Friday evenings Keynote speaker was Vince Yannone, retired Fish, Wildlife and Parks education specialist. Vince had folks rolling in the isles with laughter with his stories of Montana birds and his experiences with captive disabled birds he has housed at his home south of Helena for decades. His imitations of the calls and behavior of hawks, owls, and ravens were sometimes difficult to distinguish from the real thing.
Saturday's early morning birding field trip activities were greeted with rainy skies and even some snow at higher elevations. But that didn't keep festival birders from joining their groups, donning rain gear, and heading out on their appointed trip - selected from the great diversity offered by festival organizers. Despite the weather conditions, most folks were pleased with the opportunity to bird new places and habitats of their choice.
Not withstanding all of the wonderful opportunities for entertainment and interaction at the festival, the hands down highlight of the event was the appearance of David Allen Sibley. His birding books and field guides are known to all with an interest in our feathered friends. Fortuitously, he had previously scheduled a birding trip to the Rocky Mountain Front for the same time frame as the festival, and his travel schedule allowed for his visit to the festival for a book signing session and luncheon address. Long lines of birders snaked through the lobby of the Holiday Inn well before his arrival. Many folks had arm loads of books David authored that they wanted him to sign, either for themselves or for presents to family and friends.
For his luncheon address, David showed a few slides of and talked about his interest in birds as a youth and more specifically about the beginnings and progression of his bird sketches and how they evolved through years of almost continual observation of and obsession with birds. The early examples of his sketches shown in slides were a really interesting aspect of his talk. For most attendees, David's presence was a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit with and listen to one of the pillars of the birding community, whose artistic talents will rank him among the best ever.
The Saturday evening banquet was followed by Great Falls photographer extraordinaire Allen Nelson who presented a slide show of his gorgeous bird images from around the world.
What a great event this Festival was. Next year's festival will be held in or near Missoula, so mark you calendars for June 4-6, 2010. I'll see you there!
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