The Cortes Island Museum has been sponsoring two birding events every year for the past two decades.* 2,873 birds were seen during the 2023 Christmas Bird Count, but this number would have been much higher if there were more participants.
“We can only go to a certain number of places where we know there will be birds, and that’s mostly along the coastline,” explained Laurel Bohart, a keen birder as well as co-curator of Wild Cortes.
Continue reading The 2023 Christmas Bird Count
Laurel Bohart and Donna Collins were the recipients of this year’s Jo Ann Green Award.
“We thought they encapsulated what the Joanne Green Award is about. We had a number of nominations, but we considered their’s to be the best because of all the work that they’ve done for Wild Cortes. They put in a lot of unseen work in the background to make the Wild Cortes exhibit the success it’s been, and they’re doing that as volunteers,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI).
Continue reading This year’s recipients of the Jo Ann Green Ward: Laurel Bohart and Donna Collins
Sean Nightingale, from Wild Cortes, will be giving a presentation about insects, at the Cortes Island Regional Library from 5:30 to 7;00 tonight.
“I’ve grown up being super interested in biology. I’ve focused on restoring ecosystems. Insects play an important role. They’re one of the most numerous animals that we have on the planet. They play an important role in ecosystems when it comes to habitat creation,” he explained.
“I do a lot of talking about stuff on the seashore, the forests and talking about insects, reptiles and amphibians as well. If someone had a question, like, ‘what’s this bug?’ – I was always the one who was picking up the bugs and didn’t mind showing people.”
Continue reading At the Cortes Library: Insects, a presentation
Behind Lovefest’s ongoing success, and the success of so many festivals and community events around the province, is a dedicated corps of volunteers.
According to Amy Robertson, who oversaw this part of the festival, “We had about 60 volunteers this year. They were doing everything from making sure that parking is safe out on the road and that the blue bus has a good place to park. Volunteers sell tickets, help the vendors and they’re setting up. They do a lot of decoration for this event, help promote it, sell T- shirts, and just ensure that everybody has a good, safe time.”
Continue reading Behind the Scenes: The 60 heroes of Lovefest
The Cortes Island Museum is offering a full slate of special events this month
They start at 1 PM this Saturday, Aug 5, with Jewellery Identification. People are being invited to bring their own pieces.
“I’ve got a small collection and I’m going to at least bring some things that I have that I think are interesting. We can go over the different types of materials, a little bit of the process of manufacturing and also go over the gems that are commonly found within pieces. We even talk about the time periods that the pieces have come from, as their stylistic choices in manufacturing basically,” explained Events Coordinator, Alex Woywitka.
Continue reading Special Events this month at the Cortes Island Museum & Wild Cortes
