Bald Eagles to Bluegrass: Birding Celebrations Happening This Fall
Novice and experienced birders alike will find food, music, community, and plenty of birds at meetings and festivals around the country.
Fall migration is here, bringing with it an abundance of opportunities to spot and celebrate North American birds with others. Community and conservation groups have organized meetings, festivals, and conferences to take advantage of this peak season. Some events are species-specific, honoring birds like the Bald Eagle or the Sandhill Crane. Others combine birding with bluegrass music, children鈥檚 crafts, square dancing, wine tasting, photography, expert seminars, and more to create weekend-long events for the whole family. We talked to organizers around the country about their upcoming festivals. Here鈥檚 what you can expect.
Wings Over Willapa Festival
September 27鈥28 in Ocean Park, Washington
Returning for a second year after a successful inauguration, the Wings over Willapa Festival devotes a weekend to nature and birding at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. Because the refuge borders the and provides critical bird habitat along the Pacific Flyway, the area is inundated with birds during migration season. The festival鈥檚 many tours take visitors into areas of the refuge normally inaccessible to the public, including habitat for the endangered Snowy Plover. In addition to venturing out by foot, boat, or trolley, attendees can enjoy a lecture series on local ecology and a program of family-friendly events. One workshop encourages kids to think about pollution by making art out of items found by Willapa volunteers during beach cleanups.
Registration: Free; certain events require paid tickets.
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Bridger Raptor Festival
October 4鈥6 in Bozeman, Montana
Hosted by a menagerie of conservation groups including the Sacagawea 探花精选 Society, the Bridger Raptor Festival offers attendees a close-up view of one of the largest Golden Eagle migrations in the United States. The Bridger flyway has for of raptors. This year鈥檚 festival kicks off with a screening of the documentary film Sky Migrations, followed by a discussion with the film鈥檚 directors. Offering everything from a children鈥檚 birdhouse-building workshop to live bird presentations to a talk on raptor identification, this free festival is intended for those at any level of birding experience.
Registration: Free
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Ridgefield BirdFest & Bluegrass
October 4鈥5 in Ridgefield, Washington
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2019, the Ridgefield BirdFest & Bluegrass event combines a full day of birding excursions, informational workshops, and guided hikes with a community-wide bluegrass music festival. The weekend鈥檚 most sought-after event is its Sandhill Crane Tours, which depart at 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. These special excursions visit an area of the refuge usually closed to the public to view Sandhill Cranes as they wake up and take off for the day or return to roost in the evening. Saturday also features kids鈥 crafts, a birders鈥 marketplace, watercolor and photography workshops, story time at the library, a talk on crow behavior, and an evening salmon bake.
Registration: Payment and registration are needed for some events; the rest are free and open to the public.
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Canon + 探花精选: Birds in Focus
October 5 & 6 in 探花精选, Pennsylvania
Led by an 探花精选 naturalist and a Canon photography professional, this guided bird walk offers guests a chance to try out the latest cameras, lenses, and binoculars while birding. The 探花精选 Center at Mill Grove is an ideal setting for this 45-minute walk, as more than 175 different species of birds frequent the area. A cross between a photography class and a guided birding trip, this event will leave you with new camera skills and, hopefully, some excellent pictures of the birds you encountered along the way. Walks occur throughout the morning and midday on Saturday and Sunday.
Registration: $15
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Cape May Fall Festival
October 17鈥20 in Cape May, New Jersey
Hosted by New Jersey 探花精选, the Cape May Fall Festival is one of the longest-running bird festivals in the country. Now in its 73rd year, the festival brings thousands of visitors to an area that National Geographic has called one of the world鈥檚 top 10 best spots for birding. Fall migration will be in full swing, and bird-counting volunteers will be on hand to help attendees spot birds in the wild. The weekend also features a number of free events at the Cape May Convention Hall, including a monarch butterfly-tagging demonstration and a family-friendly live bird show. The festival has scheduled trolley, boat, and walking tours for birders of all experience levels鈥攁nd there鈥檚 even a beach nearby for those who prefer to sit back and watch the birds as they fly by.
Registration: $185 before October 1; $225 after October 1. Convention center events are free.
