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Bring the family for a day of raptor fun at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, as we host our 14th Annual Eagle Festival on Saturday, March 15.

The Eagle Festival is our most popular event of the year and will run from 9am to 4pm on Saturday. All events are free, and food and drinks will be available. The event will be held rain or shine.

Activities include live birds of prey, Wildlife Drive tours, Eagle Prowls, bald eagle and golden eagle presentations, as well as fun events for the kids such as wildlife crafts, a youth archery range, and an owl pellet exploration.

Special guest speakers include Chesapeake Bay writer Tom Horton, Chesapeake Bay photographer David Harp, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raptor specialist Craig Koppie, who will join Teena Ruark Gorrow to talk about their new book Inside a Bald Eagle's Nest.

Visitors will also get to see a live video feed of our two new eaglets from the Blackwater NWR Eagle Cam. And if you haven't visited our renovated Visitor Center since it reopened, now is a great time to see it.

For more information, visit our Eagle Festival web page or call 410-228-2677.

Note: There will also be a separate event on March 15 for photographers. Jim Clark, who is a contributing editor for Outdoor Photographer magazine, will be hosting a Nature Photography Seminar. Visit our Eagle Festival web page to learn about registering for this event.

We have two new eaglets on our Blackwater NWR Eagle Cam. We did have one unhatched egg this year, but the two eaglets that hatched look strong and healthy.

If you visit our Eagle Cam page, you can find links to our Eagle Cam Gallery, as well as our Eagle Cam Web Log, which we use to post news and videos about the chicks.

If you plan to attend the Eagle Festival, you will find monitors on both floors of our Visitor Center where we display live video feeds from both the Eagle Cam and Osprey Cam, so the Festival would be a great time to come and see our eaglets in action.