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.
Long-billed Curlew. Photo by Bob and Dianne Leonhardt.
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 2021-2022 Bird Study Group Speaker Series begins on Wednesday September 8th with a special presentation by Lyn Hancock, honouring Gus Yaki. This will be a virtual presentation using Zoom, and you have to be a Nature Calgary member to link to it.
(Nature Calgary memberships are available on their website here. If you already are a member, you should have received an email with the Zoom invitation.)
Almost forty years ago, Lyn Hancock took part in a 30,000-mile trip around North America led by Gus Yaki, the renowned naturalist who passed away just over a year ago. Gus lived in Calgary for the last twenty-seven years of his life, and he was an inspiration to many local birders.
Gus Yaki. Photo by Dan Arndt.
The trip in 1983 followed the route taken by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher thirty years prior, in 1953. Lyn documented the trip in her book Looking For the Wild.
From Nature Calgary:
Lyn’s special interest was the exciting climax of the trip on the remote Pribilof Islands in Alaska where she had close encounters with fur seals, murres and puffins, species she had raised as orphans in British Columbia in the 1960s and led to her interest in wildlife.
Lyn is the author of 20 books about her experiences with wildlife including THERE’S A SEAL IN MY SLEEPING BAG, LOVE AFFAIR WITH A COUGAR, TABASCO THE SAUCY RACCOON and THE RING: MEMORIES OF A METIS GRANDMOTHER, the pioneer love story of Sam Livingston and Jane Howse, the first settlers in Calgary.
The meeting begins at 7:30 pm and the Zoom link will open at 7:15.
Details of future Bird Study Group meetings and other Nature Calgary events and field trips can be found here.
Note: the books below have all been spoken for. Thanks for your interest. – Bob
If you live in Calgary and would like a copy of Lyn Hancock’s book Looking For the Wild, I have four copies to give away. They are all signed by Gus, and one is also signed by Lyn. I will give them to the first four people who respond and who agree to make a donation to either The Nature Conservancy of Canada or Birds Canada in whatever amount they wish. (These were two organizations that Gus supported.) The books are used, and one is a former library copy, but they are in good shape. Just email me at birdscalgary[at]gmail.com and we can make arrangements to get the book to you.
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.
Redhead, Bridlewood Pond, May 2021. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
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
Six-Part Virtual Speaker Series Presented by Dr. David Bird
The Wild Bird Store is presenting a six-part weekly speaker series beginning on June 17. The six lectures will continue every Thursday evening until July 22.
David Bird is a respected professor, writer, and speaker with a wealth of knowledge about the birds of Canada. For more information and to purchase tickets to all six of these online presentations, go to this Eventbrite page.
The Wild Bird Store also offers many other speaker events throughout the year. Go to their website and sign up for the newsletter to keep informed of upcoming talks and events.
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.
Kookaburra. Photo by Daniel Edwards.
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 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.”
Chip Scialfa
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.
The Irrigation Canal at Gosling Way SE. The water supply will be cut off on Monday September 30, creating a great birding location for the first few weeks of October. See this Nature Calgary page for information on a field trip to the area.
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.
Birds & Beers will kick off the fall season with a meeting this Thursday, August 22.
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW.
Thursday August 22, 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. After 7 pm, there will be a special presentation by Gus Yaki on colour abnormalities in birds.
Common Grackle, Calgary, September 17, 2010. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
Gus will show photos from the Calgary region of many birds with unusual markings. Most birders are aware of terms like albinism, leucism, and melanism, but there are actually six types of colour abnormalities, and many of these terms are often poorly understood and improperly used.
Gus with a normally-plumaged but injured Ring-billed Gull.
If you can’t arrive by 6 pm come anytime after that. The presentation will begin by about 7:15. You can also come early if you want – long-time attendees have learned that this is a good way to avoid the lineups at the grill.
We have booked the dates for upcoming Birds & Beers as follows, so mark these dates in your calendars. (Note the unusual Wednesday date in November.)
Thursday October 3
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.
Here is an update on the projector used for presentations. When we started Birds & Beers it was purely a social event, and we had no plans to do presentations. However, Gus suggested we add short talks after the social part of the evening, and after doing this a few times if soon became clear that people really enjoyed this part of the evening. At first we borrowed the Legion’s projector, but this was not always available. Then we borrowed Nature Calgary’s, but they no longer have one as they don’t need it in their new location. So we have been borrowing one from one of our regular attendees, but we felt that if we are going to continue to have presentations we should have our own system.
We brought this topic up at the May Birds & Beers, and people were very enthusiastic, and donated generously towards purchasing our own projector. We collected more money at the June meeting, and we now have $528. This is just about enough to cover the cost of the system we are looking at. We may need about $90 more to purchase a replacement bulb, so we may ask for one more round of (optional!) donations. Then we should have our projector ready for the meeting on October 3.
A big thanks to Joan and Wayne Walker for spearheading the projector search (and for booking the Legion, and for doing almost everything relating to Birds & Beers!), to Dave Russum for lending us his projector for several meetings, and to Dan Arndt for providing his technical expertise in the projector search.
The next Birds & Beers event in Calgary is on Thursday June 27, at the Horton Road Legion, from 6 to 9 pm. We will be in the big auditorium and will have a special presentation: “Birding and Botany on the Southern Alberta Walk with Gus Yaki” by Marshall Netherwood.
Pronghorn, a typical southern Alberta prairie species. Photo by Bob Lefebvre
Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch#285,
9202 Horton Road SW
Thursday June 27, 2019, 6:00-9:00 pm
In 2017 Gus Yaki led a walking group across Southern Alberta from the Saskatchewan border to Waterton Park. Marshall Netherwood has prepared a presentation on some of the birds and plants he saw and photographed on this trip.
Everyone is welcome to attend Birds & Beers. As is usual when we have presentations, these begin after 7 pm. So come at 6 pm (or earlier since the kitchen will be busy), order a meal and have a drink, visit with your fellow birders, and then stay for the presentation. If you can’t make it early drop in later for the show.
This Thursday there will be an exclusive sneak peek screening of the Great Big Nature project. Brian Keating and Bryan Smith, executive producer of MiMedia, invite you to learn more about their latest project. The video series will be launched later this year, but you have the opportunity to get a glimpse of the unique storylines and segments during a special viewing fundraiser.
Come out to hear Brian Keating talk about this exciting new project, and help to get it off the ground. They have a fund-matching opportunity up to $50K, until July 20th, therefore people can double their impact by donating now!
The fundraiser is Thursday June 20, 2019
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Place: La Cité Des Rocheuses (Community Centre and Theatre) Address: 4800 Richard Rd SW, Calgary, AB
Light appetizers and drinks will be served. Please RSVP by June 19th to j_bode[at]ducks.ca
