Dear Friends, estimados colegas, this may interest you.HEEG have been already back for a week in Greater Victoria and Victoria Harbour Bird Sanctuary. With 8 at Clover Point yesterday, and a flock offshore, off Gonzales Point, earlier this week.In recent years, 500-600+ of them roosted mostly on the Chain Islets (IBA – BC045), and on several Oak Bay Islands, in and near Vic. Harbour MBS.They come here largely to feed on schools of Pacific Sand Lance, sometimes, 200-300 birds at a time, mixing with Rhinoceros Auklets, Glaucous-winged Gulls and Pelagic Cormoratns, often south of the Chain Islets where there are massive (25 m high), submarine sand dunes: the Oak Bay Sand Dunes.
In the late summer/early fall 2015, 2 HEEG + 4 California Gulls + 30 Glaucous-Winged Gulls + 30 Rhinoceros Auklets joined in a feeding frenzy on a school of Pacific Herring at Ship Point, Victoria Inner Harbour, in front of the B.C. Parliament, essentially in Victoria City Centre.
Also of interest, recent events with a southern flavour:
1) 12 Short-beaked Common Dolphins in Port Angeles Harbour, Wash., across from Victoria, on 11 June 2016.
2) In 2015: 1 Brown Booby in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, near Victoria + 1 Brown and 1 Masked Booby near Telegraph Cove, northern Vancouver Island + 1 Guadalupe Fur Seal & 1 Green Turtle on west coast of Vancouver Island.
3) Dec. 2012, up to 25-30 Brown Pelicans spent 3 w at Christmas feeding on Pacific Herring in Victoria Middle and Outer Harbour, between Fisherman’s Wharf and Ogden Pint Breakwater. Countless, extraordinary pictures were taken.
4) Moulting Northern Elephant Seals now seen every year in and near this bird sanctuary, with up to 35 at nearby Race Rocks Ecological Reserve where they breed since 2010.
Thanks – hasta luego. 5 images below.
Jacques Sirois, Friends of Victoria Harbour Bird Sanctuary
HEEG, Chatham Islands, Aug. 4, 2014. J. SiroisHEEG,1980, J. Fenwick Lansdowne (1937 – 2008), Oak Bay, British Columbia.Moulting, juv. N. Elephant Seal, Grand Chain Island (IBA BC045), Aug. 9, 2014, J. Sirois.
Friends of Shoal Harbour 