Butchart Gardens

We try to get out to Butchart Gardens a few times a year. It's always different, and always a delight. It's by no means "natural", but all the flowers and plants and trees are still living things. And you never know what else you might see, like dragonflies and lizards.

Of course, the main attraction is the flowers, and in the fall the Dahlias.

The black backgrounds are a little artificial, but they focus attention on the flower itself rather than the setting.

With flowers, come bees and there were lots, both bumblebees like this Yellow-faced, and honey bees.

And also flies like this Common Drone Fly and Western Pond Fly that are easily mistaken for bees.

The details of some of these flowers blow me away. Amazing what evolution can come up with.

Even an old favorite, a Hibiscus.

See all 31 photos in this batch

Elephant Seal

When I heard there was a seal on the beach nearby I assumed it was a Harbor Seal and I didn't get too excited since I have a lot of photos of them. But I discovered it was a juvenile Elephant Seal, probably on the beach for its annual molt. (They are susceptible to the cold when molting and haul out on land.) The first time I went to take photos it was lying motionless under the walkway with no angle to get decent photos. But I went back later and it was in the water, quite active and playful. After taking lots of photos I even took some video. My video skills are crude, but it's fun to see it in motion.

Like Harbor Seals, Elephant Seals were also almost hunted to extinction, this time for the oil from the thick layer of blubber that insulates them. Elephant seals get big. Our northern species is smaller than the southern ones but the larger males still get up to 16 feet long and 5500 lbs. The males are up to 10 times larger than the females. Elephant Seals can hold their breath for up to 100 minutes and dive as deep as 5000 ft (a mile!) Race Rocks near Victoria is their northernmost breeding location. The "elephant" name comes from the big "trunk" on the adult males.

When I first got there it was fairly sedate.

But then it started playing with a piece of kelp and got a little more lively. It reminded me a bit of a dog playing with a stick.

And finally tired out from playing.

See all 11 photos in this batch

Abkhazi Garden

Abkhazi Garden is one of my favorites in Victoria. Despite being small, there always seems to be something interesting to photograph.

Soon after we entered the garden today I spotted this Goldenrod Crab Spider with a fly it had caught. They generally vary in color from white to yellow. This one was quite pale yellow.

And fall is the time to see more Cross Orbweavers.

There are some beehives in the garden and honey bees were busy visiting flowers while they lasted.

There were still quite a few flowers around. These autumn crocuses look a lot like the spring ones.

I liked the pattern of leaves on this succulent.

The sun wasn't quite warm enough for the turtles to be out sunning, but this one was quite active swimming around and occasionally sticking its head out to look around.

At one point I heard a bird call that sounded vaguely familiar. Shelley spotted it high up at the top of a dead tree. From the dark spot on its neck I thought it might be a Northern Flicker and the telephoto lens confirmed it. Usually you see Flickers on the ground rather than perched in trees. The angle from below revealed why they're called red-shafted.

Fall Colors

It doesn't feel too much like fall here yet, although the days are getting shorter and cloudier and we've had a little rain. Victoria isn't a prime spot for fall colors but we have a tree outside our door that drops quite colorful leaves. I collected some good ones and took a few photos.

I took the first batch of photos when the leaves were wet from outside. That helps the color but it also adds reflections. The next batch I took a few days later when the leaves were dry, and a bit more curled up.

Here's my "studio". Although I took them when there was plenty of natural light, I used the led panel to fill in the shadows.

See all 16 photos in this batch

Morning-glory Plume Moth

I spotted this unusual moth on the side of the house this morning. I had seen a photo of a similar moth recently or I might not have noticed it. The id was confirmed on iNaturalist. As the name suggests, the caterpillars feed on morning glory flowers (which there are plenty of around here). The wings are unusual, they are more like feathers. In this photo they are folded up.

It's interesting that it has one pair of legs folded back against its body. Some spiders do this to look more like harmless six legged insects. But I'm not sure why a moth would. Maybe they just fold them back to be more streamlined when they are flying.

Harbor Seal Pups

August is the month for baby seals in Victoria. This year we had three mothers and babies hauling out on the little island near us. Harbor Seals have a huge range, they are found along the coasts of the Pacific and Atlantic in the northern hemisphere. Females normally give birth to a single pup each year, although sometimes they have twins. The pups can swim and dive within hours of birth. They gain weight quickly from rich mothers milk (50% fat!) and they are weaned and independent after 4 to 6 weeks. We usually see them for roughly the month of August. Harbor seals live relatively long lives - an average of 40 years in the wild. Although we see them year round in the harbor, they only seem to haul out on our little island when they have pups. They may come further into the harbor with pups to avoid predators like Orcas. When I'm kayaking I see other adults hauled out on small islands further out of the harbor. Harbor seals are normally solitary except during breeding season although I sometimes see groups of up to 5 feeding in the harbor. They can dive as deep as 500m (1600ft) for as long as 30min, but the average dive is 90m (300ft) for 5 minutes. Satellite tracking of seals in Oregon found they had an average home range of 360 square kilometers (e.g. a square 60 km by 60 km) but a core range of 30 square kilometers. I assumed they were resident around the harbor, but given the large range, they could just be visiting.

Before the Marine Mammal Act of 1973 harbor seals were almost wiped out by hunting, with a bounty on them because they were regarded as pests to fishing. The population in Oregon in 1967/68 was down to approximately 500. Since then populations have rebounded and in 2014 estimates were 12,000 in Oregon and 13,000 in Washington.

This is one of the first sightings this year. If you look closely, you can see the pup still has part of the umbilical cord attached, so I assume it was fairly new.

When the adults haul out on land, they usually turn to face the water, perhaps so they can escape quickly, or perhaps so they can watch for predators like Orcas. The pups on the other hand, usually face away from the water. I think this is partly because they're not very good at maneuvering on land, and partly because it puts them in position to feed. I think that's one of the mother's nipples you can see.

The mothers and their pups stay close together, even in the water. Other years we've only seen a single mother and pup, but this year we had up to three sets hauled out on the island. Like many youngsters the pups can be restless and playful. This one was wriggling around non stop while they mother paid no attention.

I came across these two when I was kayaking. The mother was "patting" the pup with her flipper. I'm not sure why. After a while they went in the water and I was afraid I'd made them nervous (although they hadn't appeared to be paying much attention to me). But then they popped and swam straight towards me. Once they got close enough to inspect me they dove and disappeared. Just curious I guess.

This mother and pup were also watching closely as I kayaked by.

See all 18 photos in this batch and my previous post about harbor seals

See also:

Nature Companion

Wikipedia

Animal Diversity Web

Space use of Pacific harbor seals

Sunset

A rare colorful sunset in Victoria.