I was born and raised in Vancouver; actually lived "two lives" back-and-forth. Lots of time in Greece (nearly all summers) plus time as a child and teenager before settling for good in Athens in the summer of 1995. From June 1986 to April 1995 I lived in East Vancouver, in my late teans and early '20s. I was an active birder in the Lower Mainland and student at Templeton High, Capilano College, then at Simon Fraser University.
I look back on these years with gratitude. What a lucky guy I was. Having lived in Athens as a teenager, when things got a little depressing there, I moved back to Vancouver in 1986. The international exposition, Expo '86, was taking place. There was a circus-like craze everywhere in the city (image above) and things were flurishing. I was going to stay! So, I changed High Schools (I was in ACS in Agia Paraskevi in Athens) and transfered to an East Vancouver school at Grade 11. So I went from an privaleged American campus in Athens to a lowly public school on the poor side of town in Vancouver. Templeton High: I would watch the tropical warblers in the Spring on the huge European willows in the parking lot. Thats mostly what I recall.
Times were very different then...I'll reminisce a little about the people in the birding world at that time.
Birders were organized under the Vancouver Natural History Society (VNHS) now renamed Nature Vancouver. There were frequent 'Birder's Nights' meetings (at a church basement in south Vancouver, 41st Street, I think). Each weekend, a field trip was organized, advertized in the VNHS periodical, Discovery! We would car pool to special places to look for birds.
There would be talks at Birder's Night. Once a group of Taiwanese came to show us about their Isalnd, they were really into birds! So exciting. I also put on a couple of Bird shows at Birder's Night. Also, once at the Vancouver Planetarium - what a privelige!
Vancouver had a Recorded Bird Alert and phoning it you would here a happy recroded voice explaining in all seriousness any rare birds in the area. Christmas Bird Counts were organized and a special time that was.... There was a community spirit, and much of our work was also in conservation. Not all birders were active conservationists, but I was, and I guess I should say the activisim took up a lot of my time.
I will not mention the activism so much here, my intention is particularly with the birders and naturalists close to my heart. And what I recall. I am sure I am missing out many, I have not worked to recall all the details (and appologies to friends who are not listed here!!!).
Some of the people who stick out in my memory are the following (in no particular order):
Kevin Bell* - grand mentor and wonderful Irish-Canadian hero of Maplewood Flats and conservationist underground-commandor of protected areas creation in Vancouver. Well known and widely respected. Curator and cheif natualist of the Lynn Canyon Ecology Center.
Doug Kragh - Met in '86 when I took my first guided VNHS trip to the Cowatchin Valley and got advice on how to buy my first field scope. Always helpful to all birders.
Keith Wade - Although not a birder per se, he was my most beloved professor at college. He was the one who sparked my interest in biogeography. He was an ecologist and biogeographer who taught at Capilano College for 39 years, during which time he led botanical and natural history tours as well.
Wayne C. Weber** - A wonderful quirky deep-scientist-ornithologist. An incredible researcher and recorder, organizer. Always helpful with young people. A mentor.
Rick Toochin - John, his father was one of the most famous birders in BC. Rick was a wonderful friend and we have done lots together (lots of twitching birds in the late '80s and even some scientific work with Garry Kaiser). Rick is still active, we're in touch.
Tom Plath - One of my best friends in Vancouver. He gave me my first job at the BC Ministry of Enviroment. Wonderful mentor.
Stephen N. Partington - Activist and birder of Maplewood Flats history honour.
Danny Tyson - One of the best young birders in Vancouver. He birded in Maplewood Flats around the time we were campaigning to save it. We saved it! Danny is still active.
Garry W. Kaiser - Working back in the day with the Canadian Wildlife Service, he introduced me to bird banding, shorebird banding. We would meet up and go to Mud Bay (Bundary Bay) mostly. Also, I would find him at his office at Aleksen (near Reifel Refuge). Garry was important because, in him I saw an image of what I may become in the future...a government wildlifer.
Fred Sharpe - The best ornithology professor I ever had (actually he was a teaching assistant). For a term at least, he lived in his van at SFU. Probably the best teaching-assistant ever. The course, Dov's Ornithology at SFU ( I A'ced it).
Richard Beard - Dick is a wonderful butterfly expert and birder; he helped establish on-going walks to Maplewood Flats and the development of the Wild Bird Trust, later based at Maplewood Flats. This was a major victory for nature and culture in Vancouver in the early '90s.
Al*** & Jude Grass - Jude and Al have contributed for many, many years to Nature Education and Conservation through organizations such as VNHS, BC Provincial Parks, and Metro Vancouver Regional Parks as professionals and passionate expert nature interpretors. Al was an amazing writer and promoter of outdoor nature study - he was like ten men working within one! An amazing legacy and contribution to Vancouver's society.
Kelly Selkon - One of Vancouver's greatest volunteer naturalists. Always around to help and support. As you may realize very few of the birders were coloured in any way, even I, a Mediterranean with a moustache was not mainstream. Slightly ethnic. Kelly was more ethnic-looking, but really very much part of the Canadian culture. Wonderful man.
