Oregon Shorebird Festival Has Closed Down
After a thorough discussion with past partners. trip and program leaders, as well as participants of the Oregon Shorebird Festival, Cape Arago Audubon must reluctantly share that it is time to finally put this event to bed. These words come hard after 34 successful runs, especially after having to cut off the last two years as a direct result of COVID.
The break caused by COVID allowed us to do a frank and serious evaluation of where we were with this festival. Tim Rodenkirk noted that once upon a time we had truly awesome shore birding here in the fall, leading to the creation of this event. But going to eBird, he couldn’t help but notice that this all began to wind down 15 years ago.
After years of leading tours here in Bandon and taking elementary school kids on field trips to the Bandon Marsh, there are few shorebirds, usually zero even during peak migration. The school no longer takes those field trips. The North Spit is Coos Bay also was an amazing spot, but as Tim notes that is long behind us.
When people register for the festival from afar, they expect to see a variety of shorebirds. It is like when Eastern Oregon Audubon does its annual festival, those who register hope to see most of the 17 species of woodpeckers in the area. We can no longer guarantee that we will be able to do so here with shorebirds.
We are exploring a replacement festival featuring birding on the south coast, perhaps naming it just that, the Southern Oregon Coast Bird Festival. We could look at a species to highlight together with our Audubon chapter to the south, Kalmiopsis Audubon. We could, like some organizations, make it a day of birding and presentations one day in Bandon along with a pelagic trip, one day in Port Orford or Gold Beach and one day in Gold Beach or Brookings. Or we could go with a theme, instead of Birds and Blues, maybe its Birds and Art, featuring some of our many wildlife artists living on the south coast.
Most importantly, we have organizations experienced in putting together festivals. Even more important, we have some funders who have expressed an interest in bankrolling a South Coast Bird Festival. It just cannot be put together in the short months before the seasons turn on us. We also have another variant of COVID running through our area.
So we have reached that bittersweet moment. A moment where the future presents all kinds of possibilities for birders to gather down here once again on the southern Oregon coast as they have enjoyed doing for so many years. But also, it is a moment when we must say goodbye to an old and cherished friend.
Most importantly, we want to say thank you to the participants, our partners, our presenters, our field trip leaders, our pelagic, canoe and kayak leaders and to all of our other organizers and volunteers. You have made the last 34 years one hell of a ride. And to those interested in helping plan and organize a new festival here on the south coast, please let us know. We will need the volunteers.
Harv Schubothe
Cape Arago Audubon