DARE TO BIRD

In 2009 after a shift of work at Cultus Lake, for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in the stock assessment program there, I decided to take a drive up to Hope. As I was walking from my car to a restaurant I heard a soft “meow.” It sounded like it was coming from the dumpster. So I walked over to the green dumpster in the alley and opened the lid. I heard more soft “meows.” There was a cat in there alright!. I couldn’t see anything but some movement in a garbage bag. I quickly ripped open the garbage bag and found 4 kittens. 3 were dead and one was still alive. A blue-eyed beige and white tabby cat. I quickly rushed him to the vet in Sardis near my apartment. His body was crawling with fleas. My heart broke for the other kittens. How could anyone be so cruel?!. I reported it to the SPCA by phone and told the vet what I saw. He wasn't surprised shockingly. His assistant bathed the cat and gave me flea medication and the vet gave him his first vaccines. Other than the dirt and f...

George Clulow and I were recently interviewed by Stirling Faux on the CKNW 980 AM radio show. George talks about how smart crows are and I talk about the rise of birding during the pandemic.  You can listen to it below. George's interview starts at 1:29:21 and my interview is at 1:36:08  Talking about American Crows and more on CKNW - Photo: Melissa Hafting

Check out this new beautiful video below that celebrates beautiful Nelson, BC.  Young birder Gaelen Schnare who lives in Nelson came on our overnight young birder  pelagic trip  to Tofino and also found the Black-chinned Hummingbird with me at the Richmond Nature Park. He is an awesome and passionate young birder. I am so happy and proud to see him featured in this great tourism video (wearing his young birders hat no less). He definitely will inspire more youth to follow their birding passion as he has done. Just another BC young birder making the BC birding community proud. You will enjoy the beautiful scenery of beautiful Kootenay Lake in the video as well. To read more about Gaelen's feature please click  HERE

Tree Swallow Project in Richmond - Photo: Melissa Hafting You may remember from previous posts that I designed and built 42 Tree Swallow nest boxes for the City of Richmond. The city paid for them and installed them over 3 different parks. The agreement was that I would monitor them, enter the data into project nestwatch and do a report. I would also need to clean them of course at the end of the year. Since Swallows are declining and because there is a lack of cavities for Tree Swallows, I thought it would be a worthy endeavor. I came up with this idea during the 2020 pandemic. This is the first program for the city of this kind. Sadly my friend Monica, told me about a naturalist group in Salmon Arm who was doing the same thing; only to have 32 (!!) of their boxes vandalized by a disturbed person who killed swallows and nestlings.  I hope no one ever hurts these swallows. Swallows bring so much joy but all nesting birds in public spaces are of course vulnerable. This is why ...

I was honoured to find out today that Audubon has featured my Instagram account as one of 20 bird photographers to follow to see beautiful bird photos. I was truly humbled to be in the company of so many talented photographers!. Young birder Alice Sun whom I mentored, was also featured which was amazing!!! Congrats Alice!. You can read both of our features  HERE at Audubon.org Thank you again to the National Audubon Society for this incredible feature. You can follow me on Instagram @ bcbirdergirl  View this post on Instagram A post shared by MELISSA HAFTING (@bcbirdergirl)