OTHELLO — The Othello Sandhill Crane Festival is about much more than just the majestic birds it’s named for.  

Since the first festival 27 years ago, the Sandhill Crane Festival has ballooned to include tours and lectures to appeal to a wide range of enthusiasts. This year’s lineup includes lectures by experts in photography, geology, botany and more.  

“We're in two different side-by-side locations,” said Jenn Stevenson, co-coordinator of the festival. “Because we've grown out of everything else that would be big enough in Othello. COVID gave us a bit of a hiccup, but we're back on and bigger and bigger every year.” 

Of course, the sandhill cranes are still front and center. More than 35,000 cranes migrate north from the Central Valley of California beginning about a month ago, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. They’ll stop over in the rich wetlands near Othello for a few weeks to refuel, as it were, before continuing their flight to Alaska. 

“Their largest concentration of migration is during the time of the festival,” Stevenson said. “Then they kind of stop the end of April-ish. It's harder to find them at the beginning and the end of the migration, because the bulk of them come right there in the middle.” 

Besides the bus tours scheduled at regular intervals throughout the weekend, there are boat tours leaving from MarDon Resort on Potholes Reservoir, a guided wetlands walk and a bike tour. 

Most of the festival takes place at McFarland Middle School and the Othello Nazarene Church, which are right next door to each other. There are also events at the Othello Community Museum, the Old Hotel Art Gallery and the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge. General admission is $10 and includes the lectures and activities at the school and the church. Tickets can be purchased online at https://bit.ly/CraneFest2025Tix. 

There’s a separate charge for some of the tours and classes. Registration for the tours ends Friday, Stevenson said. Many of the tours are sold out, but there will be a list posted at the registration desk with open spots, Stevenson said. 

Featured lecturers include Bruce Bjornstad, who will talk about the Ice Age floods that carved out the landscape of the Columbia Basin; Mike Neff, who will discuss the grasses that the birds rely on for food and nesting; Diana McPherson, who will give tips and instruction for photographing nature; Rebecca Heisman, who will share wild stories from the history of bird migration research; and Sarah Overby, who will talk about the colorful lichens of the Basin. 

Dinah Rouleau and Kaley Wisher of the Columbia Basin Conservation District will give a lecture on flora and fauna of the Columbia Basin Saturday morning, then lead a hike into the wetlands in the afternoon so attendees can see what they’ve been hearing about. 

“We're going to be talking (about) the bugs,” Rouleau said. “I think it's really important for us to talk about the host species that some of these plants are for a lot of our butterflies and our moths and important pollinators …  And then we'll move up to our mammals as well, and the birds and the importance of the native flora.” 

The hike isn’t very long and it’s on flat, relatively smooth ground, Rouleau added, so participants won’t find the walking very grueling. 

The Old Hotel, meanwhile, has all kinds of things going on. There’s an art contest, a wine tasting and maps available to show the best places to look for cranes, said Samantha Copas, the gallery’s director. 

“People that are involved with the festival and other bird watchers, they'll call in and report where they're seeing them,” Copas said. “There's quite a few people who call and report back, and then I just keep a log of all those places … I'll walk each visitor through the map and kind of tell them where to go.” 

The festival is Othello’s biggest event of the year, Stevenson said, drawing 1,500-2,000 people to the town. 

“It takes a village to put it on,” she said. “We have so many volunteers from students on up to adults and seniors; it really takes the whole community of Othello to put it on.” 

    Sandhill Cranes fly near Othello. The annual Sandhill Crane Festival is one of Othello’s biggest tourist attractions.
  

    A young participant paints a bird mask at a previous Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello.