There was a snow bird sighting on Pensacola Beach on Wednesday. The Pensacola Beach Community church hosted a snow bird event for winter visitors to the region. The event was organized by Wyndham Vacation Rentals and featured a dozen or so vendors from around the region, as well as food and music. Patricia and Joe Becker Austin, Minnesota were among the many winter visitors who attended the event. They said they drove through the area last year and came back this year for a full month, attracted by the the weather and the fishing. Pete and Christine Lindstrom from Indianapolis, Indiana first visited the area when their daughter began attending the University of West Florida and have been returning ever since.
Officials in the Pensacola Beach community are stepping up efforts to attract more long term winter visitors, or snow birds to the region. Nichole Stacey, president of the Pensacola Beach chamber of commerce says people from all over the northeast are attracted to the region during the cold winter months. She also said this year there have been many European visitors to the island.
Snow birds are much more common in south Florida where the temperatures are in the 70s and 80 for much of the winter, but Stacey the cooler temperatures here on the panhandle are not a problem when there are sub zero temperatures up north.