Tag Archive | Nature Presentation

Birds & Beers, March 12, 2026

Next Thursday’s meeting features the return of Jody Allair!

Calgary Birds & Beers resumes next Thursday, March 12th, at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW. Jody Allair of Birds Canada will deliver a presentation called Inspired By Birds – An engaging look at the captivating world of birds and their uncanny potential to motivate people to make positive changes for nature.

Bald Eagle
Jody Allair — Jody Allair with a Bald Eagle. Photo courtesy of Jody Allair.

The doors to the ballroom at the Legion will be open for us at 5 pm. Come early if you wish, and dine, drink and visit. Jody’s presentation will begin at about 7 pm.

Jody Allair bio:

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.

White-tailed Ptarmigan. Photo by Jody Allair.

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.

Jody guiding a tour in Yellowknife. Photo by Jody Allair.

Everyone is welcome to join us at Birds & Beers, including children if accompanied by an adult. There is a small fee to pay for the room, so we ask for an optional donation of $1 per person. Any extra money beyond the room cost is donated to the Legion. See you there!

Birds & Beers meetings are held monthly at the same time and location, on the second Thursday of each month, except July, August, and December.

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Christmas Bird Count Presentation, Thursday February 26th

Feb20

The Calgary Count results will be presented, plus those from the Fish Creek Park New Year’s Day Count.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

Everyone is welcome to a special event to be held next Thursday, February 26th at the Royal Canadian Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW. This is the venue we use for Birds & Beers events, so many of you will be familair with the format. The doors of the big ballroom open for us at 5pm. If you can come early you can order food and drinks and visit with your fellow birders. At about 7 pm we will start the presentations.

Merlin at Pearce Estate, Calgary CBC, December 14, 2025. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Jim Washbrook will present the results and historical trends of the long-running half-day Count in Fish Creek Park. This is held annually on New Year’s Day. Matt Wallace will have the results of the Calgary Count, which recorded 68 species and 43,631 individual birds within the Count Circle. Expect to see some great photos (much better than mine)!

American Wigeon
Mallard — American Wigeon with dabbling Mallard, Pearce Estate, December 14, 2025. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

Bald Eagle, December 14, 2025. Photo by Joyce Tse.

Our Feeder Watchers had a lot of good birds on the count too:

Red-breasted Nuthatch, December 14, 2025. Photo by Marilyn Parker.

Whether you took part in these counts or not, come for an enjoyable and informative evening!

Notes: Children are welcome at the Legion as long as they are accompanied by an adult. We have to pay a small fee for the use of the room so we ask for an optional donation of $1 per person to cover this. Any extra money is donated to the Legion. The next Birds & Beers event at the Legion is on Thursday February 12th, where Jody Allair will give a talk called “Inspired by Birds.”

Birds & Beers, February 12, 2026

Feb6

John McFaul will present Greenland & Wild Labrador: A Torngat Mountains Adventure.

The next Calgary Birds & Beers social meetup is on Thursday, February 12th. We meet in the ballroom at the Royal Canadian Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW, starting at 5 pm and continuing to about 8:30. Everyone is welcome, and it’s fine to arrive anytime before 7 pm.

At 7 pm there will be a presentation by John McFaul called “Greenland & Wild Labrador: A Torngat Mountains Adventure.” This presentation will feature a fifteen-day expedition cruise from Greenland to Labrador to St. John’s Newfoundland with Adventure Canada. The focus will be the exploration of the majestic lands to be found in northern Labrador, especially those encompassed by the wild Torngat Mountains National Park. Highlights will be the glaciers of Kangerlussuatsiaq Fjord, the Polar Bears of Martin Bay, the amazing colours of Ramah, the culture and historical importance of Hebron, Nain and L’Anse aux Meadows.

Be sure to join us for this spectacular adventure!

Kangerlussuatsiaq Fjord, Greenland. Photo by John McFaul.

The next meeting will be a special event to present the Calgary Christmas Bird Count results, as well as those from a few other local counts, on Thursday, February 26th.

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Calgary Christmas Bird Count Results

Jan18

68 species, 43,631 birds counted on December 14th, 2025.

Results will be publicly presented on February 26, 2026.

Posted by Bob Lefebvre

We had another very successful Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in Calgary on Sunday December 14th. The sixty-eight species found inside the Count Circle was one more than our average over the past fifteen years. We had 265 people take part in the count, with 154 out in the field, and 111 Feeder Watchers counting birds from their homes.

The Northern Mockingbird which is (or was?) in Rotary Park in NE Calgary was a new bird species for the Count, bringing our cumulative species total to 147 in all the Calgary CBC’s since 1952.

Mallard
Canada Goose — This photo shows how difficult it can be to count Mallards and Canada Geese on the Bow River. Photo by Stevie Williams.

We had several unusual species, including the Long-eared Owl shown below, an American Kestrel (last seen in 2003), Northern Shoveler (three reports in the last fifteen years), Sharp-tailed Grouse (two reports in fifteen years), and Common Grackle (three reports in fifteen years).

Of the 68 species seen, 66 were found by field teams, while the 111 Feeder Watch houses reported 34 species, including two that were not seen by field teams: American Kestrel and Pine Siskin.

Mallards observed by a Feeder Watcher. Photo by Dee Keating.

American Goldfinches at a feeder. Photo by Marilyn Parker.

Below is a more detailed account of the results, and you can download the file if you wish. (Use the scrollbar on the right-hand edge to see all the pages.) Note: if the file does not appear on your device, download it or go to the website to view it.)

CBC_YYC 2025 Results Download

The eBird Trip Report

Another way to see some of the results is to view our eBird Trip Report, which includes most of the checklists from our Field Teams, and has photos of dozens of the species reported.

Presenting the Results

On Thursday February 26th we will be having a special meeting at the Royal Canadian Legion, 9202 Horton Road SW to present the results of the Calgary CBC. (This is the same location where the Birds & Beers meetings are held.) In addition to the Calgary CBC, we will have a presentation on the Fish Creek Park New Year’s Day Count, and we are working on getting some more presenters for some of the other southern-Alberta CBC’s. Save the date, and I will be posting more details about this event in mid-February. Join us for more information and many more photos from the Count!

A Killdeer at Pearce Estate. Photo by Bob Lefebvre.

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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, 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, 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. 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!

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 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, May 22, 2025

May15

With a presentation on Birding By Ear by Annie Finch.

Next Thursday’s Birds & Beers will feature a presentation by Annie Finch on Bird Sounds: Birding Better by Ear. Birding by ear is an extremely important skill, and one which many birders find difficult to master. Annie is a great birder and really knows bird calls and songs. She will teach us how to use apps and online resources to hone our skills, and will give practical advice on identifying and finding birds in the field. She will also go into recording bird sounds and contributing sounds to online databases.

Western Meadowlark, Weed Lake, April 30, 2017. *Photo by Gavin McKinnon.*

Birds & Beers is a social gathering of birders that is open to anyone. We meet at the Legion at 9202 Horton Road SW. The ballroom is open at 5 pm and the presentation will be at about 7 pm. Everyone is welcome!

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.)

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.

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.

Next Thursday’s meeting features the return of Jody Allair!

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The Calgary Count results will be presented, plus those from the Fish Creek Park New Year’s Day Count.

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John McFaul will present Greenland & Wild Labrador: A Torngat Mountains Adventure.

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68 species, 43,631 birds counted on December 14th, 2025.

Results will be publicly presented on February 26, 2026.

The eBird Trip Report

Presenting the Results

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

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

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

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

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With a presentation on Birding By Ear by Annie Finch.

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

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