We were pretty much house bound because of the weather in the Comox Valley. High winds and lots of rain mean that it is difficult to venture out. We made a few short forays out for walks around the neighbourhood between squalls but for the most part hunkered down. I was stunned to see the sun when I woke up …
Destinations
Miracle Beach Birdwatching
Miracle Beach Provincial Park on Vancouver Island, British Columbia provides a good place for both forest birds and marine birds. It has a great mix of “old growth” Douglas Fir, Big Leaf Maple, and open, well established Red Alder (in the campsite area) as well as stream habitat alongside Black Creek, productive estuary habitat at the mouth of the creek, …
Guess that Gull
I admit that I struggle with identifying gulls. Not only do you have to deal with four years of different plumages, you have to deal with hybrids as well. It can be extremely challenging and there are many opportunities to second guess yourself. In situations like those, sometimes it’s better to simply close your eyes, wait until the gull leaves, …
Birding at Buttertubs
Open water at Buttertubs Marsh from the vantage point of a viewing tower. No ducks here! Yesterday I headed down to Nanaimo to pick up my brother-in-law at the ferry and planned the day to include a little morning birding at Buttertubs Marsh. Buttertubs is accessible in a couple of places but I find that the easiest access point is …
Toothed Jelly Fungus
One of the bonuses of doing a bird count is that you often end up in places that you haven’t been before. Such was the case yesterday when I was scouting out Seal Bay Regional Park which is in my assigned count area. I usually access Seal Bay from the main parking lot on Bates Road but in this case …
2009 Comox CBC – Pre-count Scouting
I’m leading a group of birders in Area 11 on the Comox Christmas Bird Count (CBC) this year and headed out today to do a pre-count reconnaissance of the area. The last time I birded this territory was back in 2004 with my wife and my mother-in-law. I knew that it had a variety of good birding habitat so when …
Brown Clustered Ear Cup
If you keep your ear to the ground you never know what you might see on your next walk in the woods. The Brown Clustered Ear Cup (Otidea alutacea) looks like delicate ears poking up through the moss. In actuality, it is a cup fungi. Brown Clustered Ear Cup (Otidea alutacea) We found a group of these cup fungi growing …
Birding at Woodhus Slough
Ruby-crowned Kinglet in blackberry brambles. Did a little birding at Woodhus Slough, just north of Oyster River on Vancouver Island this afternoon. The slough is accessed by either the parking area at the Salmon Point Pub or at the Oyster River Park parking area near the Fisherman’s Pub – hence its popular name the “Pub to Pub Trail.” The trail …
Merville Woods Mushrooms – Part 2
Earlier in November we enjoyed some mushrooms at Merville Woods, a second growth forest characterized by mixed conifers including pines. This post features a few more mushrooms that we found there. One was a mushroom that we had identified on a previous walk at Woodhus Slough but others remained a mystery even after creating a spore print and consulting our …
Lungwort
Lungwort | Lobaria pulmonaria November storms provide an opportunity to look at lichens that are usually a little higher up and out of reach. This week, while walking at Miracle Beach Provincial Park during a lull between squalls we found some beautiful Lungwort (Lobaria pulmonaria) on a branch of Big-leaf Maple that had blown down in the high winds. Lungwort …