Island NatureExploring nature on Vancouver Island, British Columbia and beyond

I found some small black beetles underneath rotting wood up at my mother-in-law’s place in Black Creek a couple of weeks ago and had a chance to check on whether or not they were still there. What I discovered was a large Ground Beetle that was superficially similar to the European Ground Beetles that I [...]

One of the joys about having a backyard garden is the opportunity to discover something new. It might be a strange looking slug, an odd looking sow bug, or in this case, a gorgeous beetle. This week I was prepping our raised beds and in the process of moving some soil in the wheelbarrow noticed [...]

Managed to get out to the garden with the kids today and did a little bit of fall clean-up. Today I focused on trimming the lily seed heads and collecting the seeds. From what I’ve read on-line, growing lilies from seed is a bit of a hit and miss project and I’ll have refrigerate these [...]

I spent most of the morning at Florencia Bay today on a fruitless search for two endangered Pink Sand-verbena (Abronia umbellata) plants that had been reported last week. Despite being unsuccessful I enjoyed poking around looking at plants and examining the flotsam and jetsam that was being brought in with the tide. The beach at Florencia [...]