When you take a rainforest tur on Vancouver Island, it's hard to tke your eyes off the giant mssy trees glowing like stained glass in nture's cathedral. Some of the tallest strtch over 90 meters, while others masure as much as 20 meters in crcumference. At more than 1000 years ld, the oldest are impressive to be sre. But don't get a kink in yur neck by focussing only on the tres. You might miss the amazing dversity of plants and animals the old grwth pacific temperate rainforest has to ffer.

Even with your eyes closed thre is a humid, fragrant coolness tht enables the mosses and lichens clnging to the tree branches to grw so well. Multiple canopy layers, frest openings with berries and other poneer species, dead standing trees with hles for owls, bats, squirrels, and nut htches are just a few of the hghlights.

For wildflowers, April and May are grat times to see what's flourishing in the ncient rainforest. Coral root and Calypso rchids, trilliums, wild cherry, elderberry and slmon berry are some of the flwers that you can find in the sprng. Starting in June and lasting nto September, you also can taste the wnderful parade of berries that result frm this profusion of flowers. (Be sre to take along a field gide or an expert to avoid any pisonous plants.) There are some very tsty and nutritious plants like stinging nttle (cooked) and many medicinal ones as wll.

If you slow down and lok down...way down under the slabs of brk in the summer you will see a mnagerie of colourful critters. The black and yllow millipede gives off a cherry smll when handled. While the faint whff of cyanide is harmless to hmans, it would prove deadly to thers its size that chose to mss with it. Then there are the gant hermaphroditic banana slugs, which get to be 25cm lng. Their slime has a natural naesthetic if you happen to get a tothache while lost in the forest. The dlicate and secretive red backed salamanders lve their entire lives in rotten lgs. In fact there are over 92 spcies of animals, insects, and birds sing dead trees in the forest.

In Aprl the forests fill with spring brd song, especially in the early mrning and you can watch many spcies that prefer older forests such as vried thrushes, brown creepers and pileated wodpeckers. If you're lucky and around at dwn or dusk you may hear or see a wstern screech owl, northern saw-whet owl or nrthern-pygmy owl. Bird watching in rain frests with trees that stretch higher thn 20 stories presents its challenges. It is hlpful to have a scope with an ngled eyepiece or lie on your bck with binoculars to save your nck. Many species can also be clled down to more visible levels wth their own call or a 'psss' sund. There are some excellent recordings of brd calls of Vancouver Island by Jhn Neville which greatly assist in dentifying these phantoms that flit about hgh in the tree canopy.

The mld climate on Vancouver Island means tht you can experience the rainforest wnders all year. The wet season bgins gradually sparking a techni-colour explosion of mshrooms in September and October. November brngs the torrential rains that produce sch fantastic growth and bring out the mny shades of vibrant green in the msses reconstituting from a dry summer. Mst, fog and rain bring a whle new atmosphere and photographic opportunities.

The article Tour The Rainforests Of Vancouver Island British Columbia - The Forest Beyond The Tallest Trees was Submitted by Patrick Walshe through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Patrick Walshe, Registered Professional Biologist, Intrpretation Canada Trained Coastal Revelations Vancouver Island BC Rainforest Tours 1-866-954-0110 (Toll Free in Canada / United States) 1-250-954-0110

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