|
On the 17th, which
was a Monday, my visiting family and I took a trip over to Vancouver
Island in order to visit Buchart Gardens. My mother had heard
about the gardens from a friend of hers, and didn't want to miss
the opportunity to see them. So we found ourselves on the 8:00
ferry from Tsawassen, and I found myself out on the deck taking
photos of the birds and other wildlife that we passed.
One of the usual features
of the ride across is the congregation of Harbour Seals near a
lightpost in Active Pass.
|
|
 |
| But one
thing I'd never seen on the ride before was the sight of a pair
of small mammals curling together for warmth while they rested. |
|
 |
| On the other
hand, Bufflehead are a fairly common sight. I ended up liking this
photo because of the texture of the small ripples on the water and
what it did to the duck's reflection. |
|
 |
| Gulls are
also pretty common on the passage, but this one caught my eye. He
had quite a dark mantle. (The mantle is the dark grey part on the
middle of the bird.) Even with the neck overexposed, the mantle
appears dark. Because of this and some other features,I think that
this is a Western Gull, which is a type of gull we don't see too
much of on the mainland. |
|
 |
| (I'm sure
my birder friends will correct me if I'm wrong...) On the other
side of the ferry, I caught this Pelagic Cormorant flying along
the water. I really like the blue, green, and red of their breeding
plumage. |
|
 |
| As we pulled
in to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal, there were a few Pigeon Guillemots
floating around. Unfortunately, the sun was in the wrong place for
me to get good photos of them, so this one will have to do. |
|
 |
|
After docking, we drove
on to the Butchart Gardens and had a wonderful time there. I ended
up taking so many photos there that it would be too much for me
to include them in this entry, though. So I'm going to keep the
photos from the gardens for my next entry, and in this entry I'll
continue with the trip home from the gardens.
We didn't head directly
back; instead, we drove around Victoria and up the east coast
of the island for a ways. Somewhere on the coast, we found a little
park that afforded very nice views of a pretty lighthouse.
|
|
 |
|
The only birds I found
on the trip around the coast were cormorants, and we didn't stop
too often, so I don't have any other photos to show from that
part of the trip.
The next photos that
I have are from when we got back to the ferry terminal at Swartz
Bay. In this one, I caught a Pelagic Cormorant perched on a ferry
bumper (and some sort of gull in the foreground).
|
|
 |
| Once we
were loaded on the ferry, I headed outside and found another Pelagic
Cormorant on a very close perch. I got a number of good, close shots
of him, showing nice color and detail. |
|
 |
|
That's probably the
best photo I've ever gotten of a Pelagic.
As the ferry got underway,
I spotted a flying Pigeon Guillemot and quickly started taking
photos of him. The light on this bird was much better than
the light on the ones from the earlier part of the trip. And he
was much closer, too.
|
|
 |
| A little
further along, but before the Gulf Islands, I got this photo of
a small line of flying birds. The interesting thing was that this
was a mixed-species formation, with Rhinocerous Auklets (birds 1,2,
and 6 from the left) and Surf Scoters (the others). These species
aren't even closely related. |
|
 |
| I also caught
this cormorant flying by. The bright blue patch on his chin marks
this as one of the few Brandt's Cormorants I'd seen that day. |
|
 |
| Surprisingly,
I didn't get too many subjects while we were in the pass. Only when
we were just coming out of it did I get some more decent shots.
Here's one of what looks to be a fishing boat in front of us and
another ferry (the Queen of Saanich) going the other way. |
|
 |
| And from
the starboard bow, here's a view of the last point in the pass,
with Vancouver n the haze beyond. |
|
 |
| Just beyond
that point, there was a spread-out flock of Pacific Loons Here's
one of them.. |
|
 |
|
I watched a couple
of seals swim through the loons, and took some photos, but they
were too far away and the photos didn't turn out. After that,
I headed inside and joined my family in their tiredness: it had
been an interesting but very long day. We completed our trip without
further photographic opportunities.
Stay tuned for the
entry from the flowery middle part of our day.
Occasionally likened
to a loon, myself,
Tom
|
|