Gear up for the 2026 Ladd Marsh Bird Festival! This event will be followed by three days of bird-related events, outings, and fun!

Learn more about the Ladd Marsh Bird Festival here. Other festival events will be held at other locations.

Join us in the Cook Memorial Library’s Community Room on Thursday, May 14th, for a visit with Sarah Rose Nordgren to discuss her book, “Feathers: A Bird-Hat Wearer’s Journal.” EOU’s MFA Director, Nick Neely, will lead us in a book discussion at 4:30 pm, followed by a virtual conversation with the author at 5:30 pm. This event is a collaboration between the Friends of Ladd Marsh, Eastern Oregon University, and the Cook Memorial Library. Free and open to the public.

About the book: “Designed as a turn of the century women’s magazine that combines memoir, history, theory, poetry, and image, Feathers: A Bird-Hat Wearer’s Journal explores women’s complex relationship with birds through the history of feather fashion. Originating in the bird-hat controversy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which coincided with both the women’s suffrage and budding American conservation movements, this polyvocal book moves in multiple directions as it examines cases of women and birds from across cultures and time periods, from the Virgin Mary, to Leda, Swan Lake, and Alexander McQueen. As its connective thread, Feathers also follows one woman’s enculturation into the world of bird-women and its inherent violence. What might we learn about gender from the birds?” — From the Publisher