Vancouver Island, Canada

7th-25th September 2011

Goldstream Provincial Park

American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus)

I had heard so many good things about Goldstream that I was really looking forward to visiting.  To be honest though, I was pretty disappointed with it. It is a beautiful location with some fantastic forest, but is totally ruined by having the Trans-Canadian Highway running right through middle of it.  There are very few places within the park where you can totally escape the roar of vehicles and since the road follows the bottom of the steep valley, photographing the Dippers along the stream only a few metres from the highway was not what I would describe as a fun wilderness experience.  I much prefer places where the sounds of civilisation are at a minimum.

American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus)

Black-tailed Deer (a subspecies of Mule Deer) were numerous and very approachable in the evenings and early mornings when the majority of people had left the park.  The female shown below was particularly tame and walked past me, totally unconcerned by my presence, less than a metre away from where I was standing.

Black-tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)