Field Trips

There’s nothing like the thrill of the hunt – even if your quarry is a slim and gregarious grey bird with a long tail and a penchant for flitting through dense brush while you circle around and around on the ground through brambles, mud, low branches, and dense vexation. Our quarry, on a chilly November morning along Dallas Road in Victoria, was a blue-gray gnatcatcher that was not supposed to be anywhere around there. The last one I spotted had been near a sewage treatment p

By David Manning Trailhead: South Pender, Spalding Road, west entrance/leg of the Enchanted Forest Trail, beginning just left of a private driveway at a sign saying “Waterfall and Viewpoint.” A few steps into your walk, Take One moment to center yourself. Remember, you’re going to pay attention only to this walk, not allowing your mind to wander elsewhere. Early in the walk, can you see what I call Quintet Tree, where 5 tree trunks appear to emerge from one place in the groun

David Manning Image by David Manning Trailheads: South Pender—Ainsley Pt. Road and Canal Road Both these trails end at the summit of Mt. Norman . With spectacular views, this hike is worth the effort and best done on a clear day. For our walk here we will begin at the Ainsley Point Road Trailhead. This 2.4 km round-trip trail in Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, mostly an invigorating uphill trek, climaxes at a lovely bluff viewpoint, the highest point on Pender at 244 met

Join us for a natural history walk at KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest at 9:30 am. We'll discuss the Pender Conservancy's latest land acquisition campaign in partnership with Raincoast to raise funds to purchase this land, and explore the diverse forest and wetland ecosystems it supports. We'll be paying special attention to mosses this month: their unique ecology, classification and identification methods, and the valuable microclimates they inhabit and help to maintain. Park at t

Fall is a great time to get outdoors and enjoy what nature has to offer on the trails of Pender Island. Please join us on Saturday, November 6 starting at 9:30 am at the trailhead of the Found Road Trail on Clam Bay Road as we seek out the multitudes of mushrooms that proliferate there at this time of year. Mushrooms are mostly dormant during the dry summers but as the fall rains start, they produce fleshy reproductive fruiting bodies that pop up through the duff on the for

For the first Conservancy Nature walk of the fall and winter season, a small but intrepid group hiked around Roe Lake. While mostly avoiding the rain they enjoyed sightings of a variety of waterfowl, including ring-necked ducks, American wigeons and funky yet beautiful hooded mergansers. They also saw many of the interesting mushrooms species that are popping up this time of year, all the while being serenaded by mixed foraging flocks of kinglets, chickadees, and brown creepe

The dedicated organizers of the CBC4Kids and the Pender Islands Conservancy warmly invites families to join in Pender's annual kids and youth bird count on Saturday January 2nd 2021. Christmas Bird Count for Kids grew out of the annual tradition of the world-wide Christmas Bird Count, the longest running wildlife survey and citizen science project in the world. Decade after decade, everyday people all over Canada have bundled up and headed out to count the wild birds in the

For the past several years, students from the local school have come down to the Hope Bay Stream for the annual Eggstravaganza. There, they learn about the importance of a healthy riparian habitat for baby salmon, help plant native flora, and welcome the DFO staff as they arrive with the Chum salmon eggs to place into the stream. In 2020 we had a fine day indeed, with cooperation from the weather and enthusiastic engagement from the students. Volunteers were prepared with wil