Birds of a feather flocked together at the Taylor Bird Parade last weekend.
Good Life Taylor hosted its second Bird Parade Saturday, April 6 at Murphy Park.
Julie Rydell of Good Life Taylor said the event started last year to raise awareness about the unique birds that call the island in Murphy Park home.
“We really do have a precious resource here,” Rydell said of the park’s rookery. “And it’s something we should be promoting, not only for the birds, but for keeping our parks clean.”
Parade participants dressed up as birds, bird watchers or characters associated with the word “bird.”
According to Rydell, there were creative costumes worn such as someone dressing up as former National Basketball Association player Larry Bird and another dressing as the historical figure, Lady Bird Johnson.
Rydell said over 100 people came to the event, with about half of them in costume. She said the attendance was higher than last year.
“People were excited to kind of be around like-minded folk,” Rydell said. “We had a lot of people wave at us while we were walking down the street.”
Afterward, bird experts from Texas Parks and Wildlife and Good Water Chapter Master Naturalists gave presentations. This year’s parade included a live bird display by All Things Wild Rehabilitation, a craft table and a performance by ACC’s Afro-Cuban ensemble at the Percussion Park.
“All Things Wild brought a pelican that’s in rehab and then they also brought in a duck that is getting a 3D-printed bill,” Rydell said.
A coloring contest for kids in second through fifth grade was also part of the festivities. The young artists could either color in an already-designed picture or draw a work of their own.
Rydell said the rookery is diverse, with more than just cattle egrets staying in the lake.
She said the rookery hosts several different species of herons and egrets including great blue herons, great egrets, domestic geese and ducks, snowy egrets, little blue herons, green herons, doublecrested cormorants, tropical cormorants, yellow-crowned night herons and black-bellied whistling ducks.
Good Life Taylor is a nonprofit that raises money for community events and community projects with a specific focus on the city’s parks department. One of the organization’s more recent projects is the completion of Percussion Park, which was funded last year.
