Now that we’ve got a bear on Gabriola (seen on Ferne Road today), some of us will be a lot more alert in the forest. This list is from Backpacker Magazine’s article, Rip and Live: Learn to Survive a Bear Attack. Here is when and where you’re most likely to see them: Dawn and dusk. [...]
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Somebody has seen a bear down at Twin Beaches, GROWLS says. So, hmmm. If you’re heading down to Taylor Bay, Pilot Bay, or anywhere near there, you might want to be a little more alert than you might otherwise be. And of course that bear could be anywhere on Gabriola by now, or might have [...]
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From the Washington Post: Learn to speak squirrel in four easy lessons. Robert Lishak knows what the squirrels are saying. What we may hear as nonsensical chattering the Auburn University biology professor perceives as the back and forth of squirrels communicating with one another — and with other animals, as well. To study this squirrel [...]
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When a cougar was seen on Gabriola last month, talk in some circles turned to what cougars eat. Deer, we thought. But now it seems that cougars might have other preferences. From the Vancouver Sun: Scientists unlock mystery of cougar diet. When researchers in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve started collecting cougar scat samples, they [...]
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I’m not a hunter, so I don’t usually read hunting-related articles. I’m a hiker, and the closest I get to hunting is wearing bright colours when it’s deer-hunting season on Gabriola. But this… this is an interesting perspective. From The Atlantic: Hunters Are People Too. Like many vegans and vegetarians, I abstained from animal-derived foods [...]
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A cougar crossed in front of my car on Daniel Way on Saturday morning. Handsome with blackish grey fur. This was an adult with round head and a tail, about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long, healthy-looking and presumably quite happy on a diet of venison and rabbits and quail. I reported the sighting. The [...]
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I meant to ask yesterday, after seeing this in the Gabriola woods. Who left this print, do you think? Rabbit? Squirrel? (Length is about 1.5 inches/4cm.)
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You may not think you want to see bat photos, but you do, you do. You want to see these bat photos: 60 adorable bats that’ll make your day.
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From Science Daily: How Bats ‘Hear’ Objects in Their Path. By placing real and virtual objects in the flight paths of bats, scientists at the Universities of Bristol and Munich have shed new light on how echolocation works. Their research is published today in Behavioural Processes. The researchers found that it is not the intensity [...]
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Oh look, over there in the grasses!
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These little green guys (maybe an inch long, tops) seem to be the ones who sing in the Gabriola Frog Chorus each spring. In summertime I find them hiding all over the garden. This one is nestled on a dahlia leaf.
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Here you see South Road, and part of the Gabriola RCMP property. But where is the animal?
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The problem Gabriola gardeners have with deer eating up garden produce could be worse, I suppose. In Kenya elephants raid crops, and how do you argue with an elephant? Turns out that elephants are afraid of bees, so farmers are using beehive fences to protect crops. Do you suppose deer are afraid of bees, too?
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Ingredients: property with wild bits that are difficult to penetrate dog raccoon
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I hope beavers on Gabriola aren’t as frustrated as the beavers in Anchorage. From the Anchorage Daily News: Beavers get tough defending their turf.
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Gabriola’s frogs are singing their hearts out every night now, and you’re wondering how to explain to friends-from-away that it’s really quite loud. Skadhu’s frog chorus bar graph puts it nicely.
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I’m listening to the frogs out back, who are croaking along in a most melodious manner. Is it the Pacific Tree Frog that we’ve got on Gabriola? No, wait, they’re Chorus Frogs… or…? No, wait. (Now that the wine has worn off a bit.) Seems to be the same frog, under two different names.
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