Special Tree

I've confessed to my favorite wildflower so, while I've not thought about it much, I suspect the Garry Oaks that are so distinctive a part of this place are my favorite trees. They are so wonderfully and irrationally gnarled. And, whenever I go to Highrock Park I always end up pausing when I see this particular oak. There's something about how it grips the rock it grows out of and how it is always silhouetted against the sky that makes me stop and appreciate it.

Big Bonsai

Though it is only a small beautifully unkempt neighborhood park, Highrock Park in Esquimalt has a wonderful collection of gnarled Garry Oak trees that, on a smaller scale, would make a bonsai artist's eyes water.

Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)

This tiny little bird is a Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) and here he is pictured hunting for insects in the bark of a Garry Oak overlooking the West Bay Walkway. I was thinking this was a fairly insignificant bird and then I realized what he was doing. Remember, in the above photo he is hanging upside down. As he poked here and there in bark crevices, he hopped upwards. The more I think about it, it seems, like the flight of the bumblebee, to be impossible. Why, as soon as he lets go with his feet, doesn't he plummet towards the earth? Well, all I can say is that he doesn't, and he makes this defiance of gravity look easy. Wonderful!

Landscape 4 - Garry Oak

Last week we looked at one of our most distinctive trees, the Arbutus. Here's our other most distinctive tree, the Garry Oak, pictured in a fairly typical environment on the summit of Pkols (aka Mount Douglas). As you can see, we've had a long string of hot dry days that have turned all of spring's green grass to gold.

Dark-eyed Junco

Some of the photographers I admire most specialize in bird photography. I find it very challenging. Birds are shy and hard to approach; they move around unpredictably and jerkily a lot; they come and go seasonally; and they're often quite small and in difficult locations - up in trees, for example. Other favourite subjects of mine, wildflowers, are relatively easy to photograph since once they are located they can be photographed without worrying about their immediate departure. Bird photography is also pretty demanding when it comes to equipment. A very good long lens is absolutely necessary. It is possible to get reasonably adequate bird photos like the one above with a 300mm zoom. But for really outstanding results something more powerful and faster is required - maybe a 400mm prime lens. However, one has to have pretty deep pockets for that kind of lens since they start around $1,500. A good tripod is another necessity since long lenses with good glass tend to be very heavy and difficult to hand-hold without shaking. But certainly the most demanding requirement for good bird photos is patience. Lots of patience.

Highrock Park 1

I think the main reason I like Highrock Park so much is that it has so many environments in a very small space - really just the rocky top of a small hill. I also like its wildness - there are paths all through it but it is still essentially ungardened. This stark gnarled rather barren landscape is what most of the top of the park is like. But a few steps will carry you to an entirely different kind of ecospace - check it out tomorrow.

Garry Oak Meadows

On a walk at Cattle Point Park I discovered that just inland of the water is a beautiful wild space of mossy rocks, and big old oak trees. When the leaves began to fall at this time of year I once again become enamored with the twisted and gnarled branches of these iconic trees. - Fern

Self Portrait in Oak

Thought I'd start this daily photo blog with a photo of myself, taken in Banfield Park, in Victoria West.