Ornithology fans flock to North Shore for Vancouver International Bird Festival

On a recent Friday morning, Kevin Bell was at the Maplewood Conservation Area helping to band purple martins.

In the late 1980s, only three pairs of purple martins were left in B.C., in Esquimalt, as the species was close to extinction.

Various nature groups banded together to save the small bird, and nesting boxes were placed around the Salish Sea and the Puget Sound including North Vancouver’s Maplewood Conservation Area, to give them sanctuary and a place to hatch their young.

These efforts paid off and the purple martin population has rebounded; currently, there are about 80 pairs at the conservation area off Dollarton Highway, high up on posts in the mudflats, nesting before they head south for the winter.

“It’s brought back the species from extinction,” explained Bell while taking a break from banding.

The purple martins, a type of swallow with black feathers and a forked tail, are found across North America. 

As part of the “citizen science” efforts, volunteers from the Wild Bird Trust were working with the Vancouver Avian Research Centre to place aluminium bands with an identification number on the birds’ legs so they could be tracked. Purple martins nest in this part of the world and then fly south for the winter, so if those banded here locally are found elsewhere, either dead or re-trapped, it will give valuable information on their age, how far they’ve travelled and so forth, Bell explained.

Members of the Wild Bird Trust, when they’re not out protecting and recording the activities of local birds, are gearing up for amateur bird enthusiasts and ornithologists to arrive in the Lower Mainland from around the world.

Every year the Wild Bird Trust holds an Osprey Festival, and this year’s festival will coincide with the International Ornithological Congress.

A few years ago, the city of Vancouver proclaimed World Migratory Bird Day, which then grew over the years and became bird week. After the city of Vancouver published a civic bird strategy, it attracted one of the largest bird conferences in the world, set to take place this month.

From Aug. 19 to Aug. 27, bird scientists from around the world will swarm to the International Ornithological Congress in Vancouver and, on the North Shore, several events will take place to celebrate birds at the same time as part of the Vancouver International Bird Festival and the Artists for Conservation Festival.

The Osprey Festival celebrates the fact that after the Maplewood Conservation Area was established in 1992, a pair of ospreys showed up and nested there after an absence of 50 to 60 years – “the very year we set up, it’s like they knew,” said Bell, who is currently a board member of the Wild Bird Trust.

The bird-related events are meant to educate the public and raise awareness about the importance of birds as part of the ecosystem.

Bell hopes North Shore residents will “work with wildlife instead of against it.”

Cliff swallows that lived in Vancouver had their mud nests hosed down in the 1980s and 1990s because they were pooping on the sidewalks.

“If you’re worried about droppings, put something under the nest … to catch the droppings,” Bell said.

Swallows and other birds are a control on insects and as birds decrease in number, insects increase and then there is pressure to use chemical insecticides, Bell explained.

The more people learn about birds, the more aware they become of the environment in general.

“Studying bird life gives us a window to study the natural history of the North Shore,” Bell said, adding that all one needs is a field guide and a pair of binoculars.

When Rob Butler, chair of the International Bird Festival, was a growing up on the North Shore, crows were much maligned by humans.

“When I was a kid, crows were persecuted – we hated them,” Butler said. But as science has shown how intelligent and loyal they are, there’s been an attitudinal shift towards the corvus caurinus, the Northwestern crow that is found from Alaska to Oregon. The same is happening to wolves, bears and sharks as people learn through science about these animals and start to appreciate and respect them.

“Spiders and snakes have a ways to go,” he added.

Butler said birds are key to getting people interested in and understanding nature, to reconnect to their natural surroundings.

“How do you get people connected to nature? Birds!” he said “They’re living things that you can see – mammals are very secretive.”

The International Bird Festival takes place form Aug. 19 to 26 and is being put on in partnership with the International Ornithological Congress and Artists for Conservation.

Registration isn’t required and many events are free or have a small charge.

Butler will give a talk on Aug. 19, called “Flyways to Culture,” talking about bird highways in the sky. B.C. is a crossroads for many kinds of bird – seabirds coming from Australia, birds that breed here, water birds from around the world, to name just a few of the species that arrive on the West Coast, which he calls the birds’ “international airport for the western hemisphere.” The talk takes places at the Vancouver Convention Centre at 10 a.m.

For information on this and other events happening at the International Bird Festival, go to vanbirdfest.com.

North Shore Events:

• The District of North Vancouver will host Bird Festival Day at Cates Park on Aug. 19. Participants can learn how the District of North Vancouver manages its bird population in urban areas.
   
• On Aug. 20, a wide variety of events are scheduled for the Bird Festival at Grouse Mountain from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.: hummingbird banding, owl interpretive sessions, Birds in Motion demonstrations, guided eco-tours and visits with owl mascots.
   
• Kingfisher, a summer camp for young bird lovers aged 7 to 13 at the Maplewood Flats, is put on by the Wild Bird Trust Aug. 20 to 24.
   
• The 12th annual Osprey Festival at the Maplewood Conservation Area takes place on Aug. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and includes workshops, guided walks, speakers, live music, children’s entertainment and food at the 320-acre conservation area. Scopes and observation stations will be set up and there will be a photography workshop for those who bring their own cameras.
   
• Aug. 11-Sept. 30: 25th Anniversary Photo Exhibit at the Corrigan Nature House, Maplewood Flats.