The 2026 Osprey Festival is less than a week and a half away.

Kicking off with an opening ceremony, most of the activity remains centered on Town Hill. Earthquest will hold their raptor demonstrations, and the Garland Jenkins Award Ceremony takes place at noon. Vendors will be set up in their tents, and wildlife agencies will be showing off what they brought.

“The Earthquest demonstration was fascinating last year. They brought in an Andean condor,” said Joanie Millward, the Virginia Osprey Foundation’s executive director, during an interview with Kelly Vaughn, owner and operator of the Riverview Inn. “Everyone loved that bird, and we hope he brings it back this year along with other birds as well.” “We’re going to have many wonderful artisan vendors,” Millward added. “Some of them are local, and some travel to come here and sell their goods, and they are beautiful.”

The Potomac Riverkeeper Network and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science were also name-dropped by Millward as exhibitors to keep an eye out for.

Although tickets are not required for Town Hill, they are needed to attend the lectures in the Fisheries Building or to go on the nest tours and bird walks. On the day of the event, the ticket prices will increase.

The Fisheries Building will host speaker Remy Moncrieffe, who will cover troubles and concerns involving the local menhaden population. Will Poston will expand on the subject with his own presentation. The main event will be Rob Bierregaard’s keynote presentation, titled “Journeys: Ospreys, Technology, and an Author.” The final presentation by Ann-Marie Jacoby of the Daughters of the Potomac will close things out at the Fisheries Building.

For those who desire to get a much closer look at the town’s feathered friends, there are now live-streaming cameras posted in at least one of the local osprey nests. One nest already has a new occupant — a banded male that’s approximately four years old.