Tag Archives: Beacon Hill

Beacon (Camas) Hill, Victoria BC

January 5, 2018 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

After the Indigenous Plant Walk the day before, my Airbnb hostess Kelly Kerr invited to show me around the Beacon Hill Park, a 200 acre mix of both natural areas, formal flower beds, but above all else the site is of great cultural significance to the Lekwungen People (now known as Esquimalt Nation and Songhees Nation). In fact, the City of Victoria has adopted 2017 as a Year of Reconciliation, and a traditional longhouse will be built on a hilltop site! When the British arrived they wrongly assumed that the open meadow landscape was “natural” and unused. In fact, the Lekwungen had cultivated and maintained these shrub-free grasslands for centuries. The meadows were worked to grow camas which was their most important root crop, as well as other edible wild plants. Both common and great camas (Camassia quamash and Camassia leichtlinii) were used. This habitat was reminiscent to the English of the ideal 19th century parkland landscape that they recognised from home and was instrumental in Victoria being founded at this site!
The Beacon Hill area was apparently “one of the most productive camas territories on Vancouver Island,” The Lekwungen people both harvested bulbs for their own use and also traded with other west coast peoples. Thankfully, it is now likely that these productive and butterfly rich grasslands will be gradually restored. The album of pictures were taken in the park and along the adjacent shoreline where native families would arrive in the past for the harvest. They would harvest the bulbs in summer when the seed heads were ripe. Only the largest bulbs were harvested and the others replanted. Invasion by shrubs was minimised by regular burning. Each family had its own designated area. The practice of farming natural areas in this way was commonly practiced around the world by native peoples.

The first shooting stars (Dodecatheon)

Lomatium utriculatum

Lekwungen women harvesting camas bulbs on Beacon Hill. Illustration by Victorian graphic artist Gordon Friesen.

Daffodils encroaching on the camas meadows

I was lucky to be just in time for Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum), although it doesn’t seem to have been used as a food plant in this area.

Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum) blooming under a canopy of camas

Mahonia encroaching onto the rocky meadow

Ribes sanguineum (white variety) a favourite of hummingbirds

The most photographed tree in the park is this Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)

Japanese knotweed looking out over the Pacific to home in Japan

Oemleria cerasiformis, Indian plum (Osoberry)

Birds, Mammals

Birds and mammals of BC

April 14, 2017 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

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

A male bufflehead (related to Goldeneyes)

…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…

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!

Common mergansers (goosanders in Europe)

Bewick’s Wren (from my room) with invasive ivy

Common mergansers with the harbour ferry

Black-tailed deer fertilising a Victoria garden

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!