DARE TO BIRD

I was honoured to receive a letter from The House of Commons from a Member of Parliament Tako van Popta informing me that I have been awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal from the Government of Canada. This medal will be given out later this year. I am so touched and moved by this. I cried when I opened the letter. This will really be a special moment for me and I’m so humbled by it. I wish my mother and father were alive to see me get this medal. It is bittersweet and it is moments like this that I really feel their loss, even more deeply. Grief never ends because when you lose someone you love so much, they will continue to miss out on all the milestones as I move forward in life. I really miss sharing these big events in my life with my parents. I read a recent article that is entitled "Grieving During Milestones:   Since I Lost A Parent, The Happiest Moments In Life Have Become The Hardest To Cope With" and it is true.   I hope they will be watching from above ...

Female Purple Martin in Richmond - Photo: Melissa Hafting Female Purple Martin on post at Garry Point Park - Photos: Melissa Hafting We cleaned out the Purple Martin nest boxes on Jan 11th this year at my city of Richmond nest box project at Garry Point Park and were very happy to see we have had the most successful year yet! 15 nests were used and we found only one dead bird and one unhatched egg and all the other young had fledged successfully! This is over double the boxes used since last year! This means we had up to 82 young fledge from the colony this year in the second year of the project!  I will be recommending to the city to expand the nest boxes into further boat-only accessible sites along the channel, where the general public can also enjoy viewing these brilliant birds. Purple Martins used to nest in natural cavities which are sadly now in short supply and like Tree Swallows, are almost fully dependent on human-made nest boxes. The Tree Swallow nest box project, with ...

I was honoured to be asked by Peter Pyle to be a member of the American Birding Association's (ABA) Checklist Committee (CLC). They published this news at the end of November HERE . I am the first Black person and the first member from BC and less than a handful from Canada and one of the few women who have been selected. It means a lot to me to be selected. I do wish my father lived to see this and my upcoming March cover story for the ABA's Birding magazine. The CLC purpose is: Maintaining and updating the ABA Checklist Reviewing and revising the ABA Codes that cover ease of observation Voting on whether to add a species to the ABA Checklist You can read about the ABA-CLC and see my profile there now that David Sibley and Andrew Kratter have rotated off at the end of Dec/24 and Mark Lockwood from TX and I joined in Jan/25. You can also learn more about what we do  HERE

I was a guest on “The Bird Joy Podcast” you can listen to the episode in full HERE  or wherever podcasts are played. We discussed a wide range of topics from how birding helps with grief to the joy it brings and also mentoring young birders. It was a really fun podcast to do with two very wonderful hosts Dexter Patterson and Jason Hall. Dexter and Jason are also Black birders who have started this successful podcast.