Our traditional DNS Meeting Venue (Cammidge House) can only accommodate 40 persons – and often there are more than 40 people wanting to hear our Guest Speakers!
DNS Monthly Meetings will be held on the FIRST TUESDAY of each month (except July and August) at 7:30 p.m. at BENEDICTION LUTHERAN CHURCH, 5575 6th Ave, Tsawwassen (map at http://goo.gl/D2azbK).
After the business is concluded, and a refreshment break, there will be a Presentation by a guest Speaker (8:15 pm to 9:45 pm).
Next DNS Monthly Meeting:
TUESDAY, November 7, 2017 at Benediction Lutheran Church
Speaker: Anne Murray
Topic: Seabird Colonies in England, Iceland, & Peru
Birds such as gannets, guillemots, kittiwakes, and puffins congregate to nest on rocky headlands and islands around the world. Their dense colonies with hundreds of thousands of birds are a spectacular sight. My presentation focuses on locations in England, Iceland, and Peru.
Anne Murray is the author of A Nature Guide to Boundary Bay and Tracing Our Past ~ A Heritage Guide to Boundary Bay and a major contributing author to the Georgia Basin Habitat Atlas: Boundary Bay. These books were published by Nature Guides BC, a company founded by Anne in 2005. Anne is currently providing editorial assistance to the Bird Studies Canada and partners publishing committee, working on the online BC Breeding Bird Atlas.
Anne volunteers with a number of non-profit organizations including Bird Studies Canada (Board Secretary), the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust (Board member), the Delta Naturalists’ Society, and BC Nature (the Federation of BC Naturalists), of which she is a past-President and currently the BC Important Bird Areas liaison member. She is a past-trustee of the Delta Museum and Archives. Among other awards, she was a recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal for nature conservation, BC Nature’s Elton Anderson Award, and Nature Vancouver’s John Davidson Award for Conservation.
Anne has had a life-long interest in birds, nature, history and different cultures. Born and educated in England, where she received her BSc (physics and geology), she has taught mathematics and science to every age group. She took up writing about nature, ecological history and conservation in 2004. She has lived in Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Alberta and for the last two decades, in Tsawwassen, British Columbia. Anne is married with three daughters.
Previous DNS Monthly Meeting:
TUESDAY, October 3, 2017
Speaker: Ken Hall
Topic: Water in the Desert
Starts on the Canadian Okanagan and goes south through Washington State and finishes in Arizona. It shows plants, birds and animals and how they can live and thrive in this arid environment.
During his 35 years at UBC, Dr. Ken Hall taught courses in water pollution engineering and its ecological impacts, environmental impact studies, watershed management, limnology and laboratory courses on environmental analysis. He served on committees (Environmental Monitoring Committee, Brunette watershed task group) at Metro Vancouver as part of their liquid waste management plan (LWMP). He worked with an interdisciplinary group on Lake Titicaca on the altiplano of Peru to organize water quality research and give courses at the university in Puno, Peru.
He is a life member of Nature Vancouver, and has given presentations to this organization. For example, he gave a talk about birds on postage stamps. He was a Director and Chair of the Board of the B.C. Waterfowl Society (Reifel Sanctuary) for several years.Along with Peter Ward, he has been doing nature sound recording since the 1970’s and along with vinyl records and cassettes, they have produced 7 CDs on nature sounds. Since retiring from UBC in 2005, he has worked with Peter Ward and John Toochin to build bird nest boxes, including approx. 400 tree swallow, bluebird and chickadee boxes, 50 barn owl boxes, wood duck boxes, Barrow’s Goldeneye boxes and bat boxes. These boxes are installed mainly in the Lower Fraser area, but also at Big Bar Lake (north of Clinton). For many of these boxes they do annual repairs and nesting success evaluation.
In 2008, Ken received the Murray Newman Award from the Vancouver Aquarium for aquatic conservation work that he has done on B. C. lakes along with graduate students during his UBC research activities. Also, along with Peter Ward and John Toochin, he received the VNHS, Davidson award in 2017 for their conservation activities (nest box construction).
As part of Ken’s research at UBC with the Westwater Research Centre (Faculty of Graduate Studies) he has monitored water quality on the lower Fraser River as well as studied marsh plant production and decomposition processes in the Fraser Estuary wetlands.
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see collection of previous posters at DNS Posters Archive
| Delta Naturalists Speaker List 2017 | |||||
| Date & Speaker | Bio | Topic will be updated as more information is made available | |||
| Jan. 3, 2017
Joe Foy |
Joe Foy is National Campaign Director, Wilderness Committee. As a child growing up in the Fraser Valley, Joe loved to hike and fish in the country surrounding his home – but it was his love of the Stein Valley wilderness that led him to begin volunteering with the Wilderness Committee in 1984. In 1987 Joe became the Wilderness Committee’s first paid campaigner and initiated the Lower Mainland Pocket Wilderness Campaign. Since then, Joe has been the driving force behind many of our campaigns, and has led the Wilderness Committee to successfully protect spectacular areas such as the Elaho Valley, Boise/Pinecone/Burke, and the Stein, Carmanah and Lower Walbran Valleys. Joe’s passion for the wild shines through in his speeches at rallies, to media, and to the public. In all of his front line work, Joe is inspired and informed by his love for wilderness and the thousands of hours he has spent exploring BC’s wild places. | Endangered Species in B. C. , including the need to have provincial legislation. Wilderness Committee is the organization which made the film entitled TOAD PEOPLE.
