Look for Eurasian Wigeons in Mud Bay or Beluga Lake. Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpeckers are resident in spruce woods around Homer, along with Warblers and Swallows and of course there are always Bald Eagles, lots of them.
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Homer Chamber of Commerce
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