Victoria, B.C., is for the birds

We went to Victoria, B.C., last week for our first visit and I took so many photos (298) that I sort of locked up at the thought of choosing which ones to put on the blog. So I'll do it in installments, starting with the birds. Everywhere we looked, there were birds! Birds in the bay, in the parks, parking lots, roof tops. Water birds, hummingbirds, ducks, pigeons. But the most surprising was the peacock sitting at a picnic table in Beacon Hill Park, http://www.beaconhillpark.ca/. It was just casually preening itself and let me walk right up to it for a few photos.

Not far away from the peacock, these two guys had a quiet interspecies moment, contemplating the activity in one of the ponds in Beacon Hill. You can see in the photo below how close the park is to downtown. It's a beautiful 200-acre park, with miles of paths stretching from the edge of downtown to the bay. It has colorful flower gardens, wild areas, ponds, a petting zoo, dog park, alpine and rock gardens and breathtaking views over the water. It was probably my favorite part of the five-day visit, even topping the famous Butchart Gardens. (And it's free.)

The ducks looked so cuddly that I just wanted to scoop them up.

Here are a few shots of the flowers at Beacon Hill Park:

... and a view toward town (above) and the sea:

Back in downtown Victoria:

What would a city be without tame pigeons? This one hopped right up onto Dave's hand as we were sitting near the Inner Harbor -- he said its feet were really soft. (No, we weren't feeding them.)

 

 

We even had birds painted on the ceiling of our bedroom at the historic inn where we stayed. Each corner had a different bird composition.

Stay tuned for Victoria's gardens,

harbor, downtown and quilts.