Leica Sport Optics Supports 20th Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival
OutdoorHub 01.21.14
As a sponsor of the 20th Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival (RGVBF), Leica Sport Optics played a key role in events at the festival held Nov. 6-10 in Harlingen, Texas.
The “granddaddy of nature fests,” the RGVBF is a world-renowned event, which welcomed more than 3000 attendees who took part in field trips, seminars, the Birders Bazaar trade show, silent auction, raffle, special events and more.
The five-day event hosted birders from throughout the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and United Kingdom.
Leica’s Jeff Bouton, David LaPuma, Rafael Galvez and Nanette Roland attended the event, along with a number of Leica pro staffers. Watch Leica pro staffer Doug Gochfeld’s interview by the local news here.
“One of the biggest highlights of the trip occurred when Nanette Roland and I were fortunate enough to discover an incredibly rare Amazon Kingfisher Saturday morning,” Bouton said. “This was only the second occurrence of this rare bird north of Mexico, and I took some digiscoped images with the iPhone and sent them to the festival coordinators.”
Bouton says dozens of busses and vans were then rerouted from all over the Rio Grande Valley so festival participants could view the bird as well.
“Within hours, hundreds of people were present to include half of the birders from the festival, staff from the mayor’s office and members of the press,” Bouton said. “The Leica team served as guides providing attendees the opportunity to view the rare bird through the Leica Televid spotting scopes.”
As in years past, the RGVBF was a huge success and Leica was honored to play a part in the events and festivities.
