Birds and Beers, Saturday May 23, 6:00 – 9:00 pm.
Royal Canadian Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW Calgary.
The next Birds & Beers social get-together for Calgary birders will be held on May 23. Drop in to the Horton Road Legion anytime after 6 pm and have an informal chat about birds. Everyone of all ages is welcome. Food and drinks are available.
See the Facebook Event Page here.
Mountain Bluebird, male. Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park, April 21, 2015. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
The next Birds & Beers event in Calgary will be held Friday, April 17 at the Horton Road Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW, from 6 to 9 pm. Everyone is welcome, including kids if they are accompanied by an adult. So come on out any time after six to chat with your fellow birders.
More information and a map can be found on the event’s Facebook page.
The eBird Calgary 2015 competition will be awarding the prizes for the first challenge, and there will also be a door prize. The event is not just for people in the competition but for anyone who wants to socialize with other birders and have a drink and a bite to eat.
The February Birds & Beers get-together will take place on Family Day, Monday February 16. The location is the Royal Canadian Legion #284, 606-38 Avenue NE Calgary. Everyone is welcome, including children. Drop in any time between 3 and 6 pm to talk about birds and birding! (After 6 pm the venue is adults-only.)
See the Facebook page here.
More information on Birds & Beers events can be found here and here.
Photo by Jacob Bøtter, via Wikimedia Commons
Posted by Bob Lefebvre
The Birds & Beers event held last Tuesday at the Horton Road Legion was a great success! About thirty-five people attended. It was nice to meet some people that we’ve only known from internet posts and photos, and to see some old friends. Dan Arndt and I were there representing both the blog and the 2015 birding competition. We were able to answer quite a few questions and discuss many birding issues.
The venue is very good for this sort of get-together. It is quiet enough so that you can carry on a conversation, and good meals and drinks are available at reasonable prices.
There is no end to the number of topics to discuss with a subject as vast and fascinating as birding, so we plan to continue to have Birds & Beers events regularly.
The next Birds & Beers will be held on Family Day, Monday February 16, so save the date! This Legion is closed that day so we are looking for another venue, but it will be all-ages so you can bring your kids. We will announce the time and location soon.
Many thanks to Wayne Walker for setting this up and being there to sign everyone in.
Birds and Beers, Tuesday January 27, 2015, 6:00 pm.
Royal Canadian Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW Calgary.
Whenever birders get together, they love to talk about birding – what’s being seen locally, where to find good birds, and everything that’s happening in the world of birding. Often these discussions are brief chats before and after meetings, field trips, and bird counts. A few years ago Sharon Stiteler of the Birdchick blog came up with the brilliant idea of arranging informal get-togethers for birders to just meet face-to-face and discuss anything they want. These “Birds and Beers” events are now very popular and have been held in many states and provinces.
We here at the blog have done three previous Birds and Beers events, and they were all well-received and a lot of fun. This is something we plan to continue, and we will hold several of them during 2015 in conjunction with the eBird Calgary 2015 Birding Competition.
Next Tuesday, January 27, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm (or perhaps until closing if it goes really well), we will have our first Birds and Beers of 2015 at the Royal Canadian Legion #285, 9202 Horton Road S.W. Calgary. Food and drinks are available. We will be inviting all the eBird competition participants and I’m sure some of us will be discussing the competition and eBird, but anyone with an interest in birding in the area is welcome to come, and you can talk about anything birding-related. It is very informal. Unfortunately this is an adults-only venue in the evenings, but we plan to have some child-friendly get-togethers this year too.
For a map to the location and more information, see the Birds and Beers Calgary meetup page on Facebook. There is no need to register or let us know you plan to attend; just come at any time after 6:00 pm and join us.
IMPORTANT – upon arrival, mention to the staff that you are there for Birds and Beers, and they will direct you to the room.
See you there!
In a lead up to one of our summer Birds and Beers events, and because I find myself with an extra copy of a new book, we’ve decided to put on a contest!
“1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know”
by Sharon “Birdchick” Stiteler
So first, the book: I was sent a copy of the book “1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know”, by Sharon Stiteler back in May because I had two of my photos featured in the book. For whatever reason, I was sent a second copy a few days later for some reason, and after a brief back and forth with Birdchick, I was told I could do whatever I wanted with it.
The book is great. It’s funny, it’s an easy read, and it’s chock full of both useful and incredibly interesting tidbits of info, without being a typical field guide or a “Birding Basics” style book. It’s a book that’s easily accessible to both an experienced birder, as well as someone with even just a mild interest in birds in general.
The two photos that I submitted for the book are one of a Gray Partridge, and another of a Boreal Chickadee, both taken right here in the city of Calgary.
