DARE TO BIRD

Young Birders in Princeton, BC - July 14, 2018 - Photo: Melissa Hafting We started out our young birder tour with 5 young birders and it was the first trip with 15 year old Sasha Fairbairn. We started out at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve in Chilliwack to see the long staying Black Phoebe. It was a lifer and BC bird for a few of the youth . Here we also were greeted by the sweet songs of Yellow Warblers, Black-headed Grosbeaks and Red-eyed Vireos. It was also fun to watch the Eastern Kingbirds fluttering around and a lone Vaux's Swift. Black Phoebe in Chilliwack - Photo: Bridget Spencer Next we were on our way to Princeton. We were hoping to see Williamson's Sapsuckers at August Lake as our main target. As we drove on the dirt road to the lake Katya Kondratyuk and Daniel Beeke called out "Lewis's Woodpecker!". It was sitting on a stump right beside our van. We pulled over and hopped out and got beautiful views of it as it flew from tree to tree q...

4 young birders will be speaking this year at the Vancouver International Bird Festival at 1:30pm on August 23rd, 2018 . They will be in the Community Theater in the Bird Expo . Please come out and support them and their great talks! Tickets go on sale on July 20th! Toby Theriault, age 14 will be speaking on " Seabir ds and plastic pollution " Ian Harland, age 18 will be speaking on “The artistic side of bird photography” Liron Gertsman, age 18 will be speaking on  "The importance of photography for conservation" Adam Dhalla, age 13 will be speaking on " Shade-Grown Coffee in Costa Rica & its Positive Impact on Birds"   These topics are so important and interesting. The kids are so engaging and intelligent, I can't wait to hear them. I will be moderating the 1 hour event, hope to see you all there! Also registration for "The 2018 Stewardship Roundtable" Is Now Open! "Hosted by the Stewardship...

I'm so touched by what a young birder named Ian Harland wrote about me on Instagram last night. So much so that I wanted to share it here!  Sometimes, I wonder if I have made any difference in their lives, so it's nice to hear this! They are so important to me and I am so proud of them and care about them deeply! Ian has won several photography awards and was covered in Canadian Geographic and this year got chosen to be in the top 100 of Audubon with a shot of an American Dipper! You can see his shot  HERE . He is off soon to Ecuador with another amazing BC young birder Liam Singh. They are going on a bird conservation photography workshop to Ecuador, where they will be taught how to promote conservation through their photography. He and the youth here just keep making us all so proud.  They keep finding incredible provincial rarities and promote conservation through social media and in person in their communities. They are incredible artists like Viktor Vanderey...

I saw my first ever white Common Raven on the Canada Day Long weekend! It was so cool to see I have been wanting to see one for many years. It had blue eyes so isn't an albino. These are very spiritual birds to the local First Nations. This was a young bird being fed by two full black adult Common Ravens. He was really vocal begging for food he was fun to watch. Seeing this white raven was truly special for me! It was actually a dream come true! Thanks to the homeowner Patricia for letting me come and see him and thanks to Mike Yip for letting me know about it. To read more about this famous bird click the Vancouver Sun story HERE . Leucistic Common Raven in Coombs, BC - Photo: Melissa Hafting We also went to the Port Hardy airport where w e found an adult female Pacific Golden-Plover on the runway. Ilya spotted the bird as soon as we pulled up. It was fun watching him walk around with some killdeer and then sitting by the beach watching many Bald Eagles of varying ...

Big Congrats to Liron Gertsman on his incredible achievement!  Read about it below: " Youth photographer sweeps the Youth category of the Audubon photo awards - first time ever" Make sure to read the Vancouver Sun article on it as well HERE I love his parakeet shot it's so technically brilliant! The hummer is so artistic and eagle's talons so unique and out of the box thinking. He also had 8 pictures selected for the TOP 100 and  BC young birder Ian Harland has one too, see HERE On top of this Liron made a documentary film "Surf Scoters: People Living With Nature"  thatnis being displayed at the Museum of Vancouver now in Nature Vancouver's "Wild Things" exhibition. It opened on June 28, 2018 and closes in Dec 2019. Read about it HERE and go see the show at the Museum of Vancouver admission prices and more info HERE You can watch his documentary below: Massive Congratulations Liron! I am so very proud of you. You hav...