"Gathering of Wings" Banquet & Silent Auction
Saturday, January 24, 2026
5:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Bell Memorial Union
CSU, Chico
Corner of 2nd Street and Chestnut Street, Chico, CA
Cost per person: $75 Adult, $40 Youth (17 years and younger) and students with ID
Beer & Wine (no host)
Don’t miss the biggest event of the Snow Goose Festival, our “Gathering of Wings” Banquet. This treasured evening is a mix of great food, great company, and great entertainment and is anticipated by many as the one chance each year they have the opportunity to visit and catch up with fellow birders and friends in the community. Join field trip leaders, workshop presenters, and all our hard-working committee members and volunteers in celebrating this special evening.
Silent Auction begins at 5:30 pm
The Silent Auction tables will accompany us while we dine at the BMU and will include a variety of exquisite items including works of art, wine, and services. Your financial participation directly affects our ability to ensure that the Snow Goose Festival remains the North State's premier birding event, so enjoy the evening bidding for an event or item that you love. You won't be disappointed!
Keynote Speaker:Environmental Educator, Naturalist, and Author Kate Marianchild
Kate Marianchild is the author of the bestselling book Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals Among California’s Oaks (Heyday, 2014). In 2001, after moving to a yurt outside of Ukiah, Kate fell in love with the plants and animals of California’s oak woodlands. As she began observing and researching them, she learned things that boggled her mind.
By 2009, she couldn’t resist sharing her excitement with the world and decided to write a book. After five years of intensive learning and writing it was published; eleven years later it’s still going strong. Since publication, Kate has been giving talks, leading walks, teaching multi-day classes at Emandal and Sierra Nevada Field Campus (S.F. State), and advocating for native ecosystems.
For 24 years she lived happily in her yurt with no indoor plumbing except a kitchen sink. She recently moved to a community outside of Willits (home of Seabiscuit), where she is gradually exploring 4,700 hundred acres of oak and redwood ecosystems and remembering how to flush toilets. In her spare time, she swims, sings, laughs and cries with friends, and watches wildlife.
Keynote Address: From Butterflies & Birds to Bobcats & Bears: Oaks as Nature’s Most Generous Trees
California’s iconic oaks are widely known for cooling our landscapes, anchoring our soils, and sequestering enormous amounts of carbon. But few people know that oaks support more life forms than any other plant in the northern hemisphere and that they are essential to the survival of many terrestrial birds.
In this richly illustrated and engaging presentation, Kate Marianchild will discuss the fascinating behaviors, anatomical marvels, social structures, and interrelationships of some of the myriad animals who depend on oaks and will explain why and how oaks became so popular.
At the end of her talk, Kate will tell a true story: “The Great Blue Heron and the Chorus Frogs.” You won’t want to miss the astonishing ending!