Here they are in their original form, in all their glory:
Gray Partridge
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@370mm + Tamron 1.4x teleconverter
1/1000sec., f/8.0, ISO 1000
Boreal Chickadee
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/1250sec., ƒ/8.0, ISO 5000
And here’s a shot of both of them in Sharon’s new book:
My two entries in 1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know
So, since I have an extra copy, one lucky reader will be receiving it with their best photo contest entry, so… show us your butts!
Why bird butts? Because this book isn’t necessarily for someone who’s already an excellent birder, photographer, or both. Anyone can take a photo of a bird butt, whether it’s with a fancy DSLR rig, or even just with your iPhone on a patio watching the House Sparrows or gulls fight over the remains of a french fry.
And everyone has one. That perfect shot of a Swainson’s Hawk you had all lined up, and just as you press the shutter it turn to the side and presenting its cloaca. Or that American Redstart that flitted out of the frame as the shutter closed, leaving on the rump and tail feathers in the shot. You could also go with the classic dabbling duck with its rump in the air as it feeds on the pond grasses just below the surface!
Sora Butt
Pentax K-5 + Sigma 150-500@500mm
1/500sec., f/6.3, ISO 1600
Our top 10 photos will be selected by our panel of experts, and the winner chosen randomly from there. The winner will be contacted by email and will be presented their winnings at the Birds and Beers event currently being planned for the end of August. Email your photo submissions to: birdscalgary@gmail.com by 9 AM, on August 21, 2013 to be entered into the contest.
So with that… good birding, and good luck!
Posted by Dan Arndt
Just a reminder to all those interested that the next instalment of Birds and Beers is this coming Tuesday, August 28, at Pat Bumstead’s. Her back yard is host to, as counted at the June B&B, Mourning Doves, House Finches, American Robins, and a number of other birds flitting in and out to the feeders while we engaged in some lengthy conversations and a few drinks. To RSVP, email us at birdscalgary@gmail.com for directions!
Hope to see you folks out there!
Just a reminder to RSVP if you’re planning to attend Birds and Beers this coming Thursday night!
A few clarifications for those of you who will be attending:
1) This event is strictly BYOB. From what I understand, some snacks will be provided by our gracious host, but drinks and any other food you might require will be on you!
2) This is also an all-ages event. Since we’re at a private location, anyone is welcome to come, bring their children, and just have a nice relaxing evening with like minded birders.
See you on Thursday!
Posted by Dan Arndt
As a relatively new “serious” birder, I have a confession to make. Until about a year ago, I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Gadwall and a Northern Shoveler, a Bohemian Waxwing and a Cedar Waxwing, or in most cases, a Red-tailed Hawk and a Swainson’s Hawk. A lot of my job entails a lot of detail oriented work, that can be relatively monotonous, and I found that listening to something helped while away the time. I stumbled across Sharon Stiteler’s Birdchick podcast, and immediately knew that I’d found something great.
It’s not for everyone, and can sometimes get a little “blue”, but I find that it covers a lot of great birding news and information in North America, and it’s incredibly funny too. One of the things that Sharon has been great at promoting is the idea that birders really should just get to know each other better. Whether it be just to chat, share stories and experiences, or just as importantly, to be approachable not only to each other, but to folks who are completely inexperienced and who want to become more “serious” birders.
One of the greatest ideas for this is her “Birds and Beers” meetups, which are held semi-regularly, and generally well attended. I’m involved in a similar sort of meetup here in Calgary, with another group that I am involved with, the Calgary Skeptics, and we’ve run these events solidly for the past three years with good success and good turnout.
I agree with Sharon. Birders, especially those with a ton of experience, can be a little intimidating to talk to. Gulls, flycatchers, warblers, shorebirds, and many, many other groups can be very hard to identify properly, and no one wants to say “Hey, look at that Tennessee Warbler!” when you’re not entirely sure if it’s a Tennessee, a Nashville, an Orange-crowned, or even just a female Wilson’s Warbler. That goes doubly so when you’ve got incredibly experienced birders around who, one might expect, would be quick to chastise you for making an incorrect ID. What I’ve learned though, is that EVERYONE misidentifies birds. Even the most experienced and revered birders in the Calgary community have made mistakes, and will continue to make mistakes in the future. It’s really one of the only ways to get better!
But don’t take it from me. Come out to Calgary’s inaugural Birds and Beers on Thursday, May 10, 2012. We’ll be meeting at the Joyce on Fourth Irish Pub at 7:00 PM, and I definitely hope to see you and many others in Calgary’s birding community out there!