Birding is a walk in the park, unless you’re watching cormorants from a kayak or listening to songbirds on a bicycle ride. Then it’s all about cruising.
The outdoor pursuit du jour, bird watching honours observation and patience, a dose of competition, plus reverence for the environment and its winged critters. You may not work up a sweat, but your heart rate will rise when you score that rare find and spot a purple finch or Bewick’s wren in Stanley Park.
Beginning May 6, Bird Week lifts off in Vancouver with a range of tours designed to immerse you in the city’s natural world. You can walk but you don’t have to. There are two kayaking tours, several boat “safaris”, numerous bike rides and lots of walks.
Birding is light, low-impact exercise and one that’s accessible, says Leeann Froese, a lifelong birder and frequent blogger. “The beautiful thing about birding is that it’s easy to do no matter what your activity level,” she says, noting bird watching can include people who use wheelchairs or have mobility impairments. “As long as your surface is flat enough for a chair, you can roll along a path and take in the surrounding sights and sounds.”
Froese brags (and so can we) that Vancouver has such a wide variety of birds that “it’s simple enough to watch songbirds from our kitchen windows.” Peaceful, right? That’s also good for the heart and mind.
“We know how we feel when we get outside,” she says. “Spending time in nature actually makes people feel more alive.”
Bird Week may run May 6-13, but several organizations such as Nature Vancouver and the Stanley Park Ecology Society have extensive, year-round calendars catering to birders, whether you’re green, seasoned or hipster. Here are four tours I’d try.
Biking with the birds
Ladner’s George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary
When: 10am May 6, $5
Who: Great blue herons, bald eagles, migrating north-bound songbirds
Registration is mandatory for this guided, 12km bike tour through the fields of Westham Island to and from the sanctuary for a 45-minute waking tour.
Crow curiosity bike ride
Slocan Park
When: 7pm May 8, free
Who: Some of the region’s 20,000 crows
Registration is required for this meandering ride hosted by HUB and the Still Moon Arts Society. Crows thrive in the urban environment we’ve built, and this tour looks into their language, tools, family structures and “wise ways.”
Kayak tour
When: 6pm May 9 and 9:30am May 13, $89
Who: Western sandpiper, cormorants, eagles, migrating shorebirds, sail boats and tanker traffic
Registration is required for this two-hour paddle off the shore of Jericho Beach to explore and observe Vancouver’s active harbour and the birds that call it home.
What’s that ChikaChika?
8th Avenue bike route
When: 7:15pm May 12
Who: Species calls, songs and chirps
This slow-paced neighbourhood ride leaves Trimble Park for a tour of the tree-lined streets near Pacific Spirit Park and begins with an tuning your sense to bird language. W
