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Bird enthusiast's children's books showcased in Vernon

Elya Baird is bringing her bird books to the Vernon library July 27

An Osoyoos author who grew up in Vernon is bringing her children's books filled with Okanagan fowl to the local library.

Elya Baird has created a set of children's books featuring Okanagan bird species. The books are designed to be fun and engaging and are currently available in nine stores in the Okanagan. 

Baird has a story time and book signing event scheduled at the Vernon library July 27 at 11 a.m. She has another similar event booked at the Kelowna library Oct. 19 at 10:30 a.m. Those events follow a book signing she held at the Osoyoos library on June 15. 

When Baird went to university at UBC Okanagan, she studied zoology and took a field ornithology course during her degree. It was during this time that she fell in love with birding.

Shortly after finishing her degree, Baird and her husband decided to volunteer at various nature organizations around the world, including The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds in South Africa, Merazonia Wildlife Reserve in Ecuador, and Nakavango Conservation Programme in Zimbabwe.

"I brought a bird book for every country we visited (close to a dozen), and enjoyed bird watching around the world," she said. "It was during our travels that I thought about how I would love to share this incredible world of birding with others."

Baird decided to create an interactive book that introduces kids to birding. Almost five years later, she released her first book, titled My First Birding Adventure: North America, on Amazon. She later self-published two other titles, Bird Brains: A Bird-themed Activity Book for Kids and Birds of North America Notebook, as part of a set. 

This year, she released another book, Early Birders, a counting and action book for preschoolers. 

Baird's first book is designed to replicate the real-world birding experience. 

"When birding, people go out into nature and search for birds and use their field guide to identify the birds they see. This book contains a field guide that kids get to cut out and assemble themselves, and then use it to identify the birds they see within the book," she said, adding the book contains a storage pouch for the field guide, which is completely functional outside so kids can take it to a park and see what birds they can see in the wild. 

Baird hopes to organize more book signing events in the Okanagan in the future. 

 

 



Brendan Shykora

About the Author: Brendan Shykora

I started at the Morning Star as a carrier at the age of 8. In 2019 graduated from the Master of Journalism program at Carleton University.
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