Category Archives: Outdoors

Outdoors on Vancouver Island

Hamilton Marsh near Qualicum Beach

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Are you looking for an interesting place to watch birds and nature?

Hamilton Marsh is the largest marsh wetland in the mid Vancouver Island area and is located just minutes from the Town of Qualicum Beach.

This is a peaty marsh, an oddity for this usually dry portion of eastern Vancouver Island. It is home to over 130 species of birds, numerous amphibians, and is one of the most important habitats on the island for native species of dragonflies.

To get there from Qualicum Beach, take Memorial Drive which turns into Highway 4 as you leave town.  Keep going straight (under the highway). At the bottom of the first hill turn right onto Hilliers Road South. There are two visitor parking lots on Hilliers Road South which are on the left hand side.

If you park in the second parking lot you will find an easy trail to the marsh where there is a wood pier for viewing.

Hamilton Marsh is 3 kilometres long and 1/2 kilometre wide. Hamilton Marsh and the forest that surrounds it are owned by Island Timberlands and may be used on an “at your own risk” basis.  Efforts to purchase this land by Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Regional District of Nanaimo have so far been rejected.

dp seal trans 16x16 Hamilton Marsh near Qualicum Beach Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Earth Week in memory of Basking Sharks

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BaskingShark Earth Week in memory of Basking Sharks

1300 Victoria students form a basking shark June 2011 (credit D. Dancer)

Basking Sharks: What happened to this amazing species once part of our BC coastal waters.

A brief basking shark history:

Basking sharks have been around for 30 million years, swimming around and eating plankton, much like whales. They have a dorsal fin, but their teeth are tiny. Their extremely large gill slits nearly encircle the head, and are covered in large gillrakers that filter plankton from the water, much like the baleen of a humpback or grey whale.They didn’t attack people, nor did they eat salmon as they were accused of at the time. The only issue was that they got caught up in fishing nets and were deemed a nuisance.

The slaughter:

Starting in 1949, basking sharks were declared ”Destructive Pests.” This made it okay for for fishermen to kill them with a variety of methods, including harpooning. In 1955,  the Department of Fisheries commissioned Alberni Engineering and Shipyards to design and install a death-dealing basking shark cutting blade on the bow of the regional fisheries patrol vessel, the Comox Post.

When the crew of the Comox Post approached a school of basking sharks the knife would be lowered from a hinge by a cable so that the cutting edge was just below the surface of the water. The blade was used over a period of 14 years in the Barkley Sound region, during which time 413 kills were recorded. Other fisheries patrol vessels including the Laurier, Howay and Kitimat rammed basking sharks if they were encountered during patrols. Some figure as many as 300 were killed this way.

Harpooning in Parksville:

The sport of harpooning basking sharks was popular enough that the Canadian Pacific Railway promoted fishing for British Columbia’s basking sharks in publicity releases in the late 1940s. Parksville was promoted as the “shark fishing mecca of the Pacific Northwest” and “scores” of anglers were said to come to Vancouver Island for the sport.

Who has seen a basking shark?

There are only six confirmed records of basking sharks in the Canadian Pacific since 1996, four of which are from trawl fishery observer records.1 Since a tagging program started in 2010, only one has been tagged, off the coast of San Diego.2

The Government of Canada is considering listing basking sharks as endangered off the Coast of British Columbia, and research is underway to try to determine how many are left in our waters and the potential for recovery of these impressive sharks.

What have we learned? Unfortunately, history has a habit of repeating itself.

Sources:

1Fisheries and Oceans Canada website. Basking Shark, Pacific population.

2Lavoie, Judith. Basking shark program aimed at reversing fortunes. Times Colonist, May 19, 2011.

Wallace, Scott and Gisborne, Brian. Basking Sharks: The Slaughter of BC’s Gentle Giants. New Star Press, 2006.

dp seal trans 16x16 Earth Week in memory of Basking SharksCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Who’s drumming on my roof?

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northernflicker 296x300 Whos drumming on my roof?

Northern Flicker (cc image: flikr)

What’s that jarring sound on the metal flashing? Have you heard it? If you look up, you’ll see the Northern Flicker, a member of the woodpecker family.  Thirteen inches long, Northern Flickers have wingspans of 21 inches. They do most of their foraging for food on the ground. They eat ants, termites, caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers, other insects, spiders, berries, seeds, and nuts. This makes them susceptible to herbicides and pesticides.

Northern Flicker nesting areas have been taken over by the more aggressive European Starlings, a hundred of which were brought over to New York in the 1890s and whose population has grown to 200 million ranging over the entire continent. According to the Audobon Society, it is common for starlings to expel flickers from their own nesting cavity.

Drumming is a form of woodpecker communication and flickers like to seek out metal flashing on roofs because the noise projects farther over suburban noises and is more readily found than wood. Drumming is not harmful to the metal. A flicker drum roll consists of a series of rapid beats, lasting about 1 second. The male often drums in spring to attract a mate and also when another male invades his territory.  This flicker in the video found a metal guard rail. Drum roll please….

dp seal trans 16x16 Whos drumming on my roof?Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Moorecroft Planning Open House – Nanoose Bay

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You can get involved in the next phase of the Moorecroft Regional Park Management Plan at an open house on Saturday, February 11, 2012. The open house event is scheduled for 12 noon to 4pm at Kennedy Lodge in Moorecroft Park, located at the end of Stewart Road in Nanoose Bay.

Participants will have the opportunity to comment on three different strategies for managing the park.

RDN staff is working with O2 Planning and Design, the Nature Trust of BC, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada to facilitate and oversee the plan, which is scheduled to be complete in November 2012.

For more information about this open house and other opportunities for public engagement, email moorecroft(at)rdn.bc.ca or contact Kelsey Cramer, RDN Regional Parks Planner.

dp seal trans 16x16 Moorecroft Planning Open House Nanoose BayCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2012

Twelve Dead Beavers in Nanaimo

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Sad news to report from the Team Linley Valley West, they have reported that last week 12 beavers were trapped and  killed.

If you have watched the videos of this area you can see the beavers were swimming around just this past summer.

Are you looking for a good reason to go out and vote in the civic elections this week?

Maybe it’s time to ask yourself what will Nanaimo look like in twenty years?

Also, you can check out this Linley Valley West page.

 

 

dp seal trans 16x16 Twelve Dead Beavers in NanaimoCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2011

Linley Valley West Nature Park Update

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The Linley Valley Team has approached Nanaimo City Council to request that the undeveloped lands in west Linley Valley be designated as a nature park.

Currently, the Linley Valley provides habitat for beaver, stickleback fish, red legged frogs, pileated woodpeckers and other flora and fauna.

These lands are approximately 310 acres in size excluding the lands currently under development as a residential subdivision adjacent to Rutherford Road. Some are designated for imminent development while others are identified in the Official Community Plan as “Urban Reserve” and are earmarked for future urban development.

To designate the lands as a nature park and protect them fully from development would likely require that the lands be acquired from the existing owners at market value. The assessed value of the total 310 acres is currently $6.6 million.

Nanaimo Info Blog has reported that the City of Nanaimo has decided instead to spend $16 million dollars on a new building to house 160 staff.

I echo Nanaimo Info Blog’s comment:

Which project would have the greater benefit for the greater good of the community. Protect 310 acres of wilderness, or provide 160 highly paid staffers with shiny new digs??

I know what city council and city staff have already said, so the question is addressed to the rest of Nanaimo residents.

To learn about this area, check out the page “Saving Linley Valley West”