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Wings over the Rockies Nature Festival

Apr6

29th Annual Festival is May 5-11 in Invermere, B.C.

One of the oldest and best nature festivals in western Canada takes place only a three-hour drive from Calgary, in and around Invermere, B.C. in the Columbia River Valley. People come from all over North America to attend this seven-day event. Ticket sales begin on April 8th, so read about the events below and plan your trip!

(Wings over the Rockies website and tickets here.)

Wings over the Rockies

Nurturing a Living Legacy with Nature for 28 years

The Wings over the Rockies Nature Festival, May 5 – 11, 2025, is based out of Invermere, BC. For 28 years, we have hosted a premier 7-day nature festival to celebrate the Upper Columbia Valley. Our mission is at the heart of everything we do: supporting and promoting conservation, education, stewardship, and sustainable economic development in our beautiful valley. This year’s festival features over 90 incredible events, including field excursions, engaging luncheon and evening presentations, our annual photo contest and an incredible online auction. Highlights also include a special film screening of the documentary “Wildflowers”, the much-anticipated music event with multi-award-winning Canadian legend Harry Manx, and our traditional Gala Celebration—a sit-down dinner and presentation featuring keynote speaker Dr. Rob Butler, renowned ornithologist, author, and artist.

What we do together matters 

Last year, the non-profit Wings over the Rockies Nature Festival Society, through the Columbia Valley Foundation, created the Ross MacDonald Memorial Legacy Fund. This legacy fund provides funding for projects in the Columbia Valley that support community environmental education and/or land-based conservation such as habitat restoration, maintaining or improving ecological conditions, or species at risk protection. Each year, the success of our festival, in part, contributes to this important legacy fund.  

Belted Kingfisher

The 2025 Theme 

This year our events will center around the theme “Our Place in Nature.” Through thought-provoking presentations, immersive field experiences, and inspiring discussions, our keynote speaker, presenters, and field leaders will guide attendees in celebrating the wonders of nature while deepening our understanding of our place within it. Together, we’ll explore perspectives that connect us to our diverse cultures, rich histories, and our shared responsibility for the planet we call home.

The 2025 online Events Calendar preview is now active. On-line ticket sales will begin April 8, 10:00 AM MDT. www.wingsovertherockies.org.

Come join like-minded lovers of nature and enjoy the wonders of the Upper Columbia Valley.

Wings over the Rockies

Birds & Beers, April 10, 2025

Apr4

Featuring a presentation by Jody Allair on the state of Canada’s Birds.

The next Birds & Beers meetup is next Thursday, April 10th. This is a social get-together of birders, open to everyone. We meet at the Royal Canadian Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW in Calgary. Doors to the big ballroom open at 5 pm. If you can, come early to socialize, eat and drink.

Jody Allair of Birds Canada.

At about 7 pm there will be a presentation by Jody Allair of Birds Canada. The topic is “The State of Canada’s Birds and actions we can take to help our feathered friends.”

Jody Allair with a Bald Eagle.

About Jody Allair:

Jody is an avid birder and naturalist who enjoys sharing his enthusiasm for the natural world. He has been birding and banding since his teens, when he began volunteering at Long Point Bird Observatory (LPBO) in Southern Ontario. He is now the Director of Communications at Birds Canada where he manages the organization’s public relations and media, is the co-editor of BirdWatch Canada Magazine, producer of the Warblers Podcast and a coordinator of eBird Canada.

Over the years Jody has coordinated a variety of different bird-related projects including the Southern Ontario Bald Eagle Monitoring Program, the Ontario Nocturnal Owl Survey, Birds Canada’s Youth Education Program, and the Southern Ontario Forest Birds at Risk Program.

Jody regularly speaks about birds and conservation to audiences across Canada and has written numerous articles on birds, birding and connecting with nature. He is the monthly birding columnist for CBC Radio’s Daybreak Alberta, has appeared on CBC’s Rick Mercer Report, presented at Ideacity, was a featured bird expert on Season 2 of the Love Nature Television series ‘Battle of the Alphas’ and is a regular guest, and occasional guest host, on the American Birding Association podcast.

In addition to his 20+ years at Birds Canada, he has been leading birding tours with Eagle-Eye Tours since 2008.

See you on Thursday!

City Nature Challenge 2025

Mar23

Matt Wallace will be giving a presentation about this on April 2nd – book your spot now!

The worldwide City Nature Challenge (CNC) is back for 2025, and Calgary will be competing once again. In this four-day event, volunteers record photos and sounds of any living thing and save them on the iNaturalist website or App, generating a snapshot of the biodiversity of the Calgary region.

Matt Wallace
Calgary CNC founder and organizer Matt Wallace. Photo – the Wild Bird Store site.

The CNC runs from Friday April 25th through Monday April 28th. Calgary’s event organizer, Matt Wallace, will be giving a presentation at The Wild Bird Store to get you informed and ready to go.

Location: Wild Bird Store presentation space, 5901 3 Street SE.

