DARE TO BIRD

Update this event is now FULL We are having our annual Christmas Bird Count for Youth on Dec 6th. Full details are posted as well on the BC Young Birders website HERE We will meet at Reifel Bird Sanctuary at 9 am and we will finish at 2pm. Entrance is free for youth attending. Come look for winter birds like Redpolls, American Tree Sparrows, Northern Saw-whet Owls, Short-eared Owls and Rough-legged Hawks and other great birds at our CBC4Kids in Delta. All data we collect from our count will be sent to eBird and Bird Studies Canada to aid in studies for bird conservation. 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 : Please bring binoculars, a toque, ...

I was honoured to co-host a winter birding talk called “Feathers in the Frost” with Jason Hudecki for the Nature Conservancy of Canada. We had over 5300 people sign up to watch it. If you want to watch the recording you can do so at the link below:

I am co-leading a FREE talk and Q and A about winter birding “Feathers in the Frost” for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) at 2:30pm on Nov 6th. It is an honour to be doing this for NCC and should be a lot of fun so hope you can join us! You can sign up for it HERE

Check out my new podcast episode with the “Let’s Take This Outside Podcast.” You can listen to it HERE . We talk about my book “Dare to Bird” and about grief and loss and how birding helps with that. You can also click the link below to listen. Also a good news story that featured my photo of the Northern Spotted Owl. You hardly here any good news stories about this species so nice to hear about this family in WA read the story  HERE Also 3 of my photos (Tundra Swan, Hooded Merganser and Bohemian Waxwing) are featured in this new book by Tom Myers for young birders. It’s the perfect gift for any teen or kid birder! Check it out HERE By the way I recently saw a Steller’s Eider in Port Hardy that was my 460th bird species for the province of BC and only the second time I’ve seen a Steller’s Eider ever. I placed a video of it below and a photo. Immature Male Steller's Eider in Port Hardy - Photo: Melissa Hafting Also the 2025 updated edition of my book “ Dare to Bird ” is out you can ...

We had a great Frontiers in Ornithology Youth Symposium in Seattle WA on Oct 4th! We had amazing youth attendees, and parents and amazing youth and adult speakers. Watching the youth ask questions and engage with the speakers and be so passionate about their future careers was very moving for me. Youth connected with like-minded youth from across North America and made friendships and shared in their passion. The speakers were so diverse that there was something for everyone from how to paint birds to ornithologic and scientific careers and careers in social justice and Indigenous rights and conservation. All of our speakers from Canada and the USA (except for Dennis Paulson who had to leave early :( ) are pictured in the photo below with board members and our amazing keynote Steve Hampton. It was really nice to meet and see Bird field guide book author Cameron Cox come out to volunteer and help us, when he had no children in the event. We had so much excess catered food that the exac...

I am leading a bird walk for the Stanley Park Ecology Society at 9:30 am on Oct 26th. You can sign up HERE Hope to see you there! This program is open to all ages!

We had a great Young Birder Hawk on Sunday with a couple rare hawks! You can read our trip report at the BC Young Birders website HERE Young Birders at the Hawk Watch in West Vancouver 

We had our young birder trip in Delta on August 27th. We went shorebirding in Delta!  You can read about it at the BC Young Birders website HERE Looking forward to our next trip; which is a hawk watch next month Sept 21st ! See you there! Young Birders at Boundary Bay in Delta, BC - Photo: Melissa Hafting

I will be speaking at Word Vancouver about my book “ Dare to Bird ” and discussing birds with 3 other authors with a moderated panel called “For the Love of Birds - Three Authors’ Perspectives.” You can check it out  Sept 20 at 11am at the HSBC Hall at UBC Robson Square at 800 Robson Street in Vancouver. All info on the event can be found here  HERE View this post on Instagram A post shared by Word Vancouver (@wordvancouver)

I co-led a birding trip with Chris Charlesworth to Newfoundland with Avocet Tours in early July.  On July 2nd we met up for dinner in St. John's and the next morning we went to Kent's Pond to look for a reported Tufted Duck and we found a drake at the far end of the pond. There was also a Common Tern flying by and some American Black Ducks.  Tufted Duck in St. John's, NFLD - Photo: Melissa Hafting We then went to Burton's Pond to see the long staying rare Pink-footed Goose. At Burton's Pond we also had a rare for the time of year Eurasian Wigeon drake.      Pink-footed Goose in St. John's - Photo: Melissa Hafting Eurasian Wigeon in St. John's, NL - Photo: Melissa Hafting We then drove towards Cape Pine, on the normally, visually stunning, Irish Loop. Before we reached foggy St. Vincent's we had a Canada Jay and Belted Kingfisher sitting on the wire. After a bathroom break near the famous "Gut" whale viewing site, we continued on towards Cape P...