Nature reflections from an Ontarian in British Columbia

By Abby Ciona, A Rocha Conservation Science & Communications Assistant (Summer 2025)

November 20, 2025

One of the best ways to introduce yourself to the conservation science team at A Rocha is to share your favourite species. When I arrived from southern Ontario to A Rocha BC this summer, I introduced myself with one of my most anticipated British Columbia species to find: A banana slug.

The team laughed.

“You haven’t seen one yet?” someone asked.

“Not yet!” I answered.

There aren’t banana slugs in Ontario, and I had never been to British Columbia or the West Coast before. This weird creature was ordinary to them but extraordinary to me.

Common species in BC, new to an Ontarian. Clockwise from top left: Pacific banana slug, purple sea star, rufous hummingbird

The Pacific Banana Slug is an iconic species of the Pacific Northwest. The largest species of slug in North America and the second-largest slug in the world, Banana slugs can indeed grow as long as a banana, but are named for their yellow colouration that often makes them look ripe, unripe, or overripe. Slugs can make a lot of people icky, but these slimy friends add a brightness to the forest unlike any slug I’d seen before.

Harbour seals

Coming from Ontario where we have one seasonal summer species of hummingbird, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, it was quite a surprise to learn about the hummingbirds in BC and see them darting around the flower gardens and birdfeeders at A Rocha BC. The Anna’s Hummingbird is a year-round resident in Southern BC and one of the first birds I saw upon arriving at A Rocha. But they aren’t the only hummingbirds in the area — Rufous Hummingbirds are also commonly seen in the summertime, and occasionally other species visit southern BC as well.

While surveying eelgrass in Semiahmoo Bay with the Conservation Science team, I was delighted to spot harbour seals swimming by. My coworkers, however, were only mildly entertained by the seals and compared them to seeing raccoons! Yes, Harbour seals are the most widely-distributed species of seal in the world, but I hadn’t grown up anywhere close to the ocean, only visiting the beach on vacations. Seeing ocean wildlife, including seals, sea stars, shore crabs, and sand dollars, left me in awe regardless of how common those species are.

While my experience in British Columbia amazed me with all the new species I saw, it also made me realize just how much I take my wildlife at home for granted. I was shocked when my coworkers groaned at the calls of green frogs and bullfrogs at the A Rocha pond and showed disdain to eastern cottontail rabbits and pumpkinseed sunfish. I soon learned that those are all invasive species in BC. In Ontario, they’re native species that I learned to identify at a young age.

At home in the east, invasive out west. Clockwise from top left: Pumpkinseed sunfish, American bullfrog, eastern cottontail rabbit, and northern cardinal (this one is not invasive though).

When I got home, I still missed visiting the ocean and spotting unique Pacific Northwest nature, but I grew to be more grateful for the wildlife I grew up with in Southern Ontario. We may only have hummingbirds in the summer, but we have Blue Jays and Northern Cardinals year-round — two birds rarely seen in BC. We may not have banana slugs, we have four beautiful distinct seasons with the leaves changing colours to brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges in the fall and snow blanketing the forests in winter. There are so many unique things to find in creation wherever you go in the world, and sometimes, you can only truly appreciate those things when you spend some time exploring a new place.