The buses have been rented, the tour guides arranged, a keynote speaker booked and the vendors signed up.
All that is needed for Galt's Winter Bird Festival on Jan. 17 are the people.
"Last year the tours were all booked, so we added more tours," said Jennifer Cannell of the city of Galt. "We're having a hard time getting people to sign up."
Cannell said about 60 people have signed up so far for the 290 seats available on the festival's six tour buses.
As a result, the deadline to register for the tours has been extended a week to Jan. 12.
Two buses will take visitors to Staten Island on the evening Cranes at Sunset Tour and two buses will offer an early morning tour of the Cosumnes River Preserve. A children's tour leaves at 10 a.m. and a Wetlands and Rice Tour of the preserve leaves at noon.
The buses will offer a front-row view of some of the more than 240 species of birds that reside on the 46,000-acre preserve in southeast Sacramento. In the winter, wetlands and rice fields draw great numbers of sandhill cranes, greater white-fronted and Canada geese, tundra swans, northern pintails and other species of ducks, according to the Galt city Web site.
Tours will leave from the festival site at McCaffrey Middle School, 997 Park Drive in Galt.
Activities there will include a decoy carving seminar, a youth art show, presentations by the California Raptor Center, performances by the Crane Culture Theater, youth activities and workshops.
Allen Fish of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory will speak on "Winter Hawks, Eagles and Falcons of the Sacramento Valley."
The city embarked on its first Winter Bird Festival last year in an effort to brand itself with the nature preserve at its border.
"Initially, the whole reason we wanted to do the event was to make local citizens in the area aware of what was in their own backyard," said Misty Bell, festival coordinator.
She said the 2008 event drew about 800 people.
"We're hoping to double that this year," she said.
Cannell said the festival's popularity led to its relocation to McCaffrey Middle School, a larger site than last year. Many more vendors have signed up, she said.
Jan. 12 is the new deadline to register for bus tours. Call Cannell at (209) 366-7100 or go to the Web site at ww.ci.galt.ca.us.
Call The Bee's Diana Lambert, (916) 478-2672.
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