1999 GRAYS HARBOR SHOREBIRD FESTIVAL

Which is more exciting - studying the features of sandpipers feeding among the mudflats but so close you can't focus your binoculars or watching a Peregrine Falcon hunt through a huge flock of darting shorebirds?

Birders will have these choices and a lot more at the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival to be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 30 - May 2, 1999, in Hoquiam, Washington.

The Grays Harbor Audubon Society is joining with U.S Fish and Wildlife to sponsor a shorebird festival timed to match the annual migration of thousands of shorebirds as they pause at the Grays Harbor estuary to feed and rest before departing for their nesting grounds in the Arctic.

Festival events will include:

Competitive Bird Race the weekend of April 24/25th similar to the New Jersey World Series of Birding;

Field trips led by Washington Ornithological Society members to Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge, Ocean Shores and Westport/Bottle Beach State Park , Olympic National Forest and Point Grenville;

Pelagic Bird all day trip ventures 35 miles out to the edge of the continential shelf

Lectures by area experts in shorebird identification, beginning birding and wildlife photography;

Exhibits of local nature/wildlife arts

Shorebird ecology •Most events will occur at festival headquarters, the Hoquiam YMCA in Hoquiam.

Registration brochures are available by writing to: Grays Harbor Audubon Society PO Box 444 Montesano, WA 98563

Or send a E-mail note to: dschwick@techline.com with your name and address.

Or call: Grays Harbor Audubon Society 1-360-495-3289 or 1-800-321-1924

Other sponsors of the festival include: Washington Ornithological Society, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Pacific Coast Joint Venture, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, and National Audubon Society.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will welcome visitors at the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge in Hoquiam on April 24-May 2nd. Volunteer guides will be stationed on the boardwalk on these weekends at peak viewing times to assist visitors. The refuge brochure is available by calling refuge staff at 1-360-753-9467.

A portion of revenues in excess of festival expenses will go toward establishing a fund to benefit the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge for activities such as: continuation of construction of the boardwalk, benches and interpretive signage.

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