Leader Tom Plath scheduled a birding field trip to Boundary Bay for the morning of January 16th. Only two participants, Michelle and Harvey, braved the heavy early morning rain to get there, but the rain stopped pretty much at the scheduled start time. The very high tide brought the water right up to the dike at the planned starting point at 104th St, so all the birds had gone elsewhere. Tom suggested a change of venue to Blackie Spit, so…
Dr. David Bird is a Professor Emeritus of Wildlife Biology at McGill University, including teaching university-level courses in ornithology. He has been the strongest promoter for the Canada Jay to be designated as Canada’s national bird. He gave a wonderful Zoom presentation about this for the Nature Vancouver Birders’ Night in January 2022. For 8 years Dr. Bird has been petitioning the federal government to make this happen, but so far it has shown no initiative in doing so. Therefore,…
Report by Peter Candido The 2022 Vancouver Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday December 17th. The morning saw intermittent rain, the temperature was 2-3 C and winds were light at about 7 kph from the east. Light fog offshore in the morning limited visibility for observing waterbirds, though the sea was fairly calm. The rain ended around noon and skies cleared somewhat. Though some shoreline was exposed early in the morning, the tide was high for most of the…
Trip Report by Kelly Sekhon Twenty three members of Nature Vancouver enjoyed a fairy mild and at times sunny day in the quaint old fishing village of Steveston. We met in the parking lot of Garry Point Kite Park. After introductions we started the walk around the Kite Park and then continuing north along the Richmond West Dyke. A number of immature and adult Bald Eagles were spotted on various pilings. Northern Harriers, Great Blue Herons, and Snow Geese were…
Trip Report by Janet Snell and Jan Lowcock On Sunday, November 13, a group of nine enthusiastic birders visited Lighthouse Park in Point Roberts, Washington. For quite a few participants, this was their first visit to Point Roberts and we couldn’t have picked a better day. A sunny sky and calm seas provided good visibility and excellent conditions for birding. Point Roberts is a squarish peninsula that juts into the Salish Sea as the coastline turns the corner from south…
Report by Nikhil Patwardhan On Saturday, October 29, 2022, ten members of Nature Vancouver participated in this walk led by Kelly Sekhon. Thankfully the rain had taken a break on Friday and we had cool overcast conditions to bird until it picked up again on Saturday night. Talk about perfect timing. The walk began with a short introduction to the area by Kelly as we stood near the parked cars. A Great Blue Heron stood guard near the shore while a flock…
Report by Leona Axbey On Sunday, October 23, 2022, twelve members of Nature Vancouver participated in this walk led by Leona Axbey and Maureen Collier. There were two keen photographers in the group, who are most welcome on these walks. The rain kindly agreed to cease for the day. We were off to a fine start with Elly spotting two female deer before our meetup. The tide was out so there wasn’t a whole lot we could see from the shore….
Nature Vancouver held a birding field trip at Iona Regional Park on Thursday October 21, 2022, led by Jan Lowcock, Harvey Dueck and Michele Baudais. A group of experienced and new birders scanned the outer ponds, wooded area, the adjacent section of the Fraser River and the mudflats at low tide. The inner settling pond areas are now closed to the public, but the south ponds were viewed from the elevated walkway. Eyes on the sky proved most rewarding…
Report by Doug Cooper It’s been a while since my last report on the nature happenings at the sanctuary at Hasting Park. I was away for much of the spring and summer this year, so part of my report is from information posted by other users of the sanctuary green space. An exciting find for me in early April was a Townsend’s Solitaire, I believe the first recorded sighting in the sanctuary. I had only my mobile phone with me and my…
Submitted by Peter Ward Cascade Bird Box Team is composed of members of both Delta Nats, and of Nature Vancouver. The team built 10 Tree Swallow boxes for New Brighton Park (funded by Nature Vancouver), plus a handful of boxes to add to the number at Fraserview Golf Course. We supplied and installed several Barn Owl boxes earlier this year. More Barn Owl boxes were built in September and have not yet been installed. Jim Kneesch developed a brilliant new…