Vancouver Island Nature Tours

Thanks to a very strong web presence and new marketing strategies, Rainbird Excursions’ Magical Mushroom tour went off without a hitch this weekend. In fact I had to turn down some people. Next year promises to be bigger and better than ever. I plan on having more expertise on site and accommodating more people. Planning [...]

The more I go to Stamp Falls, the more I am convinced that this Provincial park is the best place to see salmon migrating on Vancouver Island.  And by way of a photo essay I will prove it to you. It is a little off the beaten track. Those of you who are fixated on [...]

Rainbird Excursions and Batstar Cafe & Picnic have teamed up to create a unique outdoor and gourmet experience. Ron Storey, Batstar’s gourmet chef and creator of the superb meal served last year to a lucky group of guests, will again create a meal fit for an epicure. But first, guests will be escorted to a [...]

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 [...]

In my spare time I also write a column on tourism in the local newspaper. The local community is in transition from a logging and milling town to something else. What, we don’t know yet. But tourism is likely going to play a much larger role in the economy in the future. Anyway, I will [...]

It’s not often you find a guest who demonstrates to you how much he and his family enjoyed their trip with Rainbird Excursions. But Micheal Pratt has done just that. He sent all 130 of his photos to me. And some of them are really nice. So I thought I would share them and his [...]

It has been a very busy period here at Rainbird Excursions. So I haven’t had time to sit down and write a few notes about what has been going on. This year there have been Dutch, Germans, Australians, Americans and even Canadians enjoying the trips. The weather that had been pretty mediocre throughout June has [...]

Last Friday I took a drive up to Labour Day Lake. For those who don’t know, Labour Day Lake is a fairly high elevation lake that is the source of the Cameron River, the River that runs through Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. I wanted to see how much snow was still around. We had [...]

I have been working for two years to get a tour to see the Vancouver Island Marmot going. Primarily, there was resistance from the British Columbia Ministry of Environment (MoE) because these animals are so rare.However we have reached an agreement that they will address government concerns and the tours will go ahead starting in [...]