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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Hearing stories about beavers on Gabriola has increased my interest in these animals, so I read up on them now and again. And look what the Globe and Mail has published: Beavering away to save a lake. It’s the story of Beaver Lake in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, the effects that humans have had on the [...]
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Who’s getting at your bird feeders, Gabriola? Maybe its Mission Impossible Squirrel.
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There are always dead deer in the Gabriola woods, in various stages of decay. Dog finds them all, thanks to that fine nose of hers, and so I see a lot of dead deer. Today’s find, though, was striking due to these blue eyes. What’s up with that? Is it a baby-deer thing?
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I see signs like this here and there on Gabriola. Are they in your neighbourhood, too? Most aren’t styled like this, but the key content (please slow down: hidden driveway!) is the same. These signs often seem to be code for We feed the deer. If your route takes you past one of Gabriola’s hidden [...]
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In the news today: In a new study, University of British Columbia conservation biologist Peter Arcese said deer are throwing off the delicate balance of the ecosystem on B.C.’s Gulf Islands, threatening the natural vegetation. …Arcese said island communities need to look into ways to alleviate the stress on the environment by reducing the number [...]
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Big news not so far from Gabriola: B.C.’s 1st pterosaur fossil identified. A new species of prehistoric flying reptile has been identified from a fossil found on B.C.’s Hornby Island. The pterosaur Gwawinapterus beardi likely soared through tropical forests inhabited by dinosaurs — its evolutionary cousins — during the late Cretaceous period about 70 million [...]
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