Earth Day celebration at Bird Island Park

A free demonstration on how to use the “cell phone mobi-tour” along the 72-mile long Scenic and Historic Coastal Byway through St Johns and Flagler counties, will be presented to Historic City News readers by the Friends of A1A on Saturday, April 20 as part of an Earth Day celebration at Bird Island Park in Ponte Vedra Beach.

The event will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the park; located just behind the Ponte Vedra Beach Branch library, 101 Library Boulevard.

Over 16 exhibitors will be present including an Owl House demonstration by Boy Scout Troop 288 and Troop 277. Friends of A1A Program Administrator Sallie O’Hara will be distributing new Bird Island Park activity books, new Art brochures, and cycling information.

In addition to presenting a demonstration of the cell audio tour, the Beaches League of Storytellers, Marianne Stein and Holly Hamrick, will be on hand.

The Friends of A1A Cell Phone Audio Tour is a self-directed tour of special sites along the A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal Byway. The tour is in English and in Spanish, available 24-hours a day, and can be accessed from either a land line or mobile device. It allows cell phone users to listen to interesting information while at the designated stops.

Each of the A1A Byway 45 stops is identified by a small marker with the stop number and the phone access number plus QR codes. More information about each stop may be accessed at: http://bit.ly/Z1JPmz or www.scenica1a.org. The mobi tour is now being enhanced by a Google Field Trip App to identify nearby points of interest for travelers along the Byway. Dial myoncell.mobi/19045960029 from your smart phone to download the Bird Island Park Mobile Audio Tour.

O’Hara will demonstrate the Bird Island Park Tour , where visitors can experience the song of the northern mockingbird, listen to the legend of the invasive wild hog, and hear the menacing rattle of the diamondback rattlesnake. As visitor’s stroll through the park’s tour sites, they can activate the specific tour message for each stop and discover interesting facts and exciting stories on more than 10 species and habitats native to North Florida. This tour with 16 park recordings was designed as a proto-type for other A1A byway locations.

Bird Island Park is the first park encountered by visitors traveling south along the A1A Byway in St. Johns County. The park is home to the Bird Island Rookery, one of many migratory sites along the Great Florida Birding Trail. The park illustrates the ecosystems of Northeast Florida and highlights the native flora and fauna along the two walking trails with interactive art sculptures, educational signs, gazebos, benches and a boardwalk surrounding a pond.

The storytelling area of the park features an outdoor amphitheater with three mosaics of the native plants and animals that reflect the different ecosystems in the park — a memorial commissioned by the Doris F. Westervelt family. The mosaic display was selected last year by the Florida Association of Public Art Professionals as one of the top projects in its 2012 Public Art Year in Review.

This project received financial assistance from a grant from the VISIT FLORIDA.