This post has been contributed by Don Enright, Volunteer and Past President with the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End almost a decade ago and I have been a member for two years. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they contribute and share stories with my audience once a month.

Red and Black and Fun All Over!

Comical oystercatchers entertain along Stanley Park seawall

One of the great benefits of living in Vancouver’s West End is being near Stanley Park. Almost every day, I step out my front door, smell the sea air, and whisper to myself, “I can’t believe I live here.” It’s a far cry from the chilly suburbs of Calgary where I grew up. And every chance I get, I head out along the seawall to listen to the tide crash in, to relax and breathe and clear my head, and look for some of the wild creatures that call Stanley Park home. There’s always something: eagles overhead, a seal bobbing off Ferguson Point… a couple of months ago we even had dolphins offshore. And as I walk, I always keep an ear out for my favourite birds of the intertidal zone: the beautiful, comical, excitable black oystercatcher.

Photo by Don Enright

You can’t miss them, once you learn what they look like. They’re all black except for their long pink legs and their huge orange beak. A friend of mine remarked that they look like a crow smoking a carrot. And if you don’t see them, you’ll almost certainly hear them. They whistle. And we’re not talking about a sweet twitter of a songbird—these guys’ calls are raucous, and almost anything will set them into a frenzy of excited hooting and whinnying. Eagles flying overhead, the arrival of their relatives from up the shoreline, a change in the weather, anything. Once you learn to recognize the call, you’ll hear it a lot. Listen for it between Second Beach and Siwash Rock.

Photo by Don Enright

It turns out that it’s not easy being an oystercatcher, and it’s not just because they have to climb around on cold rocks in their bare feet all day. First of all, it takes remarkable skill to outwit the clams, mussels and other mollusks that make up their diet. The oystercatchers of the world have two different styles of hunting: you’ve got your stabbers, and you’ve got your hammerers.

Hammerers use their big orange bills to pound their way through the shell of their prey to pull out the juicy insides. Stabbers are a bit more refined; they wait until the mussel or clam relaxes a bit and opens up, and they quickly stab their big beaks into the opening to eviscerate their prey. Our oystercatchers are stabbers, and it’s a skill that they need to learn and perfect over time.

Most birds are quick to fledge their babies; a sparrow can boot the young ‘uns out of the nest within weeks of their hatching. But oystercatchers are the Generation Y of the bird world, taking several months to move out on their own. They need the extra time to learn their hunting skills from Mom and Dad; they won’t develop their full repertoire of techniques until they’re about three years old. Parents mate for life, which is up to 15 years for these birds.

Next time you’re out on the seawall, look for oystercatchers that have black colouring on the ends of their orange bills; those are this year’s hatchlings, recently arrived from their nesting grounds not far away.

Photo by Milva DeSiena

Learning to eat isn’t the only skill that a young oystercatcher needs—they also have to master the fine art of not getting eaten. Peregrine falcons are a major predator. These raptors are powerful and fast, and can outfly almost any bird on earth. Our oystercatchers have a tricky defence: they fly away low over the water, just skimming the waves. The falcons won’t risk getting that close to water. Clever birds.

Black oystercatchers are completely dependent on the thin strip of shoreline along our coasts for their entire life cycle. The intertidal zone of Stanley Park is a very busy place, and oystercatchers (and all the living things they depend on) are best left undisturbed. Keeping your dog on a leash at all times is a big help. Fortunately, they’re easy to appreciate from a bit of a distance, given their larger-than-life personalities.

I think it’s remarkable that despite the 10 million-odd people that visit the park, we still have oystercatchers making a living on our shores. May they live and thrive and hoot and squawk for generations to come.

The Rio Theatre is serving up a strong lineup of cult favourites for July in their late night movies series. These 19+ screenings can be complimented with a beverage from the theatre’s full service bar as you enjoy a night out with friends. Tickets are available online in advance or at the door for $8 or $6 if you come in costume.

