BirdFest & Bluegrass ready to sing forth and fly

While he’s not a bird, Tony Starlight is plenty used to being listened to and stared at in his natural habitat: up on stage, wisecracking, gyrating and crooning tunes. Being an old-school lounge singer is all about creating spectacle, he said.

How delicious, then, to quiet down and look up at other singers and spectacles on an overhead stage, Starlight said.

“My musical life and everything I do is so fast-paced and exciting and public,” the Portland entertainer said. “Birding is solitary and small and quiet and tranquil. It’s a lovely respite from my job. I love my job, but I also love being in that quiet zone where I’m the observer, not the observed.”

Starlight will headline a Friday night birthday party and fundraiser at ilani for the Friends of the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. It leads into Saturday’s 20th annual BirdFest & Bluegrass celebration.

Starlight became an amateur ornithologist after relocating to rural Scappoose, Ore., he said. That’s where he started taking his dog on what turned out to be super-slow, patience-testing walks in the country.

“I started trying to identify the birds in my neighborhood. I had no idea there were going to be so many,” he said.

Starlight said he became fascinated with birds — their colorful beauty, their easily misunderstood behaviors.

“We’ve all become so Disneyfied, when we see them chasing around we think, ‘Oh look, they’re playing.’ They’re not,” he said. “They’re battling for mates or territory. They may be predator and prey. There’s this natural drama playing out in their world.”

If you’re also interested in airborne beauty and drama, save Saturday for Ridgefield’s annual BirdFest & Bluegrass celebration. It features guided hikes, outings and tours (mostly on foot, but one by giant 29-foot canoe) that focus on local geology and ethnobotany as well as birds; family arts and crafts activities; bird-photography and watercolor-painting instruction; expert live-bird and bird-language presentations; and a birder’s marketplace.

Most events are open to all and set in and around downtown Ridgefield. A few special events require preregistration and may convene up at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge’s northern Carty Unit or down at the southern “River-S” Unit. Check the schedule at https://ridgefieldfriends.org for all the details.

The sponsoring friends group always highlights a Bird of the Year. This year’s lucky winner is the sandhill crane, a majestic local visitor famous for huge flocks, light gray coloring with rusty streaks, a red eye patch, a trumpeting cry and a strangely elegant mating dance.

Sandhill crane tours are set for 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Space is limited for what’s touted as “the most unique viewing experience at BirdFest,” so you’re encouraged to sign up early. The price is $30.

Crooning and jamming

The night before BirdFest takes flight, at ilani, birder Starlight will sing a few songs and offer his own comedic Powerpoint presentation of bird anecdotes and original photographs.

“I have conversations with birds, or I try to,” he said. “They’re not all that talkative with me. I don’t think they like me.”

Starlight will also lead a karaoke-style singalong on classic tunes such as “Mommas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Birders,” “I Wish They All Could be California Gulls” and even Paul McCartney’s educational song about avian identification: “Bands on the Bird.”

Live and silent auctions are in store, too. The $75 entry price gets you a pair of tickets, with “heavy hors d’oeuvres” and two drinks apiece.

Both professional and homemade music will be flying all over town the next day.

Multi-instrumentalist Gerardo Calderon will offer a Spanish-language journey through indigenous Latin American and pre-Colombian music from noon to 2 p.m. at Overlook Park. Meanwhile, three bluegrass bands will take the stage at the Old Liberty Theater between noon and 3 p.m.: Sunny South, Whiskey Puppy and Sleepy Eyed Johns. Tickets for that are $10.

But if you’re more interested in jamming than listening to others jam, don’t be shy. The whole downtown landscape will become a bluegrass pickers’ festival on Saturday, with musicians welcome to set up and strum in “businesses, outdoor venues and parks,” according to the schedule. So be like a bird: find a good perch and some friends, and sing forth.

El Rancho Viejo, a Mexican restaurant in downtown Ridgefield, will serve as a hub for Latin folk bands throughout the day, event coordinator Alix Danielsen said.

Capping it all off will be a 4 p.m. Chinookan-style salmon bake at the Cathlapotle Plankhouse in the Carty Unit. No need to register for this, but it’s first come, first served until the salmon runs out.

The event, which used to last all weekend, has now been concentrated into a single day (except for Friday crane tours and the Tony Starlight show).

“We think we can better engage with our visitors and maximize our impact by focusing the event,” Danielsen said. “This is a big change … but we’re excited to pile our efforts into one spectacular day.”

New thinking

Columbian coverage from the 1960s shows that establishing the 5,300-acre Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge was controversial in the community, with local businesses assuming it would hurt the local economy. Instead of setting land aside for wildlife, some looked forward to the extension of truck route Pioneer Avenue (state highway 501) west over Lake River and across what’s now refuge land to connect with Lower River Road.

“Some thought that was a good idea. It would have been horrible,” said Jim Maul, longtime board member and three-term president of the Friends group.

Ridgefield was so rural then, he said, few gave any thought to protection for local wildlife — except for the underfunded U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the new Friends group, which was aware of economic transformation ahead. When local company Pacific Wood Treating went bankrupt and shed 200 jobs in the early 1990s, Maul said, it woke up all of Ridgefield to the possibility that the growing refuge, long just an area “backdrop,” could become an economic engine for the town.

“That was a new way of thinking,” Maul said. Over the years the town-refuge relationship has proved sweetly reciprocal. The refuge’s No. 1 mission is wildlife protection and conservation, but education and “providing outdoor experiences” are a close second, Maul said.

That’s where the friends group has been able to lead the way by hosting visitors, building the Chathlapotle Plank House and the Overlook Park welcome center, hiring a small paid staff to collaborate with Fish and Wildlife — and launching fun events such as BirdFest in 2000. Bluegrass music was added later, went away again and is now back to stay, organizers say.

“We’re calling attention to how important refuges are to society,” Maul said. “It’s been a great partnership with this community.”