On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, from 11 am – 3 pm, Hilton Head Audubon will host a day at Historic Mitchellville Freedom Park (HMFP)’s weeklong Juneteenth celebration, which will honor their 10th anniversary of celebrating Juneteenth.

Juneteenth is a national holiday to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States; the celebration attracts thousands of participants each year with historic commemorations, music, food, and vendors.

Established in 1862 on Hilton Head Island, Mitchelville is the first place in the U.S. where Africans in America, just out of slavery and not yet citizens, governed themselves. The Park is located at 40 Harriet Tubman Way (off of Beach City Road), Hilton Head, S.C. 29926. Website: www. https://exploremitchelville.org/

We are calling our day “Celebrating Naych and B’uhds,” meaning celebrating Nature and Birds, and will be featuring wildlife art, conservation groups, naturalists, live music, family events and food.

Our event begins with a raptor demonstration: Come meet Lila Arnold and some of her amazing birds of prey. Learn about their natural history with a bit of humor thrown in as well. Bring your cameras or cell phones because there will be plenty of opportunities to photograph the birds.

The afternoon will feature music by Calibogue Sound. Audubon birders will give bird tours of Mitchelville. The Boys and Girls Club will showcase and sell their 3-D printer critters. Outside Foundation and Sea Turtle Patrol will provide interactive exhibits about protecting our fragile ecosystems and their inhabitants.

Several artists will be displaying and selling their nature and bird artwork. Gullah-Geechee Cuisine and Mother Smoking Good will sell mouth-watering food. Binya, the popular Hilton Head shop, will be on hand selling Gullah and Lowcountry art, accessories, and books.

Instructions: Bring your binoculars, wear comfortable footwear and water. Prepare for a memorable day connecting with nature and history at this special Juneteenth celebration. This event is free, but please register online. Please park at Cherry Hill School at the corner of Dillion and Beach City Road HHI, SC. Free shuttles will be available from the parking area to HMFP.

April is the month we start hunting for those beautiful spring migrating songbirds. We have discovered that the big specimen live oak at Jarvis Park, on Hilton Head, is often popular with warblers. Field Trip Chair Lynn Hodgson will be at Jarvis Park on Hilton Head, at 8 a.m. on three Monday mornings in April. Join her for any or all these informal, mostly stationary “hunts.” We will probably stay about an hour. No registration or charge; just show up and stay as long as you like. (Note: Lynn is a Master Birder, but NOT a Master “Warblerer,” so we will be learning together.)

Directions: Jarvis Community Park – 50 Jarvis Park Rd., just off Rte. 278 on the north end of Hilton Head Island, 1 block north of the intersection of 278 and the Cross-Island Expressway.

Photo: Pine Warbler by Aita Megumi