14th Annual Montana Audubon
Wings Across the Big Sky Festival
June 7- 9 2013
Lewistown, MONTANA
Hummingbird Keynote
Susan Bonfield, Director of Environment for the Americas and Coordinator of the Western Hummingbird Partnership.
We're excited about this year's festival and hope you will join us June 7—9th in Lewistown, MT for dynamic birding field trips, interesting presentations and speakers, and fun festivities as we celebrate efforts to conserve our birds and wildlife in the heart of Montana.
One of only ten cities nationwide selected to receive an Urban Conservation Treaty for Migratory Birds grant, the Lewistown community and surrounding areas are gearing up to welcome birders to the region.
Presenters will include Dennis Jorgensen of World Wildlife Fund on Long-billed Curlews, Stephanie McGinnis from Montana Watercourse on riparian restoration best practices, Amy Cilimburg, Montana Audubon's Bird Conservation Director, on current sage and grassland conservation and citizen science efforts, Beverly Skinner of CMR on the Lewistown Urban Bird Grant, and Bill Berg, former CMR Manager, on the natural history of the region including the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
Experience Central Montana and all this landscape has to offer either through festival field trips or your own exploration!
Lewistown Trail System
Snowies, Moccasins, Belts, Judiths, and Highwoods
Big Spring Creek and Fish Hatchery
Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge
An official Cornell Lab of Ornithology eBird Trail Tracker, the first and only in the state, will be available in the lobby of the festival hotel, the Yogo Inn, to record your sightings!
Find a downloadable registration brochure here.
Please feel free to call the Montana Audubon office at 406.443.3949 with any questions.
2012 Festival in kalispell
Thanks to Flathead Audubon for co-hosting!
> Memorable photos from the festival here. Slideshow option here.
> Master Bird Species List - all the birds seen on field trips! As pdf. As excel spreadsheet.
> We presented four Annual Awards in 2012:
- Bob Lopp ~ Lifetime Achievement Award
- Linda Winnie ~ Conservationist of the Year
- Ashley Mason ~ Educator of the Year
- John Parker ~ Citizen Scinetist of the Year
2011 Festival in Glasgow
What a blast - over 200 people form all over the state (and beyond) joined us in Glasgow. Highlights included: highly educational pre-festival workshops about grassland and sagebrush conservation, a great variety of field trip, and Inspiring Keynote address by Gary Ferguson.
At our 2011 festival we presented four Annual Awards:
- Ron Farmer ~ Lifetime Achievement Award
- Steve Hoffman~ Conservationist of the Year
- Carla Wambach ~ Educator of the Year
- Catherine Wightman ~ Special Achievement Award
Photos and accolades for each award winner are here.
Photos from a handful of the field trips can be viewed HERE
Chek out a bird list for the entire festival: view in excel or pdf. Thanks Woody!
2010 festival in Missoula
Montana Audubon and the Five Valleys and Bitterroot Audubon Chapters, together with birders from across the state, came together for our 2010 annual festival.
Thank you for coming and thanks to all our volunteers! Thanks also to our major sponsors: Bureau of Land Management; Friends of Lee Metcalf; GlaxoSmithKline; Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; Montana Natural History Center; & U.S. Forest Service
AWARDS: At our 2010 festival we presented four awards:
- Jim Brown ~ Lifetime Achievement Award
- Dr. Steve Running~ Conservationist of the Year
- Sue Reel & Dick Hutto ~ Educators of the Year
- The Bitterroot Audubon IBA Committee ~ Special Achievement Award
2009 festival in great falls
Montana Audubon and the Upper Missouri Breaks Audubon Chapter, together with birdersfrom across the state, came together for our 2009 annual festival in Great Falls. AWARDS: At our annual 2009 festival we presented four awards:
- George Engler ~ Lifetime Achievement Award
- McKenzie Graye ~ Conservationist of the Year
- Lisa Flowers ~ Educator of the Year
- Richard Mousel ~ Special Achievement Award
FIELD TRIPS were varied and plentiful, and though the rain may have dampened our opportunities to see birds, it didn't dampen our spirits. And all together we identified over 180 species! The simple field trip bird list is available HERE. You may be interested in the details: which birds we saw on which field trip. If so you can download the spreadsheet version or the in-depth pdf version.