Wednesday April 2, 2025, 6:00 PM

Ticket Price: $15.00 + GST

Matt Wallace is the organizer and founder of the Calgary City Nature Challenge (CNC). April 25-28, 2025 marks the 7th annual event for our city, but what’s it all about? This presentation will tell the story of how the CNC has been a catalyst for the growth of citizen science in Calgary and dive into what we have learned about our urban biodiversity and how you can help to protect it by sharing your observations.

You can book your spot on the Wild Bird Store’s Events page here.

This event is always one of the highlights of the year for all birders and naturalists. See the following for more information about how to get involved.

City Nature Challenge main international website.

Calgary City Nature Challenge page.

iNaturalist CNC 2025 Project Page

Also, check out the Wild Bird Store’s website for more upcoming speaker events, and sign up to get their free monthly email newsletter.

Birds & Beers, March 13, 2025

Mar5

Featuring a Presentation on An African Adventure

Thursday March 13th is the next Birds & Beers in Calgary. Everyone is welcome to join us from 5 to 9 pm for food, drinks, and fellowship! We meet at the Royal Canadian Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW. Come any time from 5 to 7 as this is very informal. But arrive by 7 pm, since you won’t want to miss any of the presentation!

This month’s presentation is An African Adventure by Karen McDaniel.

African mammals
Some of the mammals that will be featured in Karen’s talk. All photos by Karen McDaniel.

An introduction by Karen:

Karen McDaniel is a former teacher and administrator with the CBE and SAIT but right now she is a full-time traveler, birder, photographer and geocacher (ask her about that)! Add in grandmother, and she has the perfect life! She has travelled to too many countries to count and has finally matched her photographic equipment to her travels. To celebrate her youngest daughter’s 30th birthday, the two of them took a trip to Africa to photograph anything that walked, swam or flew. It was an amazing adventure in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana. They managed to photograph the Big Five and had an elephant experience that neither will ever forget!

See you there!

Future Birds & Beers dates are April 10, May 22, and June 12. After the summer break, we resume in September.

Birds & Beers, February 13, 2025.

Feb7

Featuring a talk on the Birds of Indonesia.

Thursday, February 13, is the next Birds & Beers in Calgary. Join us from 5 to 9 pm at the Royal Canadian Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW. Everyone is welcome.

At 7 pm there will be a presentation by Dianne and Bob Leonhardt on The Birds of Indonesia.

Bali Myna
Critically endangered Bali Mynas in West Bali National Park. Photo by Bob Leonhardt.

Note: This is a repeat of the talk given in January 2024, with some changes. If you missed it, make sure to attend this time!

Indonesia is the fourteenth largest country in the world by area.  It consists of over 17,000 islands.  By population it is the fourth largest country in the world with approximately 279 million people.  This may seem like an odd choice for a birding tour; however, Indonesia also contains approximately 1800 species of birds, including 786 endemics.  So in September of 2023 we flew from Calgary to Vancouver to Tokyo and on to Jakarta to participate in a 20 day birding tour with Naturalist Journeys.  On this tour we visited five islands, including Sumatra, Java, Bali, Flores and Komodo.  We experienced several different types of environments and ended up seeing approximately 270 species of birds, the majority of which were lifers for us.  Some of the most notable species were the Javan Trogon, the Javan Banded Pitta, the Bali Myna, Red and Green Jungle Fowl, and Milky Storks.  There were many more, some of which will be shown in this presentation.  A final highlight of the tour was a trip to Komodo National Park on Komodo Island to see the infamous Komodo Dragons.

Birds & Beers, January 9, 2025

Dec31

Featuring Journey through the Fabled North-west Passage by John McFaul.

The 2025 season of Calgary Birds & Beers kicks off on Thursday January 9th at the Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW. We meet in the big ballroom starting at 5 pm. Everyone is welcome to attend these social get-togethers.

At about 7 pm there will be a presentation by John McFaul on his Journey through the Fabled North-west Passage.

Northwest Passage
Photo by John McFaul.

John’s description: The presentation will take the viewers on a 17 day arctic cruise through the North-west Passage from Greenland to Kugluktuk (formerly known as Coppermine). Images of the majestic land and seascapes, the wildlife and the cultural and historical features of this fabled passage are sure to entice everyone to consider undertaking their own journey to Inuit Nunangat – land of the Inuit.

Northwest Passage
Photo by John McFaul.

John is a long-time Calgary naturalist and former President of Nature Calgary. He runs the nature guiding company Alpenglow Nature Hikes.

Join us for Birds & Beers!

Birds & Beers Reminder and Update

Nov27

Kenya Birds Presentation, Christmas Bird Count, Calendars for sale, Bird Book Exchange – Thursday November 28

Tomorrow night (Thursday the 28th) at the Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW, is our last Birds & Beers of the fall. I wrote about this before but here is an update on some of what you can expect tomorrow evening.

The main presentation, after 7 pm, will be on Birding in Kenya in the summer of 2024, presented by Gavin McKinnon. His presentation will feature many photos of Kenyan birds and mammals, plus information on future tours that he will be leading through his company Meadowlark Birding Tours.

Red Bishop
Red Bishop. Photo by Gavin McKinnon.

