The Blue Whale Project

I'm back from my holiday now and will soon be posting a few photos of my trip. Thanks to all who visited and left comments while I was away. To get back into the Victoria Daily Photo mode I've posted the above photo of what I am amazed to discover is the largest animal ever to have lived, according to Wikipedia. Yes, even bigger than the biggest of dinosaurs. Blue whales are big. Wikipedia's fascinating article includes the following facts:

A Blue Whale's tongue weighs around 2.7 metric tons (3.0 short tons) and, when fully expanded, its mouth is large enough to hold up to 90 metric tons (99 short tons) of food and water. Despite the size of its mouth, the dimensions of its throat are such that a Blue Whale cannot swallow an object wider than a beach ball. Its heart weighs 600 kilograms (1,300 lb) and is the largest known in any animal. A Blue Whale's aorta is about 23 centimetres (9.1 in) in diameter. During the first seven months of its life, a Blue Whale calf drinks approximately 400 litres (100 U.S. gallons) of milk every day. Blue Whale calves gain weight quickly, as much as 90 kilograms (200 lb) every 24 hours. Even at birth, they weigh up to 2,700 kilograms (6,000 lb)—the same as a fully grown hippopotamus.

OK, but what's that got to do with Victoria. The blue whale whose vertebrae are pictured above has been visiting Victoria as part of the Blue Whale Project, which aims eventually to put the entire 26 meter skeleton back together and mount it at the University of British Columbia's Beaty Biodiversity Museum. It's a fascinating project about an extraordinary animal and I must thank fellow Victorian blogger Kathreen who first drew my attention to this project. Visit her blog, Digital Perspectives, to see more excellent photos of this project.

Victoria

Earlier this year I posted some photos of the Gonzales Observatory, which is no longer functioning as an astronomical observatory. Recently I visited a working observatory, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, sited on the summit of a small mountain overlooking the city. Above is a view of Victoria from the observatory. (Click here to see a view over the city from Mount Douglas, taken in November last year.)

Glendale Gardens - Mushrooms

Last week I spent an afternoon at the Glendale Gardens in Saanich, about a half hour's drive from Victoria. I'm still on holiday so here's another photo from that excursion.

White Rock, BC - From the Pier

Here is a photo of the town of White Rock showing how it is perched above the Pacific shore. The photo is taken from the White Rock pier. Photographers are perhaps more aware than most that fully half of our landscape is the sky and its most prominent features are the clouds. Their colors, sizes, shapes and patterns add infinite and ever changing variety to scenes we see every day. I love the clouds in this photo.

White Rock, BC - The Pier

I mentioned yesterday that one of White Rock's features is this long pier, a favored place to stroll on a summer's evening.

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For those of you expecting photos of Victoria on this site, this is just a brief interlude with some photos from another part of this province, while I am on holiday.