The Vashon Heritage Museum in partnership with Vashon Audubon is proud to open the special mini exhibit “Vashon Birds Throughout the Year” on First Friday December 2, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. running through March 2023.

“We are excited to bring back a new version of the very popular exhibit “Vashon Birds: Seen and Heard Up Close” that was open in the museum last March 2022. We had a lot of requests to bring that exhibit, or something similar, back to the museum, so we thought it would be an excellent exhibit for visitors to enjoy through our rainy winter months,” said Vashon Heritage Museum Executive Director Elsa Croonquist.

The exhibit will recreate the enclosure in the Museum in which visitors will see photographs and hear songs of Vashon birds—both resident birds and those that come and go with the seasons.  "Island photographers have given us a gift,” said producer Sarah Driggs. “We not only see beautiful images, we also learn about the bird life around us.”

To complement the stunning Audubon bird photography and audio experience, the curators chose to exhibit just a few of the colorful posters artist Sandra Noel created for Vashon Strawberry Festivals for more than twenty years. The birds featured on the posters can be observed in island forest, saltwater, and wetland habitats.

A 40-year resident of Vashon, Sandra Noel is a published poet, Vashon’s current Poet Laureate, an artist, designer, and biologist whose work includes interpretive signs for local, state and federal agencies, with a focus on environmental education. Throughout Vashon’s Island Center Forest, hikers can see detailed signs she created to describe the ecology of Island Center Forest.

While viewing the Birds Throughout the Year exhibit, make sure to visit Natural Wonder: An Island Shaped by Water, created in partnership with the Vashon Nature Center, that examines Vashon-Maury Island’s natural history and shows how all life is intrinsically connected to the waters in and around Vashon.