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It is bird nesting season in the Cowichan Valley. The Spotted Towhee appears on the Cowichan Valley Naturalists’ brochure: Thanks, again, to Willie Harvie for sending me this photo. Gail

Thank you Willie Harvie for your generosity in sharing these photos.  Willie uses a zoom lens to photograph flowers as well as birds.  This allows her to get shots without going off the trail – something important for us to remember.  At this time in the Cowichan Valley you can find these beauties:  Blue Camas;…

Now is the time to watch for migrating shorebirds.  Here is a Greater Yellowlegs photographed yesterday by Wilma Harvie at Cowichan Bay.  You might find one if you walk along Dock Road or at the end of the Ducks Unlimited trail. Gail  

April 13, 2021  by Gail After a long hiatus, our website blog is up and running again! This is my first attempt!  I will try to keep it going with nature news from around the valley.  Stay tuned! The weather finally feels like spring. Here are some of the beautiful wildflowers that can be seen…

October 1930 – 17 December 2020 Eric was born Oct 1930 in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England. He moved to Blackpool where he completed high school. He graduated from King’s College, London, with a degree in marine zoology. Following a compulsory two years National Service he worked as a librarian for Freshwater Biological Association on Windermere…

May 10, 1943  July 24, 2020 Born a 4th generation Californian and growing up in Beverly Hills, John used to jokingly describe himself as consistently downwardly mobile but no less happy for it. His youthful interests became lifelong pursuits. He was drawn to science, particularly astronomy, reading, chess, music, sailing, and camping. He spent time…

John Scull came to the Cowichan Valley in the early 70’s and has been working ever since to make it a better place for all of its inhabitants. John helped resurrect the Naturalists Club in 1983 along with Syd Watts, Sheila Sanders and Keith Muir. He managed our publicity for many years and continues to…

It takes a lot of determination and perseverance to be a swan counter because sometimes we go and we don’t see much at all and then all of a sudden some birds pop up and all are happy. It was a bit like that today as we went to many locations and found the cupboard…

It was a strange old day with most things going down and the sun going up once more; well it was a Wednesday so what do you expect. 9 birders set out from the dog park and for the second time ever I had my son along for the day. Those young eyes paid dividends…

I sometimes look back and think why did I ever start counting birds, I know the data comes in very useful, but I was a regular bird watcher once and chased rarities all over the provinces like a mad thing. Today made me realize why I and others do it when you pull up on…

South side: We had a wonderful turnout of 10 counters, some of whom loved the sunlight on the clouds behind Swuqus (Mount Prevost) but were less enamored of the icy wind blowing off the bay.  A flying beaver took off during the count, but the birds were not particularly disturbed by it, and there were…

Today was Bob’s Day  and I dedicate this weeks report to all the Bob’s that watch birds. This week we had our own Bob Nation along for the trip and my did he bring us luck, with a record count of swans for this season over 400 and 4 Tundra Swans to boot. 6  Snow…

What a day we had 8 counters were subjected to early wet conditions to heat and sun by lunch, no real surprises although 7  Snow Geese on Dinsdale’s Farm were nice, these birds had been around for a few days. This year we have been having trouble finding swans in the north end of our…

Wet brewer’s blackbird I really don’t know what to say about this week, although snow was not an issue as last week, this week we needed Noah on our team as the heavens opened, Barry commented that he had never known a a Wednesday when it rained right through the whole count. As usual some…

As you might have guessed the count did not take place because I did not do a snow dance after checking all the steps I thought better not try that, So there was a big dump of snow today. What you will get today is a halftime report as we are half way through this…