SEQUIM — Birder-watchers are flocking to the 14th annual Olympic Peninsula BirdFest this weekend.
BirdFest is a collection of field trips and presentations, the annual festival timed to overlap wintering birds and the beginning of spring migrations. Home base is the Dungeness River Audubon Center, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road.
Most of the events are offered with fees. Proceeds go to support educational programs of the Dungeness River Audubon Center. Registration can be completed on the website at www.OlympicBirdFest.org.
Two events are free.
• The Northwest Raptor &Wildlife Center staff will present birds of prey at the Dungeness River Audubon Center amphitheater at 1 p.m. Sunday. Center director Jaye Moore and volunteer staff will present owls, eagles and hawks.
• The Sequim Merchant Group is hosting the BirdFest BirdQuest in conjunction with BirdFest River through Sunday.
The free game, sponsored by the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce, is taking place in 20 of Sequim’s businesses.
Participants find bird sculptures created by Jake Reichner’s Sequim High School ceramics class and match them to the business in which they are found on game cards, which are available at each participating location.
Game cards are due at the chamber office at 1192 E. Washington St. by 4 p.m. Saturday. The drawing for the winner will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Dungeness River Audubon Center.
Saturday’s BirdFest banquet, which costs $50 per ticket, will feature photographer Bonnie Block speaking on tips for success in photographing birds in the Pacific Northwest.
The banquet and live auction will be from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Red Cedar Room at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center in Blyn.
Block, a self-taught wildlife photographer who lives near Seattle, won the 2016 Audubon Photography Award Grand Prize for an image of a bald eagle and great blue herons.
Check the BirdFest website for availability of tours.
