On the Trail of a Snail

Whatever the time of year, we always find something of interest on our nature walks. A few days ago we found ourselves on the trail of a snail, which crossed right in front of us. It glided slowly but stealthily over twigs and needles, toting a brown spiral shell on its back. When I got home, I pulled out my copy of “Land Snails of British Columbia” by Robert Forsyth, an excellent guide to our provinces’ slugs and snails, to learn more about this quiet but compelling creature.

In evolutionary terms, slugs and snails are very successful, with as many as 35,000 species of land dwelling slugs and snails in the world, and 94 species in BC.

Snails belong to a large group of marine and land-dwelling creatures called molluscs. The word mollusc comes from the Greek word “mollis” meaning soft, in reference to the soft-fleshed body. Continue reading »

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A Good Year for Pinks

We took a stroll down to Puntledge Park in Courtenay the other day, to see the salmon in action. All seemed quiet at first, then with a sudden splash we spotted a salmon, swimming up through the riffles of the stream. The salmon spawn is a beautiful thing, and reminder of the natural cycles of life and death that we are all a part of. Along river’s edge, we found a freshly deceased male pink salmon, and admired the colours and markings of the fish up close. The pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) is the smallest and most abundant of the five species of Pacific salmon. Pinks weigh between 1.0-3.3 kg, and are 45-55 cm long. A key identification feature is the tail, which has tiny scales that have no silver, and distinctively large oval spots. Continue reading »

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Meet the Bigleaf Maple Tree

Jumping into a pile of yellow and rusty-coloured maple leaves is one of the many joys of the fall season. These huge leaves come from the “bigleaf” maple tree, which has the largest maple leaves in all of Canada. Though not as spectacular as the fiery red leaves of eastern Canada’s maples, the bigleaf maple nonetheless adds a splash of fall colour to an otherwise green and grey coastal landscape. Continue reading »

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A Prickly Subject

With a baby and a toddler a lot of small jobs go by the wayside, including the removal of a large, weedy bull thistle from our front yard. It bloomed a while ago, and Dave decided to take a picture of it. Despite its thorny character, the thistle flower, with its purple crown, is a thing of beauty.

Thistles are a prickly subject. Canada thistle, in particular, is considered a noxious weed in many countries, including Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. This pesky thistle easily takes over farm fields and pastures and can be hard to remove. Continue reading »

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Hornby Island Getaway

I recently spent a lovely few days on Hornby Island at a friends’ rustic cabin. By rustic I mean no electricity or running water, and an outhouse in the woods. It was actually refreshing to get away from modernity, and live the simple life (at least for a while!)

There are a lot of tourists on Hornby in the summer, and the majority are “doing the rounds,” checking out deservedly gorgeous spots like Helliwell Provincial Park and Tribune Bay. We did likewise, but we also spent some time at a quiet cove at a public beach access at the end of Tralee Rd. Continue reading »

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