British Columbia Field Ornithologists

BFCO is pleased to introduce Michael Force as the 23rd presenter in our esteemed ‘Featured Photographer Series’.  Micheal is a life-time birder, long-time member of the BCFO, and stalwart of the BC Bird Records Committee.  Perhaps best known for his world-wide seabird expertise, you will see here that he is also quite handy with a camera on land.

Enjoy Michael’s work here.

Reminder for BCFO members – the next in our very popular series of birding travel presentations takes place this coming Wednesday.

More details on the Zoom series are linked below.
For overview of series: <https://bcfo.ca/zoom-presentations-schedule/>
For event details and descriptions: <https://bcfo.ca/upcoming-zoom-presentations-topics-dates-presenters-details/>

Also, coming soon to your email inbox is the invitation and link to register for the Namibia presentation. Look out for it!

Discussion of Round 30 submissions to the Bird Records Committee has just been completed. Consensus decisions to “accept” were made for eight of the ten submissions for this round. Notable in this round is the first Canadian record for the species pictured below.

To see the full report of those recently accepted records, follow the link here or use the drop down menu above – BRC Public > BRC Round 30 Jan. to Nov. 2021

The December 2021 edition of BC Birding is now available in the Members Only section. (You will be emailed the URL if you’ve forgotten the password.)

It is a shorter edition than some, but there’s still plenty of quality. Many thanks to all the contributors.

On top of BCFO news, ornithological briefings and the usual features are:

• Notes from a new member (this can be a regular column)
• A fun birding-knowledge quiz
• Trip reports from Costa Rica and Flatiron
• Birding news from, this time, 117 million years BC
• More thoughts for bird photographers
• More on Adam Dhalla’s ventures

Print subscribers ($12 annually allows you to read the magazine in traditional form) will receive their copy through the post in due course.

Putting together the quarterly newsmagazine is a complicated and time-consuming job. Editors and authors get recognition in the newsmagazine, but some of the behind-the-scenes volunteers do not. June Ryder and Michael Church are two of these people.

Four times a year, these two dedicated volunteers take on the responsibility of ensuring that newsmagazines are mailed to members. First the printed copies are collected from the printers on West Broadway; then they are put into individual envelopes before being taken to the post office for mailing to members.

In 2011, June handled both the editor’s duties and the distribution. In 2015 when Clive Keen assumed the role of editor, June graciously agreed to continue with the distribution. Michael has been assisting with these duties. In addition, Michael is a regular contributor to the newsmagazine with his column, ‘Briefings’. After 10 years of service to the BCFO, June is moving on and is relinquishing the duties of newsmagazine distribution.

The BCFO Board of Directors wishes to offer our heartfelt thanks to June and Michael for their generous commitment of time to our organization. We wish them well!

Reminder for BCFO members – the next in our very popular series of birding travel presentations takes place this coming Wednesday.

More details on the Zoom series here in the Members’ Area.

Check your email inbox for the invitation and link to register for the Argentina presentation.

For the past two years Tara Imlay of the Canadian Wildlife Service and her colleagues have been researching bird mortality from things such as collisions with windows and vehicles, and those killed by cats and other domestic animals.

This is their final year of carcass collection which will take place from September 2021 to April 2022.

They are again requesting BCFO members and other interested members of the public to send in carcasses of birds that they find. Please record the day and location where the bird was found, and freeze the body (placing in a Ziploc bag or similar is sufficient).

Last year’s Zoom presentations for members, focusing on birds and birding travel, proved very popular and were fully subscribed by BCFO members.

Registration details for upcoming Zoom presentations will appear in your inboxes one week prior to each presentation.

Under the Events tab above, pages are now open for you to preview the upcoming season. The three pages will give you: an overview of the series, details of the next three presentations, and the opportunity to suggest topics for future presentations, or to offer your own.  You may also follow the links below.

Overview

Details

Suggestions and offers to present

This year’s series will be given a flying start in Botswana and the Okavango Delta with Kevin Neil.

We’ll then zoom down to Argentina with Lee Harding.

And our third presentation of the new season will bring us back home with Les Gyug for a detailed look at Williamson’s Sapsucker in British Columbia.

The September 2021 edition of BC Birding is now available in the Members Only section. (You will be emailed the URL if you’ve forgotten the password.)
This is a particularly rich edition, filled with many superb photographs and a record-breaking number of substantial features. Well done to all the contributors.

On top of BCFO news, five ornithological briefings and the usual features are:

• A great spark-bird tale
• Two excellent reasons to rename 88 species of North American birds
• Reports of birding in Nevada, Newfoundland and Paraguay, and closer to home in the Chilcotin and South Okanagan, and off Vancouver Island.
• Birding news from 140 million years BC
• Adam Dhalla’s latest venture
• A sad tale of overheated birds
• Results of BCFO sponsored research including a Golden Eagle double feature
• Thoughts about “The BC Bird Trail”

Print subscribers ($12 annually allows you to read the magazine in traditional form) will receive their copy through the post in due course.

BCFO is pleased to present number twenty-three in our scintillating series of Featured Photographers. Kalin Ocaña, from Kelowna, is another member of our talented troop of Young Birder Awardees.

Follow the drop-down menu above under Features, or link here to Kalin’s work.