My dad came to Victoria for a long overdue visit, all the way from Ottawa. We hadn’t seen him since the start of the Covid lock downs. I do miss him!
One of the days we went to “The Raptors” .

It’s a bird sanctuary for birds of prey. They generate money for their conservation by using them to clear airport landing strips. You can visit and familiarize yourself with these badass birds you only ever see from a distance. I call them sky cats.

To get there you must go through the Malahat mountain pass, which always has the best view on the Island. That’s the USA you can see in the distance there.

A retired bird

First part of the tour was with Harris Hawk

This is me. The bird doesn't care.

Brother-in-law. Birds still don't care. We are trees to them.

Sister. Only food matters to the birds.

Next up was a Kestrel. These guys have very limited magical abilities.

Look at this thing. Just sitting there. They come back for the food, they're freed to go any time.

All these birds are moochers.

This one is a Spectacled owl, from Costa Rica. Part of a bird exchange program.

If he escapes and breeds, people will hate him for being invasive.

But right now everyone loves him because he's exotic.

That was pretty cool honestly. Sadly these make horrible pets, apparently, as they will try to bite your face off if you get close. They just live to eat and kill. Their entire brain’s function is mostly to turn their eyes around to find something to murder. I still want a dude to own like 10 exotic eagles and end up on the news after they carry him off to the edge of a cliff and eat him.

Another day we went to a creek, it’s salmon spawning season and you can watch them swim upstream. Can’t eat them though.

These are called Chum Salmon.

“The chum salmon is the least commercially valuable salmon in North America”.

They’re good for feeding bald eagles though.

Why did I film this in vertical like we’re back in 2005? No one knows.