This festival aims to share the natural beauty and wildlife of the area while offering education and entertainment for visitors and the local community.
The three-day festival commences Friday with two all-day birding excursions including the Three Capes Scenic Route and the Bay-to Bay Tour. The groups will see views of the Pacific Ocean, bays, headlands, forests, rivers and pastures – each a unique birding habitat – and birders can expect to see 50 bird species.
All are welcome at the free community events on Friday evening at the Kiawanda Community Center in Pacific City. Events include a children’s art activity, live birds of prey exhibit, and a show by entertainer and amateur ornithologist Tony Starlight.
This year’s keynote speaker is Janet Essley. a painter, muralist, and teaching artist with more than 20 years of experience creating collaborative murals. Essley’s presentation will focus on the Red Knot, a large sandpiper that migrates to the Oregon Coast. The slideshow presentation explores the amazing natural history of these long-distance migratory shorebirds, spiced with stories from human cultures around the world.
On Saturday evening, boogie down at a live Blues concert featuring Billy D and the Hoodoos at the Kiawanda Community Center. In the last two years Billy D and the Hoodoos’ Somethin’s Wrong has been on the Billboard Blues Album Chart once and Living Blues chart twice.
Additional presentations over the weekend include those about Oregon’s rare Humboldt marten; Orcas: Wolves of the Sea; and Shorebirds: the elegant travelers. This year’s field trip locations include Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge and Hawk Creek in Neskowin. Attendees can also visit with local artists, take guided paddle trips, and tour the Nestucca Rivers by dory boat, weather permitting.
For more information and to purchase festival passes and tickets, visit: www.birdingandblues.org.
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