The Brevard site has become a part of the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival’s annual events. If you’re headed to Florida, the festival kicked off this week and runs to Monday.

But there are plenty more opportunities in other places to scurry over piles of sharp objects and maggot-infested mystery mush to catch a glimpse of some of the exotic flying things that are drawn to landfills. If that sounds like fun, consider this your guide to dirty birding.

First, call to see if the local landfill allows visitors. If it does, you will probably take a safety class and sign a release. Don’t just show up or sneak in: Some landfills have kicked birding groups out for breaking their rules or disrupting their work.

Wear boots, long pants and a hat. You will have to learn to ignore the stench, and bring a change of clothes for those at home who can’t. To spot highfliers, carry a pair of binoculars or a telescope.

Expect a lot of birds. In Florida, birders have spotted white ibis, cattle egrets, eagles, herons, wood storks and cranes. But the landfills there are best known for gulls of many species from all over the East Coast. There are fairly significant numbers of lesser black-backed gulls, a European bird that has showed up in the United States in the last few decades. Right now a project is banding and tracking them to find out their origin. “We do not where these birds are coming from despite the fact that there are thousands,” said Michael Brothers, a manager at the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet, Fla.