By Lynda Stevens | 10 July 2022 This spring a medical issue has kept me mostly at home and able to walk only short distances with a walker. That meant that I was unable to get out walking on my favourite trails and exploring with my camera. However, in late May I discovered that one of my …
Bumblebee Therapy (or How Bee Watching Kept Me Sane) Read More »
By Staffan Lindgren | 5 June 2022 Photo Neil McDaniel, https://blueocean.net/glass-sponge-reefs-living-fossils-found-off-canadian-coast/ We have heard a fair bit about sponges lately. I presented a “Nature Nugget” on the glass sponge reefs of the Salish Sea and Hecate Strait at the March public meeting, and Tom Hlavac mentioned the glass sponge reefs in his informative presentation …
Sponges – one of the earliest forms of multicellular life. Read More »
By Lynda Stevens | 27 July 2021 As naturalists we love to spend time outdoors exploring our parks and trails. An outing is made even more special when we have a wildlife encounter and can take photographs to record the event. Many people take up wildlife photography to remember these encounters while others use photography …
Staffan Lindgren | 10 May 2021 As an entomologist I find all arthropods fascinating. There is one group, however, that I can’t quite come to terms with – the ticks. Recently, reports on Facebook have started to trickle in showing that ticks are active and waiting for some warm body to grab onto. Ticks are …
***A copy of the presentation PDF is available here: Spring Flora Around Nanaimo Nature Nanaimo’s next regular meeting will be held on Thursday, April 15th at 7 PM via Zoom. Our presentation will be: “Spring flora around Nanaimo with Caroline Josefsson” An overview of the most abundant and charismatic spring flora that we encounter around town. At …
Spring flora around Nanaimo with Caroline Josefsson – April 15, 2021 Read More »
Staffan Lindgren (based on information from Bruce Cousens and Bill Merilees) | February 9, 2021 For a PDF version of this document, click here. At our January Board meeting of Nature Nanaimo, the issue of Purple Martin nest box management at Buttertubs Marsh was discussed. I contacted Bruce Cousens and Bill Merilees for information, and …
William James (Bill) Merilees, a prominent British Columbian naturalist, educator, activist, conservationist and author. Bill received his Bachelor’s Degree from UBC in 1964 majoring in Zoology and Botany He then spent some time traveling with friends and working in many interesting places. In Australia he was offered a position as Biologist at Macquarie Island, 2100 …
Nature Nanaimo Life Member: William James (Bill) Merilees Read More »
The past year has been an eventful one for Nature Nanaimo and, by any measure, an unusual one. We began last fall with many wonderful routine monthly meetings and outings covering such topics as Birds of Vancouver Island, Killer whales and the Sharks of BC. We ended the calendar year with a wonderful holiday gathering and social. …
Staffan Lindgren | October 16, 2020 Note: This is a revised, updated and expanded blog, first published on my personal website https://wordpress.com/view/cinnabarreflections.wordpress.com A few years ago I attended a talk by Dr. Sarah Dudas at Vancouver Island University (VIU). She was discussing the impact of shellfish farming on biodiversity, particularly in her study area in Baynes Sound. In …
Staffan Lindgren | August 22, 2020 . Vision is something that most of us value immensely. Humans are largely visual beings. Our eye sight is a primary sense organ by which we experience the world. Our other senses (smell, taste, touch and hearing) tend to be less refined, although much of that is because of …
Staffan Lindgren | August 4, 2020 Parasitism is without a doubt the most successful of all life strategies. Parasites account for at least half of the earth’s biodiversity, and may have been the evolutionary springboard for higher life (Araujo et al. 2003). A parasite can be considered one of several similar, and often overlapping types …
June 8, 2020 Did you know that there are species on Vancouver Island that do not occur anywhere else in the world?! Fascinating report below on Canada’s endemic species. Canada has thousands of wildlife species of conservation concern. Some are rare provincially, while others are at risk in the entire country or imperiled globally. Most …
Some fabulous YouTube tutorials to help learn local bird songs from Trudy!They are wonderfully informative and fun 🙂 Alison Watt and I did these Zoom meetings on spring song. These videos are in 4 parts. Obviously we aren’t movie stars or pros but some folks may enjoy if they are interested in birds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=349WHl6NRowhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1HzEvntP7ohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M60VC3OdU5ohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ajqv1vwJM
(This blog was first published on my site Cinnabar Reflections) Here is my second installment of books that I have enjoyed reading. Nature’s Argonaut: Daniel Solander 1733-1782 by Edward Duyker. Melbourne: Miegunyah Press. 1998. 400 pages. Daniel Solander was the de facto naturalist on Cook’s first voyage, although Joseph Banks, who financed the trip, tends to get the …
Recommended Reads – Rainy Days/Covid-19 Physical Distancing Activity, Part II Read More »
Staffan Lindgren (This blog was first published on my site Cinnabar Reflections) As someone with “underlying health issues” and a compromised immune system, I feel that the Covid-19 pandemic has really thrown a spanner in the works of my spring activity-plan. I am sure that many naturalists are in a similar situation. Outdoor activity is …
Recommended Reads – For Rainy Days/Covid-19 Physical Distancing Activity, Part I Read More »
Covid-19 UPDATE: On March 18th, the Province of BC declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic and is calling on everyone to adhere to strict social distancing and avoid any public interactions that are not essential. The situation is extremely serious, changing rapidly and will most certainly last for many weeks if not …
