Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Birding at Sea #7 – Vancouver Island

The Butchart Gardens
One last day, spent primarily on Vancouver Island.

Vancouver Island
Map: Google Maps
Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off the coast of Canada, Victoria is the capital of British Columbia. A relatively small town, Victoria proper has only 86,000 residents and the metropolitan area has 368,000, making it the 15th most populous Canadian metropolitan area (I dare you to name 14 other Canadian metropolitan areas).

Named after Queen Victoria, Victoria is one of the oldest cities in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1843. 

The city has retained a large number of its historic buildings, in particular its two most famous landmarks, Parliament Buildings finished in 1897 and the Empress hotel opened in 1908. The city's Chinatown is the second oldest in North America after San Francisco's. 

Collage:Wikipedia
We didn’t visit any of those, but I have also visited Victoria before (if I hadn’t, I would have stayed longer; I probably should have stayed longer).

Before European navigators arrived in the late 1700s, the area was home to several Coast Salish peoples, including the Songhees. Spanish explorer Juan PĂ©rez visited in 1774 and James Cook came in 1778. Hudson's Bay Company opened a trading post that was named Fort Victoria in 1843 and the Songhees established a village across the harbor. 

The crown colony was established in 1849 and, between 1850-1854, a series of treaty agreements were made with indigenous communities to purchase land upon which to build a town in exchange for goods.

When news of the discovery of gold on the British Columbia mainland reached San Francisco in 1858, Victoria became the port, supply base and outfitting center for miners on their way to the gold fields, mushrooming from a population of 300 to more than 5,000 within a few days. Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1866, the island was politically united with the mainland and Victoria was designated the capital. It became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871.

BC Parliament Building, 2012
In the latter half of the 19th century, the Port of Victoria became one of North America's largest importers of opium (legal and unregulated at the time), serving the opium trade from Hong Kong and distribution into North America. Opium trade was regulated in 1865 and outlawed in 1908.

View from Vancouver Island, 2012
After the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886, Victoria lost its position as the commercial center of the province to Vancouver. The city began cultivating an image of genteel civility within its natural setting, aided by the impressions of visitors such as Rudyard Kipling, the opening of the popular Butchart Gardens in 1904 and the construction of the Empress Hotel by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1908.

On the ferry, 2012
A real estate and development boom ended just before World War I, leaving Victoria with a many Edwardian public, commercial and residential buildings that have greatly contributed to the city's character and style.

Because it is on an island, Victoria has mild, rainy winters and cool, dry and sunny summers despite its northerly location. 

In fact, it averages only 10.2 inches of snow annually, about half that of Vancouver.


The island is alive with flowers
As a result, Victoria is the "City of Gardens," with many flowers that bloom during the winter and early spring, including crocuses, daffodils, early-blooming rhododendrons, cherry and plum trees. 

Monkey Puzzle Tree
Victoria and its surrounding area are home to many rare, native plants found nowhere else in Canada, including Garry oak, hairy manzanita and Canada's only broadleaf evergreen tree, Pacific madrone. Many of these species are found as far south as southern California and parts of Mexico.

Victoria is a garden city
The city's chief industries are technology, food products, federal and provincial government administration and services, investment and banking, online book publishing, public and private schools and universities, light aircraft manufacturing, engineering, architecture and telecommunications.

Victoria is a major tourism destination with more than 3.5 million overnight visitors per year who add more than a billion dollars to the local economy. An additional 500,000 daytime visitors arrive via cruise ships that dock at Ogden Point near the city's Inner Harbor. The ship we arrived on in Vancouver docks at Victoria every other year. We had to take the ferry from Vancouver for our visit.

BC Ferry
Maber Flats
We started our last day on Vancouver at Maber Flats, a marshy farming area, where we saw a couple of different kinds of birds – none new to me.

There were, as there always is, some Song Sparrows …

Song Sparrow
... and some California Quail …

California Quail
But, I spent most of my time photographing an adorable little Marsh Wren that was posing ...

Marsh Wren, a great balancer
... singing …

A very vocal bird
... and singing more ...

VERY vocal
… and collecting nesting material among the dried-out cattails that filled the marshy areas.

Getting ready to build a nest
Observatory Hill
Observatory Hill is home to many Chestnut-backed Chickadees
Then, it was on to Observatory Hill, where I did encounter several Lifers.

