July 23 - Victoria Vacation - Day 1

I'll stretch the definition of my birding blog to include some photos of people and stuffed birds. Edith and I took a four day trip over to Vancouver Island. We stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast in Metchosin, which happened to have a nice collection of birds in the backyard.

Of course, there's always a couple of photos taken on the ferry ride.






After the ferry crossing we headed into downtown Victoria where we toured the Royal BC Museum.

The main attraction was a travelling Ancient Egypt exhibit. I felt I'd seen some of these exhibits before at Expo 86 in Vancouver, but that was 32 years ago. I'll only caption each photo briefly as I didn't take notes.

Egyptian Lion

Hatshepsut - fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt - second female Pharaoah




Not exactly Liz Taylor lookalike

Nefertiti

Book of the Dead

Isis

We also visited the permanent BC Natural history exhibit, where I felt more comfortable identifying the exhibits.

Prairie Falcon - close relative to the Peregrine Falcon

White-throated Swift - can be seen at Vaseux Lake in the Okanagan

Walrus and Seals

Common Murres - can be seen on BC coast or Point Roberts

Tufted Puffins - a bird I have not ever seen

Snow Goose - common in Lower Mainland in Winter

Wilson's Snipe - unique shorebird can be seen in Okanagan and perhaps Lower Mainland

We returned to Victoria on the 25th to celebrate my birthday with a lunch at the Empress Hotel. I took this shot of the old CPR Steamship Terminal building after lunch.

July 24 - Sooke and Metchosin

We headed south towards Sooke where Edith wanted to visit a display home high up on Sooke Point overlooking the ocean. The home is first prize in the 2018 Hometown Heroes lottery.

Here's the view from the living room balcony.

If you have a fear of heights, this might not be for you.



This is a zoomed out view.

The heights did not bother this Barn Swallow at all.



After exploring for while, we returned to our B&B in Metchosin to relax. I took the opportunity to photograph some of the birds in the yard.


Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Metchosin BC




Red-breasted Nuthatch - Metchosin BC

And finally, a short movie of an Anna's Hummingbird.

July 25 - 26 - Metchosin Birds

We just relaxed on the last two days of our vacation. Our B&B in Metchosin was the perfect place to do so. I spent my time photographing the birds and butterflies in the yard and at the nearby beach.

I also took some movies with the Nikon - first a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

And next a Chestnut-backed Chickadee, they are the predominant Chickadee in the area.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Metchosin BC

There were quite a few white butterflies in the garden, i'm pretty sure they were the Pine White species.


Pine-white Butterfly - Metchosin BC




And this looks like an Orange-belted Bumblebee from what I can find on Google.

Orange-belted Bumblebee - Metchosin BC

Here's a nice photo of a couple of Nuthatches. I suspect the one on the left is a juvenile based on the shape and colour differences.

Red-breasted Nuthatches - Metchosin BC

And here's the last shot of this trip:

Red-breasted Nuthatch - Metchosin BC