The Canucks Demise was the name of a book I once thought I would write, except it had a happy ending, now it’s changed names, since I ended-up in the West End of Vancouver, living on Lagoon Drive, so I consider that I washed up on Lost Lagoon, as it seems natural Silicon Palms to make new roots, as coconuts as that may sound.
I’m not the only unique bird to land on Lost Lagoon, just the other day a Trumpeter Swan decided to drop-in on his/her way to Alaska for mating season. The weather in BC is ideal in March for a stop-over on the way north. Once upon a time there were Swans on Lost Lagoon with their wings clipped but the were removed, so today it was a pleasant surprise and a visual oddity to see the great white bird floating about the small lake.
The trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it is also the largest extant species of waterfowl with a wingspan that may exceed 10 ft (3.0 m). It is the American counterpart and a close relative of the whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) of Eurasia, and even has been considered the same species by some authorities. By 1933, fewer than 70 wild trumpeters were known to exist, and extinction seemed imminent, until aerial surveys discovered a Pacific population of several thousand trumpeters around Alaska’s Copper River. Careful reintroductions by wildlife agencies and the Trumpeter Swan Society gradually restored the North American wild population to over 46,000 birds by 2010.
Although a little long at 46 minutes, here’s a good documentary about Vancouver from 2013, in which the city is presented neighbourhood by neighbourhood (with maps), explains the city history, shows Stanley Park and Lost Lagoon, also nice footage from the park.
Lost Lagoon Photo credit: Trey Ratcliff on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA
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