DARE TO BIRD

Again this proves that activism REALLY DOES work! After lots of hard work of getting cities to ban rodenticides by multiple people; the province has listened and turned their temporary ban into a permanent one. It still isn't perfect because there are still too many exceptions but it is a HUGE step forward to help protect wildlife and raptors. If you follow my blog you will remember how long it took for the City of Richmond and Port Moody and all the other cities who followed suit to get this change. All the cities who banned the use in their cities asked the provincial government to make a province-wide ban. It was a lot of hard work but it was worth it because we are now here today. We can't stop fighting until there is a federal ban and the province removes or heavily restricts more of these exceptions. For now though, the province has permanently banned rodenticides effective Jan 21, 2023.  The ban applies to all sale and use of SGARs by members of the public, and most com...

Thanks to Birds Canada for featuring my photo of a Bridled Murre on their 2023 calendar! It’s an honour to be featured in the calendar once again . I remember judging this contest in the past and was so impressed by all the beautiful photos submitted.  The original photo of a Common Murre (Bridled) from Cape St. Mary's NFLD - Photo: Melissa Hafting My photo featured in the 2023 Birds Canada Calendar  Also check out  BC young birder Lukas Miller's lovely Common Yellowthroat photo featured on the cover! Congrats Lukas! Cover of the 2023 Birds Canada Calendar by Lukas Miller

Went over to Duncan the day after my friend Jeremy Gatten found a Smith's Longspur in a dirt field beside 7-11. In this same field he found a Lark and Vesper Sparrow the week before. These birds are stunning in breeding plumage and subtly beautiful in non-breeding. This was a new BC bird for me. Fun fact - Smith's Longspurs are polygynandrous so both sexes have multiple partners each breeding season. Female mate over 300 times a week during this time as well. The last chaseable one in BC was in 2013 when Mike Toochin and Kevin Louth found one at Boundary Bay. We have multiple other records in the province since but they have not been chaseable. Also they breed in the province in small numbers in inaccessible areas that you can only get to by helicopter so that is why I went right away to see it. The bird is still there today delighting birders which is cool! Smith's Longspur in Duncan, BC - Photos: Melissa Hafting After went to Victoria and saw a Tropical Kingbird and a Lap...

Young Birders on Blackcomb Mtn in Whistler - Photo: Melissa Hafting We had a lovely young birder hike with 12 participants on Saturday in Whistler. We took Epic Rides comfy shuttle bus and were in Whistler at 9:30am. We took the gondola up at 10 am to Blackcomb Mountain and had a few Canada Jays on the ride up. At the top we found several Hoary Marmots that the youth loved photographing. There was even an adorable baby there fattening up on grass before they will soon hibernate.  Young Birders photographing the first Hoary Marmot we saw - Photo: Melissa Hafting Hoary Marmots on Blackcomb Mtn in Whistler - Photo: Heather T. Hoary Marmots on Whistler - Photos: Melissa Hafting We waited for the gray gondola (with a glass bottom so we could look out below) and took the peak to peak gondola across to Whistler. We didn't see too many birds over there but did see an unusual for the elevation Brewer's Blackbird. We took the gondola back to Blackcomb and did a hike on the Overlord Trail...