Action needed now

Oct 14/25

Please open this link to read the Grant Report
https://southokanagannature.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Hummingbird-report-to-SONC-100925-2025.pdf

Oct 7/25

Good morning, everyone. I have a few things to update you about coming up in the birding world.  Firstly, we have our weekly outings back on track now that all the summer activities are over, so we look forward to seeing you come out, especially our newer members, this has been a great way to introduce friends and family to SONC, so feel free to bring someone along.

Secondly, next Saturday, October 11 is an eBIrd big bird day and it is a wonderful opportunity to get out for an hour, or all day, to contribute to this citizen science project.  As in the past big bird days it would be great to see club members go out as small teams or individually and look for and record all of the birds that you can identify.  Even going out for a walk in your neighbourhood with a friend works. The Merlin app is one way to keep an individual record, or eBird for those more proficient at identification.  Let me know if you are forming a team, want to join a team, or going out on your own and share any lists with me. They do not have to be official eBIrd lists, a written one is fine.

Thirdly, the local Christmas bird count dates are now set for this season. The Penticton count will be on Dec 14, the Vaseux Lake count on Dec 20 and the Oliver Osoyoos count on Dec 27. Dick Cannings will be coordinating as usual, so circle these dates. They go ahead in any weather and can be a lot of fun, especially telling your tales of adventure at the count up afterwards.  This is an opportunity to go out in a small team and learn as you go, since each team will have someone who is proficient in identification.

I hope to do the “Christmas bird count for Kids”  again this year, so if you would like to help let me know. I have not worked a date out yet., but am looking at Dec 28. If you would like to set one up in your local community or know someone who would want to organize a local event let me know. It can be any day from Dec 14 to January 04. It would be nice to see one in Summerland, OK Falls and Naramata as well. They can be as simple as going out for an hour walk and having some cookies and hot chocolate at someone’s home afterwards. Further info and a short video can be found at: https://www.birdscanada.org/bird-science/christmas-bird-count-for-kids

Membership renewals have been going very well and if you have not renewed yet now is a perfect time to go to this link ad take care of it. https://southokanagannature.com/join-membership/

 I look forward to seeing you out there.

Alex   a.bodden@shaw.ca

You may recall me talking briefly at past meetings in 2025 about a project being undertaken at the old Fairview townsite West of Oliver. The goal is to inventory as much of the biodiversity as possible that can be found on the approx. 80 hectare site. This data will be used to support conservation efforts of this site. An iNaturalist project has been created which will be use as a platform to do this bioblitz. There is funding available to support volunteers in doing this and our club has been asked to help.

There are some members in the club who use iNaturalists on a regular basis and are familiar with how it works. One of the benefits of this platform is that one does not have to actually know what you have photographed to add it to the collection and usually the AI will produce options (very often a correct identification) Others people with more knowledge help with identification by reviewing the pictures and confirming or adding an identification. Recent testing showed that it has a greater then 95% accuracy.

 One of the challenges is making sure that the correct parts of a particular specimen needed for identification is detailed in the picture. It is not a perfect system, but like most things; practice makes perfect, and I have found it to be a great learning tool.

This is a three year project and it is anticipated that we will organize three or four group visits a year at different times to try to capture as much biodiversity as possible. One of the great things about an iNaturalists project is that you can go anytime you wish and add things.

We will be starting with a learning session on how iNaturalists works and cover o some of the best practises and photo requirements. You do not need a great camera and a cell phone often gives good results. We will then establish a bit of a protocol and go out and get to it.

If you are interested in participating, please let me know. You do not have to go out every time and you will be free to stop in at the site any time and contribute. I am hoping to have a learning session sometime in the last two weeks of March then go out for our first session in early April, followed by one in the summer and fall.

Ariel Vernon who is leading this project will be at our meeting on Feb 27 and will give a brief presentation on the project and be available for any questions that you may have.

Alex

From: Native Bee Society of BC - bcnativebees@gmail.com

Good afternoon fellow BC Nature Club,

The Native Bee Society of BC (NBSBC) is running a BC-Wide Bee Atlas Project, to map the diversity, distribution, and floral partners of BC's more than 500 different native bee species. This program is modeled after the highly successful Oregon Bee Atlas, and relies on community scientist volunteers trained through the Master Melittologist Program.

NBSBC will be presenting a webinar on March 27^th at 7 PM to introduce the BC Bee Atlas, including the need for a Bee Atlas, how training through the Master Melittologist Program works and the importance of understanding bee populations and their floral hosts in order to protect Canada's bees and their unique ecosystems. Please RSVP here for the zoom link: 

We hope you will be willing to share information about this webinar with your club members, and have also attached a poster and a link to our Facebook and Instagram posts promoting the event for easy sharing. We are also happy to answer any questions you may have about our program!

Thank you for passing the word on!

Bonnie Zand
NBSBC Board,
BC Bee Atlas Lead 

To learn more about native bees and to support our educational and research activities, please consider becoming a member. Note that membership is free for youth and we offer student plans.
If you appreciate the work we do, we welcome your Charitable Donation!
Thank you for being a Bee Friend!

SONC's Board has approved a $500 donation to the Nature Trust of BC in support of this land acquisition. We urge individual members to also support this campaign by making a donation to The Nature Trust. Get your cheque to either of Colleen Emshay (club treasurer) or Chris Anderson (membership) and we will make a combined presentation to TNT. Make your cheque to The Nature Trust of BC and note for "Skaha Lake Eastside".
Click on the link for more information on this property.
March 2017