2013 was sadly the last time I saw a hedgehog here (see the last picture here)…and there are only 3 reported observations since 2013 in the whole of Malvik Kommune, all found dead (killed in traffic), the last in 2017. There’s still a small population in Trondheim, so there’s a chance they will return. The population collapsed in the 2000s and it’s thought they were impacted by a virus, but many are also killed on roads and lack of habitat (too tidy gardens). As it’s never properly dark here in summer we have been able to photograph them at night and about 3 times have followed courtship and mating! Below are a number of pictures of hedgehogs in the garden over the years. The first shows mating in the garden in the 1990s (from a slide): Courtship display on 13th May 2006:
July 2006 by the outhouse door camouflaged sitting on a fibre mat! 5th May 2007
After emerging from hibernation, 15th April 2011:
Road casualty (2nd July 2011):
Magpie (skjære) with dead young hedgehog on the neighbour’s deck.
Hedgehog and ground elder (25th July 2012)
This hedgehog seemed to be hunting a worm or similar and was totally oblivious to my presence allowing this series of pictures to be taken on 1st May 2013:
Sat at my desk this morning, I noticed some unusual ripples in the bay. My immediate thought was porpoises (nise) but they were in shallower water than I’ve ever seen porpoises and they moved up and down quicker too. It was only after studying the video that I realised they were otters, probably 4 of them, a family group! N
A less obvious result of the full moon is drifting ice on the fjord, resulting from unusually high tide releasing ice from the shoreline and floating out into the fjord, here in a long band!
…and I spotted an otter on one of these pieces of ice back at the end of February 2010
A highlight of my visit to British Columbia (apart from the plants) was to experience springtime birds in a different part of the world, and most species I hadn’t seen before. There are two albums below plus some videos showing a selection of pictures taken with my handheld Panasonic DNC-TZ80 which has an amazing zoom…
Many of the pictures in the first album from Victoria are taken from my fantastic Airbnb room which overlooked the harbour!
See further down for an album from Vancouver (mainly in the fabulous Stanley Park).
At the bottom are several videos for your entertainment including Pileated woodpecker, Rufous-sided towhee, two squirrel species, bald eagles, American wigeon, Great blue heron, Northwestern crow, American robin, White-crowned sparrow, Red-winged blackbird, Northern flicker and American goldfinch
Hooded merganser (female) the only merganser restricted to North America
Hooded merganser (female)
Hooded merganser, male
Common merganser (goosander in Europe)
A male bufflehead (related to Goldeneyes)
Black oystercatchers
…and there “she” was, Anna’s Hummingbird, a singing male, just a few hundred metres from my wonderful Airbnb room, which overlooked the harbour (all the pictures above were taken from my room!)..
Anna’s hummingbird extended its range last century from Southern California thanks to the planting of exotic winter flowering shrubs…the migratory species had yet to arrive
Fisherman’s Wharf: the public can come close to Harbour Seals here and feed them..
It’s a good life to be a Victorian harbour seal…
..and there was even a River Otter…
River Otter…
Female bufflehead
Female bufflehead
Taking a picture of this pink form of Ribes sanguineum, I was unaware that I had also taken a picture of a Anna’s Hummingbird :) Magic happens if you let it!
Zoom to my magic hummingbird!
Common mergansers (goosanders in Europe)
Bewick’s Wren (from my room)
Bewick’s Wren (from my room) with invasive ivy
Western Gull
Western Gull
Common mergansers with the harbour ferry
Great Blue Heron and Goosander
Great Blue Heron and Hooded Merganser
Female goosanders looking for prey
Hooded merganser
Hooded merganser
Hooded merganser diving
Canada Geese
American wigeon
Black-tailed deer fertilising a Victoria garden
American wigeon at Beacon Hill
Nesting herons at Beacon Hill
Golden-crowned sparrow at Beacon Hill
Golden-crowned sparrow at Beacon Hill
Not sure of the ID of this one? Hairy woodpecker is the closest I’ve got……at Beacon Hill in Victoria
…and a deliberate shot of an an Anna’s hummingbird
Having a day and a half free in Vancouver before travelling to Quebec, I was keen to visit Stanley Park again! I first visited this remnant old growth forest right next to downtown Vancouver back in the late 80s and was so impressed that they had deliberately left dead trees standing and trees where they had fallen…this is what makes this place so special and rich in wildlife as these pictures taken in a 3 hour walk in the park show. I’ve also included some pictures taken in the UBC Botanical Garden (amazing to look up and see a pair of bald eagles sitting atop a tree in the middle of the garden) and also the Van Dusen botanical garden, both of which I visited on one day!
American Robin, female
Evidence of woodpeckers
..and there it was, a Pileated Woodpecker posing for me right next to the path!
Northern flicker
…a drumming Northern flicker on floodlights
American wigeons
Beaver pond
Beavers
Great blue heron
Mallard in skunk cabbage
Douglas’ squirrel
Canada goose
Wood duck
Wood duck, male
Wood duck, female
Spot the turtles and nesting Canada Goose
Great Blue Heron
Scaup
American coot
Scaup, female
Wood duck
Wood duck
Encounter with a raccoon
Northern flicker
Northern flicker
Now, a few pictures from the UBC Botanical Garden…here a brown creeper
Rufous-sided towhee
Bald Eagles in the middle of the UBC garden
American goldfinch, singing
White-crowned sparrow
The vegetation around the cattail beds were alive with birds
Red-winged blackbird in cattails
American robin
American robin
Canada goose at Vandusen garden
..and now some videos.
First, a drumming Northern flicker:
A downy/hairy woodpecker at Beacon Hill, Victoria
Pileated woodpecker in Stanley Park:
American wigeon, Vancouver:
Rufous-sided towhee in the UBC garden:
Hermit thrush? in Stanley Park:
Melanistic form of the Eastern Gray squirrel (introduced):
American wigeon at Beacon Hill, Victoria:
Hunting Great Blue Heron in Stanley Park:
Northwestern crow gathering nesting material:
American robin:
White-crowned sparrow on cattail seed (Typha):
The catttail beds and vegetation around were teeming with birds:
American goldfinch singing:
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
