Travel / Outdoors

A great blue heron stands tall in a nest at Stanley Park. (Photo by Michael Schmidt, Stanley Park Ecology Society).

In a busy corner of  Stanley Park, right by a half-dozen tennis courts and the Vancouver Park Board office, dozens of  great blue herons have set up shop once again, building their nests  in towering  trees.

It’s an unusual spot for  a heron colony,  with tennis players whacking balls and people walking and biking  on nearby paths. But the human activity doesn’t seem to bother the herons. This is the 13th year the  herons have been nesting in the same spot in the Vancouver, B.C., park, their numbers growing each year.  Last year, 86 pairs of nesting herons were counted, with an estimated 169 fledglings.

It’s a dramatic natural sight  in the big city, with the big birds swooping in and out of the nests and  a cacophony of calls as the hormone-raging males court  the females. To see the herons, find your way to the park board office (see the map)  in the southwest corner of  Stanley Park  at 2099 Beach Avenue, just a half block from the popular Sylvia Hotel on English Bay.

The Stanley Park Ecology Society watches over the birds, putting barriers on the tree trunks so racoons can’t climb to the nests and feast on the eggs (or the young birds). The group also fences off the area beneath the trees so humans can’t intrude or get nesting debris (and more) dumped on their heads.

Hereon nests are turning up in trees in Stanley Park, near the high rises that overlook the park. (Michael Schmidt photo, SPES)

This is the time of year when cruise lines unleash some early-booking discounts, and Princess Cruises put some Alaska “cruisetours” on sale Tuesday for May and June sailings.

You can’t just saunter down to the dock in Seattle and board the ship; these deals are for “Denali on sale” cruise/land vacations between  Vancouver,  B.C., and Anchorage. The Princess deals include a seven-day cruise  and land vacation on Alaska, and includes two of the most popular sights – Glacier Bay National Park and Denali National Park.

The Star Princess cruise ship approaches Vancouver’s Lions Gate Bridge at dawn. (Photo by Alan Berner / The Seattle Times)

Some sample fares (per person, based on double occupancy):

10-night Fairbanks/Vancouver On Your Own cruisetour: starting at $989 interior (was $1,370).

11-night Anchorage/Vancouver On Your Own cruisetour: $1,149 interior (was $1,587),

You could, of course, take one of the many cruises out of Seattle to Alaska; the Port of Seattle cruise website has a schedule of all the sailings. Most Seattle-Alaska cruises are (more…)

The neighbors are tarring their driveway? Your handyman is finally getting ’round to flushing the septic tank? For whatever reason, you’ve suddenly realized you really NEED to get out of town this weekend?

No worries. Just in time, here’s a short list of events you might take in around the region this weekend:

Sample Washington wines this weekend in Wenatchee. (AP file photo)

GO EAST

Wenatchee Winter Wine Gala, a fundraiser at the Wenatchee Valley Museum, features 18 wineries, representing winners of the Foothills Magazine 2012 North Central Washington Wine Awards, including Beaumont Cellars, Chateau Faire Le Pont, Horan Estates, Jones of Washington, Fielding Hills and more . 6 p.m. Saturday in Wenatchee, $45; 509-888-6240 or www.wvmcc.org.

GO SOUTH

Fertile Ground arts festival in Portland is billed as a citywide festival of new works. It starts today (Thursday, Jan. 24) and continues through Feb. 3, with a full schedule of world-premiere theater, visual art exhibits and more. www.fertilegroundpdx.org.

GO NORTH

The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, B.C., continues through Feb. 3. Among performers on the festival calendar this weekend is dancer and performance artist Hiroaki Umeda, called “one of Japan’s most exciting artists, bringing together light, sound and movement with astonishing force and style” in a performance that plays with the sensation of color, drenching the stage in layers of red, blue and purple, framing Umeda’s constantly moving body. 604-605-8284 or pushfestival.ca .