The First Annual Yosemite Birding Festival was a success! This past weekend over one hundred dedicated birders roamed Yosemite in search of life list sightings and were guided by an ornithologist’s dream team of Keith Hansen, Ted Beedy, David Lukas, David DeSante, and many others. Keith Hansen obtained remarkable video footage of two great horned owls nesting in Yosemite Valley, while Ted Beedy led field trips to Foresta and Crane Flat, and spotted the Vaux's swift and pileated woodpecker. The colorful western tanager and northern oriole also made an appearance over the weekend, along with over eighty other species. The famed Steller’s jay remained elusive (just kidding!)
Mark your calendars for next year’s festival: June 19-21, 2005.