Pick up your festival information packet and get everything you need for your birding weekend. While you're there visit our partner booths to meet local organizations, learn about conservation efforts and more

Skamokawa Swamp Opera is an eclectic folk band from Wahkiakum County. All four members are vocalists and multi-instrumentalists, using varied combinations of cello, guitar, banjo, harmonica, mandocello, percussion, mandolin, and melodica. They draw from a wide variety of musical genres from pop to opera. They have been crowd favorites at festivals around the region, including Pickathon, Vancouver Music and Arts Festival, and the FisherPoet Gathering. For the Wahkiakum Wild Bird Fest, they will perform songs about birds in addition to some of their songs about life on the lower Columbia River.

Join us for a guided birding trip of Grays Bay, along the Columbia River, to see thousands of wintering waterfowl, occasional raptors, and possibly shorebirds on the early morning mudflats. The trip will continue to Pigeon Bluff overlooking the Columbia where we may see loons, scoters, and large rafts of scaup. On our return drive we will visit an upland forest in Skamokawa.

From Cathlamet, take a short drive across the bridge to Puget Island to see a Great Blue Heron heronry in a stand of trees adjacent to the road. From your car, view about 25 Great Blue Heron nests in various stages of construction. Watch adult herons
building nests, sitting on nests, or roosting in the trees. Please respect the private ownership of this property and remain in your car. Binoculars will improve your view but the birds and nests are clearly seen by the unaided eye.

Enjoy a leisurely walk around the office grounds of Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-tailed Deer. Scan the surrounding pastures, lawn, woodlands, and wetlands to see birds and deer from the viewing deck. Learn the story of the refuge and its mission to protect the Columbian White-tailed Deer through interpretive signs.

Enjoy a leisurely walk around the Cathlamet Marina (officially the Elochoman Slough Marina) enjoying its expansive view of the Columbia River. Find the observation deck and scan the Columbia River for eagles, ducks, and cormorants. As you walk, you will
find signs about the prominent role of the Chinook Indian Nation and commemorating the commercial fishermen of the region.

The White-tail Trail is the winter birding highlight of the JBH Refuge. You will see a variety of waterfowl up close, including magnificent Trumpeter and Tundra Swans, abundant dabbling ducks, a dependable Canvasback or two, scattered Hooded Merganser, and a few waders. Flocks of Canada Geese (including the threatened Dusky Canada Goose) and Cackling Geese will alight briefly or pass overhead as they flush beneath the flight of a hunting Bald Eagle.

Follow the JBH Refuge Wildlife Drive in your car from the Refuge Headquarters approximately 2 miles to its end at the Columbia River (and White-tail Trail). The road follows the Elochoman River on your left, where you will spot a variety of water birds. As fields open up on your right, keep an eye out for hawks, geese, deer, and elk.

Join waterfowl biologists from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as they demonstrate duck banding at the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-
tailed Deer. Live birds captured earlier that morning at JBH Refuge will be banded. You will learn the role banding ducks plays in understanding their migratory pathways, harvest rates, survival, and distribution.

Come tour one of Columbia Land Trust’s properties in the lower Elochoman valley. This property has undergone significant restoration efforts in the past few years and showcases Wahkiakum’s waterfowl on this lush marsh-pond complex.

Explore the lower Columbia River by boat with an experienced captain and a retired federal waterfowl biologist. You will cruise the waters around the Lewis and Clark and Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuges, looking for wintering ducks, geese, swans, and eagles. Each trip is timed around the midday high tide.

Join waterfowl biologists from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for instruction on how to identify ducks at the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian
White-tailed Deer. Live birds captured earlier that morning as part of a banding study will be on hand for close-up viewing. Wings collected from hunters and photographs also will be used to point out important identifying features.

Explore the lower Columbia River by boat with an experienced captain and a retired federal waterfowl biologist. You will cruise the waters around the Lewis and Clark and Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuges, looking for wintering ducks, geese, swans, and eagles. Each trip is timed around the midday high tide.

Join credited wild bird photographer Vern Wright in a workshop designed for amateur and aspiring wildlife / birding photographers. The class will teach the core techniques of composition, lighting, and focus for photographing waterfowl and raptors in flight using DSLR / mirrorless cameras.

The White-tail Trail is the winter birding highlight of the JBH Refuge. You will see a variety of waterfowl up close, including magnificent Trumpeter and Tundra Swans, abundant dabbling ducks, a dependable Canvasback or two, scattered Hooded Merganser, and a few waders. Flocks of Canada Geese (including the threatened Dusky Canada Goose) and Cackling Geese will alight briefly or pass overhead as they flush beneath the flight of a hunting Bald Eagle.

Wahkiakum Chamber Crab & Oyster Feed

Columbia Land Trust invites you to visit an exciting restoration project along Indian Jack Slough in Cathlamet for a unique birdwatching experience. By excavating ponds and creating berms in this formerly flattened property, we've created wetland conditions that are now popular winter grounds for birds such as Cackling Geese, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Green-winged Teals, Buffleheads, Ring-necked Ducks, Wilson’s Snipes, Bald Eagles, Red-shoulder Hawks, and Marsh Wrens.

Join us for a festival-exclusive birding opportunity by van along the JBH Refuge Center Road wetlands. This area of the Refuge is off limit to visitors during the winter to prevent disturbance to the incredible numbers of dabbling ducks found on its large wetlands. This is the first and only time during the winter of 2026-2027 that visitors have been granted entry under the controlled conditions of a guided van tour. Register early. You won’t want to miss this unique opportunity.

Wahkiakum Chamber Crab & Oyster Feed

Join us for a guided birding trip of Grays Bay, along the Columbia River, to see thousands of wintering waterfowl, occasional raptors, and possibly shorebirds on the early morning mudflats. The trip will continue to Pigeon Bluff overlooking the Columbia where we may see loons, scoters, and large rafts of scaup. On our return drive we will visit an upland forest in Skamokawa.

A short walk with stops to photograph waterfowl flying in the wetland adjacent to the White-tail Trail. Camera settings, composition, and focus techniques will be explained to photograph waterfowl in flight.