Mike Force - A young man who manned Vancouver's Rare Bird Alert line and was full of fun and good times, we aftern car-pooled in his car with Rick.
George Clulow - One of the best volunteers around; with VNHS and always helpful, still active after all these years.
Volker Bodegum**** - My best friend in Vancouver. A true deep naturalist and the kindest heart you will ever meet anywhere. He wrote the book 'Bicycling in Vancouver'. We did a lot of activism work together, he visited me in Greece also. Taken by Cancer. Missed by many.
Adony Melathopoulos - Adony is not a birder but he is a deep ecologist and real naturalist and we spent much time together in the early '90s at SFU. I think he was the first to teach me excel.
Hue N. MacKenzie***** - A very passionate naturalist, true bird-lister; he and Jo Ann where a major fixture fo the Canadian birding scene in the 70s up to the early 2000s. He was my dad's age (b. 1922) and became a world birder as well. He and Jo Ann (his wife) came to one of our ecotour trips to Greece (early 1990s).
Richard Cannings - Renowned naturalist, conservationist, and best-selling nature author and MP of the glorious nation of Canada, he is one of the best! What a privelage to know him and to see the good he has done to the culture of that country (and beyond).
Well...five of my friends died, ...how time passes.
*KB Deceased 2023
**WCW Deceased 2022
*** AG Deceased 2024
**** VB Deceased 2018
***** HNM Deceased 2009
A biographical note...
In Vancouver in the '70s and '80s I lived at 686 Powell street, Downtown East Side. This is the ugly part of the city near the loading docks and rail-lines, strip bars, truck-stations. No gentrification and tourism back then (real and raw). My greek-immigrant parents owned and built-up a restaurant there since the late 60s, to become the ethnic "Greek Islands Restaurant" (until about 1977). It catered to the Greek merchent marine ships, not just the locals. My father was the cook, my mother the Maître d' of sorts. The restaurant amazingly flurished for a few years in a difficult part of the city. Then it became too difficult. The premises warped into "The Waterfront Restaurant and Cabaret", first country-music bar than a punk-scene cabaret, and everything in between. They attempted whatever they could to keep it alive. Above our restaurant was a sort of half-way apartment house - 10 rooms; mostly poeple out of Oakalla Prison, including some adicts, reclusive types, mostly men. Good people - selected by my parents. We lived in the master's appartment next to these ten rooms. My dad had a hand gun and dogs, Doberman Pinchers. But we were never scared. As a youth I spent a lot of time with the tenants still remember some of there names. Many of our tenants helped out at the restuarant (carpenters, cooks, dishwashers, cleaners). We lived with these wonderful weird people. We were weird. It was East Vancouver's skid row. Our home.
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| Vancouver in 1980, Cambie and Broadway. A typical scene of this city (internet photo). |
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| Our restaurant and home (on the right); 686 Powell street (at Heatley). Formerly the Greek Islands Restaurant then "The Waterfront". Photo from the late 1970s or early 1980 (internet photo). |
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| Oppenheimer Park in 1979. This is probably my most frequented location a few blocks west of our home-restaurant in East Vancouver (internet photo). |
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You can see the interior of "The Waterfront Restaurant and Cabaret" in the Dennis Hopper's "Out of the Blue (1980)". I recall the filming in 1979 (one of at least two films done on the premises). In the photo above, the cowboy landscape paintings were painted by my late brother John Zogaris. There's also a collection of fur-traps on the upper left fo this photo. I spent a lot of time in this space between 1976 and 1983 (internet photo).
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East Vancouver's Hasting Street in 1990 (image courtesy of Leonard Rooney (Canadian, b.1960). This is very typical of the scen near my house a few blocks bus-ride away. Dark.
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| Much of my life and my siblings lives were closely tied with the harbourfront. It is amazing that I have very few photos on hand. This is a 'rather recent' pic from my late brother Kosta Zogaris. (early 2000s). |
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Vancouver's Mainstreet in 1984 (internet photo).
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The late and great and highly respected, Kevin Bell. Savior of Maplewood Flats! One of the greatest Irish-Canadian treasures ever to live in this part of the world (North Shore News photo).
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A Dedication
I dedicate this post to my friend Tony Shinkawa, our best family friend in Vancouver; childhood friends with my late brother Kosta, my closest brother. A mushroom hunter with a deep love for wildlife and nature. We aften went walking, hiking in the rain. I miss you Tony.
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| Tony Shinkawa and I at the new Hastings Park restoration site in the Former PNE grounds in March 2011. |
Some resources
https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/north-shore-naturalist-recognized-for-lifetime-conservation-work-7024027
https://www.peacearchnews.com/community/south-surrey-naturalist-touched-thousands-7344348
https://pasttensevancouver.wordpress.com/2009/07/
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/vancouver-1980s-photos-1934775
(All photos in this post are from internet sources)
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