Central walbran on Vancouver island

The Friends of the Walbran/Carmanah had a BioBlitz and these are my photos from the day

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. 

a Hike through the Rainforest and then HUH!

took a trek along a newish marked trail through the Macdonald Rainforest. I have explored this area in the past when there were no human trails. Now, a trail has been blazed through in the last few years and is easy to hike along now.
The trail starts at the Humpback reservoir and follows the shoreline for a bit before heading through the rain forest.

Ice was still covering the reservoir and snow patches still lingered here and there in the woods. the snow in the forest was slushy and melting while the snow out in the open was frozen and I could walk on top of it.

Lots of trees have fallen from the heavy snow and maybe some light storms that have come through the area. these are 3d images and if you cross your eyes and stare at the middle image you get a 3 dimensional image as if you were right there.

There is a rocky hill to the east of the trail that I climbed for a view of Mt Finlayson in the distance. 

 A log I like to photograph whenever I am in the valley. A large old tree came down and balanced on top of an erratic left behind by the glaciers receding.

The trail ended up on an access road that led to the hydro power line that feeds from Bear Reservoir out near Jordan River. Huh! Didn't expect a an open roadway out there.

On the way back I walked along the old waterflow line that dumps into Humpback reservoir.