DARE TO BIRD

We had a nice youth birding walk at Deer Lake with 25 participants for the Vancouver Bird Celebration and Burnaby Blooms Festival. You can read our trip report at the BC Young Birders website HERE Thank you to the City of Burnaby for sponsoring this event! Young Birders at Deer Lake in Burnaby for Vancouver's Bird Celebration 

During our Christmas Bird Count for Youth held at Reifel Bird Sanctuary in December. Kris Cu from Birds Canada came to interview a few of the young birders (with parental permission) for a video for Birds Canada to promote the annual Christmas Bird Count. The three youth who spoke Rose, Naomi and Leo did so well! Check out the video narrated by Yousif Attia below: Thanks to Birds Canada for featuring these wonderful youth and to all the youth that came out for our count!

We had our annual Christmas Bird Count for Youth on Dec 6th we had a great count. You can read our trip report at the BC Young Birders website  HERE . Young Birders in Delta for the Christmas Bird Count for Youth - Photo: Kris Cu

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, ...

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...

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

We had a great field trip to Manning Park on July 20th. You can read all about our trip at the BC Young Birders website HERE Thanks to all the youth who came out and made it special and to all the parents who drove their children and let them participate! It was a great day! Young Birders at Manning Park 

We had a great young birder trip to Grant Narrows in Pitt Meadows. We found our own Least Flycatcher and had many Gray Catbirds, American Redstarts, Eastern Kingbirds and more! You can read it about it at the BC Young Birders website HERE Young Birders at Grant Narrows in Pitt Meadows, BC - Photo: Melissa Hafting

Young Birders during the youth walk in Coquitlam - Photo: Melissa Hafting We had a great trip to  ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park in Coquitlam this past Saturday. The event was put on by the Coquitlam Public Library who asked me to lead the youth walk which was a 2SLGBTQIA+ and BIPOC inclusive walk. Several youth from the BC Young Birders program came out but we also met many new keen youth birders, which was fantastic! We had 20 youth sign up and everyone showed up despite the rainy weather. We saw many great birds including Mountain Bluebirds and an American Bittern! You can read our trip report at the BC Young Birders site HERE Thank you again to the Coquitlam Public Library for sponsoring this inclusive event and asking me to lead it! American Bittern in Coquitlam - Photo: Cole O'Byrne Isabelle Groc came to me when she was making this film and asked me to ask the young birders if anyone wanted to be part of her film. I asked and Adam Ross was the first to reply he really wanted to be i...

I wanted to thank BC Nature and Birds Canada for sponsoring the boat trip the young birders and I did this past weekend on the adult Ladner CBC with White Rock Sea Tours. Despite us all getting completely soaked, the youth were really troopers. It was sunny but way too rough out there we did see one Humpback out there. Thanks to all the hardy youth who came out and made the day special. We finished the day with hot chocolate at the local cafe where the barista almost had a heart attack when I ordered 12 large hot chocolates with 12 sodden children and a huge lineup behind me!  I want to thank you kiddos for making the day bright even when you were all shivering. It’s you kids that really help me to get through this very difficult time of the year as we approach the anniversary of my mother’s death on Christmas Eve and a second Christmas without my dad and a third without my mother. It’s you, the youth who really have helped me to get out the door showing you birds and getting to kn...

7/8 Young Birders at the Christmas Bird Count For Youth - Photo: Melissa Hafting We had a great CBC 4 Youth at Reifel on the weekend. It was pouring rain in the beginning so we had a few cancellations but 8 hardy youth still turned up and then the sun came out midday which was lovely. You can read our full trip report HERE at the BC Young Birders website. Next weekend I will see all who registered for the Boundary Bay boat trip for the Delta Christmas Adult Bird Count (sponsored by Birds Canada and BC Nature). Unfortunately, like I often do I forget to take the group photo until the end and we missed one birder Markus from the photo who had to leave early for volleyball.

Please sign up for our annual Christmas Bird Count for Youth on Dec 7th! This event is open to youth aged 12-18 and runs from 9:30 am until 2:30pm and is FREE . All info is also posted on the events page of the BC Young Birders Program website . Please register for tickets HERE   This event is BIPOC and LGBTQ+ inclusive.

I was honoured to be a made a mentor for the American Birding Association (ABA) Young Birder of the Year (YBY) Mentoring Program. You can read more about the panel of mentors  HERE  and the YBY mentorship program  HERE !

13 youth came out on the Young Birder Trip to Reifel. We had 81 species! I have never seen that many species in one visit at the park! It was a great day for fall migration. We found our own Great Egret and saw many good birds. You can read the full trip report  HERE  at the BC Young Birders website Thank you to all the youth who came out! It was so much fun! Young Birders at Reifel Bird Sanctuary - Photo: Melissa Hafting

Young Birders attending the Female Nat Geo/Girls Who Click Photo Workshop in Vancouver This weekend we had a fun Young Birder-filled weekend! On Saturday we met up at Maplewood Flats and had a nice walk around the park. We saw 55 species including a fully leucistic Short-billed Gull, Chipping Sparrow and Evening Grosbeaks. A full list of species can be found HERE and our full report at the BC Young Birders website HERE . Young Birders at Maplewood Flats - Photo: Melissa Hafting On Sunday I took part in and co-led a National Geographic and Girls Who Click photo workshop for Female identifying Young Birder/Wildlife photographers for ages 13-18 year olds. I co-led with National Geographic Explorer photographer Gunjan Menon. Gunjan made a famous film on Red Pandas and she discussed her ethical approach to conservation and wildlife photography and taught the girls how to most effectively use their cameras; which was very helpful. The field is mostly male dominated and that is why Gunjan c...

On Aug 11-2024, talented National Geographic and Girls Who Click photographer and filmmaker  Gunjan Menon and I are hosting a photo workshop for female identifying or non-binary teen bird/wildlife photographers who are age 13-18 years old. We will be doing a bird walk and give the teens an introduction to conservation photography and storytelling. I will also be giving the girls a talk on local birds. The event is FREE, so there are no barriers to entry for any participants. However, spots are limited so sign up ASAP if you are interested! We will be running this at Stanley Park from 9 am until 2pm. For safety reasons the exact location will be given out directly to you upon registration. Also, if you don't have a camera or smart phone to photograph the wildlife with us, during the workshop, there will be cameras that the youth can use during the outdoor workshop! You can sign up and read more about this event HERE Make sure that your parents fill out the 3 attached waivers at t...

Check out the most recent trip report of the Young Birders trip to Pitt Lake. You can read the great time they had at the BC Young Birders Website HERE Beautiful Grant Narrows, where the youth had their field trip, in Pitt Meadows - Photo: Raymond Liu

You can read the most recent Young Birder Trip to Cypress at the BC Young Birders website HERE The youth had a great time! Thanks to young birder program graduate Evan Larson for writing up the report and for his help leading the youth on this trip! Young Birders on Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver - Photo: Evan Larson

*THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL* Hi Young Birders the next Young Birder Trip is posted on the new website. It will be June 22! You can read all details HERE https://www.bcyoungbirders.ca/upcoming-trips-events/ Make sure you email me at bcbirdergirl@gmail.com to let me know if you are coming as your parents must sign a waiver. You will not be permitted to come on the trip without this waiver. Make sure to subscribe to the new website https://www.bcyoungbirders.ca by putting your email in the follow.it box at the bottom of the website to get updates! This is a FREE and BIPOC and LGBTQ+ inclusive event . Northern Pygmy-Owl in south-coastal BC - Photo: Melissa Hafting