May 24: Spring Meeting of the Bird Language Club

Bird language meet-up May 24, 2026, at Swan Lake, 9am – 11:30am.

Hi Friends,

The birds are singing and spring is in full swing! I heard a white-crowned sparrow from my balcony while I drank my coffee this morning and then on a walk through Beacon Hill I saw a red-tailed hawk engaged in a battle with six crows. The robins, juncos, chipping sparrows, towhees and all the rest of the gang are gifting their voices to the day as we move into migration season.

After a long hiatus, the Victoria Bird Language Club will be meeting up again Sunday, May 24 at Swan Lake, from 9am – 11:30am. We’ll meet in the main Swan Lake parking lot.

For those who’ve attended the club before, the format will be familiar—a brief introduction to bird language with an emphasis on storytelling, some time to sit by ourselves and listen/notice, and a casual, fun mapping exercise to record what we saw and heard. After that we can hang around for some Q&A with the field guides or walk around the lake a little bit. I’m going to try and start the solo sits just after 10am—so if you want to skip the introduction and join us later that’s fine. We’ll probably either be under the teaching shelter or in the amphitheatre, depending on whether someone else is using the space.

Any questions, feel free to respond here or write to jevan27@uwo.ca.

Feel free to just show up, but if you’d like to RSVP on Eventbrite that might help give me a sense of who we should wait for in the parking lot.

I’ll be announcing future meet-ups this Spring and Fall on this list so stay tuned. I’m hoping we can at least meet once in June and September this year.

And if you are interested in some mediated bird listening this weekend, there’s an interesting project run by some UK sound artists featuring an online broadcast of the dawn chorus as it loops around the Earth at first light.

Looking forward to seeing you on May 24!

Be well,

Julian