Wall Lizards in BC

 The  introduced Wall Lizard (Podacris muralis) in BC was previously  reported from a small area east of Victoria (Matsuda 2006) but has expanded its distribution to adjacent areas, including adjacent islands. Citizen scientist and photographer Catherine Babault  has photographed the lizard on Denman Island (March 2020), providing documentation.   Reptile and amphibian specialist Brent Matsuda is working to confirm her observation. 

Read more about the Wall Lizard from the Habitat Acquisition Trust here. 

Broad-winged Hawk in BC

A new article on the Broad-winged Hawk in BC by Rick Toochin, E. Alan Russell, David Baker, Paul Baker, Louis Haviland is now posted on our Birds of BC pages.

This is an interesting bird species and the authors provide a good overview and some insight into occurrences in BC:   "In British Columbia, this species has been rapidly increasing in frequency of detection since 1990, and has been found breeding in the Peace River Region, the Golden area, and the Prince George region, but the northern region of the province is highly under-birded and it is far more likely that the Broad-winged Hawk has moved further west as a breeder than current records reflect (e-bird database 2020). The secretive nature of this species, coupled with its relative scarcity, makes finding nest sites difficult. This is likely why there are to date only a few known nest sites in the province. Despite few nests discovered, there have been an ever increasing number of fall and spring migrants all over the province in the past 10-20 years (e-bird database 2020)."

Yellow-browed Warbler in BC

Yellow-browed Warbler, photo by Peter Candido

Several new bird articles prepared by Rick Toochin have been posted on the E-Fauna Birds of BC pages, including an article on the Yellow-browed Warbler.  Rick says:  "The Yellow-browed Warbler is a recent addition to the avifauna of British Columbia in the fall of 2019 and is classified as an accidental vagrant."  Bird articles by Rick are added on an on-going basis, so keep an eye on the bird page for more.

Citizen scientist documents raccoon in Prince Rupert.

Citizen scientist Jim McLauglin recently sent us a photo that documents the occurrence of a raccoon in Prince Rupert.  Mammal specialist Dave Nagorsen says: "[This is] the northernmost occurrence on the BC mainland to my knowledge. Could be an escaped pet or an accidental transport from the Haida Gwaii population or a southern population?"

While we don't know the origin of the raccoon, it is observations like this that help to inform our knowledge of BC wildlife species.   Thanks Jim!

Mammals of BC 2019

Recent genetic work on mammals has resulted in changes to species recognition.  In BC, this has affected species recognized in the province.  An updated list of mammals of BC is being prepared by mammal expert Dave Nagorsen.  According to Nagorsen (pers. comm. 2019) some of the coming changes include splitting of water shrews, dusky shrews and flying squirrels into two species.  We also now recognize two species of martens in BC, American Marten (Martes americana) in eastern BC and Pacific Marten (Martes caurina) in western BC.  Animals found in between may be either species, or hybrids.   Watch for the new checklist to learn more.  Thanks to Dave Nagorsen for providing this information.

Database Updates 2019

We have just updated the E-Flora BC databases, including a recent version of the Royal BC Museum vascular plant database. Information should be current. Check our atlas pages to view any range or status updates. 

E-Flora Updates July 2018

Our listings for vascular plants have now been updated based on 2018 British Columbia Conservation Data Centre changes to the BC flora.  Updates include nomenclatural changes, status information and database updates for the herbaria databases used in our mapping. Work is now ongoing to incorporate 2017 updates.

Additionally, our map presentation have been updated based on a new edition of the mapping software.  This has improved the legends on the full-size interactive maps and removed some glitches in the mapping.

Next up will be the updating of Frank Lomer's list of incoming/non-established vascular plants for BC.  Frank tracks populations of species not yet established in the province to determine persistance and abundance, often leading to inclusion in the official list of provincial vascular flora.