OTHELLO - The annual Othello Sandhill Crane Festival saw a large turnout this year after a virtual festival in 2021 and a canceled event in 2020.

“The main point (of the festival) is education, of not only the birds but the habitat,” said festival committee co-coordinator Mike Stevenson.

The three-day festival brought in around 500 visitors said Stevenson. He added that they have had up to 1,500 attendees at the festival before. Stevenson said that the committee didn’t know what to expect this year in terms of turnout but they were pleasantly surprised with how many people attended.

Throughout the weekend, tours took attendees throughout the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge surrounding Othello as well as throughout the Columbia Basin’s unique and breathtaking flora, fauna and geology.

Other portions of the festival include speakers, kids crafts and an art contest. This year those parts were held at McFarland Middle School and the Othello Community Museum.

This year marked the 24th year of the festival, but only the 22nd held in person. The festival, founded in 1998, celebrates the annual return of nearly 35,000 sandhill cranes to Othello, Washington every March as they migrate north to their breeding grounds in Alaska, according to the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival website.

The website also notes that all three subspecies of sandhill cranes in Washington—greater, lesser and Canadian—are listed as endangered at the state level by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Randy Hill, a biologist with the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge and Potholes Reservoir, was at Marsh Unit 1 with several spotting scopes for attendees to see Sandhill Cranes and other wildlife. Hill said that attendees who visited the marsh could see ducks, greater white fronted geese and a great blue heron.

“The Sandhill Cranes that roost here during the day, and maybe night as well, they come here because they have an area that’s mostly surrounded by water. It's open; they can see (any predators approaching),” said Hill.

Hill explained a lot of the draw for the Sandhill Cranes comes from people who lived on the west side of Washington.

“We at the office, the refuge office, we would get calls in March from people on the west side of the cascades and they’d say, ‘Have the Sandhill Cranes arrived yet,’” said Hill. “There was quite an interest among birdwatchers wanting to see the cranes migrating through. So, we got things rolling a little bit and established the first sandhill crane festival in 1998.”

Hill said the festival started out as a series of hourly bus tours to go see cranes in the refuge area. However, that eventually needed to change because organizers realized they were bothering the cranes while they were trying to roost during the day.

The Sandhill Cranes are only in the Othello area for about a month or two while they are on their journey north to Alaska. Hill explained that the first arrivals happen in the first couple weeks of February and build up to a peak of several thousand in late March. By April to May, they have started to move along in their migration route.

Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.