PHOTOS: Great Blue Herons actively nesting in Columbia Beach<\/p>\n
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 7, 2026<\/p>\n
Pacific Great Blue Heron\u2019s nests are thriving with activity in Columbia Beach.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re located on trees in a fenced area where a development has been proposed on Viking Way, adjacent to the French Creek Estuary in the Regional District of Nanaimo\u2019s Electoral Area G (French Creek, San Pareil, Little Qualicum, Englishman River). They can be seen working on their nests, some watch the horizon while others find their way to the French Creek river for a quick bite.<\/p>\n
The one-hectare landscape that is home to the herons, located between Parksville and Qualicum Beach, has been partially logged and cleared by the developer. There is now an ongoing fundraising campaign led by the Save Estuary Land Society to purchase the property and protect the Blue Herons\u2019 breeding ground. Of the 14 nest sites identified from Nanoose Bay to Deep Bay, only the Viking Way and Deep Bay sites are active.<\/p>\n
For anyone wishing to learn about the initiative, the Save Estuary Land Society is holding a Save Estuary Land Film Screening on April 13, from 1:30 to 3 p.m., at the Berwick in Parksville. For information and how to donate, visit: https:\/\/www.saveestuarylandsociety.ca\/.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOTOS: Great Blue Herons actively nesting in Columbia Beach Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 7, 2026 Pacific Great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-590268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}