Bring Back the Bluebird

Male Western Bluebird

Every now and then a western or a mountain bluebird makes an appearance here in the Comox Valley during the winter and early spring. A single mountain bluebird turned up at YQQ in April, 2012 and two more turned up on the Comox Valley Nature May, 2011 spring bird count. …

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Grassland Birds In Saskatchewan Need Help

After more than 75 years of managing fragile grasslands as productive rangelands for livestock grazing, the federal government announced in the spring of 2012 that it was transferring control of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) pastures back to the provinces. This was done with no public consultation and little …

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Our Birding Blogger Needs You

Bird Canada author and birder extraordinaire Charlotte Wasylik is participating in the annual Baillie Birdathon in May. This is the oldest sponsored bird count in North America and proceeds raised support bird studies across Canada. Her goal is $500 and she has already raised $205. She has earmarked half of the …

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How do we learn about bird migration?

Situated in the South Okanagan valley of British Columbia, Vaseux Lake is an important resting area for migrating birds. From August 1 to October 15, a bird banding station is in place to capture, record and release migrating and resident birds. There is a series of  mist nests (8’ High …

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What, if Anything, is a Hoary Redpoll?

Posted by Bob Lefebvre, Calgary The last two winters have seen huge irruptions of redpolls into the Calgary area, and across much of southern Canada and the northern continental US. This doesn’t happen every year, and it has been difficult to find any Common Redpolls in some recent winters. Finding …

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Drilling for “oil” in the nursery

Some of Enbridge’s oil tanks are decorated with illustrations of lovely Canada Geese in flight. Let’s just hope they don’t land in the tar sands tailing ponds. Almost all the largest oil companies are currently mining and drilling in the Boreal forest and wetlands where more than half of the birds …

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Taxidermy for Birders: Birding the Canadian Museum of Nature

Hello everyone and welcome to my inaugural post for the Bird Canada blog!  My name is David Pugh and I’m a birder from Calgary, Alberta who writes a blog named, with shocking originality, “A Calgary Birder”.  If you would like to know a little more about me there is a …

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Birding Volunteers Needed

Shorebird Surveys, Coastal BC Bird Studies Canada and Simon Fraser University are collaborating on a hemispheric-wide effort to study potential causes of declines of Western Sandpipers. Because they use many distinct migratory sites in the Salish Sea region, British Columbia is in the unique situation of supporting a large proportion …

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