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White Rock Pier and Blackie Spit Birding – Jan 5, 2025

White Rock Pier and Blackie Spit Birding – Jan 5, 2025

Trip Report by Thomas Plath; Photos by Selina Wong Thirteen participants participated on this half-day excursion despite the less than ideal conditions. Heavy mist hampered viewing at White Rock Pier nonetheless almost all of the regular seabirds were observed including great views of Greater Scaup, Surf and White-winged Scoters, Long-tailed Duck, Common Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Horned Grebe and Common Loon. A feeding Red-throated Loon, constantly diving was not very co-operative and unfortunately an Eared Grebe was too far out for…

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Reifel Refuge Birding – Jan 2, 2025

Reifel Refuge Birding – Jan 2, 2025

Trip Report by Thomas Plath Ten participants braved the poor weather of light rain and enjoyed a productive morning birding at the sanctuary. At the parking lot the resident pair of Sandhill Cranes and their two grown chicks greeted us. The wintering adult Black-crowned Night-Heron was buried deep in its usual hideout near the entrance. Great looks of common, wintering seed-eating birds were had at the numerous feeding stations and a careful search of the Douglas-fir and Holly bordering the…

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Birding at Ambleside – Jan 4, 2025

Birding at Ambleside – Jan 4, 2025

14 intrepid birders joined leaders Harvey Dueck and Michelle Baudais for a morning of birding in Ambleside Park. The weather was much better than forecast: calm with no rain until 10:30am and then only a light mist. The birds were much more cooperative than they had been for the 2024 Christmas Bird Count a few weeks earlier. We found 31 species (eBird checklist) including a female Pileated Woodpecker, two Belted Kingfishers and a flock of pretty Bonaparte’s Gulls. The gulls…

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2024 Vancouver Christmas Bird Count

2024 Vancouver Christmas Bird Count

Report by Peter Candido The 2024 Vancouver Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday December 14th.  On count day a powerful windstorm swept over the Vancouver area with gusts up to 100 kph. This severely affected observation conditions, particularly in areas near the water. Heavy wave action made visibility of birds on the water extremely difficult, and coverage of Area Y (English Bay) by boat was not possible.  This explains the low numbers of sea ducks, cormorants, grebes and loons on the count. Coverage of forested…

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New Year’s Day Birding Along Richmond West Dyke

New Year’s Day Birding Along Richmond West Dyke

Report by Helen Baker On New Year’s Day, 23 of us met to check out the birds along Richmond West Dyke, on a walk led by Kelly Sekhon. The weather was perfect – bright and no wind or rain.  Starting from the parking lot at Garry Point, we walked around the Kite Park and then north along the dyke to Williams Road and back.  After the walk, we went for lunch in Steveston. From the second floor of the restaurant…

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Dipper Quest Dec. 7 2024

Dipper Quest Dec. 7 2024

The morning of Saturday December 7th dawned dark and wet, with a heavy rainfall warning from Environment Canada. Several attendees cancelled at the last minute, so only 8 hardy birders joined trip leaders Harvey Dueck and Michelle Baudais at 9am at Maple Ridge Park for our annual quest to find Dippers. The American Dipper is North America’s only aquatic songbird, so we were relatively confident that the rainfall would not deter our target species. Fortunately that was true! After about…

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In Memoriam – David Boyd

In Memoriam – David Boyd

It is with sadness that we learn of the passing of David Boyd (1933-2024), a long time member of Nature Vancouver. David joined Nature Vancouver in 1997, and was member of the Birding Section Committee. He coordinated several ongoing bird surveys, including Christmas bird counts since the 1980s. These included the Ladner Area ‘E’ of the Ladner Christmas Bird Count and where the birders warmly remember the gatherings at Sharkey’s to share their tallies with David and the cheerful atmosphere…

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Birding on the Tsawwassen Ferry Jetty — Saturday November 23

Birding on the Tsawwassen Ferry Jetty — Saturday November 23

The weather forecast looked ominous for Saturday, particularly for areas south of Vancouver proper. The second bomb cyclone of the week was due to hit late on Friday, and who knew how long it would really last?   Harvey and Michelle considered pre-emptively cancelling the trip they were leading out to the Tsawwassen Ferry Jetty, but after a brief reconnaissance trip on Friday morning that established that the waves would probably not be *too* big, they decided to go ahead with the…

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Field Trip to Hastings Park, Saturday Nov 9

Field Trip to Hastings Park, Saturday Nov 9

Thirteen waterproofed cheerful and enthusiastic naturalists spend two pleasant hours touring the nature sanctuary at Hastings Park the rainy morning of Saturday, November 9th.  A good variety of the expected winter birds were seen.  A Red-tailed Hawk solemnly surveyed the construction site of the new PNE Amphitheatre from the tower of one of the construction cranes.  An encounter with a female gingko tree that had produced a bumper crop of fruit led to a spontaneous discourse by one of the…

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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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