DARE TO BIRD

It has taken me several days to gather myself to write this post. I never thought I would have to go through this again so soon. My mom died Dec 24, 2021 and now I lost my dad on Feb 23, 2023. Losing both parents just over a year apart is too much. It feels cruel and unfair. Feb 23rd was also my mother's birthday, so when he died on her birthday it was very, very hard. I recently shared news that I am writing a book and sadly now, none of my parents will be around to read it. I will dedicate it to them but it is not the same. I lost half of my heart when my mother passed away and now have lost the other half now that my dad has passed. My dad in the Okanagan  My dad was a LOVELY, GENEROUS and KIND man. He is the first person who got me into birding. He took me out and taught me about birds and bought me my first field guide. He also bought me my first set of binoculars and first camera. We loved to feed birds together from Chickadees to Canada Jays. He loved watching Snow Geese wh

The 2023 BCFO Young Birder Awards were announced and young birders Raymond, Clay, Paul, Harry, Josh, Daniel and Bentley were the much deserved recipients this year. You can see their pictures below and read more about them HERE Congratulations to them all!

I am honoured to be 1 of 5 Black environmentalists featured by Science World today for this year's Black History Month, for my contributions to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and design and math). You can read the full feature HERE Thank you again to Science World for the honour! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Science World (@scienceworldca) Bufflehead at Lost Lagoon - Photo: Melissa Hafting Young birders and I in Ucluelet on a pelagic - Photo: Warren Lee

I have some big news to share. I signed a publishing deal with Rocky Mountain Books   after they approached me to write a book. I am honoured to be writing a couple of books for them. My first one is coming out in Spring 2024 and will have worldwide distribution. The book will be about birding and will feature my photography as well. I didn't want to release the news so early but they released the news on their website and social media, a couple of days ago, so I figure I won't hide it anymore. I just wish I could of shared this news with my mother. I will share more details about what the book will be about closer to the release date. For now you can read a blog post HERE that I did for them for Black History Month (February).  Thanks as always for the support. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rocky Mountain Books (@rm_books) My author photo taken by Young Birder Program Graduate and photographer Ian Harland A video of a Greater Sage-Grouse

I wanted to update you all about my Tree Swallow and Purple Martin Nestbox projects with the City of Richmond. If you are interested please read our 2022 Tree Swallow Nestbox report HERE . It was a successful year in 2022 with over 115 young successfully fledged! We lost 37 birds to the heat wave though. Reading this report will be helpful so you understand why I am adding heat shields and ventilation holes and painting the boxes white. Tree Swallow nestbox with heat shield at Garden City Lands - Photo: Melissa Hafting Over the last few years we have had a lot of success with this project and have had so many more boxes occupied than in the first year.  Unfortunately, the unprecedented heat waves both years, have caused some chicks and even an adult to succumb to the heat. To prevent those losses I recommended to the city to put on heat shields and vent holes with mesh and to paint the boxes white. Scientific Studies have shown as detailed in the report that heat shields and white boxe

Happy Young Birders after getting their lifer Rock Sandpiper - Photo: Melissa Hafting Well we got nine youth together and we biked out to the end of the south jetty in order to attempt to get them their lifer Rock Sandpiper!  We had a great time riding out but I could tell the youth were anxious at the fast rate they were pedaling the 4km out in order to get to the end. Who can blame them really?! When we got to the end there were many friendly familiar  HAPPY faces. The bird was not visible at the moment and a hovercraft had gone by honking and the shorebirds flushed. We could see Sanderling, Westerns and Dunlin. They all came back but the Rock Sandpiper was not visible (probably hiding in the rocks). I assured the kids not to panic and that it would be back. All of a sudden, I spotted it in flight and then it landed on a log and then on a rock in front of us, giving everyone present, awesome views. You could notice how much darker it was and of course the yellow legs and yellow basal