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2021 Vancouver Christmas Bird Count

2021 Vancouver Christmas Bird Count

Report by Peter Candido The 2021 Vancouver Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday December 18th under challenging conditions, at least until mid-day.  In the morning participants were faced with steady rain throughout the area, and wind from the SSE of about 16 kph or higher along the coast.  The rain tapered off around noon and skies began to clear, resulting in relatively pleasant conditions in the afternoon.  Poor conditions on the water in the morning meant that the group who usually survey…

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Hastings Park Sanctuary – Bird Walk

Hastings Park Sanctuary – Bird Walk

Trip Report by Maureen Collier On November 27, 2021, six members participated in this walk in spite of showers that turned into rain. The Hastings Park Sanctuary has many features – ponds, marshland, and mixed forest. Also there are remnants of earlier habitats from before the PNE was built. We enjoyed seeing three pairs of Hooded Mergansers in the big pond, with the males doing a few dramatic interactions. Also seen were a Double-crested Cormorant, a Great Blue Heron as…

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Health of Fraser River Sockeye

Health of Fraser River Sockeye

Research Paper by Otto Langer Nature Vancouver members will be interested to read this research paper by renowned fisheries biologist and Nature Vancouver member, Otto Langer: Why Alaska’s Bristol Bay Rivers Produce More Sockeye Salmon that the Fraser River. The subtitle of Langer’s 15-page research paper is: An inconvenient truth – human activity and climate change has much to do with the demise of sockeye in the Fraser River. Note that his paper was written March 2021, so before the summer Heat Dome and…

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Burnaby Mountain Loop Trail

Burnaby Mountain Loop Trail

Trip Report by Naomi Ross On Sunday, December 5th, three hikers, including the leader, started at the Velodrome Trailhead at 9:00 am to hike up Burnaby Mountain. It was a brisk 1°C and cloudy with a bit of blue sky; a welcome break from the recent rainy weather. The Big Leaf Maple trees were all bare, leaving a carpet of brown leaves in the woods. A few frost flowers (also know as hoar frost or hair ice – MORE INFORMATION)…

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Dipper Quest 2021

Dipper Quest 2021

Trip Report by Harvey Dueck 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…

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Stoney Creek Salmon Tour

Stoney Creek Salmon Tour

Trip Leaders Deborah Simpson and Joan Lopez  Report by Deborah Simpson, Joan Lopez, and Sheila Byers On 26 November, 2021, a rare sunny morning, our group of 10 met up for a walk along the upper reaches of Stoney Creek in Burnaby with the hope of seeing some spawning salmon. Stoney Creek is one of the few places in an urban environment where you can see salmon spawning up close. It is home to coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and chum (Oncorhynchus keta) salmon,…

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In Memoriam – Daniel Lee Overmyer

In Memoriam – Daniel Lee Overmyer

August 20, 1935 – November 24, 2021 Dan Overmyer, past president of Nature Vancouver and editor of Discovery, passed away on Wednesday, November 24 after a brief battle with cancer. He spent his final days peacefully surrounded by loving family and friends, listening to music, and sharing stories and meals in his cozy Vancouver apartment. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Dan grew up in China and the Philippines, spending the majority of his career as a pioneering scholar of Chinese popular religions…

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Pacific Spirit Park – Interpretative Walk

Pacific Spirit Park – Interpretative Walk

Leader: Ian Clague; Co-leader: Nigel Pack Text by Ian & Nigel; Photos by Nigel Peck After days of record setting rainfalls, wind warnings, and physical disasters around southern British Columbia, we were blessed with gorgeous weather for the November 16th interpretative walk in the Pacific Spirit Park, led by Ian Clague. It was a beautiful day! Starting our walk at Camosun Bog, we noted that the main confers growing there, thriving in the rich organic and wet soil, were shore…

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In Memoriam – Dr. Joan Ford

In Memoriam – Dr. Joan Ford

November 4, 1925 – October 31, 2021 Dr. Joan Ford died peacefully on October 31 in Vancouver. She will be remembered as the first woman on the medical staff of the Royal Columbian Hospital and for her dedicated service to her patients in Burnaby and New Westminster over 40 years. Joan and Sir Edmund Hillary had a long friendship. She was the locus tenens six times in his mountain hospital in Kunde becoming good friends with the people in the…

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Hike along Capilano Pacific Trail

Hike along Capilano Pacific Trail

Text and Photos by Naomi Ross, Janet Snell, & Caroline Penn Sunday, October 31, was a crisp sunny day. Nine members met at 9 am at the Rabbit Lane (W. Vancouver) trailhead which leads to the west side of the Capilano Canyon. Naomi Ross, our trip leader, is very familiar with the trail and pointed out her favourite sights in the forest of towering Douglas firs and red cedars. The lighting at the first viewpoint over the Capilano River gave…

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