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Author: Wendy Cutler

TREE-IDENTIFICATION WALK IN QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK, MAY 9, 2026

TREE-IDENTIFICATION WALK IN QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK, MAY 9, 2026

Trip report by Nina Shoroplova We tree-identifying botanists met at the Grace McCarthy Plaza in Queen Elizabeth Park, opposite the Bloedel Conservatory, early on Saturday May 9. First we looked at a couple of flowering dogwoods, Cornus florida. They are the ones whose white (or sometimes pink) bracts show the notch at the top, where they pulled apart after protecting the tiny green true flowers. The green leaves have a central vein and arcuate subveins. We set off northeast to…

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SKETCHING SONGBIRDS: NATURE JOURNALING AT IONA BANDING STATION – MAY 17, 2026

SKETCHING SONGBIRDS: NATURE JOURNALING AT IONA BANDING STATION – MAY 17, 2026

Report by Joanna Chin Seventeen participants gathered at the Iona Beach Regional Park banding station for this joint WildResearch and Nature Vancouver event co-led by Neill Vanhinsberg and Joanna Chin as part of the Vancouver Bird Celebration. Weather started partly cloudy at approximately 12°C and warmed to around 16°C by the end of the session. Participants met in the parking lot, where Neill passed around the sign-up sheet and loaner binoculars before the group walked together toward the banding station….

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INATURALIST CITY NATURE CHALLENGE 2026 REPORT

INATURALIST CITY NATURE CHALLENGE 2026 REPORT

from John Martin Thanks for your commitment to organizing and participating in this year’s iNaturalist City Nature Challenge. It looks like we had over 40 Canadian cities participating this year and 754 cities world-wide participated! That’s solid representation for Canada once again with our local project being the Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD). From April 24–27 2026, over 106,350 people across 754 cities, 61 countries, and 6 continents stepped outside and noticed the nature around them. Together, they made over…

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LEARNING FROM THE LAND WALK TRIP REPORT – MAY 10, 2026

LEARNING FROM THE LAND WALK TRIP REPORT – MAY 10, 2026

Trip report by Joanna Chin This Learning from the Land walk, organized by Nature Vancouver as part of the Vancouver Bird Celebration, brought together 27 participants for a morning of shared listening, observation, history, and natural history at Jericho Beach. LoriAnn Bird, Ryan Regier, and Joanna Chin each brought different perspectives to the walk. LoriAnn Bird shared knowledge as an Indigenous Métis herbalist, Ryan Regier brought his knowledge of trees and local history, and Joanna Chin guided participants through bird…

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SPRING MIGRATION MAGIC AT QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK – MAY 9, 2026

SPRING MIGRATION MAGIC AT QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK – MAY 9, 2026

Trip Report by Joanna Chin Spring Migration Magic at Queen Elizabeth Park was a collaborative event between Nature Vancouver and Birds Canada as part of the Vancouver Bird Celebration and Global Big Day. Trip leaders included Yousif Attia, Neill Vanhinsberg, and Joanna Chin. The walk began with a land acknowledgement, followed by an introduction from Yousif about Global Big Day, volunteer monitoring, and the importance of contributing observations to eBird. Neill enriched the walk by sharing field marks and identification…

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TRIP REPORT-PACIFIC SPIRIT PARK BIRD WALK – MAY 3, 2026

TRIP REPORT-PACIFIC SPIRIT PARK BIRD WALK – MAY 3, 2026

Trip report by Anne Greig Even though it was a bit of an ordeal to get to the meeting location for this walk because of the BMO Marathon taking place and all the ensuing road closures,  11 of us enjoyed this beautiful, unseasonably warm morning, 20 C degrees.  We left from the parking lot of University Chapel, headed along Salish trail to Spanish trail, then followed Spanish trail across the bridge at the “beaver pond” and into the woods for…

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BIRDING IN BURNABY FORESHORE PARK – MAY 2, 2026

BIRDING IN BURNABY FORESHORE PARK – MAY 2, 2026

Trip report by Evelyn Huang The morning started with slightly cool temperatures of 15C, mild WNW winds and mostly clear skies. Some 17 birders, including trip leaders Jan Lowcock and Evelyn Huang, started the trip at the parking lot by Byrne Road, where we heard singing White-crowned Sparrows, Spotted Towhees, American Robins and a Bewick’s Wren. We first walked east from the parking lot, and saw some Black-capped Chickadees and Bushtits. An American Kestrel was hovering over the river on the far side, and we saw it take a…

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TRIP REPORT – JERICHO BIRDS OF SPRING, MAY 1, 2026

TRIP REPORT – JERICHO BIRDS OF SPRING, MAY 1, 2026

Report by trip leader Christine Balkwill Eight eager birders met before 730 AM.  We did a brief overview of the founding purpose of Nature Vancouver for our 2 newcomers and did self-introductions before heading out.  We logged a couple of common birds in the field before moving toward the pond.  A lone male Northern Pintail was a nice surprise but the pond was relatively quiet with just a single female Bufflehead, one American Coot, and a few Mallards.  The Barn…

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A “RE-DISCOVERY” WORK PARTY –
RSVP BY MAY 17, 2026

A “RE-DISCOVERY” WORK PARTY –
RSVP BY MAY 17, 2026

(when it’s too hot this summer to join a New Brighton Work Party?) DISCOVERY, the Journal of Nature Vancouver, is indexed periodically to make its contents more easily found. This was last done in 2010, so volunteers are invited to a one-time work party to help get us up to date. This is easy technically: copy/paste the table of contents (T.O.C) into a text document, tinker with the format slightly, and assemble the results into one big list. The “RE-” part of…

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TRIP REPORT – MEET THE MOSSES WITH CONNOR WARDROP, MARCH 28, 2026

TRIP REPORT – MEET THE MOSSES WITH CONNOR WARDROP, MARCH 28, 2026

Trip report by Nina Shoroplova Connor Wardrop, a bryologist and Ph.D. candidate at UBC, led twelve of us on a “Meet the Mosses” walk in Stanley Park on March 28, 2026. We met at North Lagoon Drive and set off on Cathedral Trail, where there are plenty of bryophytes (that is, mosses, liverworts, and hornworts). Bryophytes are nonvascular land plants (though for some groups, nonvascular is a bit of a misnomer!); they are very different from other land plants! Bryophytes,…

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