The next meeting is on Thursday September 10th

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

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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