STANWOOD — Flocks of snow geese are in a feeding frenzy now, getting ready this spring to make the long haul back to their breeding grounds on Wrangel Island off the north coast of Siberia.
The annual Port Susan Snow Goose and Birding Festival this weekend offers fun activities for families, art shows, lectures, tours to see the geese and a chance to visit the Nature Conservancy’s Port Susan Bay Preserve.
Not always open to the public, the preserve safeguards some of the best estuarine habitat in the region. Its mudflats, fields and marshes support thousands of birds, including snow geese, raptors and sandpipers.
Though some three-hour tours of the preserve already are filled up, bird-watchers still can register to see the property at 1 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Tours leave from the Floyd Norgaard Cultural Center, 27108 102nd Ave. NW, in downtown Stanwood.
The festival kicks off with a pancake feed from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the South Camano Island Grange, 2227 S. Camano Drive. Cost is $6 or $3 for children younger than 10.
The popular children’s event is set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Four Springs Lake Preserve, 585 Lewis Lane on Camano Island. Families with kids can enjoy hands-on art projects, crafts, a scavenger hunt, science activities and a healthy snack for $5 a child or $10 per family.
Bus tours of the fields where snow geese and trumpeter swans feed is set for 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. Saturday, also departing from the Floyd Norgaard Center in Stanwood. Some of the other bird tours of the area are self-guided.
Laura Byers, a member of the festival committee, hopes people will flock like the birds to Stanwood to learn more about the area and its wildlife.
“We are committed with this festival to creating a wonderful experience for families and bird-watchers,” she said.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427, gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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