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Over 100 birds spotted during Creston Valley Bird Fest

Over 200 participants enjoyed a weekend featuring the Creston Valley's art, agriculture and birds...
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(Above) Birdwatchers at the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area. (Below

“They’re amassing out there someplace and they’ll be back. You can count on it.”

No, they weren’t Hitchcock’s birds, but birdwatchers, flocking to the Creston Valley to partake in the May 9-11 Creston Valley Bird Fest.

Hosted by Wildsight, the festival is a celebration of the art, agriculture and birds of the Creston Valley. With 7,000 hectares of protected wetland and a richly rural landscape, it is where the birds are.

Over 200 participants enjoyed a weekend of presentations, birding tours, fine food and several unique tours, as well as special events such as the community greenhouse, the organic dairy, a walk through the medicinal plants at Schikurski Park and several children’s events at the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area. The festival included a bus tour to an eagle’s nest, a night listening to bats, a photography workshop with well-known West Kootenay photographer Jim Lawrence and an amazing keynote address by wildlife biologist Dave Quinn from Kimberley.

Over 108 bird species were seen on the Saturday birding tours. The golden eagle, the red-necked phalarope and a possible sighting of Lewis’s woodpecker are rare occurrences for the valley. Visit www.crestonvalleybirds.ca for the entire bird list, as well as festival photographs.

The 2014 Creston Valley Bird Fest committee appreciates the hundreds of people and thousands of birds that contributed to the success of the festival.

Next year’s bird fest is scheduled for May 8-10, 2015.

—CRESTON VALLEY BIRD FEST