Nature Vancouver

Fourteen birders joined Harvey and Michelle at Jericho Beach at 8am on a bright and sunny Saturday for a morning of birding.  We began our observations right by our meeting spot when Harvey spotted a California gull lounging alongside some Ring-billed Gulls on the beach.  California Gulls share black wing tips with Ring-billed gulls, but have a large orange spot on their lower mandible rather than the black ring of the Ring-billed. After preliminaries were concluded, we made our way…

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Trip Report by Thomas Plath Six participants and a couple of stragglers showed up for the shorebird identification field trip at Reifel Refuge. We began at the House Pond where approximately 30 juvenile and a couple of adult Long-billed Dowitchers gave us close views. Close by were a few feeding Greater Yellowlegs. A non-breeding plumaged Wood Duck perched on the railing at Fuller’s Slough looking for handouts and a female Hooded Merganser was resting on a log along with a…

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Trip Report by Thomas Plath The dozen participants viewed a variety of shorebirds along the Boundary Bay foreshore on a very pleasant and productive evening. We arrived at the foot of 104th Street to a low but rising tide with shorebirds far out along the water’s edge towards 96th Street. We headed west stopping at the pilings for a scan. The large group of Black-bellied Plovers and peep far out along the water’s edge took flight and headed east towards…

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Trip Report by Thomas Plath Wow! What a great morning birding. The nine participants of this field trip would likely agree. It was a 9AM start at Reifel Sanctuary taking advantage of the morning high tide. The question was: would there be Peregrine’s about flushing the shorebirds out of the sanctuary? The house pond was empty. Not a good sign. Walking towards the southwest marsh a dark falcon flashed by that may have been a Merlin. The one-second look was…

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Post by Thomas Plath; Photographs by Harvey Dueck Twelve participants enjoyed an overcast but warm evening studying shorebirds along the Boundary Bay dike between 104th and 96th Street. At the parking lot two adult Caspian Terns with a begging juvenile flew over to begin the birding. As we crested the dike we were looking at a high tide with no exposed mudflats. Despite the absence of feeding habitat, shorebirds were present. Small groups of Black-bellied Plover and a few “peep”…

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Eight participants joined trip leader Harvey Dueck for a morning of birding the southwest corner of Burnaby Lake. We were able to find 32 species, two more than were seen on Saturday! Here’s the ebird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S183369988 We met in the parking lot near the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club, where we could watch a Tree Swallow go in and out of its nest box as we did introductions. From there we headed to the rowing club’s dock. Barn Swallows nest…

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Trip leaders Michelle Baudais and Harvey Dueck were joined by 12 curious birders in the parking lot of the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club at 8am on Saturday June 22nd.   Many birding expeditions to Burnaby Lake focus on Piper Spit. But during COVID Michelle and Harvey did some exploring around the west end of Burnaby Lake.  The area has become one of our new semi-regular destinations because it offers a nice mix of habitats: water, marsh, shrubbery and open forest with lots…

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Submitted by Joanna Chin Joanna Chin and Donna McKenzie were the trip leaders for this event. Krissi Martin, Annie Maki, and Alan McKenzie came along to help out. We had a great turnout of 20 participants considering that it was cold and windy! Participants were diverse in terms of age, cultural backgrounds, and home location. We had participants from Burnaby, Richmond, and one from as far as Maple Ridge. We did an introduction and showed participants how to calibrate binoculars…

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