Hello readers, we’ve been quite busy with getting the garden set up for the year and babysitting, as well as exploring Gabriola Island. Therefore this week we have decided to go for a different approach to the blog and do a quick video tour around the farm. We hope you enjoy it!
Social Distanced Exploration Highlights
We’ve been out to explore the island on our time off, borrowing some mountain bikes one day. Unfortunately cycling didn’t agree with Rosie’s ankle, so we might have to wait a while before we try that again. There is a 707-acre park on our doorstep with so many trails that we’ve hardly seen any other people. Also, our hosts took us to see some sandstone formations known as the Malaspina Galleries and to a couple of beaches with views of the mainland mountains and the Entrance Island lighthouse. Please click on the photos below to view in gallery mode.
Bird Watching Corner
For the bird nerds out there, here are some pictures for you to peruse. Identifications in the comments please.
Hopefully we will get to do some sailing this weekend on our host’s boat. We hope you are all keeping safe and sane wherever you are. Lots of love, Ollie and Rosie.
Roaming Rollie 
Hi Ollie/Rosie,
Have been following all your posts (is that the lingo??) and really look forward to waking up Saturday mornings to read them. Did not realise my first comment a few weeks ago actually worked, thought it had got lost in the ether which is why I have not bothered contacting you. Anyway, I loved the video, your commentary was so informative and animals running away from you Ollie instead of the other way around, thats a first!! Even a picture of you cuddling a dog, wow!
Great to see you are both fine, take care in these strange times xx
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Hi Stuart, thanks for the comment! Yes we get your comments on here, they are not lost in the ether. Glad you liked the video, we may do more in future ‘posts’. How are things in Christchurch? Xx
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Thanks for the video tour, Ollie, lovely to see where you are staying!
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Mesmerised as I am by the mountains, like looming clouds, rippling seas and sweeping geology, it is strange for me to see tree trunks scattered across most of the coastlines.
Bird nerds?! Cheeky….
A. Turkey Vulture
B. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
C. Violet-green Swallows
D. Barn Swallow (looks like this darker chested form turns up in americas sometimes)
E. California Gull? (immature)
F. Double crested Cormarant (immature)
G. Killdeer
H…. a seal!…
I… “CATNAPPOKE”
J. Black Oystercatchers
K. Pelagic Cormarant?(immature,if you ignore the white eye rings)
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Loggers store rafts of felled trees in the water to preserve them before they are milled up etc. I think some of the trunks on the beaches have broken free from those. Could just be trees that fell into the sea though!
Excellent bird identifications, you win this weeks bird nerd award! I think the ruby-crowned kinglet is my favourite, although we spent a lot longer watching the swallows catching insects over that pond. I see you weren’t fooled by the mammalian impostor either!
Hope you and Nanna are keeping well.
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