The yellow spots on black make the Cyanide-producing Millipede (Harpaphe haydeniana) easy to identify. I’m always on the lookout for the small and interesting while walking in the forests of Vancouver Island. While at Seal Bay Regional Park near Comox, British Columbia this week I came across a large yellow-spotted black millipede crossing the trail. Millipedes with a Chemical Defense …
Seal Bay Regional Park
Return of the Panther
Panther Amanita (Amanita pantherina) showing partial veil, brown cap and whitish warts. Yesterday I noticed lots of Chocolate Slugs (Arion rufus) while walking at Seal Bay Regional Park. Most were simply crossing the trail, moving from one forested side across the relatively easy going “smooth” path to the other. Later in my walk I found some amanitas and once I …
Slug’s Eye View
I took Clara and Alden for a strolling adventure in Seal Bay Regional Park today – a complete circuit around the main swamp starting and ending at the Hardy Road parking area. Most of the trail was pretty good except for the bit between the swamp and the main trail between Hardy Road and Bates Road. The swamp is filling …
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 …