This past September I had the opportunity and pleasure to spend time with some of my Boreal colleagues (and I mean humans not birds) in Victoria, British Columbia.

To get there we took the Victoria Clipper, a high-speed ferry, from Seattle. Although it was tough to look for birds because of the speed of the boat and the windiness, I did see some interesting birds and some impressive scenery.  There were a few Rhinocerus Auklets, Marbled Murrelets, and Heermann's Gulls closer to land but the real show was the dozens of Pink-footed Shearwaters, hundreds of Sooty Shearwaters, and thousands of Common Murres. There were also lots of Harbor Porpoise and one of what appeared to me to be an Elephant Seal (range maps show them occasionally up that far but if any reader can comment on the likelihood of this it would be great).

In Victoria I did not have much time to look for birds but while examining some of the famous totem poles carved by BC indigenous peoples with all the amazing bird images, I discovered a small flock of migrant songbirds including Yellow Warblers, (47% breed in Boreal), Orange-crowned Warbler (65% breed in Boreal) and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet (68% breed in Boreal).

Here's a Boreal-breeder right in the middle of the city:

We were blessed with a beautiful sunset on the ferry returning to seattle:

Credit: David Childs, Boreal Songbird Initiative