Well still not to the lake.

There is a lake up on the Ridge that I haven't been able to locate while hiking up in the area. This day I figured I would try again. And again I did not go far enough. Turned out I was 5 minutes away from it, and took the wrong turn.

Most of the travelling is on fire access roads like this. Still snow patches in sheltered spots.

Few outcrops once you get to the top. No views from here. mostly 30 year old plantation trees.

Back to Ridge to sit for a while and see what might show up . From here you can see the lake and the sooke Hills with the Olympic mountains on the horizon.

There was a Bald Eagle calling , whistles and chirping sounds, from the top of a tree behind me.
I look up to see where it is sitting, and High above the eagle a Peregrine Falcon is gliding out southward over the valley .

It heads out about a half mile or so, and then flaps a few of times before going into a incredible swift dive. dropping about 500 feet almost instantly. It was far in the distance but I could see it pull out sharply from the dive before it disappeared in the background of the trees behind.
Shortly after that the eagles called again and way up above them was another adult bald eagle heading out the direction of the peregrine. It got out about as far as the falcon but made a 180 degree turn and headed back over the eagles again and they again called out in disgruntlement.

  Next, a Pygmy Owl starting calling and I noticed one up in top of Fir tree in the direction of the bald eagles. Another called from behind me answering the first. As they were flitting around back and forth the eagles started up again.  this time they were really putting up a fuss. I heard a rush of wings from behind them and then they both exploded out of the tree one heading to the right and one heading to the left, and in the middle comes this diving Golden Eagle scattering both. The Golden chases one of them right down to within 100 feet of me and they both lock talons for a second.  The Balds quickly gather themselves and head off to the west. The golden sticks around for several minutes slowly circling several times and drifting to the south out of site. Don't piss off a Golden Eagle, I think is the lesson here.

Northern Pygmy Owl in the Garry Oak

Turkey vultures migrating by the ridge

Heading down I walked the stream trail back to the car.