Week 27 – Ucluelet and Tofino
After getting off the ferry in Victoria at 11:30pm and back to our hotel after midnight, we slept in on Monday. It was to be a bit of a non-birding day although we did plan on scoping the ocean at all our stops for possible gulls and seabirds. We drove up the west coast to Port Renfrew stopping along the way at some of the beaches and look-outs along the way. The trip is best told in pictures because the views are stunning!
Otter Point
French Beach
Jordan River
Afternoon snack!
Botanical Bay
We didn’t see any new birds but I was not really expecting to. We have only a few seabirds we are hoping to add here on the island and I suspect, and hope, they will be up in Ucluelet and Tofino. For now, we have a couple of days to “act like tourists”.
We headed back to Victoria for our last evening to do laundry and research, no fancy dinners for us. Yes, the mundane tasks have to be fit in somehow and since the hotel has a laundry for guests it made sense to get it done. I also have to start figuring out where we go after Tofino. I have 6 days with nothing booked so we can go back and try for birds we missed.
In the morning we had a leisurely stroll through Beacon Hill Park right across the street from The Helm’s Inn. It is the crowning jewel in Victoria’s park system and is 740,000 square meters of manicured gardens, footpaths, natural areas, sports fields and a children’s petting zoo. The “0 mile” for the 8,000 km Trans Canada highway is located at the most south-western point of the park.
After checking out of our hotel we headed north towards our next destination, Ucluelet. We had to stop at Cathedral Grove (Macmillan Park) to view the 800 year old Douglas Firs still standing in the park.There are many other trees that are over 300 years old. We had not been there since 2004 when we made our first trip out to BC.
Our next stop was Port Alberni where we had hoped to check gulls at the marina but the town was out celebrating Canada Day at the marina and park so there were few birds around. We did find a Harbour Seal giving us a “high five”.
The Liahona Guest House in Ucluelet was a bit of a splurge for us and we were happy we did. Nicely appointed and with a bonus little sauna that we were happy to use. We were in the bottom room closest to the sauna. You can see Jerry photo- bombing the picture.
Wednesday we were back to birding at 6am. I had picked Ucluelet to do sea watches at Amphitrite Point in the hopes of having a Sooty Shearwater, Heerman’s Gull or any rarer seabird fly past. The Point was a 5 minute drive from our room. The best time to do sea watches is early morning. If you remember lake watches from my last year’s blog, it is basically standing, waiting, scoping the water and sky for something moving. And then figuring out what that moving thing is. We stayed at the Point for almost 2 hours and practiced our skills in identifying flying birds without seeing anything different.
After a cup of tea back at our room we headed back out for a hike along the Wild Pacific Trail that runs along the edge of the ocean so that we could continue to watch for those seabirds we still need. The scenery was gorgeous with overlooks and rocky shorelines that are quintessential British Columbia. It is hard not to take pictures at every curve.
In the evening we headed back to the Point for another try at seabirds and thought for sure we had a Heerman’s Gull which has very dark wings, a white head and a red bill. We were busy congratulating ourselves and then Jerry looked at his pictures and it was just a regular Glaucous-winged Gull but the late sunlight caused it to look dark with a red bill. Another lesson learned to not trust the lighting and colours we see on the water. I think many people do. Without pictures we would have been convinced we had seen a Heerman’s.
Thursday morning when we were ready to leave at 6am there was a black bear out in the yard at the wetland in front of the property. It sauntered up the bank and gave us a look as Jerry took pictures and then moved away down the path beside the houses.
We headed back to the point where we were lucky to have a feeding frenzy of gulls close to the shore. We finally managed to see a Western Gull in that frenzy, a species that eluded us in February despite being more plentiful then. It had a lovely dark gray back, black wingtips and pure white head all suggestive that it was not a hybrid. We had good views with the scope but not great views for pictures. We spent 2 more hours scoping and had the company of Dylan, an Irish birder visiting from Hong Kong. Between the three of us, with two cameras and scope we worked our way through the various birds flying past and managed to identify most. Still waiting for a Shearwater or Heermann’s Gull.
After the morning sea watch we headed back for tea and encountered 3 more black bears in the wetland area beside our room. Jerry got some pictures again and I managed a very quick video as they left the area. After tea we set out to do some more hikes. This time we visited two lovely beaches that required a hike of 1.5km and a couple of hundred stairs to access each one. No wonder we had them almost to ourselves!
