The Birds of Grandview Cut
The considerable vegetation of the Grandview Cut has grown up on both sides of what gives the impression of a well wooded ravine with an active rail line at the bottom of it, including a small stream. The Cut is about a mile long extending from Clark Street to Slocan. Its average width is about 100 metres and its average depth is probably some 30 metres. The Cut is intersected longitudinally and at right angles by a number of bridges carrying fairly heavy vehicular traffic as well as the Skytrain. Despite the continuous noise of traffic above and the passage of occasional trains below, the broadleaved forest of the Cut is an important natural corridor for a surprising number of bird and animal species in the heart of an important Vancouver commercial and residential district.
Highlights of the birds encountered on a fine spring morning were a Peregrine Falcon flying high above the Cut in the direction of Downtown Vancouver, keeping an eye out for pigeons which nest under many of the bridges, a raven carrying nesting material to a nest site which is somewhere in the Cut, a Bewick’s Wren singing its heart out from a flowering apple and four varieties of Warbler moving through the Cut on their annual migration.
Aside from the common species including the American Robin, Starlings, Crows and House Sparrows the following bird species were seen on the early May outing in the Cut.
The Cut offers important natural habitat for a large number of breeding and migratory bird species in the heart of Vancouver. Any development must recognise this corridor and take care not to damage the integrity of this little known feature of Vancouver’s natural history.