"Stanley Park Ecology Society" Tagged Posts |
Beware: alien invasion at the Stanley Park Ghost Train!
Each year, Halloween revellers of all ages flock to a magical corner of Stanley Park where fog enshrouds the landscape, Jack-o-Lanterns grin toothily and a much-loved train winds through the forest to an enchanting world whose theme changes annually.
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Look Out! There’s an Alien Invasion at the Stanley Park Ghost Train
View from Stanley Park Nature House Photo: Rob Weiss
Have you had an opportunity to watch the Stanley Park Heron Cam? I must confess I have been captivated by this “birds-eye-view” of North America’s largest Pacific Great Blue Heron colony. Interest piqued by the webcam, I decided I wanted to learn more. Who better to explain the courtship and nesting behaviour of these prehistoric looking birds than the knowledgeable interpreters volunteering at the Stanley Park Nature House?
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Connecting to Nature – Stanley Park Nature House
Green-Breasted Mango | Photo Credit: Liron Gertsman
Who hasn’t looked up at the sky and dreamed of soaring with birds? Liron Gertsman, a 14 year old Vancouver photographer, is making that dream come true in his own way while giving back to the birds that inspire him.
An avid bird watcher and photographer, this remarkable teenager has amassed a life list of 694 bird species. In the past four years, his photographs of these birds have attracted attention from local and national media including a feature on CBC’s daily news show, The National. Continue reading:
Soaring with Birds Exhibit at the Pendulum Gallery, Aug. 10-22
Stellers Jay. Photo credit: Chris Dale/Bird Studies Canada
Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black – stars of the British Columbia/Yukon-filmed comedy The Big Year – introduced me to the world of bird watching. In the comedy, Wilson, Martin and Black’s characters travel across North America to see or hear the most bird species in a calendar year during the American Birdwatching Association’s annual “Big Year” contest.
The next day my partner and I played our own version of a ‘Big Morning’, trying to spot as many birds as we could on sunrise walk through Vancouver’s West End. We spotted seven different bird species including gulls, herons, widgeons and mallards. Suddenly we were hooked. The allure of walking around with binoculars to differentiate grebes from cormorants was no longer an activity reserved for our parents or our scientist friends.
It turns out birding, bird watching or ‘twitching’ as it’s called in the United Kingdom, is a pretty popular activity: according to 2006 survey done by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service there are about 48 million birdwatchers in the United States. In Canada, more than 550,000 Canadian adults take part in birdwatching activities annually according to a 2006 study on wildlife viewing activities.
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Birders of a Feather Flock together for Vancouver Bird Week May 4-11
