Nature Vancouver

Harvey and Michelle were met by an eager group of birders on the south beach of Trout Lake Sunday morning.  Today’s attendees were mostly Nature Vancouver members interested in learning what the park has to offer for birders. Once again, we began our tour by examining the birds visible from the beach.  As usual, we had a nice assortment of ducks (Mallards, Green-winged Teal, Wood Ducks, American Wigeon, and Northern Shovellers), American Coots, Canada Geese, and gulls (Glaucous-winged Gulls and Ring-billed…

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Harvey and I originally planned to do a birding walk at Trout Lake on Sunday February 18th.  Unfortunately, when Harvey went to post the walk on Meetup, he accidentally advertised it for the 17th.  Ooops!  Rather than change the date for the five people who had instantly accepted the invite, we decided instead to simply lead walks on two consecutive days.  On Saturday morning we arrived on the south beach of Trout Lake a bit early, and immediately noticed a group…

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Trip Report by Michelle Baudais The mist was thick as we arrived at the Grant Narrows parking lot at 8:30 am Sunday morning.  But we were all pleased to avoid the snow and cold that had cancelled the first attempt at this gathering on January 20th, and the mist added a lovely atmospheric touch to the gorgeous views.   Even better, the mist didn’t deter the many Trumpeter Swans who greeted us with a series of honking fly-bys, or the Great…

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The weather forecast for Saturday December 30th was not promising.  In fact, as of 7am Environment Canada’s hourly forecast for Vancouver had a 100% Probability of Precipitation for every hour of the morning.  True to prediction, it was raining when we arrived at Ambleside at about 8:30 am.   But by the time all 27 of us gathered at 9am, the rain had stopped!  Even better, we didn’t see another drop for the entire morning of birding.   Because of the large…

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Harvey and Michelle don’t live close to Ambleside, but this year we surveyed the area twice:  once as part of the Christmas Bird Count on December 16th, and once as part of the Burrard Inlet Key Biodiversity Area count on October 30th.  The area has a nice mix of ocean birds, pond birds, and some shrubbery and forest birds, so it seemed like a good place for a birding field trip. A lot of people seem to agree.  More than…

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Despite the rain, eight hardy birders met trip leaders Harvey Dueck and Michelle Baudais for Dipper Quest in Maple Ridge on Sunday — including Larry Cowan, who led this walk himself for 14 years. Thanks to Larry’s expertise and Josh’s keen eyes, we were successful in finding Dippers!  We had the pleasure of watching a pair of Dippers pose on rocks and logs, preen, pop into the water searching for salmon eggs, and surf down the river. Other highlights at Maple Ridge Park…

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