Vancouver Island Nature Tours

The pelagic trip I wrote about earlier this month is now officially going to happen.
The date of the trip is Sept 6. It will be the only pelagic birding trip in a boat with a heated cabin and on-board washroom facilities offered on the west coast of Canada this summer.
For those of you who […]

If you are a birder, you probably keep a life list of all the birds you have ever seen. Many other birders keep a yard list of the birds they have found from within the boundaries of their yard. Others have lists for certain places the visit regularly, for each province, state and country they […]

Not much content on this one, I’m afraid. Just pictures. Last November my wife and I took a trip to the west coast of Mexico. Before the trip we bought a new camera, a Canon S5. It’s go a very powerful 15x zoom on it. So now I can take bird pictures that are actually […]

It’s way past time for another entry. I’ve got plenty of irons in the fire these days.
One promising iron is a pelagic birding trip for the American Birding Association. They are having a regional convention in Vancouver and Victoria from 30 August to 6 September 2008. And they have asked Rainbird Excursions to put […]

This is one contribution to a monthly column on tourism I wrote for our local newspaper, the Alberni Valley Times, on Vancouver Island. It might interest you.
By now everyone knows the Logo and the tag line for Alberni Valley Tourism, “Bear Tracks & Lumberjacks”. Like it or not, this is what we will be using […]

Snow is definitely in the air! Today and tomorrow we are expecting show showers . Right now, it is snowing at Mount Washington Alpine Resort, adding to the 60 cm or so that is there now. Thursday December 6th is opening day provided, of course, there’s enough snow.
So it’s time to let […]

Every once in a while the planets align, the omens are great ant someone gets a really great tour!
This happened last weekend for an Asian group who were visiting Tofino from their home in Victoria. Masaya, from Japan contacted me asking if it was too late for a mushroom tour for him, his girlfriend and […]

There are a lot fewer tourists around at this time of year. Too bad. It’s a favourite time of year for me. A nice day, like yesterday, is quite spectacular.
To earn a little extra money in the fall when the tours are fewer and farther between, I have been picking Chanterelle mushrooms. And this year […]

I have had people asking about where to go birding in the west coast of Vancouver Island, especially in the Tofino, Ucluelet, and Pacific Rim National Park area. I promised I would get to it. So here goes.
If you plan to visit the area, I strongly suggest that you invest in a spotting scope. […]

Over the last few years Black Bears have been reliably seen on the other side of the Somass River - especially at low tide. But this year it has been different. I think it must be due to the low numbers of Sockeye Salmon returning over the summer. They just haven’t been around much.

But in […]