Report & Photos by Doug Cooper The summer months of June, July and August were much quieter at the Hastings Park Sanctuary. From eBird, my species count at the sanctuary for June was 25, for July 21, and for August a grand total of 17. But there were some highlights. In general birding news of local interest was about the two species of crows – American and the Northwestern. In June 2020, following a recent study on the genetics of…
Report and Photos by Doug Cooper Time seems to have, both dragged and flown by in the last few months. I thought it was time to give an update on what has been happening at the sanctuary at Hastings Park, at least from my perspective. May seemed to have been the busiest month, so I’ll devote this report to that period. In May this year, 60 species were reported to eBird from Hastings Park Sanctuary. I ran into more fellow birders…
This short film by Liron Gertsman, was sponsored by Nature Vancouver for the exhibition Wild Things – The Power of Nature in Our Lives. The exhibition was co-produced by Nature Vancouver and the Museum of Vancouver as a part of our Centennial Celebration. It was open to the public from June 2018 to January 2020.
Metro Vancouver just informed us that they will be doing their annual maintenance of the Iona lagoons beginning Thursday, July 26th and continuing until approximately August 6th, 2020. The exact duration is weather dependent. The gates to the lagoons will be chained and locked during active work. We ask everyone to please help maintain our good relationship with Metro Vancouver by respecting the closure. We’ll post another notice as soon as Metro Vancouver tells us when the lagoons will reopen….
Text and Photos by Doug Cooper It was a great May for birding and nature in general at the Hastings Park sanctuary. As May came to a close, the sanctuary was much quieter than earlier in the month, both in volume and variety of bird song as well as in numbers and species of birds. Eight types of warblers were reported during the month: Yellow, Yellow-rumped (of both subspecies types), MacGillivray’s, Wilson’s, Orange-crowned, Black-throated Grey, Townsend’s and Common Yellowthroat. At…
A Brief History Text by Pat Miller – Photos by Doug Cooper Located on Vancouver’s east side, Hastings Park is the second largest park in the City of Vancouver, after Stanley Park. It was established in 1889 when the Province of BC granted 62 hectares (154 acres) of land to the City, most of which is currently occupied by the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) and the Hastings Park Racecourse. Four hectares (9.9 acres) of the site is occupied by the…
Charleson Park to Granville Island Text and Photos submitted by Janet Snell Charleson Park didn’t exist before the late 1970s when it was constructed out of excavated soils from the False Creek industrial site turned residential neighbourhood. In such a small park (7.14 hectares), many different environments have been constructed; coniferous forest, waterfall & fresh-water ponds, open turfgrass with deciduous trees and rocky seashore. A forest, mostly coniferous, was planted along a berm to reduce street noise from Sixth Avenue….
Text and Photos submitted by Ron Long I have decided that I am officially suffering from cabin fever. As a photographer, getting out with my camera has typically been the way I deal with those claustrophobic feelings but now, trying to observe the “stay at home” directives that we hear multiple times every day, that option is considerably reduced. Bird feeders to the rescue. I started thinking about ways to photograph the birds coming to my feeders. The main problem…
Photos and text by Caroline Penn This beautiful duck was first spotted at Burnaby Lake in 2018 and has been sighted in several other Vancouver parks off and on. An evening walk at Piper’s Spit two weeks ago brought us some views of Trevor, who was in full mating plumage and dutifully following a female around the dock area. The female Mandarin is very similar to the female Wood duck to whom the Mandarins are closely related. However it seems…
Trip report by Leader, Thomas Plath On February 22, 2020, a dozen participants showed trust in the “weather man” and met at the parking lot in front of the washrooms at 9 AM. The forecast was correct and the rain had stopped. Two swallows foraging low over the outer pond were the Barn variety and not the expected Tree Swallow. Waterfowl were on the move and a flock of Lesser Scaup and a couple of female Bufflehead was present and a dozen Great Blue Heron roosting in the…