A coyote loose in Vancouver

Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

As Vancouver and its suburbs grow outwards the wildlife that used to live in the forests of British Columbia start to get sucked into the city.

Having lived on the outskirts of Kelowna for years (in the area known as the Wildlife Interface) I got used to seeing wildlife as I waited for the school bus. It made sense in Kelowna though, I was about a three minute drive from a giant forest (before God burnt it down). In the middle of Vancouver though it’s still a bit shocking to see wild animals roaming around.

By my girlfriend’s place near Main Street there’s been a coyote for the last few months. Last night we saw it roaming around, and tried to do some safari-esque animal photography. It didn’t work out that well.

As Metro-Vancouver expands (the city not this website) we will be seeing more animals trying to find a way to live in urban and suburban settings where they don’t belong.

The people in the neighbourhood seem used to the attention and if they know anything about the eagle they are happy to tell you all about it. I was told from time to time, an environmentalist comes to the tree and gives information about the eagles as well. The eagle family has been using the nest for the last three years and the neighbourhood was surprised and happy to see them back this year after all the windstorms we had this past spring.

Just a note – the nest is located in a tree on someone’s property, so if you go to have a look, just please be aware of the homeowner’s property. I could see the eagles very well from the alley and also on the sidewalk and public grassy area right across the street from the house. There was no need at all for me to walk on the person’s lawn to have look.

Being pro-crow, I was disgusted to read about another person complaining about the birds in the Burnaby News Leader. Barbara Watt, some fish inspecting twit, had little compassion for the birds and their use of the Still Creek area for their nightly roosting. It seems that, while the Burnaby roost hasn’t changed, the trees the roosting crows once used were cut down six months ago, forcing the birds to encroach into the office district.

“If you want a volunteer with a pellet gun, I’m in,” she says, offering two lame reasons for wanting to get rid of the birds: the excrement on the soles of her shoes and, most especially, because the birds make her wash her car.*

Let’s see, humans – a pestilential species – can flush their shit down the toilet with impunity, not really giving any thought into whose backyard it goes, yet they can cut down the crows’ habitat and then complain when the birds land a poop in our territories.

Along with the whiners who live on our clearcut mountainsides and freak out when a bear gobbles up their shih tzu, it’s obvious Vancouverites are liars when they say they live here for the nature. What? You only want the bald eagles and the killer whales?

*Birds shitting on your car is good luck, in Romanian superstition. Canadians really should learn to appreciate this fact.

Photo of Mundy Park’s Lost Lake courtesy Matt Musselman.

The owls are going crazy, according to one jogger in Coquitlam’s Mundy Park. Jogger Linda Epplette received several cuts to her scalp, requiring a tetanus shot and an appointment with a chiropractor; the Now interviewed three others who have also been the victims of barred owl attacks.

The birds seem to hate bald heads and ponytails. Most likely, as Ministry of Environment bird specialist Myke Chutter points out, “They could be young birds who have just fledged and they’re looking to set up and defend their territory for the next year.” Or, says SFU biologist David Green, “If they have young or they’ve been nesting nearby, then for some individuals, humans are sort of a potential threat.”

Also known as the northern barred owl, the swamp owl, the striped owl, the hoot owl, the eight hooter, the round-headed owl, le chat-huant du nord (French for “the hooting cat of the north”), the wood owl, the rain owl and, mistakenly, as the bard owl, their only known enemy is the great horned owl.

But they will fight just about anyone to protect their nests.

As fairs go, the Kensington Community Fair is a slightly odd one. This is a small neighbourhood fair held at Kensington Park (Kensington & Hastings) in North Burnaby that this year was on Saturday 12 August.

Attendance is good, but most of the people attending are neighbourhood residents, and possibly a good proportion of those realizing there was a fair on that day only because they passed it on their way to or from home. As such, the feel of the fair is more like an open house than a fair: not many people go there to buy stuff; there are few merchants, and those that are there tend to be neighbourhood purveyors of services–music instruction, karate lessons, that sort of thing. Most of the booths are those of local charities, societies, and clubs.

But as I said, the fair is a slightly odd one.

It’s not odd because of a lack of typical fair features; there is that. There’s lots of entertainment for children: a midway with merry-go-round, inflatable bouncing castle and slides, and the like; popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones; a clown, balloon animals; tubs of chalk for sidewalk art; a (wooden) cow milking contest. For adults, not so much, though there’s a stage, which had some pretty good performers on it. One described and demonstrated percussion instruments from around the world, and the closing act was a group performing hits of yesteryear (e.g. Beatles songs). There was food: burgers, hot dogs, chips, pop.

But the range of vendor displays was the slightly odd part of the fair. Mostly educational or informational booths rather than festive ones. I’ve already mentioned the karate and music schools, but the local politicians, MP Bill Siksay and MLA Richard Lee both were putting in face time, as was Port Vancouver. The BC Renfest was there. So were the doggies of the adopt-an-ex-racer company Greyhound Pets.

And then there were the snakes.

The snakes. At the fair.

The snakes were part of a family-run exhibition (unfortunately, I didn’t think to write down their name, nor take a card, and now I can’t manage to find them on the ‘net.) There were also lizards on show, but it was the snakes that were the hit. For $7 or $10, you could have your photo taken with a huge yellow python. Another two snakes were in cages, idling most of the time, but not completely lethargic–I was lucky enough to be there as the larger one reared up (the photo of that is at the start this entry). As might be expected, they were very much the highlight of the fair for many.

I mean, how often do you get to see snakes at a fair?

Yup. Some vandal has definitely tagged the country-style spirit bear at the corner of Smythe and Burrard outside the Paramount Theatre.

Graffiti has been part of the urban scene since before Rome’s most famous citizen scrawled “Julius wuz here” on beachfront property in England. It will always be with us.

Actually, some of it, I don’t mind; on back alleys, overpasses and underneath bridges, people with too much time on their hands can go ahead and stake out as much turf as they like. Some of the art is even appealing.

I don’t even like this particular spirit bear all that much (It just looks, well… stupid). But it hardly seems fair for one self-styled underground artist to deface the artistic creation of another.

Isn’t there some kind of graffiti artist constitution that makes it beyond the pale to actually tag an existing piece of public art? To me, this kind of graffiti isn’t cool or counter-cultural. It’s just plain anti-social, in the most extreme definition of the term.

By the way, does anyone have a favorite piece of public art they’d like to mention? Mine is the War of the Worlds tripod things by English Bay beach.

Along Granville, in the downtown core, there is the Little Sparrow Garden. Does anyone know who made it? What’s the deal behind it? It’s such a cute idea – does anyone know if there are other public gardens around town for other birds?

Canada and the US have always lagged in the cute department, ever since Mickey Mouse changed his eye shape. Now, thanks to the Japanese craze gripping North America, we’re finally getting some homegrown cuties.

Check out the new banners that adorn Hastings Street in Burnaby, the Lower Mainland’s up and coming coolest neighbourhood:

An adorable bee, jolly flowers and a sun spewing out rays fashioned on Japan’s notorious imperialist flag – aside from the psychedelic writing, what an hommage to its Japanese inspiration!

The rest of the Lower Mainland: take heed!

According to the GVRD Website, there is currently no health risk from mosquitoes carrying the West Nile Virus and potentially infecting the population due to the fact that no case of WNV has been reported anywhere in BC.

Despite these reassurances from The GVRD Mosquito Management Department, there is somebody in North Burnaby who thinks otherwise and is more than happy to oblige you with preventative measures to assuage your paranoia.