King's Pond

In a short video about fancy ducks in Victoria, they went to King's Pond to see Wood Ducks. I'd actually run by this pond, but I hadn't looked past the masses of Mallards. So Shelley and I stopped by when we were in the area. Typically, someone was feeding the ducks so there were lots of them on the path. But sure enough, amidst all the Mallards were a few Wood Ducks. This one came straight towards us and into the water.

There were some great reflections in the water to give them a nice background. (Although there was a lot of debris floating in the water, so it wasn't as clean a background as I would have liked.)

I'm not sure if this guy was showing off for the females or to intimidate the other males. (As usual with birds, the males are the flashy ones.) Nice pattern on the underside of the wings.

There were also a few American Wigeons around. Pretty feathers on their backs.

And some very active Ring-necked Ducks. They're also known as "ring bills" because the ring around the bill is much more noticeable than the cinnamon colored ring around their neck.

There were also some turtles out sunning themselves on a log. (According to a sign, the log was installed by volunteers, specifically for the turtles.)

This one was right at the edge of the path where I could get a good closeup.

Unfortunately, these turtles (red-eared sliders) are a non-native invasive species. Until recently they were all released pets, which explains why I've never seen really small ones. But apparently they have started to breed in southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. This wouldn't be so bad except they are out-competing the native Western Painted Turtles.

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Horsetails

There are masses of Horsetail ferns along the old rail tracks by the E&N path. They seem a bit out of place since they usually grow in damp shady areas, and this is neither. I wonder if there used to be a wet ditch beside the rail tracks that was lost when they built the E&N path.

Horsetails are interesting. They are "living fossils", once dominant, now an oddity. I think these are Great Horsetails. They reproduce by spores instead of seeds, and what you can see in this photo are the spore producing stalks that don't photosynthesize. After releasing their spores they die and are replaced by sterile green photosynthesizing stems.

McKenzie Bight

The forest here really is quite magical.

This was on a loop hike down to the beach on the McKenzie Bight trail and back up on the Cascade and Timberman trails. We've definitely been enjoying the local hikes. The McKenzie Bight trail (below) is quite wide and gradual. The Cascade trail is steeper and narrower.

Down on the beach it's always fun to poke around and see what you can find.

Of course, there was water and reflections.

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Harlequins

Harlequins are another small diving duck, less common than Buffleheads. They're not as colorful as Wood ducks, but still quite pretty. I had seen them a few times when I was running around the harbor, but not when I had my camera. The other day, at the end of a run, I spotted a pair of them near home. I ran home, grabbed my camera and the long lens, and headed back. I wasn't sure if they'd still be around by the time I got back. As I approached the spot, I was happy to see they were still there. But just as I arrived, three small girls ran down to the beach yelling and jumping around excitedly. I was sure the ducks would move on, but the girls and the ducks ignored each other completely. On the other hand, despite moving slowly and quietly, as soon as I pointed my camera at the ducks they would start to move away. Maybe I should have run around yelling but it makes it hard to take photographs.

I realized afterwards that I had focused almost entirely on the colorful male. I had to search through my photos to find one showing the female.

The male seemed to be quite successful at catching crabs to eat. I feel sorry for the crabs sometimes, they seem to be popular food items with the river otters, gulls, and ducks. The otters and gulls at least break them up to eat, but the ducks seem to swallow them whole. Better them than me!

They spent a fair bit of their time cruising around with their heads in the water, presumably looking for those tasty crabs.

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Magnolia

We are lucky to have lots of flowering plants and trees around our townhouse complex. My favorite right now is the magnolia I can see outside the window from my desk. There are quite a few kinds of magnolias but to me, this is one of the prettier ones. There are ones with similar flowers, but they are plain white. And there are ones with much bigger flowers, but the flowers start falling apart almost as soon as they open.

The fuzzy flower buds are a a distinctive feature. You can see the remnants around some of the flowers. I was surprised that they developed in the fall.

I like the centers of the flowers. They remind me a little bit of the center of water lilies.

It's quite an impressive mass of flowers. The cherry trees are fantastic too, but their individual flowers are quite small.

If you look closely in the bottom middle window you can just see the white end of my desk.

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