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Florida Birding & Nature Festival
October 17鈥20 in Tampa, Florida
The autumn months bring birds from up and down the Atlantic Flyway to the western coast of Florida, where they pause to rest in and around bodies of water like Tampa Bay. The surrounding Hillsborough County takes full advantage of fall migration season with its three-day festival of seminars, field trips, and social events. This year鈥檚 22 scheduled field trips include several boat rides to islands rich with shorebirds, birding excursions by canoe on three different rivers, and walking tours of protected land usually closed to the public. Non-birders can enjoy morning seminars on Florida鈥檚 bears, reptiles, butterflies, and other fauna while the field trips are in session, and birders seeking more in-depth knowledge will find plenty of expertise at the bird-focused afternoon seminars. The festival culminates in a keynote speech by legendary bird expert (and 探花精选 field editor) Kenn Kaufman, as well as other expert talks on owl research and Florida鈥檚 historical role in the land-conservation movement.
Registration: $45 for all 3 days, field trip tickets are extra
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Sandhill Crane Festival
November 1鈥3 in Lodi, California
Winery tours, kayaking trips, early-morning hikes, and river cruises abound in this three-day celebration of the Sandhill Crane. Each day features a plethora of workshops and presentations like paper-crane folding, owl pellet dissection, taiko drumming, and nature talks with live animal guests. The festival includes an art show featuring the work of nature photographer Leslie Morris and others. Of course, the stars of the festival are the cranes, which flock to nearby marshes to roost by the thousands. Several group tours to the best observation points will be led each evening to get a glimpse of these impressive birds.
Registration: Free for festival activities; tour prices vary.
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Kelleys Island Owl Festival
November 1鈥3 in Kelleys Island, Ohio
The Kelleys Island Owl Festival gives attendees up-close access to wild Saw-whet Owls with master bander Tom Bartlett. The festival begins at 8 p.m. on Friday at North Pond with a guided owl prowl and continues over the weekend on the island鈥檚 Jones and Scheele Preserves with daytime songbird banding and nighttime Saw-whet Owl banding. Free and open to the public, these events feature a warm, communal atmosphere celebrating the yearly autumn owl migration鈥157 owls were banded on the island between October and November of last year! Dress warm and bring a flashlight; if you are lucky, you may get the chance to meet these birds up close.
Registration: Free
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Alaska Bald Eagle Festival
November 6鈥9 in Haines, Alaska
Tucked in a scenic valley a five-hour ferry ride north of Juneau is the small town of Haines, whose annual Bald Eagle Festival celebrates the area鈥檚 ecosystem. Underwater aquifers feed the valley鈥檚 rivers with a supply of water that doesn鈥檛 freeze鈥攁 rare commodity during frigid Alaskan winters. Every autumn, when their other sources of food are frozen over, Bald Eagles descend on Haines to pluck salmon out of its flowing waters. In past years, Alaska Bald Eagle Festival attendees from around the world have counted as many as 50 bald eagles in a single tree. This year, organizers have planned a number of programs to highlight the warm, communal spirit of Haines as well as celebrate its heritage. Events include brewery visits by local 鈥渁mbassador鈥 birds, square dancing after the Saturday night banquet dinner, and an eagle release ceremony co-hosted by the local indigenous Tlingit community.
Registration: $175; ticket prices vary for individual events without a registration
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Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival
November 6鈥10 in Harlingen, Texas
The Rio Grande Valley is a haven for birds migrating south for the winter and also those venturing up from Mexico. It was one of the first U.S. regions to host birds like the Green Jay and the Clay-colored Thrush, whose ranges have since expanded. The valley is home to a wide-variety of birdlife, from a flock of Red-crowned Parrots displaced from Mexico by habitat destruction to Amazon Kingfishers spotted by previous years鈥 festival attendees. This year鈥檚 Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival features speakers like headliner Pete Dunne as well as a variety of seminars and guided tours. It鈥檚 also one of the only events of its type which offers a fully wheelchair-accessible outdoor birding excursion. The tour will be led by a wheelchair-using guide, and any wheelchair users and their companions are welcome.
Registration: $25, plus additional fees for some individual events and field trips.
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Central Valley Birding Symposium
November 21鈥24 in Stockton, California
The Central Valley Bird Club鈥檚 annual symposium is a veritable who鈥檚 who of the nation鈥檚 leading birders. More akin to a conference than to a festival, this three-day event draws experienced birders from around the country to reconnect with old friends and discuss hot topics in the birding world, from climate change to the origins of avian taxonomy. Events this year include birding trips guided by celebrity figures like Jon Dunn, as well as talks by top experts like bird-call specialist Nathan Pieplow and science writer Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Genius of Birds. The registration price covers all events including field trips, as well as a one-year membership to the CVBC. While not recommended for those with no birding experience, this symposium will give novice and seasoned birders alike a chance to rub elbows with some of the leading figures in the field.
Registration: $125 for adults, cheaper for life members and students
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