British Columbia Field Ornithologists

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.

The meeting will have the usual business items of the Annual General Meeting. And, not to be missed, the AGM will be followed by an exclusive, for those joining us for the Zoom AGM, keynote presentation by David Bradley on the Long-billed Curlew project in the Prince George area.

We will again be placing items to be reviewed at the AGM (agenda, 2020 AGM minutes, financial report, and other documents) on the website when they are ready for members to review prior to the AGM here.

Similar to 2020, all members will receive an email notice regarding the AGM with the requirement to register for the Zoom meeting. This will be sent one week prior to the AGM.

BCFO Young Birder Award (2020) recipient Gaelen Schnare is expanding his birding passion to promote tourism and birding in the Kootenay.

Check out Gaelen’s video at Nelson and Kootenay Lake Tourism.

And while you’re watching the video, take a close look at his light blue ballcap.

The June 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.)

Included are:

• BCFO updates
• Insights into birding in China, Quebec, the East Kootenays, and Vernon
• The story of Adam Dhalla’s new cellphone birding game
• The travails of the Prince George curlews
• More evidence of ancient birds in the Peace Region
• Plus some great photos, four briefings and all the other usual items

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

Publicly Available Now

BCFO is pleased to announce and make available to the public a Special Issue (vol 32) of British Columbia Birds devoted entirely to: The status, ecology and conservation of internationally important bird populations on the Fraser River Delta, British Columbia, Canada.

Select the link below to view or download a copy.

https://bcbirds.bcfo.ca/special-issue/

BCFO members should note that you will shortly receive an email with the new password for the Members area and a link to Volume 31 of British Columbia Birds.