Abu Anka

Buttertubs is always nice this time of year.

YouTube video by Dreams Are What Le Cinema Is For THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943) Clip - Anton Walbrook and Roger Livesey

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDzD...

Evenings at the Nanaimo River Estuary. Perfect.

Hello? Hello?
Is this thing on?

Many thanks!

Many thanks! Hope you awe well.

The Snowbirds put on a great show over Nanaimo Harbour last night.
#Snowbirds
#Nanaimo
#CanadairCT-114Tutor

Snowbirds and Merlin
Cassidy Airport
August 15, 2025

It has been a great week for dragonfly study on Vancouver Island. The Ocellated Emerald I found in Strathcona Park is one of very few records from our region.

Yet another reason why Nanaimo can't have nice things........

The Regional District of Nananaimo's naming of this place as the "Stormwater Community Park", shows either a total lack of imagination, or a great sense of humor. :-)

Whatever it is called; For an abandoned gravel pit, it sure is a great place for observing birds and insects.

#dragonflies
#RDN

It is August, which means the Spotted Spreadwings are flying around Nanaimo. I saw these two out near Yellow Point yesterday.
#dragonfly
#damselfly
#odonata
#Zygoptera
#Lestidae

I enjoyed a rather warm walk around Cottle Lake today, in the Linley Valley Park.
I was searching for Pacific Spiketail dragonflies. I did see a few, but I was not able to obtain photos.
The Northern Spreadwings, Striped Meadowhawks, and Wood Ducks were far more cooperative.

This heat is really bringing out the dragons around Nanaimo!

The Sylvan Hairstreak is rarely reported anywhere on Vancouver Island. However, about 90% of all reports for the island, come from the Nanaimo Regional District.

I found this one in the hydro corridor north of Westwood Lake today. It was nectaring on Pearly Everlasting.

Have you ever seen a Mouse Bot Fly?
Do you want to? :-)

This time of year they are quite common along the Nanaimo River.

Back in town after two months in the bush, some random woman asks, "It must get lonely out there in those hills, all alone?".
I smile and nod, but the truth is, that it is far lonelier back here among all of these people.

"First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain....."

A Common Emerald found near the porch light around 2 AM in Sayward this morning.

The first juvenile Marbled Murrelet of 2025 that we observed was on the morning of July 3, near Oweekeno Village, in Rivers Inlet.

The reason for the season! Meet the Marbled Murrelet.

Our Marbled Murrelet survey route up the BC Coast, from Port McNeil to Haida Gwaii.

40 days at sea, went by quickly. A couple of days at home, and then back out in the field.

Overnighter in Port McNeil and then up the coast until mid July.

BC Marbled Murrelet surveys 2025!

Awesome!

So many Spiny Baskettails!

This dragonfly is not terribly common on Vancouver Island. For some reason, this year they seem to shockingly common from Cinnabar down to the Sunny Side Cliffs along the river. Yesterday I saw over 100 of them west of the old gravel pits south of Beck Lake.

It is great to see the Roosevelt Elk populations rebounding in the Regional District of Nanaimo. How private landholders respond to their presence, will be the key to whether or not this species persists here.

I finally managed to find a Death Camas Miner Bee. I have been looking for one of these for several years. Purported to be the only pollinator of this plant (I suspect this is not true).

Finding them is simple. Find a patch of Meadow Death Camas, and sit there for hours waiting. Exciting stuff! 😂

Barred Owl (Strix varia) at Spider Lake this afternoon.