FOUL WEATHER, FINE CELEBRATION
Exhibitors promote recreation, observation devices, craft organizations
For the first time since this annual winter celebration started in 2000, winter weather affected the Snow Goose Festival.
That really didn't crimp the final day of the event Sunday, with tours of private ranches and farms, as well as federal and state properties, proceeding as scheduled with registered attendees.
Festival director Jennifer Patten said, “It's our 23rd year and we've never had weather like this.” She was referring to the storm that dropped slightly less than an inch of rain Sunday morning, clearly resulting in a reduced crowd at Patrick Ranch, three miles south of Chico.
With a wry smile, she said the Sunday decrease was due to “the weather — and a game,” in reference to the San Francisco 49ersPhiladelphia Eagles NFC championship football clash taking place at that moment.
Saturday's attendance was just the opposite — quite busy, Patten said. Plus, there were 804 people registered to attend the field trips all weekend and most of them were undeterred.
Having fewer people gave the exhibitors at the festival's closing day a chance to have longer and quieter conversations with attendees circulating through the event center. One of them was Anna Espinosa, stewardship director of the Northern California Regional Land Trust. She was promoting not only her organization, but the Deer Creek Trail, a hiking trail about 35 miles east of Chico off Highway 32.
Espinosa said the organization represents landowners in Butte, Glenn and Tehama counties who seek to create conservation easements to protect their properties from development. By using these easements, Espinosa said, people can “keep the properties in their families” while generating income as a farm or other agricultural property ordinarily would.
The biggest restriction, Espinosa said, is the permanent prohibition on developing a piece of property. The easement will stay with a property into perpetuity.
Deer Creek Preserve, where the trail is located, belongs to the trust and is open year-round — though warmer months are usually more hospitable to those looking forward to the easy hike the trail offers.
“It's our little gem,” Espinosa said of the 2½-mile total length of trail.
Nearby was the booth of Out of This World Optics, a small business from the town of Mendocino that offers viewing devices — binoculars, mostly, but
also monoculars — “for any kind of nature viewing,” according to co-owner Marilyn Rose. The devices are especially important for bird watching, exactly the kind of outdoor activity the Snow Goose Festival promotes.
There were perhaps two dozen different devices on the display table. How can a person choose from such a wide range?
“There is differentiation between magnifications,” Rose explained. “One is the diameter of the device, which influences the brightness of the image. Another is the quality of glass, as well as different types of coating.
“And ergonomics vary. That is a very personal matter. People who buy these usually need to handle (the devices) for themselves to know.”
This is the first year since 2020 Rose's and Blackstock's business has been to the Snow Goose Festival due to COVID restrictions. “We've had good sales — as good as in 2020,” Rose said.
Jim Burcio and Ken Nelson manned the Pacific Flyway Decoy Association promotional booth, advocating for what Burcio called “an art form” that is distinctly North American.
“Decoy carving appears in no other culture,” said Burcio, a resident of Antioch. “It started to die when plastic decoys came out.” He said his organization came into existence in 1971 as a response to several artisans who wanted to keep the tradition going. In fact, the association will host its 50th annual Wildlife Art Festival July 15-16 in Sacramento, attracting many of the group's 300 members as well as those interested in the craft.
Burcio, who has been carving for 49 years, and Nelson, a Discovery Bay resident who's been doing it for 10, hosted a seminar for carvers Friday. Eight people attended and took what started as a “raw” decoy — in the shape of a bird, but with no finishing — into a fine, polished product just four hours later.
“We enjoy going to bird festivals, to carve and talk to people,” Burcio explained.
Meanwhile, back at the Snow Goose Festival's registration table, Patten showed off a stack of papers printed with lists of birds people might see on the outings during the four days of the event. Once a bird watcher spots a particular type, he or she marks it off. The tour leaders, who are expert birders, compile the results for a list of all birds people have spotted.
In past years, there have been 150 or 160 types of birds attendees have checked off.
Patten said the festival celebrates winter waterfowl, especially the snow goose, but also raptors — such as hawks, eagles, owls and falcons. “Anything with claws,” she explained. Those birds are abundant in the area because they prey upon waterfowl such as ducks and geese — which are clearly in abundance themselves.
The festival chose Patrick Ranch for this year's venue, Patten said, because it's a “nature-oriented venue. It ties in with all kinds of nature.” In fact, a pair of great horned owls have been spending time in the ranch's tall redwood trees, “hooting all four days of the festival,” Patten said.