Local naturalist George Sirk was sick for the Cortes Island Spring Bird Count earlier this month, so bird watchers had to rely on a new app to help them identify species. This new app, called Merlin, is one of many topics that he and Nancy Kendel, from the Cortes Island Museum, discussed with Cortes Currents.
The conversation started out with Kendel (NK) giving an overview:
Continue reading Cortes Island 2023 Spring Bird Count & an app called ‘Merlin’Mansons Friday Market’s ‘Outdoor Season’ officially started on May 19.
“I think it’s great. It’s a beautiful sunny day and long weekend and, but still mostly locals, which is really nice to have their support,” said Sara Stewart, of Reef Point Farms.
CC: Can I ask, where do you do most of your business?
“I have a lot of different venues. There’s the farmer’s market. I also have the farm stand. I sell to the co-op and to Hollyhock and the Gorge Store when it’s in the middle of the summer,” she replied.
Continue reading The Outdoor Season begins at Mansons Friday Market
Cortes Island naturalist George Sirk knows a lot about frogs.
GS: “A lot of people know me because of my interest in birds, which is really an addiction, isn’t it? I’m just hopeless when it comes to birds. I’m just totally into them. They’re so fascinating. I came from Venezuela when I was 10. My parents immigrated to Vancouver and I couldn’t speak English. I could speak Spanish and I knew a little Estonian and I could understand German because my parents argued in German.”
“So there I was in Vancouver, a little weird guy 10-years-old, and I met some other weird young people too, what we would call nerds.”
“They were into frogs. Jim Palmer was one, Lowell Orchid, that’s another. Jim just passed away actually in December, but Lowell’s still with us all here. We used to collect frogs very close to Kits Beach, the Lacarno beach area. It used to be a military base at one time. So there used to be a lot of empty properties, fields and it got very wet in the wintertime. The tree frogs would all go in there and have a great time.”
Continue reading George Sirk: Frog Stories
Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Quadra Islander Ramona Boyle is rummaging through cardboard boxes when her friend lets out a triumphant shout.
“Look at this!” exclaims dood, known by a single moniker similar to Madonna, plucking a package of thick-cut bacon from a box and waving it in the air.
“This normally costs at least 15 bucks.”
Boyle peers into the box filled with various packages of frozen meat.
“There must be hundreds of dollars worth of food in here!” she replies.
The pair, members of the Quadra Island Climate Action Team (I-CAN), are appraising their first haul for a new project to tackle climate change and food insecurity in their rural community.
Continue reading Tiny B.C. island community’s answer to climate change? Feed everyone
