The hardest thing about attending the 12th Puget Sound Bird Fest in Edmonds Sept. 9 through 11 will be choosing between the often-conflicting options.
Friday night will be easy. Listen to keynote speaker Julia Parrish, University of Washington research scientist and founder of the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST).
She has earned a Champion of Change award at the White House and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s Year of the Oceans Environmental Hero award.
COASST is a citizen-science program that relies on more than 800 participants collecting monthly data on the identity and abundance of beach-cast birds with the goal of creating a baseline that defines normal annual events such as loss of overwhelming numbers of migrants caught in fall’s first storm.
Saturday’s another story. Three separate guided walks or a photography workshop in the earlier part of the morning; field optics demonstration or four 20-minute presentations in a citizen-science bird symposium; fall and winter backyard birds or a live raptor demonstration, plus other options.
Finding birds will not be a problem. Birders have documented 263 year-round and migrant (and sometimes rare) species sighted in Edmonds. In any given year, 180 to 190 species are found.
A must-attend event starts at 5 p.m. Saturday, the Swifts Night Out in Monroe to watch the second largest roost of Vaux’s swifts in North America as they circle by the thousands and then drop down an old brick chimney for the night.
Other temptations that night include spaghetti and hot dogs, information booths, a fun- filled lecture at 6:30 p.m., and a chance to talk to docents who answer your questions.
Sunday offers a selection of bird cruises (a three-day cruise starts Sept. 12), an Owl Prowl walk at Yost Park and a walk at Scriber Park in Lynnwood.
Several of the outings are family friendly (good for children).
Don’t forget to cast your vote for the People’s Choice award at a 42-photograph exhibition.
While some other bird festivals have gravitated to registration fees and an increasing number of outings that have charges, PSBF only charges for a field photography workshop and two boat trips (led by excellent naturalist Bob Boekelheide).
“This is a community-driven event,” said Jennifer Leach, environmental education and sustainability coordinator for Edmonds parks and recreation department. “It’s an opportunity for the conservation community in Edmonds to get together and help share their love and knowledge with other people. Its value is enormous just from a social community-building aspect.”
A planning group starts in January; its members are almost all volunteers. Pilchuck Audubon provides the volunteer guides.
“Birds are one of the most highly visible parts of the nature that we come in contact with every day. The event has an enormous value in terms of people getting more connected to bird life,” Leach said.
This year, the festival rolls out a citizen-science bird symposium, chaired by Alan Mearns, a scientist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who has been monitoring bird populations in his Edmonds back yard for years.
The symposium brings together non-scientists who are involved in bird studies in the region.
“We provide them an opportunity to present their research, and they’re really excited about it. It’s a great opportunity to understand, at a local level, some things that are driving populations and patterns that many people have observed casually,” Leach said. “The studies have been going on a long time. We just don’t typically get to see the results.”
Logistics: The center of events is the Plaza Room at the Edmonds Library, 650 Main St., and the Frances Anderson Center, 600 Main St.
Information: The best source is pugetsoundbirdfest.com, where you’ll find a complete schedule, a map, a list of sponsors, event descriptions, locations, and registration information.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468- 3964.
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