SEQUIM — Nature has a way of renewing everything: Foliage, feathered creatures, festivals and the people who love them.
For proof, consider the Olympic Peninsula BirdFest today through Sunday.
The weekend of field trips and other wildlife-oriented events, geared toward birders of all levels, has a fistful of new outings this year.
In addition to the traditional Saturday “Dawn Chorus” walk along the Dungeness River, there’s a Sunday sunrise walk with the awakening birds; then come two hourlong tours of the Northwest Raptor Center near Sequim on Sunday, and a pair of three-hour Sunday cruises to Protection Island, the wildlife sanctuary at the entrance to Discovery Bay.
These trips are among nearly two dozen happening during the birding festival, which is both a fundraiser for the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society and a chance to awaken one’s senses to the delights of springtime.
‘Bird Central’
Everything emanates from “Bird Central,” aka the Dungeness River Audubon Center in Railroad Bridge Park at 2151 W. Hendrickson Road just northwest of Sequim.
One of the amazing aspects about the weekend, said River Center educator Powell Jones, is a particular field-trip guide.
He’s Bob Boekelheide, River Center director and leader of the Saturday Dawn Chorus, the all-day Saturday trip titled “Bays and Coasts of the Olympic Peninsula,” and the Saturday night “Owl Prowl.”
Boekelheide, a seasoned emitter of owl sounds, sets out on the prowl right after Saturday evening’s salmon dinner at the Jamestown S’Klallam tribal center in Blyn.
The feast’s featured speaker is University of Washington forest resources professor John Marz-luff, with a talk titled “In the Company of Crows and Ravens.”
Tickets, at $30 per person, are available until noon today by phoning 360-681-4076.
Then on Sunday, Boekelheide will embark on the BirdFest’s three-day cruise to the San Juan Islands.
“He’s a wild man,” Jones said.
Renewed by nature
Boekelheide, for his part, finds continual renewal in the forests, waters and prairies of the Dungeness Valley.
“This time of year is always very interesting. There’s an overlap between waterbirds and the spring land-bird migrants,” he said.
“At this time of year, we have both.”
Equally enchanted by bird life is the woman who runs the Northwest Raptor Center.
Jaye Moore has for 15 years cared for injured birds and mammals at her center, and every year during the BirdFest, she gives a free presentation starring the owls, hawks and eagles she and her husband, Gary, have rescued.
This year’s “Raptor Rehabilitation” event will run from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. today at the Sequim Middle School cafeteria, 301 W. Hendrickson Road. Children are welcome.
Sunday’s two tours of the Raptor Center — at 11 a.m. and at 1 p.m. — give visitors an opportunity to see how Moore helps injured birds regain their health.
She and Gary have 15 raptors, including a nesting pair of bald eagles — under their care.
“It’s a passion,” Moore said.
Tickets to the Dawn Chorus walks and Northwest Raptor Center tours are $10 per person, while other outings range from $20 for the Sequim Bay-John Wayne Marina and Three Crabs-Dungeness Bay trips to $55 for the Protection Island cruise.
For more information, drop by the Dungeness River Audubon Center, phone the center at 360-681-4076, or see www.OlympicBirdFest.org.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@ peninsuladailynews.com.
