SAULT STE. MARIE — It can be difficult to spot snowy owls, but your chances are better than average in the Eastern Upper Peninsula.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources calls the region one of the best areas to view winter owls in the state. In fact, Rudyard was recognized last year as the snowy owl capital of the state.

More: Rudyard is now the snowy owl capital of Michigan

To celebrate the snowy owl, the Hessel School House will be hosting its first annual Snowy Owl Festival throughout the month of February.

The weekend of Feb. 2-4 serves as the kick-off to the monthlong fun with a variety of activities and events, including guided birdwatching tours, educational workshops, live owl presentations, art classes and more.

The area is known for its environmental legacy, and was once a favorite spot of noted conservationist Aldo Leopold. The Aldo Leopold Festival takes place during the summer, and the Hessel School House wanted to introduce a similar event to help educate people about animals that are active in the winter.

“There wasn’t really any winter birding activities that we could tap into, so we just created one of our own,” said program director Kristy Beyer. “Since Rudyard is actually the snowy owl capital of Michigan, and we see quite a few in the Pickford area, we just decided to put on a snowy owl festival.”

The festival was originally planned to be fairly small, but it received so much local support and interest from outside of the region that organizers had to expand it before it even began.

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Other activities throughout the weekend include a class on bird photography and a hands-on workshop to teach people about building owl nesting boxes.

While there is no cost to enter the event, there are tickets of varying prices for the individual activities, as well as a limited number of spaces for each event.

The birding tours on Feb. 2 and 3 are already sold out, but tickets to the “How, Where and When of Winter Birding” presentation and other events are still available at hesselschoolhouse.org.

According to Beyer, the festival organizers hope to turn this into an annual event that can grow and be celebrated every year. They have received so much support that some of the events, including the birding tours, have been expanded to include more people. There are waiting lists for some activities if too many people sign up for them.

“It’s been drawing people from all over the state of Michigan and Ohio and Indiana. It grew a lot bigger than we thought it was going to for our first year,” said Beyer.

Some local bars will even be offering “night owl” drink specials during the festival.

At the end of the weekend, some festival activities will continue throughout February at the school house.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Hessel School House kicks off first Snowy Owl Festival Feb. 2-4