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Birds & Beers, January 8, 2026

Jan3

Thursday’s meeting will feature a presentation by Dianne and Bob Leonhardt on Birding in Colombia.

Birds & Beers resumes on January 8th at the usual time and location – the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW, starting at 5 pm. This is an informal social get-together, so come any time after 5:00 and have dinner or a drink, and a chat with your fellow birders. Everyone is welcome!

You can arrive any time up to 7 pm, when there will be a presentation by Bob and Dianne Leonhardt about the first half of a birding tour of Colombia they attended in January 2025.

Multi-colored Tanager
Multi-colored Tanager, La Florida, Colombia

Birding In Colombia- The First Ten Days Bob and Dianne Leonhardt   

In January of 2025, Gavin McKinnon of Meadowlark Birding Tours led a group of Calgarians on a tour of Colombia to view some of the over 1900 species of birds found in that country.  Prior to the beginning of the actual Birding Tour, John and Lorrie Anderson and ourselves traveled to the historic city of Cartagena.  The city was founded by the Spaniards in 1533 and served as the main port for the shipments of gold pillaged from South America and sent to Spain.  Today it is one of the most touristic locations in Colombia with an active nightlife.  We also located a wonderful birding location outside the city known as Agricola Camelias.  By the time the Birding tour was to begin we had already counted well over 100 species.

After four days in Cartagena, we flew to Cali, in the Western Andes, where we were met at the airport and transported to Araucana Lodge, about 29 kilometers northwest of the city.  This beautiful and modern lodge served as our home for the next six nights.  From here we did day trips to a variety of environments with a diverse assortment of colorful birds.  Several of the locations had feeding stations which provided extraordinary opportunities for viewing and photographing the birds.

The first part of the Birding Tour came to a close as we drove to Manizales in the Central Andes.  During these first ten days we viewed about 250 species.  By the end of the entire tour, which finished up in the Santa Marta area of Northern Colombia, we had counted about 560 species of birds.  A number of the photographs shown in our presentation were provided by our traveling companions, John and Lorrie Anderson.

The next Birds & Beers will be on Thursday, February 12th.

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Birds & Beers Returns September 11, 2025!

Sep4

With a Presentation on “Birding in Belize” by Daniel Arndt.

The fall season of Birds & Beers begins next Thursday, September 11th. As usual, we meet from 5-9 pm in the ballroom at the Royal Canadian Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW. Everyone is welcome!

Come early if you can, but be sure to be there by 7 pm, when Dan Arndt will present “Birding in Belize: An Introduction to Birding the Tropics.”

Ocellated Turkey
Ocellated Turkeys. Photo by Dan Arndt, Belize, 2020.

Dan has travelled Belize extensively, and visited some of the best birding locations the country has to offer. In March 2026, Dan will be leading a tour to Belize along with local guide, Roni Martinez, to La Milpa Biological Station, Blue Creek, Mountain Pine Ridge, Caracol, Chiquibul Forest Reserve, La Milpa Archaeological Site, and Crooked Tree Lagoon. Some of the most sought after birds in Belize include Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Ocellated Turkey,  King Vulture, Jabiru Stork, and Agami Heron. 

Belize is an excellent introductory tour for folks new to birding the tropics, with many familiar species that breed in North America on full display and preparing for their northern migration, and travel throughout the relatively small country allows for quick access to a variety of habitats. The archaeological history of the Mayan people, and the great birding found at these archaeological sites is a unique blend of human history and ecological conservation that is rarely found elsewhere in the world.

Here is a link to Dan’s 2026 Belize Birding Tour on the Meadowlark Birding Tours website.

This will be a great start to the Birds & Beers season. Upcoming meeting dates are Thursday October 9, and Thursday November 13 (all are on the second Thursday of the month). We take the month of December off, and then resume again in January.

One change this year is that we are being charged a little more for the use of the room. (It is still very reasonable at $100.) So we will again ask that people make a small donation, if they wish, to help cover this. We usually get anywhere from 50 to 100 attendees, so if you give a dollar or two, that will be plenty. Paying is optional, though, so please don’t feel you have to contribute! Attendees have been very generous with this, and we have always received more than was needed to cover the room cost, and we just donated the extra money to the Legion. We will continue to do this.

See you there!

Birds & Beers Resumes January 11th

Jan2

Featuring a presentation on the birds of Indonesia

From January through June 2024 we will be meeting monthly at the Horton Road Legion in Calgary for a social get-together and birding presentation. Everyone is welcome to attend these events, have some food and drinks, and enjoy a birding talk from one of our many local volunteers.

The first Birds & Beers of 2024 will be on Thursday January 11. We meet in the big ballroom at the Legion, at 9202 Horton Road SW in Calgary. The doors open at 5 pm. At about 7 pm there will be a presentation by Bob and Dianne Leonhardt on their recent trip to see the birds and wildlife of Indonesia.

Bali Mynas
Critically endangered Bali Mynas in West Bali National Park.

Presentation Description by the Leonhardts:

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.

Here are the dates for the upcoming 2024 Birds & Beers events:

Thursday January 11.

Thursday February 8.

Thursday March 14.

Thursday April 11.

Thursday May 9.

Thursday June 13.

July and August is a summer break, and Birds & Beers will resume in September.

Birds & Beers, Friday April 14, 2023

Apr1

The next Birds & Beers is on Friday April 14. We meet at the Horton Road Legion in Calgary starting at 6 pm. Everyone is welcome, and there is good food and drink available. The Legion is located at 9202 Horton Road SW. We have the rooms starting at 6 pm, and you can eat and socailize for about an hour and a quarter before we have our presentation. This month will feature Gordon Sick again, with part two of his trip to central America: The Birds of the Galapogos Islands. Just as in last month’s talk about the birds of the Ecudorean Cloud Forest, there will be many great photographs of birds, and there is no overlap in the species shown in the two talks at all!

Waved Albatross
Waved Albatrosses. Photo by Gordon Sick.

Birds of the Galapagos Islands: This presentation covers migratory birds (Waved Albatrosses, Boobies, Magnificent and Great Frigatebirds, for example), as well as endemic birds (Darwin Finches and Mockingbirds, for example). We will cover some of the 51 species that were photographed. Some non-avian flora and fauna will also be included.

See you there! We will ask for a donation of $1 per person to go to the Legion to cover the cost of the room.

Magnificent Frigatebird
Magnificent Frigatebird. Photo by Gordon Sick.

Birds & Beers, Friday March 10, 2023

Mar5

Birds & Beers is on again this Friday. We will have a presentation by Gordon Sick on Birds of Ecuador’s Andean Cloud Forest.

Andean Cock-of-the-rock
Andean Cock-of-the-rock. Photo by Gordon Sick

We meet at the Horton Road Legion beginning at 6 pm:

Royal Canadian Legion, Centennial Calgary Branch #285,

9202 Horton Road SW.

Friday March 10, 2023, 6:00-9:00 pm

We start at 6 pm, and there will be time for socializing, eating, and drinking before the presentation begins after 7 pm. Here are the details of the talk.

Birds of Ecuador’s Andean Cloud Forest

This presentation involves photographs taken at altitudes over 8000 feet in the Andean Highlands to the East and West of Quito. Colourful birds include Cotingas (like Andean Cock-of-the-rock) and a variety of Hummingbirds. We will cover some of the 145 species that were photographed.

Everyone is welcome to attend. We will ask for a donation of $1 per person to go to the Legion to cover the cost of the room. See you there!