(Image Credit: CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

bird watching

Amateur ornithologists flock to TRU for bird tour

May 23, 2024 | 6:30 PM

KAMLOOPS – For the first time, members of the public were invited to Thompson Rivers University to take part in a campus bird tour.

On Thursday (May 23) morning, emeritus professor and avid ornithologist Dr. Tom Dickinson led dozens of students, faculty and community members around campus, identifying birds and pointing out the dangers that some windows can cause.

“The goal was to walk around campus and do what we’ve done several times, which is assess each one of the buildings on our campus for window strikes that birds may have made over the course of the last year,” said Dickinson. “We’ve done this walk several times now. This is the most turnout we’ve had.”

Ian Faber, Kamloops resident and tour participant said he learned more than he anticipated.

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“It was way more than just birds. It was a little bit about the geology of the area, a little bit about the environment, a lot about the birds, the trees,” Faber told CFJC News. “It was very interesting and well thought out morning by the people that were planning.”

A couple of former students of Dickinson now work at the university and opted into the tour as a trip down memory lane.

“Having had Tom as an instructor and not having the chance to do learning activities, now that I’m organizing the learning, it was so nice to walk around and have that experience with him and also to share it with other people who are interested in the biodiversity that’s on campus,” said Christine Miller, a former student of Dickinson and current TRU faculty member.

Dickinson hopes Thursday morning will be the first of many public bird tours at TRU, adding that the university has a responsibility as an eco-conscious institute to walk the walk.

“We care a lot about the environment and we teach our students [these] things, so I think it’s important to actually show that we live up by the standards that we’re talking about,” he said. “And the conservation of nature is one of those big things that I think we can’t ignore any longer as the challenges of the world mount. We need nature more than we’ve ever needed it before.”