I love turning over pieces of wood, bark, leaves, boards and rocks and discovering things lurking underneath. I found this millipede under an old rotting board at my mother-in-law’s house up at Miracle Beach. I’m unsure what species it is but have fairly confidently narrowed down the Order to Julida and Family to Julidae. Being no millipede expert, I’m humble …
British Columbia
A Solitary Sanderling
Earlier this week, while walking out at Goose Spit I came upon a single Sanderling (Calidris alba). Sanderlings are regularly seen throughout the winter at Goose Spit. Because beaches on Vancouver Island are popular places to walk, shorebirds have a challenging time of it. The strip of beach is quite narrow at high tide and walkers regularly flush birds on …
Searching for the Robust Lancetooth
We’ve been keeping an eye out for some of the bigger snails during our forest walks this week. They’re much easier to identify than some of the smaller ones that we’ve discovered underneath paving stones and wood. This week we found the shell of a Robust Lancetooth (Haplotrema vancouverense). The robust lancetooth is a fairly common large snail in deciduous …
Varnish Clams
Walking on the beach at Goose Spit in Comox this weekend got me thinking about clams. I always enjoy sorting through seaweed in the strand line. Often I take a closer look at shells that have washed up on the shore before returning them back to the beach where I found them. On this walk I found several “old-friends,” including …
Long-billed Dowitchers at Airpark Lagoon
Things are perking along at the Airpark Lagoon in Courtenay, British Columbia. Always a good spot for winter birding, at the large viewing stand on the eastern side of the lagoon I was watching a group of Barrow’s Goldeneye when I noticed a group of shorebirds foraging in the long grass directly below the platform. Identifying Features of Long-billed Dowitchers …
Banded Woolly Bear Predicts Mild Winter
Is it going to be a mild winter this year in British Columbia? You be the judge. According to some, if the orange band in the middle of a banded woolly bear (Pyrrharctia isabella) is wider than the black bands on the ends of the caterpillar it will be a mild winter. The opposite is the case if the orange …
Spectacular Snow Geese
Airpark Lagoon, Courtenay, BC I took Clara and Alden out to the Airpark Lagoon yesterday afternoon before dinner. It’s a stroller friendly walk that circles around the Airpark Lagoon and offers fantastic views of the Courtenay estuary. While many use the loop to exercise or to socialize, local naturalists know that it is an excellent place to birdwatch. Many unusual …
Some Small Snails
A Very Small Snail on a Very Long Journey Back in September I discovered some very small snails underneath a paving stone in our garden when flipping rocks for International Rock Flipping Day. This past week I’ve found a couple more small snails that I’ve photographed but have been unable to identify. The snail pictured above and below was in …
Fragile Oaks
It’s that time of year when leaves are falling to the ground and trees are doing their best to set their progeny up for the spring. I was poking around some Garry Oaks (Quercus garryana) looking for invertebrates and discovered several acorns in the leaf litter. Garry Oak | Quercus garryana Garry oak are the only native oak trees west …
Lesser Central Creeper
Lesser Central Creeper Lesser Central Creeper Classification: B/4 In this latest edition of Vancouver Island Shopping Carts I discovered a lone Lesser Central Creeper in a back alley in Courtenay, BC. Note the distinctive yellow markings and small size that are characteristic of this species. This gentle omnivore is often domesticated by humans and put to purposeful use. With good …