“What people have often said is that, ‘oh, this is stuff you wouldn't be able to see up close, you know,if you just saw it out in the wild.’”
“Especially,” she said, “the bird feet.”
Learning is indeed the order of the day at the nature center’s largest annual educational event, which is just now getting fully back on its feet following peak COVID.
“You've got hummingbird lovers, people who love to see the animal shows andpeople who love to see the different educational vendors,” Ijams Development Director Cindy Hassil said Saturday near a longish line for live native animal displays and accompanying infotainment. “It encourages them to protect and preserve nature and become good stewards.” On an intergenerational level, too: Children, many of whom seemed delighted at their science Saturday, delved into the basics of aquatic biology at a nearby dip-netting station.
Hassil said this year is the first time since 2020 the event has featured speakers and hands-on workshops on the property. Merchants also returned this year and peddled their many crafty wares from colorful booths.

“It’s getting back to what it was,” Hassil said. Ironically, Ijams posted record numbers of visitors at the height of the COVID pandemic as people sought social distance in the natural 320-acre oasis in the middle of a large urban center in the midst of school and workplace closures and lockdowns.
The festival does bring in some money for Ijams, which is managed as a nonprofit, but the nature center’s main annual fundraiser is Twilight at Ijams, set this year for Sept. 5.