Take a warm winter walk

January 25, 2010 - Enjoy an unseasonable winter walk through Stanley Park and catch a glimpse of springtime.

Snowdrops are blooming in garden beds and around the Park Board administration building. A northwest facing slope along Lagoon Drive at Barclay Street in the West End will become a white, snowy blanket of snowdrops very soon as buds are ready to open. These flowers were first planted in the late 1960s by a Park Board gardener who had accepted a donation of bulbs from an avid gardener and have now spread to almost half a block of blooms.

 

 

Cherry blossoms are also starting to bloom unseasonably early. Shelter trees, like those on the south side of Lost Lagoon, are already a cloud of delicate pink.

 

 

 

 

 

Birds are also very active now. Walk along the seawall and watch the flocks of surf scoters bob in the waves. Oystercatchers are frequently seen between Second and Third Beaches . Listen for the distinctive squawks of eagles as they start their springtime ritual of house hunting.

Join a Stanley Park Ecology Society monthly bird identification walk. They are held the last Sunday of the month from 9-11am. The next one is Sunday, January 31. Meet at the Nature House on Lost Lagoon.