| I went out birding with my friend, Rick Schortinghuis, and we decided to check out Esquimalt Lagoon. As we were about to cross over the bridge at the start of the lagoon, I said "There should be Brant out here." Sure enough we could make out the shape of at least a couple Brant on a distant sandbar. We got out and looked with the bins and could see there were actually three out there. I have to get up to the herring spawn in Parksville to see the Brant and to check out the gulls. I associate the Brant with the Brant Festival and the Brant Festival with spring, so we'll pretend this is one of the signs of spring. The real sign of spring came from a small hill that is behind the Juan De Fuca Recreation Center. We decided to see if Satin-flowers were up yet and we were surprised to find that there were a few dozen flowers out already! Top this off with a singing Brown Creeper and a touch of warmth from the sun and you can tell it's just around the corner! Satin-flowers have beautiful, deep purple flowers and I saw something that was a paler shade of purple. I walked over to see what it was and I said to Rick "Hey, this purple condom flower is in bloom!" He looks down and says "Hey, there's a white one too!" I don't know the real name of the hill, so I have dubbed it "Contraception Hill". It wasn't an eventful morning, but it sure was nice to see those flowers out! |
