Finally, the Calgary Birds & Beers meetings will resume, starting this Friday March 11th.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday March 11, 2022, 6:00-9:00 pm
Bob and Dianne Leonhardt will give a presentation on A Visit to Grasslands National Park. See this previous post for details.
Please note that vaccine passports are no longer required or checked, and masks are optional.
We have had to postpone the return of Birds & Beers once again, to Friday March 11. The programme remains the same:
Covid Protocols will be in place, but anyone who has a vaccine passport is welcome. If anything changes between now and then, I will post an update.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday March 11, 2022, 6:00-9:00 pm
We will be meeting in the smaller back rooms since the ballroom is not available. There will ba a very small charge to attend since we now have to pay for the rooms. Food and drinks are available at a reasonable cost.
The meeting begins at 6 pm. You may come early if you want to eat before most of the people arrive. At about 7 pm, a special presentation by Bob and Dianne Leonhardt will begin.
A Visit to Grasslands National Park
Grasslands National Park in South-western Saskatchewan is Canada’s only national park dedicated to the presentation and protection of the Prairie Grasslands Natural Region. It is one of North America’s best parcels of mixed grass prairie habitat. In late May of 2021 we visited the Park to explore and experience the beautiful scenery, birds and other wildlife of the region. We encountered about 100 species of birds, some of which we will show you in this presentation. Bob and Dianne Leonhardt
Depending on how things go with Covid, we plan to finally resume the Birds & Beers social events in February! Covid Protocols will be in place, but anyone who has a vaccine passport is welcome. If anything changes between now and then, I will post an update.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Friday February 11, 2022, 6:00-9:00 pm
We will be meeting in the smaller back rooms since the ballroom is not available. There will ba a very small charge to attend since we now have to pay for the rooms. Food and drinks are available at a reasonable cost.
The meeting begins at 6 pm. You may come early if you want to eat before most of the people arrive. At about 7 pm, a special presentation by Bob and Dianne Leonhardt will begin.
A Visit to Grasslands National Park
Grasslands National Park in South-western Saskatchewan is Canada’s only national park dedicated to the presentation and protection of the Prairie Grasslands Natural Region. It is one of North America’s best parcels of mixed grass prairie habitat. In late May of 2021 we visited the Park to explore and experience the beautiful scenery, birds and other wildlife of the region. We encountered about 100 species of birds, some of which we will show you in this presentation. Bob and Dianne Leonhardt
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we can meet in February!
The monthly Birds and Beers socials have not been held since the start of the pandemic. Many local birders are hoping we can resume these events and the presentations soon. I’m sure quite a few birders are vaccinated and keep small cohorts. Joan Walker (who does the majority of the organization of these events) and I have discussed it, and we decided that the situation with the spread of the Delta variant is too uncertain to have such gatherings right now. I certainly would not be comfortable attending since I am in contact with many people every day. I don’t want to pass the virus on to others. So we will have a “wait and see” attitude for now.
Joan has looked into planning events in the next few months. There are a few presentations ready to go. However, there are some complications. Our regular meeting-place is the Horton Road Legion. Of course the pandemic has been a difficult time for businesses like the Legion. They were closed for a while, and are currently only open a few days each week. When they re-opened, all the meeting rooms booked up completely until Christmas. So we are considering possibly re-starting in January.
Another issue is that the Legion will now have to charge for the use of the room. It is a minimal amount, but we would have to pass the cost on to the attendees.
There is the possibility of finding other venues but it would be very difficult to find another one that serves meals and drinks, can accommodate presentations of up to 100 people, and is cheap or free.
We would like to have some feedback on this. Should we plan to resume in the new year (assuming it is safe to do so) at the regular location? Would you be willing to pay a small amount (no more than two or three dollars per person; probably less) to attend? Would you like to try another venue and do you have any suggestions for an alternate location?
If you are a regular Birds & Beers attendee and you have thoughts on this, please email me at wbird7[at]gmail.com. -Bob Lefebvre
The Birds & Beers event that was scheduled in Calgary for Thursday, April 2, 2020 has been cancelled due to concerns about Covid-19.
Future scheduled Birds and Beers events of Thursday, May 7 and Thursday, June 25 are on hold until further notice.
In the meantime, you can drink beer and watch birds in your yard. That’s what I’ve been doing!
We were unable to get our usual late-February date for Birds & Beers, so we will be meeting next on Thursday March 5th.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Thursday March 5, 2020, 6:00-9:00 pm.
Dan Edwards will be presenting “Birds of the Great Ocean Walk,” a birding-oriented travelogue of his trip hiking the Great Ocean Walk in southern Australia last October. The presentation will begin at about 7:15 pm.
Everyone is welcome to attend Birds & Beers, and there is no charge. We will meet in the big ballroom at the Legion. Food and drinks are available at reasonable prices, and children are welcome if accompanied by an adult. Come early if you want to avoid the lineup at the kitchen.
