DARE TO BIRD

When will Canada do right by the Northern Spotted Owl? The provincial government of BC has failed the Northern Spotted Owl and frankly so has the federal gov't. This is why they are almost extirpated in the wild here. Just a few (apparently only 3 now in the Fraser Canyon) infertile females hold on in the wild. There is a Northern Spotted Owl breeding program that has not successfully released any Spotted Owls yet but when they do, the real question will be where will they go? The provincial Gov't is not discontinuing the logging of Old Growth Forests.  The logging of old growth forests is the biggest threat to their survival. Not Barred Owls as they will have you believe.  Isn't this statement an oxymoron? " The B.C. government, for instance, has approved clear-cut logging in areas it set aside for spotted owl recovery, while sinking almost $1.5 million into the experimental captive breeding program since 2014." The owls simply cannot survive in any other

Just got the new Vol. 50. No. 5, October 2018 issue of "Birding" by the American Birding Association and saw that my photo of a male Anna's Hummingbird was published in the 4 page article about IOC called "The 27th International Ornithological Congress, Vancouver, British Columbia, August 21-28, 2018: Highlights, takeaways, and a path forward" by Nick Minor. It was cool to see :) Here is the cover and portion of the article with my photo below: The original photo can be found here:

I love Sir David Attenborough. He is a world wide treasure. I’ve grown up with his wonderful voice. There is no one who makes watching wildlife on television more intriguing and amazing. You can tell he’s a true naturalist that really cares about the animals he’s observing. As he is in his 90’s now, when he is gone, it will be a great loss for the world. He’s been ahead of his time since a young man, doing these documentaries in the 50’s. He’s spoken out about climate change, plastics you name it. It’s too bad we didn’t listen then... and we still aren’t listening enough now. Funny how we have a way of ignoring the truth until it hits us in the face and it’s too late. Well there is still some time left and programs like Blue Planet and Planet Earth have helped bring awareness. In this new program called “Dynasties” David is featuring a 5 episode miniseries where he deals with 5 animals battling the very real threat of extinction. The animals are Lions, Emperor Penguins, Chimpanzees, T

Protected Grizzly, Wolverine habitat expanded in BC - Read the rare great news HERE . You can also read the fun encounter Liron had with a Red-throated Loon in Audubon's Magazine HERE .   I had a similar encounter with this speces a few months ago that you can read about HERE . This Red-throated Loon in Anchorage gave Liron a magical encounter - Photo: Liron Gertsman

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher in Kelowna... more on him below - Photo: Melissa Hafting Today was one of those birding days a twitcher dreams of. I got a new Metro Vancouver bird and a new BC bird and they were 4 hours apart in 2 different counties. Let me back up. Yesterday, Mark Thomson emailed me and told me he found a Black-and-White Warbler (BAWW) at Riverfront Park. By the time I got the message it was dark... darn these short winter days! So I decided to get up at dawn and see if I could find him. I felt it was November and birds weren't so much on the move so I had a good chance to relocate him. Birds are most active in the morning as they are feeding so I figured I better get there early and I wanted to go to Kelowna and leave no later than 8 am. Since sunrise was at 7:15 am that didn't give me much time! Well Ilya and I arrived at the park at 7:17 am and began searching we split up and covered more ground. He went to one extreme end and I the other pishing and walking

I saw this interesting news story and wanted to share it. I am fascinated by hybrids. I remember when there was a Black-chinned Hummer reported that turned out to be a hybrid at Richmond Nature Park. At the time a lot of people told me they were so disappointed. I thought it was cool and actually cooler than a pure Black-chinned Hummingbird. There are only a small handful of this occurring in Western North America. So to me it was sensational because it was the most northerly record of this rare Anna’s X Black-chinneds hybrid. Anyways this hybrid is a hybrid-lover’s dream! A Chestnut-sided Warbler X Golden-winged Warbler X Blue-winged Warbler! According to Cornell this particular 3 species Warbler-hybridization has never occurred before! What is even more cool about this hybrids is that they are of different genuses! To read the full story click HERE Also if you like McKay’s Buntings, a really neat video came out by Cornell recently showing them on their breeding grounds. Few pe

Watch this amazing National Geographic film on the mating habits of Wandering Albatrosses on South Georgia Island. It came out last month and you can watch it below: It’s my dream to go there and now even more so! As the video describes one of the biggest threats to Albatrosses is the longline fishing industry. All fisheries and govts around the world must adopt new methods and techniques such as adding lights to ensure the survival of these long lived species. In addition we need to stop using so much plastics which are also killing the birds due to ingestion.

In what seems at times to be an ever increasing bleak world it is young people like Lorena Patricio from Brazil that give us hope and inspiration for the future. Please always support young birders (and young people in general), they are our future.

Come out and join the Christmas Bird Count for Youth at Boundary Bay!  The youth will be  led by an experienced birder. We will be conducting a bird survey and will record the number of bird species and individuals seen.  All data we collect from our count will be sent to eBird and Bird Studies Canada to aid in studies for bird conservation. Time: 8 am-1pm on January 5, 2019 Location: Boundary Bay Dyke at 3321-72nd St in Delta Admission is FREE! Register at the link HERE   or email me at bcbirdergirl(at)gmail(dot)com The Christmas Bird Count for Kids (CBC4Kids), based on the traditional Christmas Bird Count, is a fun winter birdwatching event that engages youth in real Citizen Science. The goal is to promote nature appreciation, ecological literacy, build bird ID and monitoring skills, and environmental stewardship in the next generation of naturalists. More info on the program can be found HERE .