While doing some searching about bridge-nesting cormorants, I happened across Geezer’s Blind, a guy who documented some of the nests under the Granville Street Bridge back in 2015-2017.
A few weeks back, I caught at least half-a-dozen Pelagic Cormorants gleaning vegetation from rooftops by the Granville Street Bridge. I knew they were nesting under there, but only after visiting the above blog did I realize that I could obviously see them from Granville Island.
So last Sunday I took a detour from my regular gull nest route and got my first glimpse of the nests. I spotted approximately ten nests, but there are certainly more – to my uninitiated eye I don’t quite know how to look at the scene.
Last Friday (July 20th) was the first night of the ‘Honda Celebration of Light’ fireworks. As if Honda hasn’t done enough for us… thanks guys!
Our primate brains may go wild for colourful explosions in the sky, but research unequivocally shows how dangerous and terrifying these events are for pets and urban wildlife, in addition to their detrimental environmental effects.
I suspect I was one of the few people in the city worried for the gulls nesting on the Burrard Street Bridge, located adjacent to English Bay, where display takes place.
Burrard Nest #4
Burrard Nest #4 - no chicks?
Most of the chicks closest to English Bay (Clipper Nests, Burrard Nests) were accounted for on my visit, though I couldn’t see any chicks at Burrard Nest #4 (above, the most directly exposed nest), or at Pyramid Nest. I suspect (and hope) that they were nestled up, sleeping in a spot I couldn’t see.
I couldn’t resist taking this photo of the bird banding crew I volunteer with at the Vancouver Avian Research Centre. These are my people – this is taken at about 5:00am as we make our way to the banding station.