February 26, 2020 On Friday February 21, Nature Nanaimo President Doug Fraser and Past President Staffan Lindgren met with Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce our society to the Mayor, and to explore roles we can play to promote and facilitate mutual interests in the city. We had a good, …
Nature Nanaimo meeting with Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog Read More »
February 6th, 2020 Bespoke Band of Beekeepers Beat Back the Bee-eating Beasties by Besieging their Burrowing Bunker Conrad Bérubé wrote up a brief description of how establishment of Asian Giant Hornets in Nanaimo was averted. This was published in the Newsletter Boreus published by the Entomological Society of British Columbia. Conrad has kindly given us …
December 20, 2019 Nature Nanaimo’s Board of Directors, Michael Stebbings, Carole Lee and Staffan Lindgren, met with Mr. Paul Manly, MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith, on December 18 to introduce our organization and to discuss issues of mutual concern. We discussed a number of issues, e.g., the climate crisis, habitat protection, plastics pollution and the need for …
Meeting with Paul Manly, MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith Read More »
By Michael Stebbings Planning for the Buttertubs Marsh Conservation Area began in earnest in 2004 with the development of a Management Plan for the East Marsh. With the acquisition of the West Marsh in 2012 by Ducks Unlimited and the City there was a need to revise and update the original plan. The current plan …
Another year has gone by, and again Nature Nanaimo members can look back on a very successful year of activities and meetings. Meetings have featured talks on topics ranging from astronomy, fungi and eel grass to tailed frogs, marmots and climate change. We have enjoyed excursions on a similarly wide range of topics, e.g., birds, animal rescue, …
by Lynda Stevens Many of you know me as an avid birder and bird photographer. This summer the birding became very quiet in mid-July and I knew that to satisfy my passion for photography I would need to find some other willing subjects. It didn’t take me long to realise that insects would be my perfect …
Staffan Lindgren Three specimens of the Asian Giant Hornet, Vespa mandarinia, have been found in Nanaimo this year. The first two specimens were found by a bee keeper, whereas the third was reported to Nature Nanaimo. I collected the specimen and pinned it so that it could be properly identified. There are a number of Asian hornet …
Staffan Lindgren On Friday August 30, 6 of us went to Paradise Meadows at Mount Washington. The weather was great for hiking, but low clouds obscured the views of the mountain peaks. We saw many interesting things, although it was a bit late for flowering plants. On the way to to Helen Mackenzie Lake, we were …
An impromptu Nature Nanaimo outing to Paradise Meadows Read More »
The summer is drawing to a close, although you would be hard pressed to realize that given the near record temperatures the last few days. We have had another mild summer, but thankfully have been spared from smoke this year. That does not mean that the environment is not under severe stress. Salal and western …
President’s Perch: Looking ahead to another successful year. Read More »
Saturday, June 15th, 2019 On Saturday June 15th, Nature Nanaimo hosted our first annual picnic at the Wildwood Ecoforest! The event was a wonderful success with 60 people in attendance. It was wonderfully organized by our planning committee so a huge thank you goes out to them and all the members that helped by lending …
A Blog Post by Staffan Lindgren Click on Staffan’s blog post below to read about his recent visit to Harewood Plains and see his wonderful photographs of the flora which can be discovered at this hidden gem in Nanaimo, BC:Cinnabar Reflections – Harewood Plains – Nanaimo’s flowering jewel!
A Photo Blog by Lynda Stevens We’re thrilled that Lynda has shared this remarkable experience with us. Please enjoy her following contribution: This spring I was fortunate to be able to observe an Anna’s hummingbird nest and to watch the growth of one of the chicks from egg to fledging. I first noticed the mother …
Anna’s Hummingbird Nest – Buttertubs Marsh, March/April 2019 Read More »
VIU Science and Technology Lecture Series, March 27, 2019 Liz Gillis, Department of Resource Management and Protection, Vancouver Island University by Lance Nordstrom Dr. Gillis opened her lecture with an introduction to wildlife epidemiology, the science that seeks to understand the spread of disease in wild populations. She emphasized the challenges faced by researchers in …
VIU Science and Technology Lecture Series, March 20, 2019 Eric Demers, Department of Biology, Vancouver Island University by Lance Nordstrom Dr. Demers introduced his topic by describing the current status of breeding bird populations in Canada, noting that numbers have decreased 12% since 1970. About 40% of bird species are in decline. In particular, populations …
VIU Bird Banding Project: Engaging Students in Research Read More »
By Staffan Lindgren Our planet is full of organisms, and it can be very frustrating to try to identify what you see. It used to be that you had to have field guides for birds, insects, mushroom, plants etc., but in this electronic age, there are better ways to figure out what species you see. …
VIU Science and Technology Lecture Series, February 20, 2019 David Greenwood, Department of Biology, Brandon University by Lance Nordstrom Professor Greenwood presented a lively and entertaining lecture about ancient plant life in the Eocene epoch 56 to 40 million years ago. At that time the earth was much warmer, with no polar ice caps. Although …
Reading the Fossil Tea Leaves: New Perspectives from BC’s Eocene Floras Read More »