The Creston Valley Bird Fest celebrates the art, the agriculture and the birds of the Creston Valley. There is something for everyone at the May 9-11 bird festival, including 11 birding tours with qualified experts, seven presentations and nine unique valley events.
There are children’s events and canoe rides at the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area, as well as a youth art exhibit at the Creston and District Community Complex. Photography workshops, tours to the organic dairy and the College of the Rockies greenhouses, five creative art studios and a medicinal plant walk are unique to Creston. The buffet dinner on Friday night catered by Demetre and a Saturday lunch catered by Real Food Cafe are accompanied by presentations on hummingbirds, eagles, bats and bad news birds.
Events occur at the community complex, the wildlife area, Wynndel, Canyon, Lister, the college and all birding hot spots in between. Art abounds at Kingfisher Used Books, the community complex and at the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce with the travelling Flathead Wild exhibit. The bird fest committee welcomes newcomers to the bird watching world — this is an opportunity to try something new and learn about the beautiful winged creatures that inhabit the valley. Birding tours start at the community complex at 6:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The Keynote speaker for the 2014 Creston Valley Bird Fest is Dave Quinn, CBC’s “outdoor guy”. In his 7 p.m. Saturday presentation at Prince Charles Theatre, “A Wildlife Biologist’s Love Affair with Birds,” Quinn brings the world of birds to us.
The Cranbrook-born wildlife biologist, photographer and wilderness guide has explored the complex relationships between birds and people around the globe. Quinn will share his observations and stories from his personal and professional expeditions to the world’s remote landscapes. Driven by his passion for wilderness and wild spaces, his work with mountain caribou, badgers, fisher, grizzly, lynx and other species has shaped his understanding of the Kootenay wild and sharpened his efforts to protect what remains.
His writing and photographs have been published in BC Magazine, Westworld, the Financial Post, Backcountry and Adventure Kayak, as well as the Patagonia and Mountain Equipment Co-op catalogs. As a wilderness guide in Patagonia, Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, the Kootenays and B.C.’s West Coast, and through personal travels in Africa, Asia, and south and central America, he has experienced some remarkable wildlife encounters and a life-long love of birding.
Registration is on now at the College of the Rockies from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and online at www.crestonvalleybirds.ca. Registration closes 5 p.m. May 9 at the community complex. There will be no late registrations on Saturday or Sunday.
—CRESTON VALLEY BIRD FEST