Birds and Wildflowers of Horth Hill Park

Tuesday, April 15, 2025 Kelly Sekhon

Trip report by Naomi Ross

With a last-minute change of leaders, trip to Horth Hill became an exploratory field trip. Thankfully, Wally was able to join us as a local guide and wildflower expert for part of the trip. Denis and Teresa were our botanists, Harvey and Michelle were our birders, and Denis was able to provide navigation when Wally wasn’t with us.

On April 12, twelve participants, including four guests, met on board the ferry from Tsawwassen which more or less departed on time at 9am. It was a bright, sunny day with temperature about 12 C degrees.

Going through Active Pass we saw various pelagic birds, including a large group of Bonaparte’s gulls. Seals were hauled out on the rock with the navigation light.

Leaving the ferry, we walked along Tsehum Harbour, which was lined with Bigleaf maple and horsetails. We met up with our local guide, Wally, at the parking lot.

We enjoyed lunch on the knoll with a beautiful view of Swartz Bay and we were visited by an alligator lizard. Horth Hill didn’t disappoint. We saw Shooting Stars, Calypso Orchids, Chocolate Lilies, Fawn Lilies and Trilliums.

As we made our way back, we stopped at a few ponds of varying sizes to observe the various ducks, and then headed back to the ferry terminal, with lots of lizards on the way.

Two people made the 3pm ferry. The rest of us enjoyed a visit to the Stonehouse Pub, followed by checking for anemones at the marina. We headed back on the 17:00 ferry, and got our second opportunity to enjoy Active Pass.