Meetings & Events

Evening meetings of the Nicola Naturalist Society are held once a month from September through May. We generally meet at 7PM on the third Thursday of the month in the Lecture Theatre of NVIT (Nicola Valley Institute of Technology) on Belshaw Road, Merritt. Admission is free to members. Refreshments are provided and we have awesome raffles.

Field Outings are usually held in spring, summer and fall and are listed below. Members will receive e-mail notices too. Field trips are restricted to members (but visitors can sign up as a member for the day for a nominal fee).

NNS members are eligible to attend BC Nature camps, meetings and other events. Click this link to get more details: BC Nature.

Upcoming events -  spring 2013

  • Thursday May 23rd, 7 PM at the Merritt Civic Centre – Bernie Fandrich (Kumsheen Raft Adventures): British Columbia’s Majestic Thompson River. (Note the change in venue for the May meeting). A joint meeting with the Nicola Valley Explorers – see the link below for more information
  • Saturday May 25th, 9:30 AM – Amphibian Project Workshop & Field Outing. Merritt Civic Centre, Room 1. Meet with the Biolinx Environmental Research biologists who are guiding our Amphibian Monitoring Project. Review the past 2 years of this project and the plans for 2013. Learn more about our local frogs, toads and salamander. Workshop at the Civic Centre to be followed by a frogging outing – bring a lunch and gumboots. This event is open to the public, but volunteers are asked to join the Nicola Naturalist Society to cover insurance on field trips.
  • Sunday June 2nd, 8 AM to 3 PM – Grasslands Birding.
    Meet at Merritt Civic Centre parking lot. Novice birders welcome. Our late spring birding outing to the Douglas Lake grasslands is always popular. Bring binos and a lunch. Spotting scopes will be available. Our route will likely cover Pennask Lk Rd, Minnie Lk Rd and Douglas Lk Rd. There should be lots of breeding activity, the wetland areas will be full of birds and we should encounter some of the grassland specialties like Swainson’s Hawk, Horned Lark and Clay-coloured Sparrow.
  • Weekend of 14-16 June – Manning Park Bird Blitz. Organized by the Hope Mountain Centre and BC Nature, this event has been run for 30 years and attracts novice and expert birders. If there is interest we will arrange car-pooling for NNS members from Merritt to Manning Park. More information here:  Manning Park Bird Blitz link

Click on any of the links below to see details of upcoming Nicola Naturalist Society events:

Information on past events:

Gray Jay in the Merritt area (Photo: Alan Burger)