The Bridger Raptor Festival is an annual event held in early October in and around Bozeman, Montana. The festival, which is free to the public, centers around the the largest known Golden Eagle migration in the United States. Since 1991 a raptor migration count has taken place every fall at the Bridger Bowl ski area in the Gallatin National Forest just north of Bozeman. Festival activities center around raptor viewing and include nature walks and talks, educational and entertaining programs and activities for people of all ages.

The event is sponsored by Imerys Talc and Bridger Bowl. It is hosted by the Museum of the Rockies, the Bridger Bowl Foundation, Gallatin National Forest, and the Montana Raptor Conservation Center, and the Sacajawea and Montana chapters of the Audubon Society.

Keynote Speaker - Peter Sherrington will speak on "Twenty Years of Golden Eagle Migration Counts in the Alberta Rockies"
October 3rd, 2014 - 7:00 pm Museum of the Rockies

On March 20, 1992, a single Golden Eagle was seen soaring over Mount Lorette in Alberta's Front Range. Since then the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation has spent two decades at key viewing sites systematically recording spectacular numbers of eagles migrating north to their Alaskan and Yukon breeding sites, and also in the fall, as they migrate south to their winter ranges in the western U.S. and Mexico.

Peter Sherrington, trained as a geologist/paleontologist, gave up his career in the oil industry in 1992 to study Golden Eagle migration in the Alberta Rocky Mountains. Peter is the Founder and Research Director of the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation, and currently resides in Beaver Mines, Alberta. He will describe how this single Golden Eagle sighting mushroomed into an impressive long-term research project that has contributed substantially to our understanding of the seasonal movements and population status of Golden Eagle populations inhabiting a vast portion of western North America. We look forward to Peter sharing his story and scenic photos as he chronicles this pioneering citizen-science research effort.

Oktoberfest @ Raptor Fest
Beer, food and music in the Jim Bridger Lodge from 3 to 6 pm on Saturday, October 4.