Member Spotlight:
Frank Switzer

Frank has been a member of Nature Regina since 1951, the longest serving member to date (72 years).

Prior to coming to Regina, Frank lived in Yorkton where he credited Stuart Houston with getting him (and his mother) interested in birds.  Stuart also introduced Frank to bird banding.

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While in Yorkton, Frank was a member (and president) of Yorkton’s nature society before moving to Regina. It was natural for him to join the Regina Natural History Society when he later moved back permanently in 1958; although he continued to be involved with the Yorkton society. Like many before him, Frank started out as a member of Nature Saskatchewan, where he was president for two years.  

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While by his own admission he’s always been a birder, Frank also had an interest in plants. He would accompany George Ledingham looking for plants, particularly in the southwest of the province when George was working in the grasslands. Frank even audited one of George’s university classes to expand his knowledge.  Frank collected plants for the Royal Saskatchewan Museum Garden while he was on the road as a roving technician for Sask Power – digging plants out of the ditch – and would sometimes volunteer at the garden itself. Frank also volunteered at Hidden Valley.

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Frank also loved working with kids.  He and his wife, May, would go camping but instead of camping Frank would go out with kids.  At Good Spirit Lake Frank ran a program called “taste, smell, and look”.  He and a group of 8 to 10 kids would explore the woods and the kids would be enthralled the whole time.  It sounded so much like a precursor to the Get Outside! Kids club – nature-based learning while you camped!  Frank recalled that when he was president it was very difficult to get young people involved in bird watching.  He is “tickled” to hear about what’s been happening with Get Outside! programming.

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Later on, Frank got involved with the Friends of Wascana Marsh’s “Wings over Wascana” where he participated in a “big sit”. He would start the sit in Wascana Park near the Science Centre on a Saturday morning at dawn and would sit until late afternoon, tallying the birds he heard or saw.  Frank would be off to himself but people would drop by and compare notes about what they’d seen.

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Frank was on a radio program about birds with CBC Saskatchewan’s Colin Grewar for about 13 years.   He alternated weeks with the “gardening guy” Bernie Zaharik, and many people meeting Frank for the first time recognized his voice from the show. On one occasion while out birding, Frank was parked on a road by a substation and a conservation officer pulled up.  Apparently while Frank was looking for birds with his binoculars, someone else was looking back on Frank. Luckily though, the Conservation Officer recognized Frank’s voice from his CBC radio program. 

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In the late ‘90s, early 2000s, Frank and a friend from Nipawin walked from the Nipawin Provincial Park down to Love, SK.  He laughed when he recalled often being stopped by RCMP or Conservation Officers inquiring who he was “spying on”. Frank had a police officer birding buddy whose name he’d drop to stay out of trouble.

Looking back, Frank commented on the technical jobs that he did for as being just mindboggling but that nature always gave back his sense of being, He’s glad to see that Nature Regina is growing and gave credit to the work of earlier members such as Margaret Belcher, Stuart Houston and Frank Brazzier who were all very committed to Nature Regina.

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Of course, we had to talk about the election of Regina’s city bird. Frank’s choice was the Western Meadowlark because it’s what was talked about in all the books written by the explorers in the Regina area. Every book had a meadowlark in it somewhere.  Why would you pick anyone else?