Stanley Park is a popular destination! Harvey and Michelle posted their March 23 walk to enews and Meetup and the Meetup slots filled in about 1/2 an hour, so we decided to run two walks on the 23rd: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. However we had no way of predicting the atmospheric river that was forecast for Sunday. Many attendees canceled and in the end only 10 hardy birders joined us under the heron rookery at…
Trip Report by Bev Ramey On 16 March 2025, Kelly Sekhon led a group of nine on a lovely spring walk from Still Creek, along the North side trails of Burnaby Lake and down the Brunette River. We followed about ten kilometres of trails including the Brunette-Fraser Regional Greenway to Hume Park. We enjoyed sightings of several birds along the way and especially the close-up views of the rich assortment of birds at Piper Spit and the viewing tower where…
Trip leaders Harvey Dueck and Michelle Baudais had originally planned to lead a trip to Pitt Lake in early February, but one of the attractions was the opportunity to see Trumpeter Swans. That’s not very practical if most of the lake and marsh is frozen. So we delayed and were happy to find open water and clear skies when we arrived at the Grant Narrows parking lot on the morning of Saturday March 1st. The trip began with scope views…
The walk at Terra Nova that was scheduled for Saturday February 8th was cancelled due to icy trail conditions, but a few of us looked ahead at the forecast and saw warmer temperatures predicted for mid-week and decided to reschedule to Wednesday for those who were available. Unfortunately it wasn’t warmer! Four brave birders joined Harvey Dueck and Michelle Baudais for a beautiful sunny morning of birding, but the paths remained icy and we had to move slowly to stay…
Trip Report by Kelvin Yip Eleven beginner birders joined leaders Kelvin Yip and Neill Vanhinsberg for a frosty morning of birding at Queen Elizabeth Park on January 19th. Beginner tips and tricks were shared, and we were greeted with a visit from a female Anna’s Hummingbird in the parking lot. In the rose garden we saw some Song Sparrows and Dark Eyed Juncos. Over behind the Lawn Bowling Club there were Ruby Crowned Kinglets picking around on the ground and…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…