On Sunday, February 5th, thirteen Nature Vancouver members joined this season’s quest to find American Dippers along the Alouette River in Maple Ridge. Larry Cowan led Dipper Quest in December from 2006 until he retired in 2019 and managed to find at least one dipper every year. In 2021, Michelle Baudais and Harvey Dueck continued the quest. We were away in December 2022, so the 2022 quest was delayed until February 2023. We began the quest in Maple Ridge Park….
Leader Tom Plath scheduled a birding field trip to Boundary Bay for the morning of January 16th. Only two participants, Michelle and Harvey, braved the heavy early morning rain to get there, but the rain stopped pretty much at the scheduled start time. The very high tide brought the water right up to the dike at the planned starting point at 104th St, so all the birds had gone elsewhere. Tom suggested a change of venue to Blackie Spit, so…
On Wednesday April 20th, Michelle Baudais and Harvey Dueck led a birding field trip at Jericho Park. The weather was fine and lots of birds were singing, especially the white-crowned sparrows. We had 20 participants registered for the trip, with 6 on the waiting list, suggesting there is demand for midweek as well as weekend field trips. If you’re considering leading a trip, please contact Bill Kinkaid or Janet Snell. Many people will appreciate your efforts. We started off along…
Eleven enthusiastic birders joined trip leaders Michelle Baudais and Harvey Dueck for a birding field trip at Iona early on March 27th. Despite the forecast, the weather was pleasant and rain-free for the entire outing. We started off viewing a mixed flock of dunlin and black-bellied plover on the beach. Some of each species were in their winter and black-bellied breeding plumages, so it was a good teaching/learning flock. We went into the inner ponds next. All four ponds were…
Nature Vancouver’s annual quest to find American Dippers took place on Sunday December 5th. Larry Cowan led the quest from 2006 to 2019 and never failed to find at least one dipper. Michelle Baudais and Harvey Dueck led the trip this year; we were very relieved to find two dippers looking for food in the fast flowing water. They came within about 5m of our group, so we got quite a good view. American Dippers are amazing little birds. They’re…
Metro Vancouver just informed us that they will be doing their annual maintenance of the Iona lagoons beginning Thursday, July 26th and continuing until approximately August 6th, 2020. The exact duration is weather dependent. The gates to the lagoons will be chained and locked during active work. We ask everyone to please help maintain our good relationship with Metro Vancouver by respecting the closure. We’ll post another notice as soon as Metro Vancouver tells us when the lagoons will reopen….
Photos and trip report by Harvey Dueck Michelle and I weren’t clever enough to check the website, and so it wasn’t until we arrived at the starting point on the morning of Saturday February 9th that we discovered trip leader, Kelly Sekhon, had cancelled the trip due to the expected foul weather. We decided to go out anyway, at least as far as Terra Nova to look for the Sora that so many people have reported recently. The weather was…