Did you know BC has no endangered species legislation? Most people are unaware that although BC has the greatest biodiversity in the country, we are one of only two provinces in Canada – the other being Alberta – that has no stand-alone law to protect endangered wildlife. Today, more than 1,900 species and subspecies are at risk of disappearing from our province. From peregrine falcons to monarch butterflies, endangered species in BC are left to fend for themselves against climate change, toxic contamination, urban sprawl, logging and industrial development. |
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| Feb. 7, 2017
Peter Ward |
Peter Ward worked as a Hydrology Engineer for several decades, and his career took him to many parts of the world, especially to his favourite areas, in sub-tropical latitudes on 3 continents. He started bird watching in Africa, and spent many years making sound recordings of birds, initially as a student in California, and later in Africa and in British Columbia. He is now a keen bird and nature photographer, and is still travelling widely. | A winter visit to Oman: Birds and Nature | |||
| Mar. 7, 2017
Anne Murray |
Anne has had a life-long interest in birds, nature, history and different cultures. Born and educated in England, where she received her BSc (physics and geology), she has taught mathematics and science to every age group. She took up writing about nature, ecological history and conservation in 2004. She has lived in Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Alberta and for the last two decades, in Tsawwassen, British Columbia.
Anne volunteers with a number of non-profit organizations including Bird Studies Canada (Board Secretary), the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust (Board member), the Delta Naturalists’ Society, and BC Nature (the Federation of BC Naturalists), of which she is a past-President and currently the BC Important Bird Areas liaison member. She is a past-trustee of the Delta Museum and Archives. Among other awards, she was a recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal for nature conservation, BC Nature’s Elton Anderson Award, and Nature Vancouver’s John Davidson Award for Conservation. |
Australia: Wild, Hot & Birdy
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| Apr. 4, 2017
Emma Langson |
Emma Langson’s involvement with Plastic Oceans came from her natural interest in the marine environment having lived by the coast in the UK, HK and now Canada. Over the past 15 years she has had a successful career in Marketing, PR & Fundraising. She was a member of the Institute of Fundraising in the UK before moving to Vancouver BC in 2009. In 2014, she began building the Canadian branch of the Plastic Oceans Foundation, who have charitable offices in UK and HK and will soon be established in both Canada and USA. Plastic Oceans mission is to change the world’s attitude to plastic in one generation. Emma is working with NGO’s and policy makers to engage & connect with Canadians on the issues and solutions to plastic pollution here in Canada. |  Devil in the Deep Blue Sea: Plastic
Emma will be bringing a private 10 min trailer of clips from the film plus the 2 min official trailer of the documentary feature film ‘A Plastic Ocean’ and will follow that with a PowerPoint presentation on the issues surrounding plastic pollution and its impact on marine life and human health. By helping consumers to become plastic literate, they will make informed decisions about how they use plastic. |
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| May 2, 2017
David Hoar & Noreen Rudd
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David Hoar: Retired University Professor in the field of Molecular Genetics doing studies in DNA based genetic diagnosis and forensics. Noreen Rudd: Retired Pediatrician and University Professor in the field of Medical Genetics.David & Noreen have spent most of the past 25 summers cruising the coastal waters of B.C. and SE Alaska. They lived aboard their 42′ power boat Pacific Sapphire for 5 years, but are now back in a Tsawwassen condo when they are home. Birding-focused trips to more tropical climates are a winter passion, and their favorite summer cruising grounds are in Haida Gwaii. |
Birding in Costa Rica We will present an overview of Costa Rica as a destination for birders. This politically stable Central American country has protected over 25% of its land mass as National Parks and its economy depends heavily on tourism. Having both a Pacific and Caribbean coast separated by central mountains creates diverse habitats for migrants from North and South America and the establishment of endemic species.Our 2017 trip focused more on the birds along Pacific coast; however, in 2012 we also spent time along the Caribbean coast, in the central valley, and on the slopes of the volcanoes. This country, although it may be challenging for first time birders, has very competent Guides that can introduce you to both flora and fauna of this tropical paradise. |
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| Jun 6, 2017 | DNS Members | Presentations by DNS members | |||
| Sep. 5, 2017 | Diane & David Reesor |
MADAGASCAR – The Mini-Continent
Ours was the first ever flying safari to Madagascar October 2013. Madagascar is actually a mini-continent, larger than France, containing the world’s most bizarre and diverse flora and fauna along with some otherworldly landscapes and geology. In our 18 days there, we were able to see and photograph many of the endemic species. Shown will be Lemurs, including the dancing ones, reptiles, geckos and plenty of birds. |
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| Oct. 3, 2017 | Ken Hall |
Water in the Desert Starts on the Canadian Okanagan and goes south through Washington State and finishes in Arizona. It shows plants, birds and animals and how they can live and thrive in this arid environment. |
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| Nov. 7, 2017 | Anne Murray | Life on the Edge – seabird colonies in Iceland, Peru and England | Dec. 5, 2017 | Raincoast Conservation | Endangered Orcas |
My slide show will look at all aspects of nature, including birds, marsupials, reptiles and plants, from different regions of Australia, based on my travels there on numerous occasions over the last 33 years.
Tentative schedule for DNCB outings: see DNS Upcoming Events page.
