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Author: Jason Attai

Fall Colours in Stanley Park – 2024-10-22

Fall Colours in Stanley Park – 2024-10-22

Post by Nina Shoroplova It was fortunate that Caroline Penn and I moved the date of Nature Vancouver’s “Fall Colours in Stanley Park” tree-identification walk away from Saturday, October 19, the heaviest rainfall day of the latest atmospheric river. But perhaps not so good that we moved it to the morning of Tuesday, October 22, because it rained cats and dogs once again. Originally there were twenty of us registered for the Saturday, but weather and work intervened and just…

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2024 Volunteer Appreciation & Annual Awards

2024 Volunteer Appreciation & Annual Awards

This year’s volunteer awards were announced on 23rd May, 2024 at the AGM. Kaye and Charles Ney Award The premier award of the Society for “lifetime” exemplary service and dedication to the Society. Active Directors of the Society are not eligible for this award until they have served more than 10 years as a Director. This award was established in 1975 in memory of Kaye Ney by her husband and renamed after his death. Sheila Byers It is with deep…

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Reifel Refuge Shore Birding – August 27, 2024

Reifel Refuge Shore Birding – August 27, 2024

Trip Report by Thomas Plath Six participants and a couple of stragglers showed up for the shorebird identification field trip at Reifel Refuge. We began at the House Pond where approximately 30 juvenile and a couple of adult Long-billed Dowitchers gave us close views. Close by were a few feeding Greater Yellowlegs. A non-breeding plumaged Wood Duck perched on the railing at Fuller’s Slough looking for handouts and a female Hooded Merganser was resting on a log along with a…

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Boundary Bay Shore Birding – August 25, 2024

Boundary Bay Shore Birding – August 25, 2024

Trip Report by Thomas Plath The dozen participants viewed a variety of shorebirds along the Boundary Bay foreshore on a very pleasant and productive evening. We arrived at the foot of 104th Street to a low but rising tide with shorebirds far out along the water’s edge towards 96th Street. We headed west stopping at the pilings for a scan. The large group of Black-bellied Plovers and peep far out along the water’s edge took flight and headed east towards…

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Reifel Refuge Shore Birding – August 22, 2024

Reifel Refuge Shore Birding – August 22, 2024

Trip Report by Thomas Plath Wow! What a great morning birding. The nine participants of this field trip would likely agree. It was a 9AM start at Reifel Sanctuary taking advantage of the morning high tide. The question was: would there be Peregrine’s about flushing the shorebirds out of the sanctuary? The house pond was empty. Not a good sign. Walking towards the southwest marsh a dark falcon flashed by that may have been a Merlin. The one-second look was…

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Boundary Bay Shore Birding – August 18, 2024

Boundary Bay Shore Birding – August 18, 2024

Post by Thomas Plath; Photographs by Harvey Dueck Twelve participants enjoyed an overcast but warm evening studying shorebirds along the Boundary Bay dike between 104th and 96th Street. At the parking lot two adult Caspian Terns with a begging juvenile flew over to begin the birding. As we crested the dike we were looking at a high tide with no exposed mudflats. Despite the absence of feeding habitat, shorebirds were present. Small groups of Black-bellied Plover and a few “peep”…

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Jericho Beach Park in front and the North Shore beyond, seen through the layering branch of a southern catalpa tree.
August 1st Tree ID Walk at Jericho Beach Park

August 1st Tree ID Walk at Jericho Beach Park

Photographs by Caroline Penn; post by Nina Shoroplova Twenty-three members of Nature Vancouver gathered in front of a leafy entrance to Jericho Beach Park. We each had a list of native and naturalized shrubs, native and ornamental trees growing in the park. Numbered from right to left: 1) a western redcedar, Thuja plicata, with seed cones; not a true cedar; 2) three Sawara false cypresses, Chamaecyparis pisifera var. squarrosa, with seed cones; a feathery form; 3) a yellow cedar, most…

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Walking in Memorial South Park to Learn About Its Trees – June 22, 2024

Walking in Memorial South Park to Learn About Its Trees – June 22, 2024

Submitted by Nina Shoroplova Few of us Nature Vancouver members knew Memorial South Park when we first met at its Cenotaph on Saturday, June 22, to learn more about its trees (https://covapp.vancouver.ca/parkfinder/ParkDetail.aspx?InParkId=186). Memorial South Park opened on May 22, 1926, almost a hundred years ago, before South Vancouver, Point Grey, and Vancouver amalgamated into the City of Vancouver in 1929. The park seems primarily to be a sports park, offering tennis courts, soccer fields, a baseball diamond, a field hockey…

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BEGINNER BIRD WALK AT JERICHO BEACH PARK – May 18, 2024

BEGINNER BIRD WALK AT JERICHO BEACH PARK – May 18, 2024

Submitted by Joanna Chin Joanna Chin and Donna McKenzie were the trip leaders for this event. Krissi Martin, Annie Maki, and Alan McKenzie came along to help out. We had a great turnout of 20 participants considering that it was cold and windy! Participants were diverse in terms of age, cultural backgrounds, and home location. We had participants from Burnaby, Richmond, and one from as far as Maple Ridge. We did an introduction and showed participants how to calibrate binoculars…

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Walk in Ornamental Gardens and Forest Trails in Stanley Park – May 25, 2024

Walk in Ornamental Gardens and Forest Trails in Stanley Park – May 25, 2024

Submitted by Nina Shoroplova Twenty or so of us Nature Vancouver members gathered on the plaza above Lost Lagoon and the Nature House for this tree-identification walk through one ornamental garden and several forest trails in Stanley Park.  With people picking out which plant they wanted to see from my list of trees, shrubs, and native herbaceous plants growing along the route, we soon had the morning planned. We stopped at the black locust, Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Tortuosa’, and admired its…

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