Olive-sided Flycatcher
Observatory Hill in Saanich is the home of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, which was built in the early 1800s. It is now a National Historic Site of Canada, commemorating the many discoveries about the nature of the Milky Way made at this world-renowned facility. It remained one of the world's main astrophysical research centers until the 1960s.

We went looking for two specific birds and we were not disappointed. First, we almost immediately saw an Olive-sided Flycatcher, although it took a while for it to find a perch in the sun rather than against the sun.

Fortunately, flycatchers have a habit of returning time and again to the same spot high in the tees. So, this one posed nicely.

After a lot of backlit poses, this Olive-sided Flycatcher landed in full sun
Chickadee close-up
Next was one of the cutest birds we saw on Vancouver Island: the Chestnut-backed Chickadee. 

This tiny little relative of Mountain, Black-capped, Boreal and Carolina Chickadees lives almost exclusively along the U.S. Pacific Coast, with some additional small territories in Alberta, Canada, and Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana and northern California.

We saw some initially and then Bryan played some Pygmy Owl calls. This counter-intuitive strategy actually works at attracting birds. 

I would have thought that the little birds would hide, afraid of a predator. But, instead, they become curious and hop out to check on what’s happening. It worked with the Chickadees, attracting quite a few.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee
It also worked with a Red-breasted Nuthatch ...

Nuthatch close-up
... that also excitedly jumped about …

He was all over the place!
And, with some adult and juvenile Oregon Dark-eyed Juncos …

Oregon Dark-eyed Juncos
… a Chipping Sparrow ...

Look at that red cap!
... and, an American Robin ... 

And that red breast!
A Northern Flicker even peeked out of its nest …

Male Red-Shafted Northern Flicker: "Wassup?"
Although, by far, the most prevalent inquisitor was the Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

You can see that chestnut back here
The final surprise was a Golden-crowned Kinglet ...

Golden-crowned Kinglet
It is pretty easy to see where this bird gets its name – it has a very distinct golden crown that it perks up when it is excited ...

Here you can see both gold and orange
... it was excited ...

Jumping from branch to branch
... and, it certainly flashed that crown around ...

Crown up!
Bryan and I walked through the woods looking for a Pygmy Owl, but none surfaced. So, off we went to our next stop.

The Butchart Gardens
The Butchart Gardens
After spending the early morning birding, it was time to head for our primary destination: The Butchart Gardens, a group of floral display gardens in Brentwood Bay north of Victoria. By far the area’s most popular tourist destination, The Gardens receive over a million visitors each year.

The colors are striking
The gardens started as the private grounds of the home of Robert Pim Butchart, a cement manufacturer, and his wife, Jennie. In 1904, they established their home and, in 1907, they hired Japanese gardener Isaburo Kishida to design their garden.

The variety is astounding
In 1909, when the quarry that had provided limestone for the cement business was exhausted, Jennie turned it into the Sunken Garden, which was completed in 1921. In 1926, they replaced their tennis courts with an Italian garden and, in 1929, they replaced their kitchen vegetable garden with a large rose garden. In 1939, the Butcharts gave The Gardens to their grandson Ian Ross on his 21st birthday. Ross was involved in the operation and promotion of the gardens until his death 58 years later.

Brilliant Gardens
To mark the 50th anniversary of The Gardens in 1954, underground wiring was laid to provide night illumination. To celebrate the 60th anniversary in 1964, the Ross Fountain was installed in the lower reservoir. 

Ross Fountain
In 2004, two 30-foot totem poles were installed to mark the 100th anniversary and The Gardens were designated as a National Historic Site.

Orca seat on the Carousel
The Butcharts still own The Gardens; the owner and managing director since 2001 is the Butcharts' great-granddaughter Robin-Lee Clarke.

In 2009, the Children's Pavilion and the Rose Carousel were opened. 

The Carousel “menagerie” has two chariots  and thirty animals including bears, horses, ostriches and zebras. They were carved from solid basswood and took months to complete.

In 2008, The Gardens introduced the Jennie B, an electrically driven 12-passenger boat that offers tours of the local coastlines in the summer.

The tour harbor
In the early days, weekly symphony concerts were hosted by the Butcharts. These were often held for guests of the family, but later attracted a larger audience. Now, The Butchart Gardens provide a wide range of local entertainment, from jazz to classical music. The Weeds, a band made up of staff members from The Gardens, sometimes plays during the Summer Season. Firework shows accompanied by show tunes are offered on summer Saturday evenings and, during winter, lights and seasonal decorations adorn the gardens along with an ice-skating rink.