The next Birds & Birds social get-together will be held this Thursday, January 23, 2020. Gavin McKinnon will give a presentation, featuring photographs like the one below, on his Big Year in 2019. Gavin’s goal was to record over 300 species in Alberta in the calendar year.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Thursday January 23, 2020, 6:00-9:00 pm
Everyone is welcome to attend Birds & Beers, and there is no charge. We will meet in the big ballroom at the Legion. Food and drinks are available at reasonable prices, and children are welcome if accompanied by an adult. Come early if you want to avoid the lineup at the kitchen. The presentation will begin at about 7:15 so if you can’t make it at six pm, come later.
See you there!
The next Birds & Birds social get-together will be held on Wednesday November 27, from 6 to 9 pm, at the usual location:
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Wednesday November 27, 2019, 6:00-9:00 pm
Note that this is a Wednesday, not our our usual Thursday.
We are very pleased to have Chip Scialfa do a presentation at this meeting. He will speak on “Birding With Uncertainty: Psychology and Errors in Decision-Making.”
Avid birders are keen to add to their lists and often this means identifying birds that are uncommon and easily confused with other species. What are some of the psychological errors that we make when birding under uncertainty and how can they be minimized or avoided? Chip Scialfa, an experimental psychologist and keen birder, will talk about these issues in what will likely be a “mind-bending” presentation.
Chip is a very animated and entertaining speaker, so this promises to be a fun and informative talk. Some of you may have attended a version of this presentation at Nature Calgary’s Bird Study Group a few years ago, but Chip has modified and updated the talk considerably.
As usual, everyone is welcome to attend and there is no charge. We will meet in the big ballroom at the Legion. Food and drinks are available at reasonable prices, and children are welcome if accompanied by an adult. Come early if you want to avoid the lineup at the kitchen. The presentation will begin at about 7:15 so if you can’t make it at six pm, come later.
A few local photographers will have calendars with their bird and nature photos available for sale for the Christmas season, so bring cash! These usually sell for $20 for a full-size calendar.
See you there!
The next Birds & Birds social get-together will be held on Thursday October 31, from 6 to 9 pm, at the usual location:
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Thursday October 31, 2019, 6:00-9:00 pm
We will meet in the large auditorium which is to the right after you enter the Legion. Everyone is welcome to attend (including children if accompanied by an adult), and food and drinks are available.
This month, rather than have a presentation, will be having a special “Popcorn and Video” night! We will be showing a video about birds, and attendees have permission to bring their own popped popcorn and share it with their table.
The Life of Birds Hosted by David Attenborough. Episode 1: TO FLY OR NOT TO FLY (Approx. 50 minutes).The history of birds, from the first flying reptiles to today’s consummate navigators. From giant flightless birds to modern ostriches and emus, see how birds have made a claim to populate not only the air but also the land. (Note: this is part of a 10 episode (3 DVD set) series by BBC Video).
The video will begin after 7 pm so everyone will have time to eat and socialize beforehand. If you are unable to arrive early, feel free to just come for the movie. It should be very interesting, and even if you’ve seen it before, it should spark some good conversations afterwards. See you there.
Future Birds & Beers meetings are as follows:
Wednesday November 27, 2019 (Note the out-of-range day of the week, a Wednesday rather than a Thursday). Chip Scialfa will do a presentation on “Problems in decision-making in field identification.”
Thursday January 23, 2020
Thursday March 5, 2020
Thursday April 2, 2020
Thursday May 7, 2020
Thursday June 25, 2020
There! Your social life (or mine, anyway) is set for the next eight months. All of the above meetings will be in in the big auditorium and we plan to have presentations, except for at the April 2nd meeting, which is in the smaller dining rooms. We may do a quiz or have a discussion of some kind at that one. Mark your calendars!
The next Birds & Birds social meeting will be held on Thursday October 3, from 6 to 9 pm, at the usual location.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Thursday October 3, 2019, 6:00-9:00 pm
Birds & Beers is a casual social get-together that is free and open to everyone. Children may attend if accompanied by an adult. Food and drinks are available at reasonable prices.
We will meet in the large auditorium which is to the right after you enter the Legion. At about 7:30 I will be giving more details about the upcoming 2020 city-limits birding challenge. Gavin McKinnon will talk about a recent trip he made to the Cold Lake area in pursuit of 300 species of birds in Alberta.
Thanks to the generosity of our attendees, we now have our own projector, which will be ready for this meeting.
We have booked the dates for the next two Birds & Beers as follows, so mark these dates in your calendars. (Note the unusual Wednesday date in November.)
Thursday October 31
Wednesday November 27
All of these will be in the same location, in the big auditorium at the Horton Road Legion. We plan to have presentations but these aren’t finalized yet.