Registration/Orientation and Get Acquainted/Power Point Birding Presentation

Afternoon: Participants may pick up nametag and schedule for the week anytime between 4:00 - 5:00 PM followed by orientation and dinner in the hotel conference room. Guests hotel check-in is 4:00 pm in the main lobby.

Dinner: Catered meal at hotel.

Evening: Your Road Scholar coordinator will walk you through the weeks activities as you follow along on your schedule. Each person gives their name and where they're from. We don't play name games or get acquainted games. You'll have plenty of time to get to know one another during your weeks activities. Relax with a power point presentation with your birding instructor and an introduction to the local birds.

Lodging: Residence Inn by Marriott Amelia Island

Meals Included: Dinner

Huguenot Park/Kingsley Plantation/Amelia Island/Little Talbot Island/Evening Presentation

Breakfast: Breakfast at hotel.

Morning: Begin your birding program with some of the great areas for shorebirds, waders, and ducks. Explore Huguenot Memorial Park, Kingsley Plantation and Little Talbot Island. The Kingsley Plantation, administered by the National Park Service, is located on Fort George Island and includes the plantation house, a kitchen house, a barn, and the ruins of 25 of the original slave cabins. The history of the island spans more than 1000 years beginning with the Timucuan Indians. It is also a welcomed site for birding. Huguenot Memorial Park designated as a Great Florida Birding Trail site by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission because of its outstanding habitat and abundance of various kinds of birds. The park includes a critical nesting area for terns and shorebirds, and often hosts rarities like bar-tailed godwits. Birders are likely to spot gannets, loons, and sea ducks. Little Talbot Island is one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier islands in NE Florida.

Lunch: Lunch at hotel/local restaurant or picnic.

Afternoon: Field trip to orient you to your surroundings on Amelia Island at the historic town of Fernandina Beach.

Dinner: Dinner at hotel.

Evening: Lecture by your expert birding leader.

Lodging: Residence Inn by Marriott Amelia Island

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Amelia River Cruise, Egan’s Creek Greenway, Bailey Road Soccer Fields, Evening Presentation

Breakfast: Breakfast at hotel.

Morning: A field trip aboard the Amelia Island River Cruise pontoon boat will take you to areas you can't get to by foot. Egan's Creek Greenway is a good place to see egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, and osprey, to mention a few.

Lunch: Lunch on field trip...could be picnic or at local restaurant.

Afternoon: Field trip continues.

Dinner: Dinner at hotel.

Evening: Entertainment or lecture.

Lodging: Residence Inn by Marriott Amelia Island

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast

Morning: Ferry to Cumberland Island for a day of birding on one of the most beautiful barrier islands off the coast of Georgia.

Lunch: Picnic lunch on Cumberland Island.

Afternoon: Birding on Cumberland Island continues.

Dinner: Dinner at hotel.

Evening: Free evening

Lodging: Residence Inn by Marriott Amelia Island

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at hotel.

Morning: All day birding in the Okefenokee Swamp. Boat fleet consists of 24’ Carolina Skiffs with canopies overhead and includes a wheelchair-accessible boat. Watch birds through what is arguably the world's most famous birding window, trek into one of the most unusual and interesting places to see in the Okefenokee Swamp where hundreds of wading birds return to roost for the night. Search for warblers and thrushes and try to locate tiny songsters flitting in the tops of centuries-old cypress trees. Along the way you can see the rarest of the rare, the red-cockaded woodpecker; wild turkeys, wading birds such as wood storks, ring-necked ducks and other waterfowl, hear the Bob-white call of the northern bobwhite, see blue grosbeaks and indigo buntings looking much like brightly colored ornaments hung on shrubs growing in field borders, as well as Mississippi kites, ospreys and bald eagles exhibit their mastery of the air. All told, 263 species of birds have been identified at sites along the trail. We can't promise you'll see all of them but we do know they have been sited before and it may be your turn on this Road Scholar program.

Lunch: Picnic lunch at the Okenenokee Swamp.

Afternoon: Continuation of birding in the Okefenokee Swamp.

Dinner: Dinner at Hotel

Evening: Social

Lodging: Residence Inn by Marriott Amelia Island

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast at hotel.

Morning: Egan's Greenway on demand if you haven't gotten enough of birding by Friday morning. Our instructor will wrap up and anyone wishing to do an early morning bird watch at Egan's Greenway may do so.

Lunch: Program ends at 11:00 am.

Meals Included: Breakfast