At dusk the local Starlings are converging in numbers, before they form great flocks and head off to the Parklands out of town. Apparently this is common behaviour in the winter months, and elsewhere they can gather in the hundreds of thousands round this time of year. The noise from just a small group is crazy – the little critters seem to have a lot to say to one another, and seem very social – but seeing a congregation in the air is a bizarre and beautiful sight. A flock may swirl and swoop in fluid formations, break apart into smaller clouds, re-join, then suddenly dive onto a tree or pylon, to briefly rest and passionately discuss their next display.
Apparently these birds pose enough of a threat to other songbirds that it is legal to kill Starlings at any time in the U.S. and Canada: another species that has been introduced by colonists, benefited from the side-effects of human settlement, and eventually has become a “pest” that needs to be managed.
We spent Halloween confusing children at Hamish and Heathers house, dressed as hillbilly gnomes. When trick or treaters knocked they were greeted with the squeal of air escaping from a balloon though the letter slot. This generally didn’t deter them, so there was only one thing for it – appalachian shrieks and whoops amid frenzied dancing to the dueling banjo track from deliverance. If the callers hadn’t sped off into the night, they were rewarded with generous endowments of candy and glow-in-the-dark spiders.
The Halloween Festival usually marks a turning point in the weather, here at least. November through to March is a grey and gloomy stretch, and the winter blues (now medicalised, and referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder) isn’t uncommon during this period. Our neighbours have a Full-spectrum lamp, that gets dusted off round christmas time, to supplement the melatonin levels. Apparently Vancouver gets about three times as much rain as Victoria. Bad weather often passes through the Juan De Fuca Straight, missing lower Vancouver Island, and the rain clouds snag on the hills that surround the Fraser Valley and empty themselves on the city; “Brollywood”.
Canadians seem divided into two factions: those who enjoy the snow and ice, and living in sub-zero conditions; and the crowd that prefer a milder climate, forsaking the clear blue sky of the interior winter, for the damp smudginess west of the Rockies.
We like Victoria – it’s an easy city to live in, and we have made a few friends – and we hope things pan out for us here, but there is a chance work opportunities may lure us to “Brollywood” early next year.
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