Family ESCape Days
Science Learning Adventures in your community!
Upcoming Events
7th Christmas Bird Count for Kids & Youth
Brydon Lagoon, Dec 2024 @ 9am
Free, register here.
Join us for a day of citizen science. We will walk around Brydon Lagoon identifying and counting birds as part of a Canada wide study. All ages, stroller friendly route. All our data will be submitted to Bird Studies Canada.
Your child could also be interested in these programs
Timms Community Centre, Saturday Dec 28 @ 3pm, age 4+
Purchase tickets through Langley City website here.
Campbell Valley Park, Feb 2025
Free
A morning of sleuthing with ESC's heart themed GPS family scavenger hunt!
Children receive participation prize
March Break 2025
Bring your family on a guided journey learning fun science about birds that inhabit Brydon Lagoon
Your child could also be interested in this workshop
and program
Canadiana: Dinos and & Fossils
Brydon Lagoon, Canada Day Jul 1 @ 1pm
This Canada Day, get your family moving outdoors while learning science!
You won't miss out on ESC's one-of-a-kind GPS scavenger hunt adventure!!
Join us to explore the great outdoors with your family while diving into the fascinating world of ancient creatures that once roamed our very own area.! This Nature adventure promises excitement, learning, and tons of fun!
You will need to find answers to the questions you are given.
Secure your family's spot now!
All child participants will receive a participation prize!
Your child could also be interested in these programs
5th Paper Airplane Competition for Kids
Buckley Park, Sat July 5 @ 1pm
Free
Join us for a family friendly paper airplane competition!
All child participants will receive a participation prize!
Your child could also be interested in these programs
Stay tuned to ESC's events by joining our newsletter!
Check out ESC's kids drop off programs here
Family Fun!
FAMILY ESCAPE DAYS
Thanks to to the Langley Advance Times for featuring ESC's Events.
Read the full article here!
4th Paper Airplane Competition
Buckley Park, Langley, 2024
A huge thank you to the families that took time from their weekend to come out and participate in ESC's 4th Paper Airplane Competition for kids! We had some seriously skilled participants! It was great to see returning participants as well as meet new ones!
Some of you spent some serious time thinking about and designing your airplane
Your experience through practise showed with your chosen style and timing of your throws!
A special heart felt ‘Thank You’ to each of the brave kiddos who participated. Participants ranged from 3-14 years old! Participating in a competition is more important than winning and even the best of Olympians have days where they do not perform to their skill level. So never feel bad for where you placed in a competition because what matters most is that you showed up!
The winners are:
1st Place
Daniel Li, age 9, with Nothing at 25.340m.
This is about half the distance of the world record
Second Place
Claude Frenal, age 9, with Steel Eagle at 19.664m
Third place
Ah-Yu Liu, age 12, with Something at 14.850m
The all-time record for this event was set by Aayan with Aeriest at 36.9m in 2021.
ESC had a great time organizing this event!
We hope you encourage your little one to come back again next year!
Thanks to LEPS for providing a attending and the
Langley Advance Times for featuring this event! See interview here.
To stay tuned for ESC Paper Airplane Competition 2025 by signing up to our newsletter!
6th Annual Christmas Bird Count for Kids & Youth
Thanks to all those who participated in ESC's 6th annual bird count at Brydon Lagoon.
We had a great turnout, with about 23 families joining us for the morning.
It was a true pleasure to see familiar faces and returning counters. It was also great to see such a diversity in participating families. We had families for whom it was their first ever bird count to some serious birding families. Some families came from as far as Vancouver to attend.
Thank you for donating your time to nature. Your enthusiasm and dedication keeps this count going. Thank you for continuing to support ESC's Family ESCape Days, ESC’s family event series!
We had good weather for the morning, not too cold, and dry, it seemed quieter than usual, with some notable absences such as the Eagles and Belted Kingfisher.
We counted 18 species in total.
Our overall individual count was like last year's at 389.
Buffleheads are a new addition to the count. We observed a good amount of Wood Ducks, who seem to have become a more regular inhabitant of the Lagoon.
There seems to be a downward trend for Pine siskins that show a steady decline since the count began in 2018 (72 individuals counted). The last time we counted a Pine Siskin was in 2021 (2 individuals counted).
It was fun watching 3 Northern Flickers for a little while.
We were also fortunate to see a young Cooper’s Hawk. Made up a bit for the lack of Eagles!
ESC tallied the top 19 birds that were present across the counts.
It is interesting to see trends within species across the different years.
The top 5 birds by number of individuals are: Mallard Duck, Canada Goose, Glaucous-winged Gull , Wood Duck, Black-capped Chickadee. Last year’s top 5 were: Canada Goose, Mallard Duck, Common Merganser, Black-capped Chickadee, Glaucous-winged Gull.
We did see a dead Great Blue Heron. It seemed to have died perched on one of the floating platforms. It is hard to tell why it died.
While there is variation in the number of species and individuals counted year on year.
Overall the number of birds at the Lagoon seem stable year on year.
The results from our count have, once again, been submitted to Bird Studies Canada.
Thank you to all those who participated, shared and made this event possible 6 years in a row.
Looking forward to next year's count!
If you are looking to learn more about Brydon Lagoon Birds, ESC does offer a Guided Tour during March Break.
Stay tuned for information on our summer event, Paper Airplane Competition, by joining our newsletter!
More information below!