Everett, Wash. Published: Saturday, February 9, 2008
Follow the birds
Festivals celebrate feathered friends throughout the state
By Maggie Savage and Sharon Wootton Special to The Herald
A flock of sandhill cranes can inspire superlatives.
"They're majestic," said LuAnn Morgan, spokeswoman for the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival. "When they take off, they're just awesome.
"Thousands of them take off at the same time, and they have unique trumpeting sounds."
The cranes have up to 80-inch wingspans and can live 20 years. In the spring, thousands stop during a three- to four-week window on their way to the Alaskan breeding grounds.
Now's the time to make plans for a birding getaway in Washington, for one festival or more in a series that started with the Upper Skagit Bald Eagle Festival two weekends ago and ends Oct. 11-12 with BirdFest and Bluegrass in Ridgefield.
Birdwatchers can migrate from festival to festival, joining guided tours, listening to lectures and spotting new species.
Grand Coulee Balde Eagle Festival
Bald plus an 'e'? That's how the word was spelled in 1782 when the newly formed government of the United States chose the bald eagle as the national bird over Ben Franklin's choice, the wild turkey.
Last year's festival drew about 750 birdwatchers. This year's activities include interpretive bus tours to roosting, nesting and feeding sites with guides, raptor presentations, and displays on the Ice Age Floods and Coulee Corridor.
When: Feb. 15 to 17
Information: www.eaglefestival.com
Port Susan Snow Goose & Birding Festival
Experienced and beginning birdwatchers can celebrate all wintering birds in the Camano Island and Stanwood area.
This festival includes a tour of the Nature Conservancy property, not currently open to the public; a 21/2-hour tour on stable sit-on-top kayaks that have a pedal design; guided and self-guided birding tours of Iverson Spit, the Big Ditch, water-treatment ponds, and snow geese and trumpeter swan locations.
When: Feb. 23 and 24
Information: www.snowgoosefest.org
Othello Sandhill Crane Festival
Although sandhill cranes are the stars, this festival offers the most varied set of options and distinctly different habitat than any festival in Western Washington.
Specialty tours have included Columbia National Wildlife Refuge-Potholes wildlife, Missoula Floods and the Channeled Scablands geology, sage grouse mating grounds, Lower Grand Coulee and Wahluke Slope-Shrub Steppe birds, and burrowing owl country.
When: March 28 to 30
Information: www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org
Olympic Peninsula BirdFest
Sunny Sequim is the jumping-off point for birding trips to quiet bays and estuaries, Strait of Juan de Fuca beaches, an island bird sanctuary, Dungeness Spit and the river valley.
It's a chance to see marbled murrelets, harlequin ducks, black oystercatchers and pygmy owls. Join guided birding walks and boat tours and attend lectures.
When: April 4 to 6
Information: www.olympicbirdfest.org
Wings Over Water Northwest Birding Festival
Black brants are small sea geese that stage one of waterfowl's most spectacular migrations.
The sixth annual festival in Blaine, the only one-day birding festival in Washington, includes exhibits of wildlife art, carvings, seminars, children's activities and field trips such as boat excursions.
When: April 19
Information: www.blainechamber.com
Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival
Perhaps the most popular festival is the one during the annual migration of hundreds of thousands of shorebirds stopping to feed and rest at the Grays Harbor estuary before flying to their Arctic nesting grounds.
They've come from as far south as Argentina, stopping on the mud flats near Aberdeen and Hoquiam.
At Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge, the best viewing time is about two hours before and after high tide, when the birds are pushed closer to birdwatchers in higher concentrations.
When: May 2 to 4
Information: www.shorebirdfestival.com
Leavenworth Bird Festival
The sixth annual festival concentrates on neotropical migratory songbirds that stop here to breed and fledge, having flown from Mexico and Latin America to the Wenatchee Valley.
This area has a variety of habitats that attract a variety of birds, including calliope hummingbirds, white-headed woodpeckers and Western meadowlarks.
When: May 16 to 18
Information: www.leavenworthspringbirdfest.com
Puget Sound Bird Fest
The fourth annual festival in Edmonds has moved from May to September and the program is still a work in process.
When: Sept. 12 to 14
Information: www.pugetsoundbirdfest.com
Bird Fest & Bluegrass
The last festival of the year features bluegrass concerts, sandhill crane tours, guided birding and photography walks, kayak outings and talks in a full-size replica of an American Indian plankhouse, all in Ridgefield.
When: Oct. 11 and 12
Information: www.ridgefieldfriends.org
Writers Maggie Savage and Sharon Wootton are co-authors of "You Know You're in Washington When … 101 Quintessential Places, People, Events, Customs, Lingo and Eats of the Evergreen State."
