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.

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Mid Island News

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.

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Mid Island News

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….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxre6H2l4-I

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Mid Island News

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.

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Mid Island News

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.

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Mid Island News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o48MG7M0Cw

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”

Mid Island News

Come and share your ideas about the future of Moorecroft Regional Park at the first public open house on Saturday October 22, 2011 from 12 pm – 4 pm at Kennedy Lodge in the park.

You can also fill out an online survey.

The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) has retained O2 Planning and Design to help with a 10 year management plan, which is scheduled to be complete in November 2012.

At this stage, the goal is to identify issues and opportunities that the plan needs to address and to inform the development of a draft:

• Vision
• Management Goals, and
• Management scenarios for the park

The 34 hectare Moorecroft site includes close to 1 km of beach and spectacular views across the Georgia Strait. There are approximately 32 hectares of natural forest featuring tree species such as Western Red Cedar, Douglas-fir, Arbutus, Bigleaf Maple, Red Alder and Garry Oak. Two intermittent creeks run through the property, and two eagle nesting sites have been identified. The property also contains a wetland area known as Skipsey Lake, a play field and a network of trails.

The Nature Trust of BC is still accepting donations to purchase this park.

Mid Island News

Parksville has a free curbside wood chipping program.  The City’s wood chipping program will take place this fall from October 12 – 28, 2011 weekdays, between the hours of 8 am and 4 pm.

Please note the follow instructions:

1. Branches with a maximum diameter of 6 inches (15 cm), stacked with the larger end of the branch or trunk facing the roadway
2. Woody shrub material, piled for ease of access by the chipping crew
3. Pampas grass and clematis and wisteria vines cannot be chipped. These, along with other vegetation, garden debris, leaves, and grass clippings must be taken to the Church Road Transfer Station. Piles containing the aforementioned items will not be removed by the chipping crew.
4. Piles must be limited to a size of 5 feet wide by 3 feet high, and only one pile per residence will be removed by the chipping crew.

To find out the pick up days, go to the City of Parksville website on the blogroll.

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Mid Island News

Ron Coupal of Nanaimo has found the solution to local pollution and guess what? He needs your to help.  Ron has started a website called www.nanaimogreenpatrol.com and needs people to take action in their own local neighbourhoods to start picking up litter.

If you need ideas on how to get the right tools, like a “grabber,” to make picking up litter around your area easier, drop Ron a note at his site.  Also, if you need some inspiration on what you can do with the garage you pick up on the beach check out artist A.H. Pozzi and her “Washed Ashore” garbage project from the Oregon Coast and her massive sculptures using plastic and other debris that were collected from the beaches.

Mid Island News

Cones are a treat for me! Red Breasted Nut Hatch in Parksville

Ralph had the timing just right to catch this Red Breasted Nuthatch in Parksville helping himself to a seed while going down the tree head first!  Did you know that the nuthatches smear conifer sap around their nest holes to deter predators?

Mid Island News