June 08, 2012 - June 10, 2012

Event Description: Montana Audubon and Flathead Audubon are pleased to co-host this year’s bird festival in Kalispell, with easy access to a mind-boggling diversity of great birding destinations! We invite you to join us among the towering, glacial-carved mountains, beautiful coniferous forests, and abundant wetlands of the scenic Rocky Mountains and expansive Flathead Valley where birders and non-birders alike can plan on enjoying and participating in the abundant festival activities.

This year’s festival theme"Birding and Conservation: The Crown of the Continent," will feature top-notch experts and speakers. Three exciting pre-festival workshops are offered on Friday—including community bird education training, a workshop focused on private landowner conservation efforts in Flathead Valley, and a third that will explore complex regional forest and wildlife conservation issues in the face of climate change and related threats to natural ecosystem health. The festival is a family-friendly event that includes a highly entertaining, educational session with Professor Avian Guano on Friday evening.

For Saturday and Sunday mornings, 26 total field trips are planned including trips offered for youth and beginning birders. We will visit nearby Glacier National Park (popular for Harlequin Ducks, American Dippers, Northern Hawk Owls and many other species) and a variety of Flathead Valley wetlands and riparian areas with their tremendous diversity of migrating waterfowl and neo-tropical visitors. There are eight Saturday afternoon presentations including Keynote speaker, Peter Sherrington: Golden Eagle Migration in the Alberta Rockies. Saturday evening’s Banquet, Awards, Raffle, & Auctions are sure to please and entertain.

Festival Headquarters: located at the Hilton Garden Inn at 1840 US Hwy 93 South in Kalispell. The venue is spacious and centrally located for convenient access to field trip destinations. Noteworthy, too, is the short distance (15 minutes by car) to Flathead Lake and an easy 45 minutes to Glacier National Park. Call 1-406-756-4500 1-406-756-4500 for reservations and be sure to mention the Bird Festival for the group rate.

Online Registration: Begins late March at http://www.mtaudubon.org

Refer to Registration Brochure for Schedule and Times of Specific Activities at www.mtaudubon.org.

See Registration Brochure for Conference Costs at www.mtaudubon.org.

Adults and Families

Natural

Field trip destinations in and around Flathead Valley. Event headquarters at The Hilton Garden Inn, Kalispell.