Just got back from Saltspring Island . Visited numerous rocky beaches looking for semiprecious stone sources on the recommendations of someone we met at the Rockhound shop. I think next time we’ll need to take them with us because there is obviously a lot more to finding gem rocks than we realized. We got lot’s of exercise and Victoria catalogued quite a few new plants and sea creatures in her iNaturalist app. I also saw my first confirmed Oyster archer. They have a very distinctive red bill and cry.

While visiting Lavender and Black I also saw a new behavior of a raptor and will be scanning sources trying to find out what we saw. It was a large bird about the size of a large raven. It would glide about 100 yards and then fold its wings and dive about 20 feet and the repeat this cycle again and again as if flew across the large valley beside the Lavender farm. We also spotted a very large pleated woodpecker at the very top of a Douglas Fir tree obviously enjoying a snack in the dead branches of the crown.

I’ll let you know what my research finds. Later …