LOCATION

The 1931 Shoal Harbour Migratory Bird Sanctuary is located near the southern end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, 30 km north of the City of Victoria. it is situated on the east side of the Saanich Peninsula and straddles the municipalities of the Town of Sidney and the District of North Saanich.

The geology of the Saanich Peninsula is complex, the underlying bedrock being the southern extension of a complex called Wrangellia, thought to have originated as a chain of volcanic islands in the Pacific Basin that collided with the western edge of the North American plate some — million years ago with many upheavals and weatherings in the years that followed…..

The present climate of the Saanich Peninsula and the adjacent Southern Gulf Islands….(to be updated)

FOSH Origins 1991:

The start of 1991 marked the beginnings of FOSH.   The first issue of the Peninsula News Review in the New Year, heralded the beginnings of the Citizens Coalition for Conservation in a letter to the editor : ‘ Roberts Bay is for the Birds‘, with the reporting of the annual Christmas Bird Count totaling 26 species, numbering over 1200 individuals.

The authors reported that ” Few people in Sidney may appreciate that Roberts Bay is a highly productive ecosystem that sustains a diversity community of birds and other marine organisms….Some may have noticed an obscure little sign at the foot of Ardwell Avenue; it states that the bay is a federal bird sanctuary. That means no hunting is permitted but it doesn’t offer much else in the way of habitat protection.”

Over two decades have passed and many FOSH projects have been undertaken since this time.  However, that obscure little sign still hangs there in a Douglas Fir, and is a significant part of our heritage, along with the “Bufflehead Kiosk” and the native plant garden that FOSH members worked on during the autumn of 2014 with the support of the Town of Sidney.