Stanley Park is home to a wondrous sight for birdwatchers: one of North America’s largest urban colonies of Pacific great blue herons. Every spring there’s a lot of sexual tension, drama, and ooohing and ahhing as the colony goes through courtship, egg laying and chick hatching.
You used to have to set up camp by the park board office and hope for a clear view of a nest. This year, the park board has made it easier than ever to bird watch without physically invading the herons’ space. They just debuted a live heron cam — a remotely-controlled wireless camera mounted on the roof of a building near the board’s office at 2099 Beach Avenue, near English Bay.
The heron cam is already hugely popular among avid birdwatchers, as well as families and schools as an educational tool for learning about our ecosystem. You get to see inside the nests of these magnificent birds for mating rituals, nest building and egg laying. You also get to watch as chicks hatch and the parents fend off predators such as eagles and raccoons.
Check out the feed here. And tell us what you see!
Last modified: November 14, 2017
