A dozen birding festivals in Washington provide a flock of birding experts, artists and photographers the opportunity to offer workshops, lectures and field trips. The variety will keep birdwatchers of all stripes happy.
If you haven’t been to a birding festival in years, here are a few tips:
Register early. Field trips and workshops may have limited space and require registration. Some are so popular that signing up as soon as possible is the only way to make the list. I met a couple of people at the Leavenworth Spring Fest last year who had waited for two or three years to be the early bird.
Bird festivals offer many activities for children.
Some festivals require a weekend fee plus charges for popular trips, mostly those that need a bus or a boat. Others do not have an “entry fee” but do have other charges. Often the individual workshops are free.
Port Susan Snow Goose and Birding Festival: This is the first 2016 bird fest on Feb. 27 and 28 (www.snowgoosefest.org). Guided tours include the Port Susan Bay Preserve, a swan-and-eagle bus tour, and a Camano Island birding and hiking locations tour. There are also three self-guided tours. Classes are offered on shorebird identification, white birds of winter, from Russia to the Stilly, live raptors and a photographing birds field trip.
Here are bird festivals through May:
Othello Sandhill Crane Festival (March 18-20; www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org). This festival is the best place in the state to see sandhill cranes and volcanic geology in one trip, and it’s one of the most diverse festivals in terms of offerings beyond birds. Tours include Biking for Cranes, Ice Age Floods, Channeled Scablands and boat birding on the Potholes Reservoir. One speaker will focus on remarkable attributes of common birds; another on why and how birds sing.
Wings Over Water (March 11-13; www.wingsoverwaterbirdingfestival.com). Offerings include Plover ferry wildlife cruises, field trip to Semiahmoo Spit, Salish Sea pelagic birding and wildlife cruise, plus workshops and lectures in digiscoping with point-and-shoot camera and spotting scope, painting for birds, Baja birds, wildlife and geology field trip, and photographer Paul Bannick’s presentation on Woodpeckers of North America.
Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival (www.shorebirdfestival.org). Tens of thousands of shorebirds at this festival traveled up to 15,000 miles (round-trip) on their migration and stop here to feed on the rich mudflats. Check the website in a few weeks for information.
Olympic Peninsula BirdFest (April 15-17; www.olympicbirdfest.org). Home base for the festival is Sequim. OPB offers an eyebrow-raising three-day marine cruise for $850 per person, double occupancy. For the rest of us, there are field trips to Sequim Bay, Port Angeles Harbor, Ediz Hook, Dungeness Spit Bay, Elwha River, Protection Island and Salt Creek. Or take the Olympic Peninsula Owl Prowl or visit the Dry Creek Waterfowl Breeding Sanctuary. Author and artist Tony Angell will speak on The Secret Lives of Owls.
Orcas Island BirdFest (April 30; www.orcasislandbirdfest.com). The second annual festival is likely to be all weekend but check the website in a couple of weeks.
Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest (May 19-22; www.leavenworthspringbirdfest.com). Stay tuned for more information on the website. The festival is set in a beautiful location and is centered at the Wenatchee River Institute at the Barn Beach Reserve, a nine-acre nature sanctuary adjacent to more than 50 acres of riparian greenbelt, perfect habitat for migrating songbirds. The Bird Fest opens with the film “Audubon” and will be followed by trips and other activities.
The birding festival schedule starts again in the fall and includes the Chelan Ridge Hawk Migration Festival, Puget Sound Bird Fest and the Birdfest &Bluegrass Festival.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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