Goodbye goose. Hello, birdie.

Annual bird festival shifts focus, month

Top: The crested caracara is a rare species of raptor that draws bird-watchers to Del Norte County during spring. (Photo courtesy of Alan D. Barron) Bottom: Left to right:an albatross, spotted owl and marbled murelett are some of the birds that the California Redwoods Bird and Nature Festival will focusing on next May. (Left and right photos courtesy of Ron LeValley and Roy Irving (center photo)

After a year-long hiatus the Aleutian Goose Festival is back for 2010, though it will now have a different name, be held later in the year and no longer feature the bird that started the event more than 10 years ago.

When organizers decided to cancel the festival last year due to poor economic conditions, it gave them time to evaluate how they would proceed in the future and take into consideration several factors, including the resurgence of the Aleutian cackling goose population, Del Norte County’s rainy March weather, and the abundance of other natural attractions in the area.

The result was the California Redwoods Bird and Nature Festival, which will be held from May 7-9.

“It wasn’t the easiest decision to make to put aside something we did for 10 years,” said Rick Hiser, who has come to be known as “the goose man” over the years because of his involvement with the festival. “It’s not easy for people to let go, but there comes a time when a particular activity needs to evolve to what’s happening.”

In the 1970s, the Aleutian goose population was estimated to be as low 750 individuals. This resulted in the geese being placed on a federal list of endangered species. Since then the population has exploded to more than 100,000 geese, causing the species to be delisted in 2001.

When the Aleutian Goose Festival began, Del Norte County, and in particular Castle Island off of Point St. George, was one of the best places to see the birds during their annual spring migration. The area had become the main stop-over for the geese, and the pre-dawn “goose fly-off” that was part of the original event was an attraction for locals and tourists alike.

“People were referring to them as our birds,” Hiser said. “The community had adopted them.”

But as the population of geese expanded, so too did their range, meaning the clouds of cackling birds that typically were seen flying from Castle Island seemed to shrink.

According to Humboldt State University Office for Economic and Community Development, the geese now rely on the Humboldt Bay area more than Del Norte County, with approximately 80 percent of the population spending their time around Arcata, Loleta and Ferndale.

For Aleutian Goose Festival organizers, the success of the recovery meant the birds weren’t as much of an attraction as they once were when they were endangered.

“The population did what it should have done, which was to expand its territory,” said Susan Calla, another long-time Aleutian Goose Festival organizer. “I feel sad for the community ... but I think this will be even better.”

By holding the new event in May, it gives participants more options for nature viewing. When the festival was in March, boat trips were cancelled many times because of large winter swells, and heavy rains drowned out attendance of some of the nature walks. Also, many parts of the highlands were still inaccessible because of snowpack blocking roadways.

In May, however, the weather tends to be more pleasant, rhododendrons and other wildflowers are in full bloom and both the Klamath and Smith Rivers will still have enough flow for drift boat trips without interfering with the fishing season.

Another plus, according to event planners, is that the California Redwood Bird and Nature Festival will coincide with International Migratory Bird Day, which is celebrated throughout the Americas.

“I think it’ll expand our audience. That’s what we’re hoping,” Calla said. “We’re offering more attractions and programs and events that will attract a wider base.”

With the new dates, organizers look to expand the number of programs by about 20 percent, from about 80 to 100. One of the new programs that Calla said she’s the most excited about is one with the Yurok Tribe that will focus on its effort to reintroduce condors to the area. There will also be pelagic ocean trips to take people about 20 miles offshore to view birds, like the albatross, that don’t tend to come close enough to land to view.

For those who consider themselves birders, the May event should provide a its own special sights.

Local ornithologist Alan Barron, who has been documenting the birds of Del Norte County for the past 25 years, claims to have seen 160 different avian species in a single May day, and he said a lot of neo-tropical migrants will be coloring the landscape around that time.

“Nice walks and looking at songbirds will be much more successful than earlier in the winter Goose Festival,” Barron said. “The songbirds will be noisy; the spring-colored songbirds will be much more the attraction.”

With the Aleutian cackling geese no longer the main allure of the upcoming festival, he believes there’s another bird that has taken refuge in the area that will supplant it.

“Probably our star bird right now is a crested caracara, which has been here for a while. Many people have been coming to see that from throughout the state and outside of the state,” Barron said. “It’s a rare bird from further south that has come out here that’s just spectacular to see.”

The crested caracara, is a large black and white raptor from the falcon family. It’s primary range is the southwestern U.S., Florida and Central and South America.

“It’s been a fun bird for lots of people,” Barron said.

Many of the same events from the Aleutian Goose Festival will continue in the California Redwoods Bird and Nature Festival, including the Wine and Food Tasting Gala, Wings and Whales Vendors Fair, Kid’s and Goslings Corner and Wild Birds of Prey on Display programs. And National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Michael Fay, whose redwoods transect was featured in a recent issue of the society’s magazine, will be a keynote speaker for the festival.

There will also continue to be many of the same nature excursions and local American Indian heritage workshops that participants have come to expect in the past.

Even though the Aleutian geese will no longer be the focus of the new event, Hiser said the birds will still come to visit and be a spectacle for anyone willing to wake up and watch.

“The birds will continue to come,” Hiser said. “We just won’t have the festival when they’re here.”

But in a way, he said, moving beyond the Aleutian cackling goose will be a boon for Del Norte County because it will allow people to see what else the area has to offer as far as natural and cultural amenities.

“It’ll be our community where we live, the ocean, the rivers and the redwoods,” Hiser said. “Our community will all be the feature instead of the goose.”

A schedule of programs for the California Redwoods Bird and Nature Festival will come out early next year along with the launching of the event’s new Web site www.calredbirdfest.org.