Species 150 Completed

    As you may know I am a birder. You also may know that I lead a birdwatching group every Saturday morning. Then I can remind you that it's Canada's 150th birthday this year. The birthday is July 1.

    Now when some random chaotic thinker like me puts these things together I can come up with some odd ball ideas. So a few months ago I told you that I had a project for people to find 150 bird species in this region for the celebration of Canada's birthday. The area was defined by the Central Alberta Bird Trail map https://birdingtrailsalberta.com/. If you're interested google  and you will find a down loadable map.  You will also find reported species that have been observed in the area.

   Well, happy surprise. Our 150th bird was reported May 20.

   When I started the project I had no idea how long it would take. To finish in 5 months was a pleasant surprise. There are many very keen birders in the area and they got in the swing of things and reported everything they saw. I had to check to see that the species hadn't already been reported and then record date, location and reporter. I met some new birders on line and I'm sure they will show up in some of our groups.

   Now we will continue counting species until the end of 2017.

    All photos gleefully stolen from the Red Deer Naturalist's face book page.

CANADA AT 150

      This year on July 1 is Canada's 150th birthday. There are many events and celebrations planned. Not too much has been advertised yet. Most events will take place July 1. However, other events will take place in the summer season.

      Now I think most readers know that I lead a bird watching group on Saturdays. We don't go out birding in the winter so I have extra time to think about things. Now that could be dangerous.

      I came up with the idea that we look for 150 bird species in our city and surroundings!!! So this is one event that will run most of the year. People will report bird species that they see to an email address. Yours truly will sift through the sightings and make an official list of species sighted. This idea was met with enthusiasm so here we go for a Canada birthday project.

    With this project we will be celebrating Canada's birthday.

    I also hope that this project will get some publicity. The local paper picked up my project proposal to members within 24 hours so that was great publicity. With publicity I hope that birders will get to know other birders. I hope other people just generally get an interest in birding.

    I also hope that the public becomes aware of the importance of natural habitat in the health of bird populations and other wildlife.

    So wish us well in finding 150 species this year and around July 1 you can wish us happy birthday.

     As of today we've found 35 species.