SCBWF Weekend (Trip L) – Smyrna Dunes Park (Volusia County)

**Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival Weekend**
A group of local trip leaders, tour guides, and industry vendors are planning the return of the SCBWF in 2024. As a ‘warm up’ to the festival’s return the foundational group is conducting a birding weekend to showcase the immense diversity of bird species found in our area. The weekend will include a series of field trips from 19-23 January. Space Coast Audubon is providing support through promotion, hosting, and field trip leader involvement.

**TRIP L: Smyrna Dunes Park**
Trip Leaders: Gina and Adam Kent
Meet at 0730 at the pavilion/restroom area, located straight ahead after the fee station. This is the perfect trip to practice, or develop, your identification of birds found on beaches and shorelines while enjoying the lovely water views.

Park Entrance Fee: $10 per vehicle. $20 annual inlet parks pass. Free for Handicapped and Disabled Veteran registered vehicles.

Smyrna Dunes Park is a 184-acre inlet park located along the southern shoreline of Ponce de Leon Inlet. The park has over 2 miles of wide, elevated, handicapped-accessible boardwalk capped with recycled lumber that is both comfortable and durable. Multiple scenic overlooks allow breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian River and Ponce de Leon Inlet. The park property is jointly owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the State of Florida, Department of Environmental Protection. Volusia County manages the park under leases it maintains with these federal and state agencies.

Space Coast Audubon is delighted to welcome Gina and Adam Kent to the Space Coast Birding Weekend field trip series. Gina and Adam have been regular presenters and leaders of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in the past. Their expertise and research include specialization in Swallow-Tailed kites, Sparrows, and Crested Caracara.

Logistics: This trip will be walking on boardwalk, shoreline and dirt paths.

Restrooms: Located at the entrance in the large pavilion building at the end of the parking area.

What to Bring: Water, snacks, bug repellent, jacket (good to be prepared for breezes off the water) and binoculars.

For specific questions about this field trip email [email protected]. Thank you.

**Gina Kent, Senior Conservation Scientist**
Gina Kent has worked for ARCI since 2000. She grew up in Wisconsin and received a B.S. in Wildlife and Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1998. Upon graduation, she served as a field biologist on various studies of birds, reptiles and amphibians, small mammals and invasive plants from New Mexico to New York and Missouri to Australia. Once hired as a seasonal field biologist on ARCI’s Short-tailed Hawk project, Gina became hooked on field studies of birds in Florida. Gina earned her M.S. degree in Biology from Georgia Southern University in 2004 with important research on the stop-over ecology, habitat associations, and parasites of Swallow-tailed Kites. Gina’s field duties include finding and monitoring nests, climbing nest trees, trapping, radio tagging, and tracking birds as part of the organization’s studies of nesting ecology, habitat selection, demography, migration, and conservation biology for over a dozen species. Gina writes proposals and reports, manages telemetry datasets, conducts GIS and data analyses, as well as hires, trains, and supervises field technicians.

**Adam Kent**
Adam is known by many as the sparrow aficionado. He has guided trips from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and many points between. An Anhinga sparked Adam’s passion for birds when he was a young kid. Since then, a love of nature has led Adam on various pursuits including assessing sites for the Great Florida Birding Trail, working as Florida’s first Scrub-Jay Conservation Coordinator, and serving as President of the Florida Ornithological Society. He also enjoys travel and sharing his enthusiasm for nature. One of Adam’s birding highlights was making recordings that led to the description of a new species of bird in Mexico, the Nava’s Wren. He also had fun competing in two Birding Rally Challenges in Peru. Adam has been leading sparrow identification workshops since 2000.
For specific questions about the field trip, please email [email protected]. Thank you.