April 29, 2021

Thank you Katharine Staiger for this photo of mating Sphinx moths (Smerinthus ophthaimica) found on a peony in their garden. This is likely one of the largest moths that can be found in the Cowichan Valley. I am guessing the large one is the female, measuring about two inches.  The hind wings, which have the…

Carol Milo reports that on the south side of Cowichan Bay on Dec. 11th she (on her own), at high tide counted 7 species of seabirds for a total of 135 birds: 2 Double crested cormorant; 40 Canada Geese; 70 bufflehead; 8 common goldeneye, 4 Barrow’s goldeneye; 1 herring gull & 10 glaucous winged gulls….

SOUTH SIDE Gail Mitchell, Linda Hill, John Scull, Kathy Coster, and Barry Hetchko counted: belted kingfisher     2 great blue heron     10 purple martin           39 osprey                        3 glaucous-wing gull    9 unidentified gull        11 common merganser  4 bald eagle                   2 northwest crow           1 1 harbour seal & 1 river otter…

I have finally been well enough to tackle the vast numbers of birds that were counted on our count. The number of people in the field was a healthy 54 and feeder watchers an unhealthy 10, but these are still good for our area overall. We managed 110 Species and 27,819 total birds which is…

It appears by the numbers that I should phone in sick more often as the Trumpeter Swan numbers were the best of the season and 13 Red-tailed Hawks equaled our high count for the term. I am not sure what i did to deserve this horrible cold although a did spend the day with another…

Hi When you got to go, you got to go, as was the case for the swans and geese this past week with a mass migration from the valley. Just 47 Trumpeter Swans were counted and even the remaining few looked eager to leave us to go north. A group of four immatures on Sahilton…