On Sunday, April 19, 2026, the Metchosin Foundation, Rocky Point Bird Observatory (RPBO), and the Metchosin Biodiversity Project carried out a one-day survey of the flora, fauna, and funga of Hummingbird Hill.
At 10:00 am, more than twenty taxonomy experts from various fields assembled at the headquarters for the RPBO, which is now housed on the property, and headed into the surrounding fields and woods. After a quick tea and TimBits, they divided into groups. They returned at noon for helpings of My-Chosen Pizza, then spent another two hours surveying different areas. The pictures below (from Bev Hall, event photographer, used with permission) illustrate the day’s activities.
An iNaturalist Project was set up to hold the results of the bioblitz. Before the blitz, earlier iNat observations (240 of them) had discovered 130 different species at Hummingbird Hill. A week later, with almost all results from the blitz posted, the species count had more than tripled to about 420 species, based on almost a thousand observations by some 30 different people.
Hummingbird Hill, a 21-hectare Metchosin property, is adjacent to the Galloping Goose Trail, the proposed SC’IA/NEW Tribal Park at Mary Hill, and Matheson Lake Regional Park. It embraces tracts of Garry oak meadows, ponds, coastal Douglas-fir forests, veteran old-growth trees, and cedar and maple groves. Together these provide essential stopover habitat for species ranging from Golden-crowned Sparrows to the Northern Saw-whet Owl.
The property was acquired in November, 2024, and first made available for biodiversity-related research in 2025. Purchase was made possible through funding from the BC Parks Foundation, Metchosin Foundation, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the Wilson 5 Foundation. Hummingbird Hill supports research, education, and community outreach programs.
Note that the property is a nature reserve and is not open to the general public for recreation. Public access is via invitation and prior arrangement through RPBO.
