Victoria

Start of a heron rookery (aka heronry)

Beacon Hill Park in Victoria BC dates back to the late 1800’s when the area was being settled. It’s close to the Pacific Ocean (Juan de Fuca Strait) and it contains some man made lakes. There are also plenty of big trees in the park – ideal for birds.

The other day I was walking around and heard a real commotion up in this tree. These two, or at least one of them, had just chased away one other. Now they were coming to terms with each other. I expect the area around the tree will get quite odiferous as spring wears on. The great blue heron eats fish, so between these two and their young, there should be lots of guano around.

Lots of fun being out and about at this time of year in Victoria.

Holland Park bluff walk

Fairly often, I’ll take this walk along the outer edge of Holland Park in Victoria, BC (Wikipedia link). There are a couple of routes, but the best is what I call the lung buster. About half way through, there’s a quick climb up from sea level to the top of the bluff via a mix of stairs and path (about 15-20m elevation). Feels good when you’ve finished and you’ve caught your breath again.

Anyway, the view is always changing. These shots are from the top of the bluff looking south-east on a winter morning.

And a few minutes later,

Signs of fall

Leaves, leaves everywhere around Victoria these days.

Just a test from BlogPress

Need to find another app to use with the blog.

Telephone (staple? thumbtack?) pole?

Camellia

Yes. Camellia. On the second of March.

Crazy, eh?

Only in Victoria, you say.

Out and about this afternoon and I spotted this in a cherry tree in James Bay. I wonder if the tree knows it’s only the end of December?

This could bode well for 2015!

Happy New Year everyone.

The black wall

We saw this view across the Juan de Fuca Strait, on the way down to watch the parades the other day. Boy, was it ominous.

Lucky for us, it was heading sideways, and although it did cloud up a bit, the worst of it went elsewhere.

Whew!

Christmas is officially here

I can’t remember who said it originally, but it resonated with me as well: “It’s not Christmas until I’ve seen ads for Chia pets and the Clapper”. Well, I’ve seen them both now, so 😉

The other side of the coin is the Christmas community celebrations. Last night in Victoria we had the Lighted Truck Parade and the Lighted Ship Parade.

There were a lot more trucks than ships, but with either, it’s impressive how much effort some folks put in to make it a success for the community. Kudos to them!

My ship prize goes to the tropical Santa:

Stand out

For better or worse, in every group, there’s at least one member that stands out from the rest.

If you can be the good one, do that.

Head on

Ever notice how birds always face the weather head on. One reason is that the air flows over their feathers and keeps the feathers flat, trapping warmer air under the feathers to keep the birds warm.