South Island Birds Featured in New Book The Victoria Region is the premier birding location on Vancouver Island and that fact is reflected the new book Vancouver Island Birds, Volume 3. The book is third in a series of highly successful self-published books by Mike Yip, one of Vancouver Island’s prominent bird photographers. Yip’s high quality avian images are admired all over the world and his website, www.vancouverislandbirds.com, averages almost 10,000 hits per month. Yip writes bimonthly bird articles for the North Islander and he has been a popular guest speaker for many clubs and organizations such as the Victoria Natural History Society, Victoria Kayak Club, Uplands Probus Club, Campbell Bald Eagle Festival, Cowichan Valley Horticultural Club and the Harbour City Photo Club. It is not surprising that South Island birds are well-represented in Yip’s books, as the South Island is recognized as one of the outstanding birding locations on Vancouver Island. It holds the Canadian record for the most birds reported in the annual Christmas Bird Counts and it is a favourite area for many migrating and breeding birds. A few of the many South Island birds featured in Volume 3 include the Martindale Flats Tropical Kingbird, the Saanich Bulb Field Bobolink, the South Island Skylarks, the Sidney Island Baird’s Sandpiper, the Elk Lake Great Horned Owls and the Atkin’s Road Mockingbird.
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Like the first two books, Volume 3 features over 200 high quality colour images of over 100 species of birds photographed on Vancouver island. One only has to see the amazing image of a Merlin holding a dragonfly on the hard cover to get a glimpse of Yip’s remarkable photography. The images are accompanied by non-scientific dialogue that is aimed at introducing the general public to the wonderful world of birds and connecting them to nature in a very enjoyable way.
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Volume 3 has just been released and is available at most Island booksellers such as Tanner’s Books in Sidney. www.seasidetimes.ca
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