The Birdiest Festival in America is taking place here in Corpus Christi, a stopping ground for some of the world’s best birds. The South Texas Botanical Gardens is the headquarters for this years festival and will shuttle bird-watchers all over town to some of the best bird-watching Parks, including Blucher Park.
“The American Birding Association has Blucher Park listed as one of the premier birding spots, it’s just a great birding place,” says Karen Smith, President of the Audubon Outdoors Club in Corpus Christi.
Even tourists from all over the country come to this park, strictly for the birds. Just like Southern California native, Bonnie Clarfield-Bylin, who traveled to Corpus Christi just for the bird festival.
“We heard there are great birds here, and so it was our time to come down and see the birds in their migration,” says Clarfield-Bylin.
Because of the lush habitat and creek that flows through the park, Blucher Park brings in migrants from all over the country.
But this park also brings in other migrants that are not meant to be there, transients. Which then lead to, excessive trash. Smith and the Audubon Outdoors Club pick up trash every Monday evening, but she says by the next day there’s more to be cleaned.
“Tons and tons of trash, there’s always so many one use plastic bags,” says Smith, “It’s just astounding the number we find.”
The Audubon Outdoors Club has been working with the Corpus Christi Police Department on an ordinance to keep the park a bird-watching park, only.
“So that means if you’re not birding, then you can’t use the park to lay down to sleep, hang around all day and do a lot of things that would be a distraction to go bird watching,” says Asst. Chief Mark Schauer of the CCPD.
When KRIS 6 spoke with the city on the ordinance they said it was in the Parks and Recreation department hands and has not made the schedule for City Council.