Rio Theatre Friday Late Night Movies

Friday, July 11, 2014 @ 11:55pm
Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (Kelly Makin, 1996)
A pharmaceutical scientist creates a pill that makes people remember their happiest memory, and although it’s successful, it has unfortunate side effects. Starring Scott Thompson, Mark McKinney, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Dave Foley.

Friday, July 18, 2014 @ 11:55pm
Mortal Kombat (Paul Anderson, 1995)
Three unknowing martial artists are summoned to a mysterious island to compete in a tournament whose outcome will decide the fate of the world. Starring Christopher Lambert.

Friday, July 25, 2014 @ 11:15pm* Early
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.

The Rio Theatre is an independent art and movie house located at 1660 West Broadway, at Commercial Drive, and is easily accessible by transit. Follow along on Facebook and Twitter for more film screenings, comedy showcases, and special event information.

The Surrey Fusion Festival returns for its 7th year at Holland Park, providing two full days of food, family fun, entertainment and free concerts on six stages. Miss604 is very proud to be the Social Media Sponsor of this event again this year (and since its inception in 2008) as it is always a highlight of summer. Here’s what you can find at the Surrey Fusion Festival this year:

Photos by John Bollwitt for Miss604

Surrey Fusion Festival

Admission: Free to attend

When: Saturday, July 19, 2014 & Sunday, July 20, 2014, 11:00am to 10:00pm

Food Tickets: Pavilion operators do not accept cash for food so be sure to pick up food tickets from one of the three booths on site. Tickets are $1 each and food items normally range between 2 and 8 tickets.

Where: Holland Park in Surrey (SW corner of King George and Old Yale). Take the SkyTrain to either Surrey Central or King George and walk over. There will be bike parking on site and free public parking will be available along Old Yale Road. Limited parking will also be available in the Central City parkade on level P5.

Photos by John Bollwitt for Miss604

Music Lineup

Stages open at 11:30am each day, this is just a sample of what you can find at Surrey Fusion Festival this year.

Cultural Pavilions

Argentina (New), Bangladesh (New), Barbados Bolivia, Canada, China Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Israel (New), Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Lebanon, Metis, Mexico, Morocco (New), Nepal, Nigeria (New), Pakistan, Palestine, Portugal Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain (New), South Africa, Taiwan, Togo, Tonga.

Family Fun

Kids World with Surrey Libraries’ Storyville, Games Land, Giant Sandbox, Craft Tent, and more. Don’t miss the Flavours of Surrey at the City’s premier food and agricultural awareness event celebrating local agriculture, farming and food.

For the latest updates, follow @Surrey_Events on Twitter or “Like” the Surrey Fusion Festival Facebook Page. Follow the #SurreyFusion tag to join in the conversation.

I recently spent a day with Aboriginal Tourism BC and some of its stakeholders/partners to share unique local opportunities that help you experience your own city like never before. This is the second post in a three part series.

Takaya Tours with Aboriginal Tourism BC

“If you see one our height or bigger, our ancestors would have picked berries off the same plant,” Cease Wyss told me as she lifted the branches of a red huckleberry tree and picked a few juicy pearls for us to try. Cease is a guide with Takaya Tours, owned and operated by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and based out of Cates Park (Whey-Ah-Wichen) in North Vancouver and (Tum-tumay-wheuton) in Belcarra Regional Park, Port Moody.

“When I do the walks I want people to be as passionate as me so I really try to infuse it into them that this is something – and you might just be here for an hour – but even if you take away one piece of information from this walk that stays with you and carries you through your personal health and wellness then that’s my vision and my hope. That’s why I really love doing this work.”

“Teaching people how to pick things and teaching them how delicate our ecosystem is, is like putting a pebble in the water and watching the ripple effects that go out.”

Cease is one of the only guides for Takaya Tours that works 12 months of the year because things are growing in the forest all the time. “That’s the amazing thing living on the Pacific Northwest Coast, and that’s how our people survived for so long,” Cease told our group from Aboriginal Tourism BC.

