British Columbia Field Ornithologists

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.

Adam Dhalla, Young Birder Award recipient in 2017, has been working hard to merge his love of birds with his love of gaming. The result of his efforts and those of his co-creator, has just been released on the Apple App Store, and on Google Play.

Find the Birds is a free-to-download, free-to-play educational mobile game for all ages about birds & conservation.

Players travel the globe searching for birds and do conservation quests to help them. The first in-game location available in the release is Arizona, USA, and includes the critically endangered California Condor in its line-up of species. The second in-game location will be British Columbia, to be added this July.

Find the Birds is a great way for all ages to learn about nature & science safely during the pandemic in an environmentally friendly way. Games are of course zero-carbon.

Apple App Store full download link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/find-the-birds/id1555789387

Or, you can search for Find the Birds.

Google Play Store download link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ThoughtGenerationSociety.FindtheBirds 

Congratulations to Adam on this significant achievement. And as a footnote, it’s worth recalling that after Adam received the BCFO award in 2017 he went on to become recipient of the 2018 American Birding Association Young Birder of the Year Award.

Cameron Montgomery one of our 2021 Young Birder Award recipients is featured on CBC radio searching for early spring birds in Burnaby. Listen here.

Creston Valley Bird Festival goes virtual this year with live webinars plus some Covid-safe outdoor events. Registration opens April 1st. http://www.crestonvalleybirds.ca/

Here you can Choose Your Own Adventure, or view here the Schedule of Webinars and Outdoor Events .

The BCFO is pleased to present the next in our series of Featured Photographers.  Val hails from Victoria, and is a long-term member of BCFO known to many for his wide interests in natural history beyond birds. Check out Val’s photography here.