A fun annual spring event for everyone from beginning birders to eagle-eyed veterans. Everyone is welcome to participate in the May Bird Counts, held at several locations across Alberta. Most of the counts occur on the last weekend of May. The May Bird Count provides an unsurpassed opportunity to identify more birds in a single day than any other time of year. Enjoy the company and camaraderie of other birders, the chance to enhance your birding skills (or share them with others), and the prospect of winding down around a campfire, and it all makes for an awesome day.

The Christmas Bird Count is our oldest and longest-running citizen science initiative. It is conducted in over 1,800 localities across North America. Each local group of birders picks a day between December 14 and January 5, defines a circular study area 24 km in diameter, and does their best to count all the birds within that area on the selected day. Local rivalries and the long history of the count have made it one of the biggest events in the birding world. More important for bird conservation is the huge database on the distribution and numbers of North American birds that the Christmas Bird Count has amassed. The Christmas Bird Count is managed by Birds Canada and the Audubon Society, with additional partners.

The Snow Goose Festival on the south shore of Beaverhill Lake, 45 minutes east of Edmonton, was launched in 1993. The festival was established as a celebration of spring migration, providing an opportunity for nature enthusiasts, bird watchers, and the general public to come out and view the many species of birds that stop over in the Beaverhill Lake region during their northward migration. This family-oriented celebration provides transportation, guided tours, and hikes in the Beaverhill Lake region led by volunteer naturalists. The event is held in April and is organized by several local organizations, including the Beaverhill Bird Observatory, the Edmonton Nature Club, and Nature Alberta.