Tag Archive | Birds of Africa

The Return of Birds & Beers!

Sep3

The next meeting is on Thursday September 10th

Featuring a presentation on “A Birding and Wildlife Safari to Tanzania” by Dianne and Bob Leonhardt.

Lilac-breasted Roller
Lilac-breasted Roller. Photo by Bob Leonhardt.

The fall season of Birds & Beers gets underway on Thursday September 10th. We will meet, as usual, at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW, from 5-8:30 pm. Everyone is welcome to attend. The presentation will be at 7 pm but you can arrive early if you want to have a drink or meal beforehand. There is a small charge for the room, so if possible, we ask that you contribute a Toonie to that cause. Any extra cash above the fee amount is donated to the Legion.

The talk this month is by veteran Birds & Beers presenters Bob and Dianne Leonhardt. This time they will recap a trip they took to Tanzania from April 13-30, 2025. Here is a short description:

In mid-April of 2025 we flew from Calgary to Amsterdam and onward to Kilimanjaro International Airport near Arusha, Tanzania on KLM Airlines. It is a long flight of about 18 hours of actual flying time, but connections from Calgary are very good. Our small group of six participants met our Eagle-eye Guide and driver at KIA Lodge (near the airport) on April 15th and started off the following morning for fourteen exciting days of birding and wildlife viewing.

African Elephant
African Elephant. Photo by Bob Leonhardt.

Our tour was confined to northern Tanzania, near the border with Kenya.  We visited Arusha National Park, Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park and the very famous Serengeti National Park. In addition, we visited Ngorongoro Conservation Area, including the Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera formed approximately 2-3 million years ago.  This 260 square kilometre crater contains over 25,000 large animals and our bird list for our one day visit had well over 100 species. The area around Ndutu Safari Lodge in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area was also incredible for vast numbers of animals and birds. Following our visit to Serengeti National Park, we traveled westward to Speke’s Bay Lodge on the shores of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa.  From there, we drove to the airport at Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city, for a flight back to Kilimanjaro International Airport. We spent one last night at the KIA Lodge before flying back to Amsterdam and onward to Calgary.

In many ways this was the best tour we have ever been on.  We saw about 370 species of birds and about 50 species of mammals (including huge numbers of Wildebeests and Zebras). We stayed in some very nice lodges and tented camps, had very good meals, and experienced some very beautiful African scenery. 

Please join us for another memorable evening, and be sure to enter the draw for a door prize!

The next Birds & Beers meeting will be on Thursday October 8th, same time, same place.

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Birds & Beers, November 13, 2025

Nov7

Featuring a presentation on the wildlife of Southern Africa by Calvin van der Merwe

Next Thursday, November 13th, is our next Birds & Beers event in Calgary. We meet at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW, from 5 to 9 pm. Here is a message from Calvin van der Merwe, who will be presenting about the wildlife of Southern Africa:

Hello Calgary Birding Community. My name is Calvin van der Merwe, and my presentation is about birds and wildlife in Southern Africa. I grew up in Pretoria, studied in Cape Town, and have now found myself in the Alberta Wilderness. From the myriad of habitats in Northern Namibia, to the pans and rolling hills of the Kalahari Desert, to the endemics of the Cape and the forested and grassed extents of the Drakensberg escarpment, the tropical north-eastern coastline and it’s impressive wetland systems, to the Kruger National Park and the remote corners of Limpopo. If you enjoy incredible habitat, species diversity, exploration, and the array of other animals Southern Africa has to offer, this is the presentation for you. Here’s a Cape Parrot to whet the appetite.

Cape Parrot
Cape Parrot. Photo by Calvin van der Merwe.

The doors at the big ballroom will open for us at 5 pm. Come early to visit and have dinner and a drink. Or you can arrive any time before 7 pm when the presentation will begin. Everyone is welcome!

Note: There is no Birds & Beers meeting in December. We will resume in January.

Birds & Beers, October 9, 2025

Oct2

Featuring a presentation by Stephen Boucher called “The Roughly Right Guide to Botswana”

Next Thursday, October 9th, the Calgary Birds & Beers group will meet for our monthly social get-together and presentation. We are at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW in Calgary. We meet in the big ballroom, starting at 5 pm. Stephen’s presentation will begin at about 7 pm.

African Lion
All photos by Stephen Boucher.

I am Stephen Boucher, retired from a long career in medicine and professional people watching as a psychiatrist.  In retirement I help with the Monday morning Friends of Fish Creek birding group and generally enjoy the outdoors and travel.

I have been asked to talk about my trip last year to Botswana. In retirement travel decisions lie at the nexus of interest, health, finances and at best, the opportunity to travel with great friends.

Botswana in September 2024 met all of the criteria. But why a Safari?

I grew up in the United Kingdom close to Chester Zoo and during my childhood, I remember clearly hearing the calls of the Sea-lions at 3pm feeding time and roar of the lions at dusk in the warm summer evenings. I have always enjoyed visiting Zoos. But the animals, though well cared for, are captive and some show abnormal repetitive behaviours.  It had been a lifelong dream to go on Safari and see the animals and birds of Africa in their wild habitat. In the era of Mass Tourism and “Selfie sticks”, I wondered if it was still possible to go on Safari and have a Robert Redford and Meryl Streep moment, like in the 1985 movie “Out of Africa”

The word Safari comes from the Arabic word “to journey”.  And along with my two Calgary friends Karen and Ed, plus John (a vet friend from the UK who is called “Mr. Safety”, by his hiking group) we had an amazing journey.

Tonight, I want you to sit back and come on Safari with me……

Everyone is welcome to join us at Birds & Beers. The cost is about a dollar per person to cover the charge for the room. See you there!

African Elephant

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.