Winter Issue 4
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
Click here to download a PDF of this week’s issue.
Click here for the Greensheet.
Spotting Wildlife in the City!
By Ellen Wiggins
With things as they currently are, there’s not much of an opportunity for getting out of the city to see wildlife at the moment—one of the big benefits of living in beautiful BC. But good news! After living here for nearly three years, I have discovered there are lots of local spots where you can get a fix of nature without having to travel far—including the comfort of your own home too!
I live near Jericho Beach, so most of my sightings have been around this area which is easily accessed from campus, so doable for anyone here in Vancouver!
Beavers
There are two resident beavers in the Jericho pond! I only discovered this during the pandemic, but saw them four or five times over summer and up to Christmas. There’s a bridge that goes over the water, with tall reeds on either side, if you stand on the bridge looking towards the beach, there’s a tree on the left with loads of logs piled up underneath it—the beavers built that and sleep there! I’ve found going at dusk is the opportune time to catch a glimpse of them swimming about, sometimes pulling branches behind them to add to their den.
Bald Eagles
These are pretty common around Vancouver, and there are nesting pairs all over the place, so if you’re keen to see some look them up in your area! At the west end of Jericho Beach, right by the sailing club, there is a patch of tall trees (behind the public toilets), and one of them has a manmade platform to house the eagles’ nest. Apparently the nest kept falling down and a committed group of eagle watchers decided to create a more sturdy foundation, and they’ve continued nesting there for years since. There’s actually a new nesting pair there as of last year nicknamed Minnie and Mac by those previously mentioned committed fans. In the spring, you may be lucky to see some eaglets…
Raccoons
Ok, so this is a mixed one. If you’re a Canada native you probably think they’re pests, but as a Brit these little bandits are adorable and my husband and I always get really excited when we see them! They are nicknamed trash pandas for a reason: the best place to spot them is in alleys near trash cans snooping for snacks. We once saw a massive one brazenly standing on the sidewalk on 4th in Kits at about 10pm squaring up to a woman who eventually crossed the road to avoid him. It was obvious how he got to his size…
Seals
I always keep one eye on the water when walking around the beaches, False Creek or Stanley Park because more often than not, I manage to spot a seal bobbing around. There’s actually loads of them in the waters around here, so keep an eye out! Also, a couple of summers ago there were orcas in False Creek, so you never know, whilst looking for a seal you might just spot a killer whale!
Hummingbirds
This is an easy at home project! You can buy hummingbird feeders in any dollar or hardware store; you can even get ones that suction onto a window, so you don’t need to have any outdoor space to make it work. They eat a simple solution of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water (not dissimilar to me around deadlines) and once they know where to find the sweet nectar, they’ll constantly come back! Just change the water at least once a week and keep the feeder clean, and you’ll get to enjoy their chirps and speedy wings. We have a feeder on our 8th floor balcony and it attracts visitors year round!
Brown Bears
This one isn’t in nature so much, but if you’re new to Canada and want to be wowed by some incredible scenery and resident rescue bears, Grouse Mountain is an excellent day out. The bears will be in hibernation until around March/April, but you can check the webcams for updates on whether or not they’re out before you go! They’re huge and docile and make you think you could pet them, but it’s really not recommended.
I hope these tips help you to see some wildlife around the city and brighten these winter days!
Speaking of spotting things around town, not many people know that before the building closed down in March, Regent entertained a visitor... (Okay, this is actually photoshopped more recently. Credit to my friend Victoria Benfield for this little gift of laughter!)
A December Ride
By Heather Kaufmann
Claim
By Jerusha Lieow
To each you let into your life
To each you give the knife with which
To cut you free
Or cut you slack
Or then to stab you in the back
So, when you chose to share your love
It might as well be such a dare
That for each love you bear the blame
Of whom you let your life to claim
I chose you
To love
I chose to love
Yours truly
Bernie was also spotted along Marine Drive this week. Guy sure gets around a lot.
Editor’s Desk
The Pod People
By Steven Gomez
I recently did a little clean-up of my podcast subscriptions; sometimes I click to get a single episode featuring someone or something I like, but don’t devote the time to the rest of the series, which had left my subscription list fairly cluttered with things I don’t listen to.
I’m rather proud to still own not one iPod Classic, but two. One stays by my bed for things to listen to while falling asleep and the other travels around with me. I bought the first one in 2008. It still works fine, which just goes to show that sometimes the word ‘obsolete’ just means unfashionable. Sadly, Apple has discontinued iTunes on its more recent operating systems, which means that when I update my laptop I’ll have no way of syncing music to my iPods. There are technically workarounds, but the writing’s on the wall. All this means I need to be selective in what I include on them, for when the day comes that I run the update and effectively ‘freeze’ whatever’s on these little hard drives...
But enough moping about the changing technological trends. We were talking about podcasts. I’m keeping up with just a couple these days, and have a couple more that I’ll be able to return to when school is done and time supposedly frees up more. Like I said, I did a little weeding. Among the survivors are:
Nocturne — Stories about the night. Each episode has a slightly different format; sometimes the subject simply tells a story, sometimes the host (Vanessa Lowe) is a bit more prominent and profiles people like a journalist, and a couple early episodes are much more like her own audio essays. But it is always about nighttime: things that happen at night, what we’re like at night, the role that the night plays in our lives. Always fascinating, episodes can still sometimes deal with difficult or uncomfortable topics, or even be downright creepy, which you’re always warned about upfront. Feel free to skip an episode if you’d rather.
A History of the World in 100 Objects — Done about ten years ago by BBC Radio 4, the series is hosted by Neil MacGregor, curator of the British Museum. With classic Brit aplomb, he walks us through the global story of civilization up to the present day via a carefully selected series of objects from the Museum’s collection. The website is still up so you can see pictures of the objects as you listen. MacGregor went on to do another couple of equally interesting series for the BBC: Shakespeare’s Restless World and Germany: Memories of a Nation.
Poetry Unbound — This was recommended to me by a friend over the summer, and again by someone else more recently. I’ve only listened to a handful of episodes so far, but that handful has touched me in ways I wasn’t expecting. The host, Pádraig Ó Tuama, reads a poem, offers a few observations and a personal reflection, and then finishes by reading the poem again. Beautiful—and short. Each episode is only about ten minutes. The Irish accent also makes for very pleasing listening on these North American ears. If you’re wondering about how to get into more poetry, let this podcast be your introduction.
Got any podcasts you like to listen to? Of course you do, I hear everyone talking about them. Why don’t you tell us about a couple of your favourites?
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