Written by Deborah Simpson, Vancouver Club Leader
On a cloudy and cool winter’s day, seven families met at Burnaby Lake Regional Park to look at
wintering birds, and to go for a forest walk.
Group members shared their favourite bird—among them the red-winged blackbird, pigeon, great blue heron, American coot, and black-capped chick-a-dee. We were lucky to see most of these, and some potential new favourites, such as the green-winged teal, northern pintail, and the short-billed (mew) gull. We witnessed a lively dispute between two male mallards. Going around in circles with wings a-flapping, the ducks were most likely fighting over the attention of a female mallard. After a few rounds, one duck gave up with only his pride wounded fortunately. We also saw evidence of beaver activity, but no beavers as they are primarily nocturnal. The best time to see them is at dusk.
On the forest walk we saw sitka spruce, one of the emblematic trees of the Pacific Northwest as it loves foggy, moist weather conditions. According to Biodiversity of the Central Coast, a good way to identify this tree is to “grab a branch – if it hurts, it’s likely a sitka spruce!” Fortunately, there are other ways to identify it, such as its shape, bark, and needles – more info here.
We ended this Explorer Day with learning how to identify trees with the aid of our tactile sense. With our eyes closed and led by a trusted partner, we felt a tree and later tried to find it, or one the same kind, relying solely on that tactile information. We will probably never forget that tree!
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