We would like to thank everyone for making the 2025 Headlands Birding Festival a success this year! And a big thanks to our keynote speaker Julie Zickefoose for sharing her passion of the natural world and birds with our attendees and kicking off the festival. It was a beautiful weekend, with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 70s-80s. Over 360 people registered for the festival, which gave them access to a variety of walks and programs over the weekend. On Saturday, many nonregistered attendees stopped by to enjoy the free talks, vendor area, Big Sit, and Mentor Marsh special access open house.

During the festival, almost 10,000 birds were recorded on the eBird checklists across the 125 species recorded on walks held during the festival. All Ohio woodpecker species were seen during the festival weekend. Other notable wildlife sightings included a Giant Swallowtail butterfly and a rare vagrant (and first Lake County record) Striped Saddlebags dragonfly found in the wetlands in the western area of Headlands Beach State Park by Sally Isacco. Attendees also had the opportunity to see migrating monarchs passing through Headlands State Park as they fueled up and prepared for their journey south.

The festival wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of our sponsors, donors, walk leaders, walk coleaders, speakers, volunteers, and partner organizations. Our sponsors provided the much-needed funds to make the festival happen, and our 20 volunteers helped coordinate, prepare, check-in, and support the activities. We had 33 leaders and co-leaders that led guided bird walks and educated attendees. Our six speakers on Saturday covered topics from bird friendly gardens to the history of the restoration of Mentor Marsh.

We are looking forward to what 2026 brings!