Bandon's Cranberry Festival started in 1946 to showcase the local cranberry industry. Bandon has long been known as the Cranberry Capital of Oregon and new bogs are being added every year.

While most of the local berries are made into juice concentrate or frozen, some are sold fresh or dried and can be found in our local stores, while still more are made into wine.

The Bandon Cranberry Festival parade is held on Saturday morning and grows larger every year, people come as far away as Humboldt County to participate.

After the parade, you will enjoy unique wares and great food from the many vendors, good music and tons of fun.

By Bill Lindelof for The Sacramento Bee

Beachcombers can search a lifetime and never come upon what 14-year-old Stuart Woodhall found.

Woodhall, from the Penn Valley in Nevada County, was on vacation with his family in Oregon during spring break, roaming a beach south of Coos Bay after a strong Pacific storm.

He spied a glass bottle, watertight thanks to a rubber stopper, deposited by waves among some rocks.

In Bandon, Oregon, a salt marsh is re-engineered

By Katy Muldoon for the Oregonian

Roy Lowe steers a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pickup through a pock-marked pasture where cows grazed for more than a century. Before the mud gets too deep, he parks, steps out and climbs atop a dike that has held back the South Coast's cool, green Coquille River all those years.

It won't much longer.

Late this summer, after more than a decade of planning, partnerships and property deals, years of scientific study, engineering and a little experimentation, the river will spill across 418 acres, marking the biggest tidal marsh restoration ever attempted in Oregon.

All backyard inventors and art vendors show their stuff on the Bandon Boardwalk from 10am 'til Dusk on July 31st and August 1st 2010

Kid rides, food, exhibits and vendors for wind related gizmos, gadgets, and whirly-gigs.

Prizes will be awarded.

By Donna Smith

You are invited to the first ever Sympli the Best Preview-Before-Market at Devon's Boutique in Bandon, Oregon

Fabulous samples of upcoming styles will be shipped from New York for ten days only.

Yes, you can preview, get feedback from your friends and order new designs before they hit the market.

Bandon By-The-Sea Rotary's 16th-annual Wine and Cheese Extravaganza

The Bandon Rotary Club's annual fundraiser, featuring an array of Northwest, national and imported cheeses, Northwest wineries, hors d'oeuvres, live music and silent and oral auctions. This is one of Bandon's most festive and elegant events of the year and not to be missed! Proceeds from the Wine and Cheese Extravaganza go to local Rotary projects, with a portion also supporting Rotary International projects.

A worthwhile and entertaining evening. The theme is "The Northwest Meets Italy," with a focus on Italian and Northwest wines and cheeses. The Wine and Cheese Extravaganza will take place in a new venue this year, the newly remodeled Barn/Community Center in City Park. A string quartet will provide live music.

The Bandon Playhouse in conjunction with the 10th Anniversary Year of the Sprague Community Theater will come alive with The Sound of Music. Running for three weekends starting February 19th and going thru March 7th, this classic and endearing musical is based on the book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. It features an unforgettable Rodgers and Hammerstein score, including “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi” and “Climb Every Mountain.”

Mary went on a photography tour of the Oregon coast.

After taking sunrise shots at Bandon Beach, Mary walked around the sea stacks while the tide was out, looking for sea stars and anemones with a reflection in the water.

Sea stars have no brains and no blood; their nervous systems are spread through their arms, and their "blood" is actually filtered sea water.

Featured Image from the Quad City Photography Club

After 20 years of recovery efforts, the population of western snowy plovers in Oregon is increasing, but the small shorebird is still vulnerable.

The plover’s numbers had decreased for decades, mainly due to the loss of nesting habitat to non-native European beachgrass, but also because of predators, such as fox, crows, ravens and skunks. Direct human disturbance and human development also contributed to the bird’s decline.