Before the main presentation, Matthew Wallace will speak about the upcoming Calgary Christmas Bird Count (on Sunday December 15). Find out how you can take part in this long-running Citizen Science project! Read more about the CBC here.

Once again this year, Daniel Arndt has produced a beautiful 2025 wall calendar featuring some of his best bird photos of 2024. He will have calendars available at Birds & Beers for $20 (cash or eTransfer). For those of you who are interested in purchasing a calendar but can’t make it to Birds & Beers, they are available at the Wild Bird Store in Calgary, or you can email us here at birdscalgary@gmail.com and we will put you in touch with Dan. (There is a $5 shipping charge for mail orders.)

calendar
calendar

Finally, we have talked about having a birding book exchange at Birds & Beers, and thanks to a generous donation by a long-time Calgary birder, we will have several books available to kick it off tomorrow! Feel free to bring a few books if you’d like to exchange them. We don’t want to take any books home after, so please help yourself until they are all gone!

Books
Just a few of the books that will be available tomorrow night..

If you haven’t been to Birds & Beers before, Thursday would be a great time to start!

Birds & Beers, November 28, 2024

Nov21

Gavin McKinnon will have a presentation on his recent birding trip to Kenya.

Everyone is welcome to join us for the last Birds & Beers meeting of 2024 next Thursday, November 28, from 5 to 9 pm at the Royal Canadian Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW.

Birds & Beers
Birds & Beers (AI version).

At about 7 pm, Gavin McKinnon will present a talk with many photos from his trip to Kenya in the summer of 2024. The presentation will focus on birding in Kenya, and an overview of the route he took this past summer that resulted in seeing 450 species of birds and nearly 50 mammal species in 14 days. He will also have information on future opportunities to visit Kenya.

See Gavin’s web page for Meadowlark Birding Tours here.

Variable Sunbird
Variable Sunbird. Photo by Dominic Sherony from Wikimedia Commons (Licencse here).

See you there!

Birds & Beers, Thursday October 24, 2024

Oct20

With a presentation by Myrna Pearman.

Birds & Beers resumes on Thursday evening at the Horton Road Legion in Calgary (9202 Horton Road SW). The meeting starts at 5 pm in the big ballroom. At about 7 pm there will be a presentation by Myrna Pearman.

Mountain Bluebird
Mountain Bluebird, photographed by Dan Arndt.

Myrna is a very well-know naturalist who lives in Sylvan Lake in central Alberta. She was a Biologist and Site Services Manager at the Ellis Bird Farm (now Ellis Nature Centre) from 1987-2020. The Centre has done pioneering work in the conservation of Mountain Bluebirds and other secondary cavity-nesters. Thanks to Myrna’s leadership, it is now a world-renowned conservation, education and research centre. Myrna has written several books and many articles. See her website for more information.

Everyone is welcome to attend Birds & Beers. The Legion has food and drinks available for reasonable prices, so you can come early if you want to eat, or just want to spend more time socializing. Come any time before 7 pm to attend the presentation.

Upcoming Birds & Beers Meetings:

Thursday November 28: John Gapp will present on Trees in Fish Creek Provincial Park.

After the December break, we resume with meetings from January through June. All are on Thursday evenings.

January 9th
February 13th
March 13th
April 10th
May 22nd
June 12th

Birds & Beers, Thursday September 12, 2024

Sep5

With a presentation on Birding in Northern Tanzania and the Serengeti, by Gordon Sick.

Grey Crowned-Crane
Grey Crowned-Crane, photographed at night by Gordon Sick.

Our monthly Birds & Beers meetings resume next Thursday, September 12. All meetings take place in the big ballroom at the Horton Road Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW. Everyone is welcome to attend these free meetings (we have to collect a small fee for the room, but this amounts to less than a dollar per person and it is optional to contribute). The Legion has food and drinks available for reasonable prices, so you can come early, anytime after 5 pm, if you want to eat or just to spend more time socializing. It is a completely informal social gathering for birders.

We will have a presentation at each meeting on a birding or nature topic. These begin just after 7 pm, so it is fine to arrive at 7 if you can’t make it earlier. This month, Gordon Sick will present on birding in northern Tanzania and the Serengeti.

Here is Gordon’s summary of the talk:

In February, 2024, a group of us took a 12 day Safari in Northern Tanzania. The group included two photographers, whose pictures we will present. We had two 4×4 safari vehicles, each with an African guide who was knowledgeable about birds (most African guides aren’t), and a Canadian naturalist, who was also knowledgeable about birds. We photographed 186 bird species, and 37 mammal species. People who go to this area to see the famous mammals have a lot of quiet time when they see nothing, so looking for birds makes the safari much more interesting. The trip started at the town of Arusha and proceeded to Arusha National Park, Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, and finally using the Ndutu Lodge as a base to visit Serengeti National Park.

Saddle-billed Stork
Saddle-billed Stork (female). Photo by Gordon Sick.

Please join us for another fun and informative year of Birds & Beers!

Upcoming Meetings:

Thursday October 24: A presentation by Myrna Pearman.

Thursday November 28: John Gapp will present on Trees in Fish Creek Provincial Park.

After the December break, we resume with meetings from January through June. The dates have not yet been set.