Sandhill Crane Festival begins Friday, March 27, in Othello

The 18th Annual Sandhill Crane Festival kicks off Friday, March 27, and goes through Sunday March 29, in Othello.

Founded in 1998, the festival is designed to highlight the spring return of Sandhill Cranes to the greater Othello area and Columbia National Wildlife Refuge.

The non-profit three-day festival includes lectures, tours, featured speakers, a silent auction and activities for children.

Beginning Friday, Potholes Reservoir Boat Tour is the first event of the festival beginning at 11 a.m. Lower Crab Creek Birding, Columbia National Wildlife Refuge Tour and two separate crane viewing tours complete the field trips scheduled for the first day of the festival.

The local Eagles Lodge will be holding spaghetti feed at 5 p.m. and Stevens Funeral Home will host a lecture from featured speaker Roy W. Lowe speaking on Seabird Conservation on the Oregon Coast.

Saturday begins will Othello Rotary Breakfast available 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The Senior Center will also be hosting lunch beginning 11:30 a.m.

With general admission, attendees will have numerous displays, opportunity to view wildlife and Columbia Basin-related exhibits, and kid-friendly activities for preschoolers on up available all day. Tours begin at 7:30 a.m. and include Puget Sound Energy Tour and numerous crane-viewing tours. Availability and times can be found on the festivals website http://www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org.

Members of Fish and Wildlife, master gardeners, and college professors, to name a few, will be holding lectures on a number of topics throughout Saturday.

Topics range from Greater Sage-Grouse, Heritage Gardening, Ice Age Floods and the Channeled Scablands, and When’s the Last Time You Went “Arachniding”? These and more fill Saturday with a full day of learning and fun activities.

To support the future festivals, attendees are encouraged to join and bid at the banquet and silent auction beginning Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. Scott F. Burns, the featured speaker, will entertain bidders with his popular talk “Cataclysms on the Columbia: The Great Missoula Floods”.

The event will be catered by Marie Borth with a menu including slow roasted Angus beef roast, glazed chicken breast with toasted almonds, a vegetarian main dish, side dishes and a shortcake bar.

The final day of the festival begins early Sunday morning with a number of informative tours. The day and annual festival is brought to an end mid-afternoon with an Ice Age Floods/Drumheller Hike led by geologist Bruce Bjornstad.

Information on updates, tour times, pricing, general admission, festival activities, vendors and exhibitors can be found at the festivals website http://www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org or by calling 1-866-726-3445.

All events are a first-come, first-served basis.