CT Audubon to Celebrate 100th BDay of Birdcraft Museum, Dec. 6

Connecticut Audubon Society will honor the past and celebrate the future at this year’s annual Holiday Tea at Birdcraft Museum in Fairfield -- 314 Unquowa Road, Saturday, Dec. 6, 3-5pm.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Birdcraft Museum and Sanctuary, the public is invited to come enjoy tea sandwiches, cookies and other traditional treats. Joining the celebration to share interesting tea facts and history will be Cindi Bigelow, President and CEO of the Bigelow Tea Company which is generously providing the tea for the event.

Guests will also have the chance to meet a special visitor from the past. Conservation pioneer Mabel Osgood Wright, the naturalist, author, and photographer who was a founder of the museum and sanctuary in 1914, will time travel to attend this event and show her appreciation for Birdcraft’s continued commitment to environmental education over the last 100 years.

Birdcraft, a national historic landmark, is undergoing a major renovation that will establish it as an important 21st-century environmental education center and a keystone to Connecticut Audubon Society’s expanding education program. It includes a landscape restoration project and the creation of an outdoor classroom being undertaken with the Southport-based Sasqua Garden Club which is also underwriting the project. Renovations are expected to be completed in early 2016. 

“The Holiday Tea is an opportunity to thank the many volunteers and supporters who are making it possible to fulfill Mabel’s vision,” said Nelson North, Connecticut Audubon’s director of Fairfield operations. “Working together—the community, our board, members, staff and visitors—we will achieve our shared goal of educating youth, from all backgrounds, to become responsible stewards of our natural environment.”

Featured at this year’s Tea will be basket arrangements of exotic holiday greens as well as an assortment of small gifts and decorative ornaments available for purchase.  There will also be a guest appearance from one of the resident hawks or owls in Connecticut Audubon Society’s “Live Birds of Prey” exhibit. The Tea is open to the public and free of charge but donations are always welcome.

For more information call 203-259-6305 ext. 109. Visit Connecticut Audubon Society’s website at www.ctaudubon.org for a complete listing of programs and special events.