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THE CENTER OF THE BIRDING UNIVERSE – Sh-h-h-h. Don’t tell anyone that Fir Island is the place to find snow geese this time of year. Don Coyote found gaggles of them. – Photo by Don Coyote
Bird watchers from around the world will be flocking to La Conner for the first La Conner Birding Showcase at Maple Hall Jan. 27-28. That’s the hope of Heather Carter, executive director of La Conner’s chamber of commerce. She has scheduled award-winning author and wildlife photographer Paul Bannick as Saturday’s keynote speaker. Martha Jordan will discuss “Swans of Winter” Sunday afternoon. The executive director of the Northwest Swan Conservation Association, Jordan started studying snow geese in the Skagit Valley 40 years ago.
Carter is “excited to showcase La Conner to the birding community! Maple Hall is a great space to hold our inaugural event; located just steps from the Swinomish Channel and in the heart of the Skagit Valley.” She has recruited Anacortes Telescope to demonstrate the spotting scopes, binoculars and mounts they sell from a variety of manufacturers. Wild Birds Unlimited, from Gardiner, will be representing Swarovski. Whidbey Island photographer Pamela Davis Headridge will display her prints and cards. Volunteers from the Skagit Audubon Society and Skagit County Master Gardeners will have tables, the master gardeners discussing plants that attract birds.
Carter stresses this “inaugural birding event will gather those in the ‘know’ to provide information to professional and casual birders alike. La Conner is a great hub for birding enthusiasts – close to Fir Island and Padilla Bay.” She developed the Showcase in coordination with the first Birds of Winter: A Skagit Valley Experience, county wide events through February championed by EDASC (Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County.
Bannick is author and photographer of two best-selling bird books on owls. His “Owl: A Year in the Lives of North American Owls,” won a 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal. He is a University of Washington graduate.
Saturday’s events run from 11 a.m-3 p.m. Bannick speaks at 3 p.m. The showcase is open Sunday11 a.m-4 p.m. Admission is five dollars and Bannick’s talk is five dollars. Children under 10 are free.
The Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum at Gaches Mansion is featuring a new exhibit, “Birds of a Fiber,” in January.
For more information: http://members.lovelaconner.com/events/details/la-conner-birding-showcase-4352.
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