We have done a lot of hiking these past 10 days, my pedometer tells me that we have walked 65.2 km and climbed 161 flights of stairs. While hiking we are always hearing and seeing birds but they have been the same species in most places and there have been few opportunities for pictures.
On Friday morning we got up to do another sea watch but fog had moved in and there was low visibility at the Point.
We had to content ourselves with trying to find a Hutton’s Vireo for a picture and birding the inlet in front of our room. Short-billed Dowitchers and Sandpipers were there and close enough for good pictures.
We packed up the car and sadly left Liahona Guest House to head up to Tofino only 40 minutes away. When I did the planning for this trip I wanted to be in both of these locations to have the maximum chance of seeing seabirds but so far it is not panning out. We stopped along the way at beaches to scope and hike a bit and then spent the afternoon walking around Tofino like all the other tourists. We decided we really don’t do the tourist thing very well. We enjoyed a few galleries but the highlight was talking to a couple of guys from the Tribal Parks Allies that are present on the streets of Tofino and actively trying to get tourists to support local businesses that work with the Tla-o-qui-aht First nations to restore and protect the land and water by giving 1% of sales to the endeavour and to ask tourists to suggest to businesses not involved to get involved. It was a very interesting conversation.
Saturday morning we had the Cleland Bird Tour booked with the Whale Center and headed out in a small open boat that required us to wear flotation suits. I’m no longer nervous about boating but maybe that is because I take Gravol beforehand.
It was a perfect day weather wise with little wind, calm water and sunshine. Unfortunately, the birds I was hoping to get – Heermann’s Gull, Tufted Puffin and Cassin’s Auklet were no where to be found. It was disappointing for all the passengers. We did see lots of seabirds up close and Jerry managed to get some great shots despite being in a rocking boat. It was difficult even to view them with binoculars. We did have a very quick look at 2 Sooty Shearwaters another bird we hoped to see out here so at least we added a bird to the Canada List.
We also saw a Gray Whale spouting, Sea Otters and Steller Sea Lions and Seals.
When we got off the boat we headed to the only Vegan/Veg restaurant in town and had a breakfast/lunch while we regrouped and decided what to do. I checked my needs alert emails and the Acorn Woodpecker had been refound again at the same address in Victoria as last week. While we finished eating we discussed whether to try again for it or not. There was nothing to stay in Tofino for and so we ended up walking very quickly back to the hotel, canceling the rest of our Tofino stay (thank you Meares Vista Inn and booking.com) and heading down to Victoria 4 hours away. Once I got some cell signal I started calling hotels. Everything was booked. I started widening the circle and getting a bit worried that we would be sleeping in our car. I called Hotel Zed and they had one room left but it was $425 for Saturday night and $245 for Sunday night – I kept calling around to other places but there was just nothing available. We booked Hotel Zed and I commented how ridiculous it was that the price was almost double between the two nights for the same bed. When we checked in they had discounted the price $100 so Hotel Zed gets my “thumbs up” for places to stay and the rooms are super cool!
We stopped for the Acorn Woodpecker and two BC birders were there looking for it. Apparently it had been seen about 30 minutes before we got there so we waited and chatted a bit and suddenly, there was the BIRD! The disappointment of missing the birds in the morning and the stress of the chase and finding a room was gone in that instant as we viewed this fantastic looking Woodpecker. This is a great bird to have on our Canada year list and our Canada Life list.
Acorn Woodpecker
Now that we were back in Victoria we had some chances at other birds again. Northern Pygmy Owl had been reported up in the highlands just outside Victoria so we took a drive up at dusk and drove some of the areas and roads hoping we might hear the “toot”calls. It is not the best time of year for owls to call so we are know it is a long shot at this point but still, we are here, and might as well try.
Sunday morning we were up and out by 6:30 and at Clover Point hoping to get a Tufted Puffin that was seen a few days back or a Heerman’s Gull. The gulls are now, officially, late to arrive in the area but I am sure there will be large numbers next week when I am in Kelowna and Kamloops. Such is the birding life. We checked Clover Point, McMicking Point and then Cattle Point and nothing despite scoping through about 1,000 Rhino Auklets and hundreds of Gulls. We then checked all the small beach accesses along the coast. We then headed back to the hotel for tea, snacks and to catch up on pictures and blog. We will have one more chance to do a sea watch in the morning before we take the ferry back to the mainland and our last week in British Columbia.
Week 27 3 species added 384 species E&J