Visitors flocked to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center on Saturday for the 21st Annual Migration Festival.

“This is a really nice gathering of people who come out and check out the nature center and learn a little bit about what we do here,” said Brian Birchak, co-director and director of communications at the center in Slatington. “The main purpose is to highlight that amazing feat that these birds do to travel down south. It’s not because of the cold; it’s because they are looking for food.”

During the course of the day there were bird walks, an insect safari and monarch butterfly tagging, a native garden walk, a live bird presentation, and an autumn migration nature walk. There were also indoor exhibits and displays. Artisans demonstrated and sold their art work, musician Joe Lazorik played on the front porch of the Osprey House. and CKL had a food truck.

“Bird migration usually begins around the middle of August,” Birchak said. “We’re highlighting that amazing journey. Other organisms migrate as well; but, we focus on the birds. We also maintain a hawk count where we count migratory birds of prey. We submit that information into a national database. It’s really good to keep track of the numbers, it gives you an idea of the health of the overall species.”

Lauren Foltz, from Macungie, explained what the native garden walk included.

“We walk around the grounds, point out what’s growing and talk about why native plants are so important,” she said. “It’s important for the migration process to have the right plants growing before they migrate. On the tour people can enjoy what we have in the garden, identify the plants, and explain how to use them in their gardens.”

Birchak explained the monarch watch tagging system.

“During the insect safari, if we find some monarch butterflies while we’re out, we participate in a program where we actually tag the monarch butterflies. We record all the data regarding it, and submit that to another national database. We count monarchs to keep track of their population and the health of that species. The problem is they have actually declined now.”

Dr. Alec M. Bodzin, Lehigh University, a faculty member of Lehigh’s Environmental Initiative, had a special setup inside the center.

“What we have is a table set up with about five laptops. We have an immersive virtual field trip to learn about the Gap; the history, you can pick up rocks, learn about the whole super fund site,” he said. “It’s about a 50 minute experience, and we ask each person to fill out a survey at the end. So far, everyone who has done it has been really engaged and learned a lot.”

The Lehigh Gap Nature Center offers a variety of activities for people to learn about the natural habitat of the area, including fit walks, Ecology Club for Kids, a hawk watching event at The Bake Oven Knob, and more.

The center needs volunteers for several of their projects. Visit www.lgnc.org for more information, or email at mail@lgnc.org or call 610-760-8889.