Exploring Point Holmes tide pools in May

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

    We like to head down to the Point Holmes shoreline of Comox when there is a very  low tide since it is one of the few places we know of in the local area that has small tide pools and exposed bedrock which can hide sea stars and other organisms. We hadn`t been done this year so we were interested in what we might find. We brought my brother and his wife who were visiting from Victoria with us since they hadn`t seen these tide pools before and the low tide on Friday May 20 was about 0.5 meters.  Plus we had the added bonus of great sunny and warm weather which has been missing this spring.

For those people not familiar with this area it is to the right of the boat launch and there is parking for a number of cars just off of Lazo Road. Because of the large tides in this area the tide pools are 200-300 meters from the parking area and footing can be tricky especially near the rocky outcrops. We wore hiking shoes but some people we saw were wearing rubber boots. Flip flops or similar sandals are not recommended given the slippery, seed weed covered rocks.

We saw many ochre sea stars clinging to the underside of clefts in the rock, in the tidal pools and some just out on the seaweed like the one in the top photo.  We also managed to see 3 leather sea stars whose skin does feel like wet leather. (See photo above) . So check this place out if you like exploring nature in the Comox Valley. Bring your camera and binoculars since you don’t know what you might see.  Also a kneeling pad helps protect your knees if you want to see what is under clefts in rocks.  We look forward to seeing what the low tides in June bring.  

 

The Vaux's Swifts are back this year at the Courtenay Museum

by Keith and Heather Nicol

On Wednesday, May 18 we headed down to a parking lot behind the Courtenay Museum to see if the Vaux’s Swifts that are in the area might fly down the chimney to roost for the evening. Evidently they have been seen coming to this chimney for the last few years in late April and early May and one person we spoke to said they had been here for while this year. The Vaux’s Swifts spend the winter in Mexico and breed in large hollow trees found in old growth forests in BC, Washington and Oregon. Because of this their numbers are in decline as logging removes their breeding habitat. 

 The birds feed on insects and their shape has been described as cigars with wings.  On Wednesday we were joined by my brother Bruce and his wife Mary Ellen who had just arrived from Victoria and were keen to check this birding event out. We arrived just before 8:00 pm armed with binoculars and a camera with a telephoto lens.  The birds arrival to the chimney seems to depend on the weather and so you don’t know when they might arrive but it usually anywhere from 7:30 pm
to sunset. No sooner did we get there and we saw began to see a swarm of Vaux’s Swifts swoop over head and fly over the chimney. They then disappeared for a few minutes only to return again for another fly over. Then they began to spiral around and just like Santa they headed down the chimney. Presumably they like the rough interior of the chimney and spend the night huddled together along the edges of the chimney. 

 

No sooner had this group headed down that another swarm of 40-50 birds did their fly by and after disappearing they reappeared and like the first group dropped down into the chimney.  Over the evening we saw hundreds of birds fly down the chimney but they came spread out in groups of 30 to 50. We were told by one person that 2 nights ago 2000 birds flew into the chimney in basically one large continuous pack!!.  Here is a video taken in 2021which shows the large number of birds which can descend into the chimney in short order.  So if you haven’t seen this bird phenomenon check it since who knows how long it will last this year.