2017 Festival Dates May 4-7, 2017

from the Cordova Chamber of Commerce

The Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival enables you to witness the flocks of millions of shorebirds as they take a short break on the Copper River Delta while passing from their wintering areas across the globe to their breeding grounds in the north.  Birders, photographers, biologists, conservationists, artists and global citizens spend the  weekend enjoying birding, hiking and art.

In early May, the tidal flats of the Delta shimmer with activity as nearly 5 million shorebirds rest and refuel on the tidal flats. The rich tidal mudflats of the wetland/ocean margin are a vitally important stop for shorebirds during spring and fall migrations. Although migrating shorebirds have “known” about the Delta for eons, it is only recently that humans have begun to grasp its significance.

For all who love wildness, the name of the Copper River Delta strikes a resonant chord.  Although remote in human perception, the Delta is a cosmopolitan highway for migrating birds from throughout the Western Hemisphere. Its location on the Pacific Coast of south central Alaska makes it a staging area for shorebirds and waterfowl traveling from wintering grounds as far south as Peru, South America.

Click here for a list of the birds

David Sibley – 2017 keynote speaker

He knows every North American bird: by its shade, by its tilt, by its habitat, by its male, female, and juvenile plumages. It’s only natural; he’s the son of a Yale ornithologist and has been birding since his childhood in Connecticut. Sibley was only seven when he began drawing birds, filing his illustrations away along with clips about the natural history of each species.

It’s a habit he never shook. As an adult, Sibley merged that encyclopedic knowledge with his skills as a self-taught artist to become one of America’s best-known field guide authors. His first bird guide was released in 2000. With The Sibley Field Guide to Birds, a New York Times bestseller, Sibley was immediately hailed as heir to the great birder and artist Roger Tory Peterson, placing him in a long line of artist-naturalist hybrids that leads straight back to John James Audubon himself. Don’t miss David’s keynote address:

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The Psychology of Bird Identification

Bird identification is the central challenge of birding, and we all strive to improve our skills and to identify more birds, more quickly and more accurately. Countless references and tools suggest that the birder who wants to avoid misidentifications should learn more about the fine points of plumage, molt, and subspecies, but the fact is that most mistakes involve glitches in perception. No amount of knowledge and preparation can prevent us from blurting out “Snowy Owl!” when the time is right and we see a white plastic bag on the salt-marsh. Our brains, and the very short-cuts that we use with phenomenal success to identify birds, are also the source of most misidentifications. This workshop will focus on the psychological aspects of bird identification – how we subconsciously use pattern-recognition, expectations, suggestion, and other clues – and how those methods can lead us to misidentify birds with complete confidence.

Other Speakers

Joan Walsh, Director of Bird Monitoring, Massachusetts Audubon

Joan has been watching and learning from birds for 35 years. During her career she has focused on research that has direct implications for bird conservation. This interest led to enlisting hundreds of citizen scientists for the creation of the highly regarded Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 2 and two State of the Birds of Massachusetts reports. She was a Farallon Island biologist where she studied Elephant Seals, Tufted Puffins, Brandt’s Cormorants, Western Gulls, and even did a little Great White Shark work. She went to graduate school in Georgia, where she studied Wood Storks, and was the former Director of Research at Cape May Bird Observatory in NJ. Her formative years as an ornithologist were spent on Great Gull Island, NY, home to the largest colonies of Common and Roseate Terns in the North Atlantic.

Lisa Kennedy, PhD Candidate ENLS Program, Trent University – Peterborough, Ontario

Lisa is a CGS-Doctoral NSERC Awardee currently in the third year of her doctorate. For the past three summers she has led a team of researchers for Environment Canada on the tundra at one of the longest running breeding shorebird monitoring camps in the Arctic. Her work is driven by her devotion to shorebird conservation and maintaining Arctic tundra biodiversity.

Kate Mclaughlin, President, alaska hummingbird project

A resident of Prince William Sound since 1998, Kate McLaughlin is an independent environmental consultant and is the President & Executive Director of Prince William Soundkeeper, a non-profit water quality citizen advocacy organization.  From April – August, Kate runs the Alaska Hummingbird Banding Project, Inc., the northernmost hummingbird banding station in the world.

http://coppershorebird.com/

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