A Summer Nature Walk in Stanley Park, Vancouver

Summer is an ideal time to go for walks in parks, especially for nature lovers. Cultivated and wild flowers are in bloom, birds and other animals are active and busy, the days are long and the weather is often pleasant. Wilderness and country parks are beautiful, but city parks are more convenient to get to for most people and can be great places to take an enjoyable nature walk.

Stanley Park, in Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of Canada’s most famous city parks and is a wonderful place to observe nature. It has a variety of habitats for walkers to explore: carefully tended grass with cultivated flowers, shrubs and trees, a sea wall path which offers great views and access to beaches, and trails through forests filled with hemlock, cedar and fir trees.

Stanley Park is located on a peninsula projecting into Burrard Inlet and occupies an area of 405 hectares (1000 acres). The park was opened on September 27th, 1888 and was named in honour of Lord Stanley, who was the Governor General of Canada at that time. Stanley Park offers activities for family fun, such as playgrounds, picnic areas, miniature train rides, rides in horse-drawn carriages and a water park. The park also contains spots that are very popular with photographers, including viewpoints and landmarks such as totem poles. Siwash Rock (a 32 million year old sea stack), a large western red cedar tree with a hollow trunk, and many monuments and sculptures. However, one of Stanley Park's most important functions is to act as a nature preservation area.

The Stanley Park Rose Garden contains around 3500 rose plants as well as many other attractive ornamental plants. The rose garden is located next to the Stanley Park Pavilion, a historic building erected in 1911 which is now a restaurant. Stanley Park also contains a rhododendron garden and many flower beds distributed throughout the cultivated part of the park.

The Stanley Park seawall travels around the perimeter of Stanley Park. The path on the seawall is 8.8 km (5.5) miles in length and is a very popular walking, cycling and inline skating route. The seawall travels by both rocky and sandy beaches. The sandy beaches are nicer for sunbathing but the rocky beaches have the most wildlife.

Green and Purple Shore Crabs

If you walk on a rocky beach and lift up a rock in the intertidal zone you will often discover little shore crabs, which quickly scuttle away to hide when they are disturbed. The crabs are just a few centimeters wide – a 5 cm specimen is a giant - and are green, yellow, grey, red, brown or purple. These little creatures feed mainly on diatoms, sea lettuce (a type of green seaweed) and other green algae, but they may also scavenge animal remains and eat animal eggs.

Rockweed

Rockweed is a very common brown seaweed that coats the rocks on the seashore. The blades of rockweed have inflated bulbs at their ends. These bulbs contain gas, which enable the blades to float or stand erect when the tide comes in. This exposes the blades to more sunlight than they would receive if they were flattened under the water, which is important because rockweed makes its food by photosynthesis. Photosynthesis requires light energy.

Rockweed bulbs have bumps on their surfaces at certain times of year. The bumps contain reproductive structures, which release the male and female cells into the water. The cells join, and the fertilized egg then forms an embryo which attaches to a rock and grows into a new seaweed.

Acorn Barnacles

Barnacles have plates at the top of their shells that open when the animals are immersed in water. The plates act like trap doors, allowing feathery appendages to emerge. The appendages rhythmically sweep tiny creatures into the barnacle for it to eat. If you look for barnacles covered by shallow water you should be able to see this feeding action.

Other Intertidal Animals and Seaweeds

The three common birds seen on the beaches are the northwestern crow, the glaucous-winged gull and the great blue heron. For eleven years (as of 2011) great blue herons have nested in trees outside the Vancouver Park Board's office at the edge of Stanley Park.

You may also discover other creatures on the Stanley Park shore, including limpets, mussels, clams, periwinkles, ribbon worms, sea stars (starfish), sea cucumbers and green and red seaweeds, depending on the habitat and on how low the tide is. In the subtidal zone the floats of bull kelp can be seen bobbing on the water surface. From the beach you may see swimming or diving cormorants and ducks.

If you’re interested in seashore life it’s important to look at a tide table for the day to see when low tide is occurring and how low it’s going to be. The lower the tide the greater the variety of seashore animals and seaweeds that will be visible.

In addition to the cultivated area of the park, the seawall and the beaches, Stanley Park has several other attractions for nature enthusiasts.

The Vancouver Aquarium

The Vancouver Aquarium is located in Stanley Park and is the largest public aquarium in Canada. It has a large collection of tropical and temperate fish and invertebrates, including sharks, as well as amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Some mammals at the Vancouver Aquarium are sea otters, sea lions, dolphins and beluga whales.

The stated goals of the aquarium are animal conservation, public education and research. There are daily whale and dolphin shows. Over the years the shows have gradually changed from showing animal “tricks” to demonstrating much more natural behaviours and educating the viewers as they watch the demonstration. The aquarium offers a wide range of school programs, and cares for rescued marine animals until they can be released back into the wild.

The Vancouver Aquarium has a gift shop, which you can enter without paying for an aquarium visit. The aquarium also has a café and snack bar if you’re hungry during your visit, or you could wait to eat until you leave the aquarium. In summer the Stanley Park concession stands are open, and there are restaurants in the park.

Beaver Lake

Most of Stanley Park is covered by forest. Squirrels, raccoons, skunks and coyotes may be seen from the forest trails or, in the case of skunks, smelled!

Beaver Lake is a natural body of water located near the centre of the park amidst the trees. It's a popular site for waterfowl, frogs and human visitors, and contains fish. Bald eagles patrol the sky around the lake. Barred Owls, Little Brown bats and Northern Flying Squirrels visit the lake area at night.

Beaver Lake is gradually being filled in with soil, plant debris and water lilies, and it's estimated that if the process continues the water will have gone within about twenty years. However, the Vancouver Parks Board is planning to develop methods to maintain the lake.

Lost Lagoon

Lost Lagoon is located near to the main Stanley Park entrance, on the left side of the road if you are approaching the park from downtown Vancouver. It contains fresh water, but was once fed by ocean water traveling with the tide from Coal Harbour. The lagoon is now separated from the harbour by the causeway that passes through Stanley Park.

Lost Lagoon is a bird sanctuary and contains swans and waterfowl, with many other types of birds visiting the trees and shrubs that border the lagoon and the trail that travels around the lagoon. The Lost Lagoon Nature House has nature displays and information to educate and entertain visitors. The nature house is run by the Stanley Park Ecology Society and is located in the former boathouse at the southeast corner of Lost Lagoon.

Stanley Park is a wonderful park for nature lovers to visit, but perhaps you have parks near where you live that you could explore this summer. Some cities have gardens open to the public as well. Even if you don't have a park or public garden to visit, there may be a trail, forest, field, mountain, pond, river, lake, seashore or museum in your area that would be a great place to take a nature walk. Even walking around a neighborhood and looking at other people's gardens can be fun.

Nature can be observed at any time of year, but the best time is in the summer. Even in summer, though, the natural cycle moves on, and as the season progresses you will see different plants and animals, or different stages in their lives, in the same area. Nature walks are always interesting!