On Sunday, February 19 Comox Valley Nature (Comox Valley Naturalist Society) will hold its Annual General Meeting, at the Filberg Centre at 8pm. The meeting is open to all members.
Prior to the AGM, as part of its public educational mandate, Comox Valley Nature will host Canadian historian Richard Somerset Mackie at 7pm. Richard Somerset Mackie is the author of the well-known histories: Island Timber (2000) and Mountain Timber (2009).
In this illustrated talk, Richard Somerset Mackie will discuss the long residence and work of Comox Valley naturalist and writer Hamilton Mack Laing (1883-1982). Laing, a Manitoban, arrived in the Comox Valley in 1922 and spent the rest of his life at the two houses he built on Brooklyn Creek: Baybrook and Shakesides. Along with Allan Brooks, Theed Pearse, and Ronald Stewart, Laing helped form perhaps the tightest and most productive fraternity of practicing ornithologists in rural Canada — a group that Betty Brooks has termed The Pioneer Birdmen of Comox. Laing also hunted with Cecil “Cougar” Smith, John and Norman Pritchard, and many other local men. Mackie will assess Laing’s significant contribution to the valley’s natural history.
Comox Valley Nature is a non-profit society affiliated with BC Nature which fulfills its educational mandate by hosting monthly lectures, organizing weekly guided hikes and undertaking a variety of environmental projects . Founded in 1964, it is one of the oldest environmental societies on the North Island.
Meetings and lectures of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society are held on the third Sunday of most months at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton, Courtenay. Meetings and guided walks are open to the public, including children and youth. An entrance fee of $3.00 for the lecture is suggested for non-members. New memberships are always welcomed.
Richard Somerset Mackie will be available for book sales and signings at the Blue Heron Bookstore from 2 -4pm and after his lecture at the Filberg Centre at 8pm.
Forthcoming lectures include: “ Dragonflies of the Comox Valley” by well-known photographer, Terry Thormin, retired curator of invertebrate zoology, Royal Alberta Museum.
