Peace, Love & Horseshoe Crab Festival at nature center May 18

To celebrate the spring arrival of spawning horseshoe crabs and migrating shorebirds, the DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor Reserve, a DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife facility, will host its 10th annual Peace, Love & Horseshoe Crab Festival from noon to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 18.

The center is located near Slaughter Beach at 2992 Lighthouse Road, Milford. Admission is free. The festival will be held rain or shine, except in the case of severe weather or coastal flooding.

Visitors will enjoy fun festivities and educational activities, with food available for purchase. Youth and families attending the festival will receive an estuary eco-challenge passport to be stamped as they participate in a series of eco-station activities. The stations will provide visitors with opportunities to identify shorebirds, get close to live horseshoe crabs and other aquatic species, create a craft, learn about aquatic species that live in the Delaware Bay, and much more.

Visitors will have great viewing opportunities from the center’s large deck to see the interaction between horseshoe crabs and migrating shorebirds, including federally listed threatened red knots, which depend on horseshoe crab eggs as food to help fuel their long journey from South America to their Arctic breeding grounds. DNREC’s Delaware Shorebird Project Team members will be on hand to identify the shorebirds along the shoreline surrounding the center.

Ample parking for the Peace, Love & Horseshoe Crab Festival will be available at the nearby Lacy E. Nichols Jr. Cedar Creek Boating Access Area on Lighthouse Road, with a shuttle running to and from the center throughout the day.

For more information, call 302-422-1329.