About the writer
Sandy McRuer owns a tour company called Rainbird Excursions. The company offers guided nature, hiking, bird-watching tours and other excursions on central Vancouver Island. All excursions can be done in a day. Rainbird’s Excursions are exclusive, personalized small group tours with superior nature interpretation and local history. Many of them involve some easy to moderate hiking. There are incredible places in the Alberni Valley, the Parksville/Qualicum area and the Pacific Rim of Vancouver Island. And some of them are relatively unknown. In fact, the majority of them do not even have signs to tell you where the trail heads are or how to get to them. But having lived on Vancouver Island for over twenty-five years, and done lots of hiking, Sandy knows many of them.
Sandy has worked many years as a registered professional forester specializing in reforestation. This allows him to be able to convey some of his vast knowledge of plants, birds, fish, animals and local forest practices to his clients. With this background in forestry and his fascination for birds, he is in a unique position to offer good, credible information about the natural history of the area.
This site also a place to tell others about about your experiences, good and bad, in the area (even if you didn’t go with Rainbird). If you want more information about me or about Rainbird Excursion’s trips, here’s the web address: