Wed Jan 12 2011 Leader

Page 1

City promises to cut red tape page 5

Game creator hopes to slay investors page 24

Wednesday January 12, 2011 Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com

Eagle influx sign of too few salmon

Twin girl succumbs to injuries from fire Community grieves loss of tot

Scavenging raptors descend on landfill in Burns Bog

by Kevin Diakiw

by Jeff Nagel DAVID HANCOCK watched as a seagull nabbed juicy glop of food from the Vancouver Landfill in Delta and tried to flap away with it. Ten eagles dove on the gull, which dropped the morsel nearly on his windshield. A great flurry of wings swarmed Hancock’s car in the ensuing food fight – one that was being replicated all over the landfill last week. “They’re all here because there’s 50,000 gulls eating garbage,” the wildlife biologist explains. “As soon as a gull grabs a piece of garbage that’s too big to swallow immediately, there’s five eagles hassling him.” Hancock, who runs eagle webcams on his website hancockwildlife.org, says the spectacular scene is not a happy one. Thousands of eagles have descended on the Fraser Valley this winter in a desperate search for food after the coastal streams where they usually feed yielded disastrously poor chum salmon runs. The birds that often congregate in areas like Brackendale are instead ranging further inland because the chum came back poorly and this is not a year with any significant number of pink David Hancock salmon returning. As a result, nearly 7,500 eagles flocked last month to the Chehalis River near Harrison Hot Springs, where more coho salmon had been spawning. And Hancock estimated nearly 1,000 eagles were near the Vancouver Landfill in Delta from Boundary Bay to Burns Bog Monday. “We’ve got pushing pretty close to a thousand birds at the dump,” he said. The largest number he’s ever seen before in that area was 860.

“As soon as a gull grabs a piece of garbage that’s too big ... there’s five eagles hassling him.”

Classic confrontation

BOAZ JOSEPH / THE LEADER

Liam Murphy-Burke (left) of the Semiahmoo Totems drives past Jeremy Kwan of the Johnston Heights Eagles during a senior boys high school game at the 2011 Surrey RCMP Basketball Classic Sunday at Fleetwood Park Secondary School. Johnston Heights won 87-84. The 40-team tournament continues today through Saturday at several Surrey schools.

See EXPERT / Page 3

Editorial 6 Letters 7 Sports 21 Life 24 Classifieds 27

AN OUTPOURING of condolences is streaming into an online memorial page for a 20-month-old girl who died from injuries sustained in a Surrey fire on Jan. 4. Ava Keddie and her twin sister Samantha were rushed to hospital last Tuesday with burns to much of their bodies after a fire broke out in their bedroom at the Cedar Hills area apartment building. Ava died shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday. Samantha remains at B.C. Children’s Hospital with her condition listed as critical but stable as of Monday Ava Keddie afternoon. The Keddie family issued the following statement on the weekend: “It is with sad and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Ava Elizabeth Keddie. Ava passed away January 8, 2011 at 12:40 a.m. with her Mommy and Daddy at her side. “Ava is greatly missed by her Mommy, Daddy, Sissy Samantha, big brother Jayden, Nanny, Poppy, Grandmama, Papa, Granny, Opa, and her many aunts and uncles. The family would like to thank the incredible staff in ICU at Children’s Hospital, and express their gratitude for all the prayers.

See FIRE VICTIMS / Page 5

Save time, save money.

Tong Louie Family YMCA 14988 57th Avenue, Surrey 604-575-YMCA (9622)


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