In 2021, a group of resident volunteers formed a team to achieve Bird Friendly City certification for Lions Bay from Nature Canada. We are on track to be the first community in Canada to be awarded this designation in the new Small Town category. The response from residents has been overwhelmingly positive – backyard birding is extremely popular in Lions Bay!
The group would celebrate World Migratory Bird Day, which was on May 14th 2022, with education and community outreach. Our approach to engage residents in a fun and informative way, was with a community event that would include other conservation and community groups in the Village AND bring residents together after 2 long years of COVID!
The community event ran from 9:15 am – 1:00 pm and was comprised of:
- Informational displays manned by 4 teams: Lions Bay Bird Friendly, Lions Bay Bear Smart, the Lions Bay Native Plant Garden and the Howe Sound Biosphere Region;
- Two activity sessions for kids (run by the Bird Friendly team): building bird houses (kits made up front by one of our team for kids to build), and a colouring session where kids will learn to identify some of our local birds;
- A family-friendly walk to Eagle View Loop to see the eagles on their nest led by the Trail Blazers (our hiking/trail building group);
- Tea and coffee on offer from the Lions Bay Seniors’ Social Circle;
- Burgers grilled by the Curly Stewart Scholarship Foundation Committee.
By offering refreshments and burgers, we hoped to entice residents to take part and reconnect with neighbours they haven’t had the opportunity to gather with since pre-Omicron days, if not longer! Lions Bay also had many new residents who moved into the Village during COVID. For many of them, this was the first community event they were able to attend. Many Lions Bay residents have a keen interest in nature and environmental initiatives and a shared interest goes a long way to bringing folk together.
In the end, based on numbers we know (registrations and such) and a further estimate, we had around 150 people over the course of the event’s three activities and in between (from 9:15 to 2:00).
Many thanks to the Foundation for being a part of the event!
Penny
