​Goat Sitting! 
Ellis Bird Farm received two young pygmy goats on Sunday July 5. We will be looking after them for a month. These darling little goats were warmly received by visitors and will be an interesting addition to the site. 

Honouring Jim Boyd's Purple Martin Houses 
We were pleased to celebrate the return of the late Jim Boyd's Purple Martin houses on Canada Day, July 1. He donated three of his boxes to Ellis Bird Farm in 2014 after being given a terminal cancer diagnosis. 

The boxes, which were starting to deteriorate, were taken down last fall by Rob Aellen of Elnora. He and his wife, Lousie, spent the entire winter refurbishing and repairing them. Rob returned to the site in May to install the new houses along with new poles and hardware. 

The costs associated with this project were covered by a generous donation from Jim's daughter, Debbie Maki. She and her family were on hand on Canada Day to see the new boxes and to reminisce about Jim's passion for Purple Martins. 
Our thanks to Del McKinnon, who oversaw this project and was on hand to share his thoughts about his friendship with Jim, and to Rob and Louise Aellen, who worked tirelessly on this project. 

We are very pleased that the gazebo project is well underway. Wayne Froese of Top Peg Timber Framing has been busy preparing the site and milling wood for the project. He is using the decaying spruce trees along Prentiss Road (trees that Charlie planted in the 1950s) to create the structure. 

We welcome a new member to our team! Amy Jin, left, will be replacing Mateya Bluett (right) as our Administrative Coordinator. Mateya will be leaving us in mid July. We are very pleased to have Amy join us at EBF. 

Our summer student, Ben Acorn, led his first Butterflies with Ben walk at EBF on Saturday, July 4.  His walk was very well received and his next walk on July 10th is almost filled up. We have added two more of these events - on July 17 and 24 -  so if you are interested in butterflies, be sure to join us! 

We are very grateful to Marianne Gustafson of Lacombe, who generously donated two small quilted art pieces to EBF. We will use them in upcoming raffles, fund-raisers etc. 
Thank you Marianne! 

Our bird expert, Shaye Hill, led a very well received bird walk with 10 participants this morning. Luckily, the rain held off until the walk was over!  EBF will be hosting more small events this season. Check our website for details. 

We were delighted to have Kayla deRegt and Sarah Hogg visit EBF with their children. Both Kayla and Sarah worked at EBF as students and were delighted that we have added the nature play area. Their children loved it, even in the rain! 

​Monarch Butterfly at Ellis Bird Farm 
Our resident butterfly expert, Benny Acorn, was excited to discover an adult Monarch butterfly at the EBF site on Tuesday, June 23. Its wings were well worn, indicating that it had migrated a long distance to reach the farm  

This sighting is an exciting one, since Monarch butterflies rarely make it this far north. The last big eruption in Alberta was in 2012. 

If you see a Monarch butterfly, please email us (image required to substantiate the sighting) at info@ellisbirdfarm.ca