The intrepid and beloved co-founder of the Vancouver Queer Birders, Syd Burstein, was honoured with this year’s Alan Duncan Bird Conservation Award. I’ve been a member since the summer of 2023 (just a few months after they started out, I think?) and can confirm it’s something really special, and Syd 100% deserves the award.
There were drinks and a ceremony at the Stanley Park Pavillion, and afterwards a few of us went for lunch and a bit more birding.
Through Vancouver Queer Birders, Sydney has organized monthly bird walks since 2023, and has partnered with organizations such as Nature Trust BC, the Georgia Strait Alliance, and Special Bird Service. Many of Vancouver Queer Birders walks bring together as many as 50 people, filling an empty niche in Vancouver’s social scene, and facilitating enduring friendships through birding.
Of course I walked to the event, starting out early to give myself time to bird on my own around Stanley Park and Lost Lagoon; a White-crowned Sparrow, singing across the street from the Parks Board building, was my first subject and seemed an auspicious beginning to the day. This is about the limit of their range, incidentally, at least around downtown: they usually stay along the seawall or quiet West End streets, places that offer the best real estate for their nests. Occasionally you’ll find them into Ceperley Meadows or along the Lost Lagoon trail, but the thicker woods of Stanley Park are not for them.
Another good omen, probably, was seeing a Great Blue on a bombing run over Lost Lagoon. They say birds pooping on you is lucky, and if that is true there are some extremely lucky dragonflies or fishes around the place now. But I must have caught some second-hand luck, because what did I find in the Rose Garden? A couple of Chipping Sparrows! Not quite lifers, I’ve seen them before in Ottawa several years ago. But yay! So cute with the snazzy orange caps!
Speaking of not-quite-lifers, have I ever positively identified Bonaparte’s Gulls, like the one I saw off the seawall? I’ve seen small black-headed gulls before, in the Netherlands and France, but those were probably different species. So, sure, let’s say it’s a lifer, for what it’s worth. I don’t keep a life list, but new birds are always a thrill!