Even the greenery is brilliant
The Gardens were lovely. It was too early for roses, but the tulips were in full bloom.

Spring tulips
When we first entered the Gardens, we saw a Rufous Hummingbird and a really pretty bright green and black European Wall Lizard. 

Bryan introduces himself to a European Wall Lizard; it responded by biting him; it wouldn't bite me
An introduced species, the lizard is found throughout the gardens, we saw just this one.

Brilliant green and black
And, although there weren’t a lot of birds, there were a two great finds. When we first arrived, we saw some Chestnut-backed Chickadees …

Chestnut-backed Chickadee making a statement
… and Song Sparrows …

Mama Song Sparrow taking food to her chicks
 ... both enjoying the spring leaves and blossoms ...

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
I also got a great shot of a Robin actually getting a worm. You hear about it, but you don’t often get this shot.

Early bird!
Then, we got to the really good stuff.

We were enjoying the flowers, the fountains and the gorgeous landscaping. I had just taken a photo of Sue and was posing with her so that Rick could take our picture when Bryan called to let us know he had found a Red-Breasted Sapsucker (a real beauty), so we ran to the other side of the Garden (that's why I have no picture of me in the Gardens).

Red-breasted Sapsucker
I couldn’t remember if I had seen a Red-breasted Sapsucker before, but it turns out that I had when a rare vagrant turned up in Colorado Springs last year. They are normally found only along the Pacific Coast. I had to struggle to photograph that one. This one, however, put on quite a show.

It posed …

In the trees
On a bench
 On the ground
And even on one of The Butchart’s Gardens' iconic totem poles 
We spent quite a bit of time taking pictures, attracting a rather large crowd of other park visitors as we did.

Gorgeous
When we finally moved on, the Sapsucker was still performing for the audience.

As we were wending our way through the Japanese Gardens, we heard a shrill (and very loud) call. It was a Varied Thrush!

Varied Thrush with a snack
And, here’s an interesting theme – I had seen one of those before, too. It was in Colorado Springs last year at the same time (actually the same day!) I saw the Red-breasted Sapsucker. And, that bird – a really beautiful bird – lives only along the Pacific Coast and in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe they traveled to Colorado together.

We took a few pictures before it flew off. But, it never changed its pose much, so all my pictures look almost the same. Here's what the one in Colorado Springs looked like ...

A bird where it doesn't belong
And, of course, where there are flowers, there are bees. I saw two types: a Tricolored Bumblebee and a Yellow-faced Bumblebee.

Left, Tricolored Bumblebee; right, Yellow-faced Bumblebee
But, all good things must end and we had to return to Vancouver for our flight home early the next morning.

Beautiful flower
We took the ferry back, hoping that the sunshine would hold. It did not. I covered ferry sightings in my last post.

BC Ferry
Centennial Beach
Bald Eagle
We capped off the day with a quick stop at Centennial Beach on Boundary Bay. We were hoping for shorebirds, but several people were walking dogs and no shorebirds, except a couple of Mallards and Great Blue Herons, were to be found.

So, we headed to the Marshes, where we saw some more Northwestern Crows …

Northwestern Crow
… some of which were harassing a Bald Eagle.

The Eagle is telling the Crow to back off
We saw a Pacific Northwest Spotted Towhee, which has much smaller and fewer spots than its cousins here in the lower 48.

Notice that the Northwest Spotted Towhee has almost no spots
One of the best captures was a cute little Common Yellowthroat, posing in the marshes. They are such quick little birds, it’s a good day when you can get a picture.

Common Yellowthroat
And, we were lucky to spend some time with an absolutely gorgeous male Rufous Hummingbird ...

Rufous Hummingbird
... that was uncharacteristically sitting still ...

Marvelous!
Final Thoughts
Pigeon Guillemot
So, that was our Pelagic birding trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it ...

Laysan Albatross
I saw 37 NEW birds and got some better photos of birds I had seen before ...

Immature Bonaparte's Gull
I made some new friends ...

Our group
I went on and learned a great deal about guided birding trips ...

Island Scrub-Jay
I reminded myself that cruising for cruising sake is not for me ...

Star Princess
I am now interested in more Pelagic birding and hope to get some more new birds when I go to Svalbard this month and Cuba in November.

Thanks, Sue, for inviting me (at least you got some pictures in the Gardens)!


Sue at The Butchart Gardens

Trip date: May 7-14, 2019