Nature Vancouver

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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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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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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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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Leaders: Alice Rose & Sylvia Smallman, long time OWL volunteersand Nature Vancouver members. Since the previous weekend had been an Atmospheric River, the 12 confirmed participants were asked to check their email at 8:00 am the morning of the event for confirmation. Fortunately, the weather was fine, so the message was positive. Everyone arrived on time for a prompt start at 10:00 am. It was everyone’s first visit to OWL! (Except Cynthia!) While we were gathering, we were delighted by…

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Twelve birders braved the very wet weather forecast to join trip leaders Harvey Dueck and Michelle Baudais at Trout Lake on October 14th, including a visitor from Ottawa who happened upon our gathering on the South Beach and asked if he could join. We started by focusing on the birds on the water: more than 80 Canada Geese, about 40 Wood Ducks, and a few Mallards.  After a Downy Woodpecker flew into the willow behind us, we started moving counterclockwise around the…

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