DARE TO BIRD

I was awarded The King Charles III Coronation Medal earlier than expected today from the Government of Canada. I am truly honoured by this and a huge thanks to Cos van Wermeskerken and Yousif Attia for writing their MPs about me and for MP Tako van Popta for nominating me to the Governor General and to the Governor General, Mary Simon, for approving me as a recipient. The medal is administered by the Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. It was a true honour to be awarded the medal today in the company of other amazing and worthy recipients. I was the youngest recipient present. I wish my parents had lived to see the day and I sure missed seeing them smiling back at me in the audience.  I will say again how truly honoured I am to have received this medal. It is the highest award I have ever received and it touched me to hear my work and accomplishments read aloud in front of the audience. Here is the bio the MP read in part:   “ Melissa Hafting makes exceptional a...

I am running a Young Birder Walk at   ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park , this spring break, on March 29th for young birders age 12-18 through the Coquitlam Public Library. Binoculars will be provided for any youth who don't have a pair. We will meet at 9:30 am here at the parking lot in front of the community gardens. You must pre-register for this event and youth can sign up for the FREE event HERE Thank you to the Coquitlam Public Library for sponsoring this event!

I am on the board of directors for The Frontiers in Ornithology Association and part of the of the organizing committee for the 2025 Youth Symposium. This is the first time it will ever be held on the west coast and we hope to bring it to Canada and around the world soon. We have a great list of adult and youth speakers; including some from BC, like Indigenous birder and lawyer Jeffrey Nicholls who will speak on birding from an Indigenous perspective, environmental law and activism. You can read the full list of speakers HERE Our adult keynote is Steve Hampton and our youth keynotes are Lara Tseng and Song Han Ngo. The primary mission of this event is to  focus on ornithology, conservation science and related academic pursuits.  The symposium does not focus on birding, bird identification techniques, or listing birds, but instead on  cutting-edge technologies being used in avian research and study, careers in ornithology, and how to pursue that focus in higher education,...