Birds and neighbourhoods the focus of local walks and talks for the next nine days

Avian migrations and Jane Jacobs's legacy marked locally during global events

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      Vancouver is right in the path of one of the largest and most important migratory-bird corridors in the Americas, the Pacific Flyway, which stretches from Patagonia, at the southernmost tip of South America, to Alaska and the Arctic. Probably a billion birds every year travel this route, both ways.

      Three other major flyways in this northern part of the hemisphere, the Central, the Mississippi, and the Atlantic, funnel the winged wonders on their instinctive journeys for food and reproduction, and a World Migratory Bird Day (which falls on the second weekend of May every year) has been designated since 2006 to mark the importance of these and other elements of migratory birds’ existence.

      Internationally, there are a multitude of happenings to raise people’s consciousness about these birds and their fragile habitats, and local enthusiasts have organized Bird Week to offer a number of events in the days leading up to the big day itself, Saturday (May 11).

      Volunteers from the Stanley Park Ecology Society, Nature Vancouver, Bird Studies Canada, and other groups will host walks, talks, and various activities starting with the official launch, and reading of the city’s proclamation, of Bird Week (now in its third year) at 10 a.m. on Saturday (May 4) in Stanley Park.

      Go to the SPES website for a complete listing of the week’s events, which will include tours of the park’s famous great blue heron colony on Sunday (May 5), free public talks by experts at the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday (an intriguing-sounding evening talk titled "Society of Crows", by ornithologist Rob Butler), and a plethora of guided walks in Vancouver and Lower Mainland parks on May 11, the designated international day.

      These walks are open to all and free; children are expected to be accompanied by an adult, and participants are encouraged to bring bird guides and/or binoculars.

      For instance, Jeremiah Kennedy of Nature Vancouver will lead two walks through Queen Elizabeth park on Saturday morning, at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. (meet in front of the Bloedel Conservatory). And the SPES’s Robyn Worcester will explain Stanley Park’s "dawn chorus" at 8 a.m. (also on May 11). At East Van’s Hastings Park Sanctuary that day, two Nature Vancouver guides (Pat Miller and Robin Taylor, at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., respectively—meet at the northwest corner of Hastings and Renfrew streets) will take visitors through that relatively new greenspace in  search of feathered friends.

      Other guided walks tour Pacific Spirit Park, VanDusen Gardens, Jericho Park, and Colony Farm Regional Park. See the Stanley Park Ecology Society website for details. Organizers ask that participants get to meeting spots a bit early to guarantee a spot.

       

      And while we are on the subject of Hastings Park and internationally recognized days of reflection and learning, a local event in the worldwide observance of Jane’s Walk (held every year in the first weekend of May to mark the birthday of visionary urban activist and author Jane Jacobs) takes place this Sunday (May 5) at the East Side landmark.

      The international walks, which started in Toronto (Jacobs’s adopted home for the last 38 years of her life) six years ago, are designed for people to meet each other and learn about their neighbourhoods.

      Local resident Armin Strohschein will lead the walk through the 65-hectare urban park and 150 years of local history; meet Sunday afternoon, 1:30 p.m., at the corner of Hastings and Renfrew streets (in front of the "Miracle Mile" statue). The walk and talk, scheduled for 90 minutes, will go ahead rain or shine, Strohschein emphasizes, and is supported by the Hastings Park Community Association, the Friends of Hastings Park, and Kiwassa Neighbourhood House.

      Numerous other walks take place this weekend (Friday, May 3, through Sunday) throughout Vancouver (go to Jane's Walk for details on more than a dozen other events, including excursions on Main Street and to Wreck Beach).

      Comments

      5 Comments

      cathy

      May 3, 2013 at 6:40pm

      If Port Metro Vancouver gets permission to build its second container terminal (T2) on Roberts Bank – which would be a man made island almost half the size of Stanley Park – a critical link in the Pacific Flyway could be broken and we could see population level declines in shorebirds, especially the Western Sandpiper.

      Speak out against Port Metro Vancouver's plans!

      MarkFornataro

      May 3, 2013 at 6:54pm

      I'm with you Cathy; as Joni Mitchell wrote "you don't know what you've got til it's gone." As a kid growing up in Richmond starting in the late 50s(yes I'm that old!) I was an avid birdwatcher living near the dykes in the Seafair area. It was mostly farmland then and I always heard meadowlarks, pheasants and also saw mynah birds. The meadowlarks and mynahs are long gone and probably the pheasants too. The Western Meadowlark had a beautiful song which I've only recently heard- via recording.

      Martin Dunphy

      May 3, 2013 at 7:02pm

      Mark:

      Those would be the crested mynahs, which were introduced and disappeared (probably because their niche was plundered by starlings, also introduced but much more adaptable and aggressive) about 15 or so years ago.
      There used to be regular gatherings of mynahs near Industrial Avenue and Main Street, where I worked in the 1980s. They were great mimics, doing other birds' calls, truck horns (lots around there), and even car alarms.
      Birders used to fly to Vancouver from all over North America just to put a checkmark in their books.
      Google around and you'll probably find lots of local material.

      MarkFornataro

      May 3, 2013 at 8:27pm

      Thanks Martin-I read your earlier piece on mynahs which I really enjoyed- and yes, I remember their ability to mimic. When they flew white patches on their wings were revealed. The starlings are a huge problem for many birds, and of course house cats. If you love birds, keep your cats indoors folks!

      Astro

      May 3, 2013 at 10:03pm

      White on the ground and white in the sky. Stunning. Great photo!