During her walking tours she will also add in songs and stories but her main focus is on the plants and how to use them, starting with the plants’ own lifecycle, including the pollinators.

Cease tries to make her knowledge accessible and has done many talks at schools of all levels and in various communities, as well as teaching her family about the benefits of natural supplements. She shared that her daughter, who is now a teenager, remarked that growing up when her friends were taking pain pills she was drinking Salmonberry leaf tea to cure the same ailments.

“By having an eco tourism company we promote and encourage people to think outside the box… …Take the time to walk in the forest, go on the water and experience something that uses human power to get somewhere.”

The Rainforest Walking Tour runs for two hours with a focus on wildlife, aboriginal village sites, and vegetation education. You can book online between May and October.

Adventures Offered by Takaya Tours

Experienced First Nation guides like Cease host a variety of different adventures with Takaya Tours that include: Canoe Tours, Kayak Tours, Canoeing and Walking Tour, Spawning Salmon Tour, Cultural Boat Excursions, and Multi-Day Tours.

Learn more by visiting the Takaya Tours website and Facebook, and also the Takaya Tours listing on the Aboriginal Tourism BC website. There is also tourism information available at Klahowya Village in Stanley Park which is open every day until September around the Miniature Railway area.

I recently spent a day with IndigenousTourism BC and some of its stakeholders/partners to share unique local opportunities that help you experience your own city like never before. This is the first post in a three part series.

Talaysay Tours with Indigenous Tourism BC

“When I was growing up, three of my closest friends were three cedar trees,” said Candace of Talaysay Tours with a smile as we entered Stanley Park (Xwáýxway). She continued down the path and patted the thick bark of a Douglas Fir, “This is why I call this the ‘Talking Trees Tour‘. It’s about being in balance with nature and enriching our relationship with plants and trees.”

Candace has been running Talaysay Tours with her brother Jonathan for the last 11 years, offering kayaking and hiking tours locally and on the Sunshine Coast between May and early September. The family is Shíshálh Coast Salish and Blackfoot First Nation members with English and Scottish ancestry. Raised Sechelt (Shíshálh), more specifically Porpoise Bay, the two siblings are members of the xenichen Wolf Clan.

Specializing in linking adventure elements to nature, Candace hosts her Talking Trees Tour in Smuggler’s Cove, Porpoise Bay, on the North Shore and in Stanley Park (by request) — which is where I came in. I have walked the trails of Stanley Park hundreds of times but I have never truly seen them as I did with Candace and her relative Jessica who was on the tour with us. With every step, I learned something new about a plant or tree that I had walked by so many times before.

Line baskets with the leaves of a Thimbleberry, use Cedar bows for open baskets in which to put fresh clams, get the best heat for a fire using Douglas Fir bark, and the Elderberry can be used as a laxative. Use the leaves of Skunk Cabbage (Swamp Lanterns) to wrap and steam food, and make a tonic with Cascara Bark to relieve constipation. Huckleberries, Salmonberries, Salal Berries. What is good to eat on the spot, what is good for treating ailments, and what will keep through winter.

I learned the traditional name for Beaver Lake — Axachu7 — thanks to Chief Ian Campbell who was with our group that day as well.

The tour was absolutely fascinating. Aside from the practical uses for these plants and trees, Candace shared the cultural history of each of these resources — like why the Western Hemlock seems to hang its head in shame when you spot it in a grove with other trees. You will learn about the ecology of the forest and hear tales and traditions passed on from ancestors who lived in this area centuries ago. Every bit of the forest that you may have previously dismissed is explained, appreciated, and serves a purpose.

Adventures Offered by Talaysay Tours

Sea Kayaking Day Tours and Multi-Day Trips, Hiking & Walking, Paddleboarding, and Snow Shoe. The walking tours are usually about 3 hours long.

Learn more by visiting the Talaysay Tours website and also the Talaysay Tours listing on the Indigenous Tourism BC website. There is also information available at Klahowya Village in Stanley Park which is open every day until September around the Miniature Railway area.