top of page
Spending time in nature
is good for our health.
A few of the birds, marine mammals, intertidal life, wildflowers, and edible plants you’ll find in the Southern Gulf Islands.
Photographs, videos, audio, and text Copyright © 2026 Richard Philpot/SGIOUTSIDE.ca.
BIRDS
BIRDS
Birds of the Southern Gulf Islands.
The climate and location of the Southern Gulf Islands make the area an important year-round residence, a winter destination, and a migratory flyway. Mid-April to mid-May is the ideal time for birding when winter and summer birds overlap, though there are plenty to see throughout the year. A field guide, a smartphone bird app like Merlin, and binoculars are necessities. A spotting scope is even better for viewing raptors, like Bald Eagles and water and shorebirds. Of the hundreds of bird species to be sighted in the SGI, not all are common to all islands.
In addition to my Five Finest Feathered Friends (Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagle, Turkey Vulture, Double-crested Cormorant, Black Oystercatcher), birders can look forward to sightings of Belted Kingfishers, Common Ravens, Rufous Hummingbirds, Pileated Woodpeckers, California Quail, Trumpeter Swans, Pacific Loons, and a great many other shorebirds and songbirds. See the eBird: Bird Lists by SGI locations in any of the Five Finest Feathered Friends story posts for extensive inventories of species seen in various places.
MARINE MAMMALS
Marine Mammals in the Southern Gulf Islands.
MARINE MAMMALS
Orca (killer whales), Pacific harbour seals, and Steller and California sea lions inhabit the waters of the Southern Gulf Islands. The likelihood of sightings of these and other marine mammals increases with knowledge of each species, awareness of the best places to encounter them, keen senses, and binoculars. Others seen in the SGI include the gregarious River otter, Dall’s porpoise, the exceedingly shy and rarely observed Harbour porpoise, Northern elephant seal, and sporadically spotted humpback and minke whales.
PLANTS
PLANTS
Plants of the Southern Gulf Islands.
Trees, bushes, wildflowers, wild berries, and fruit orchards. The absence of high mountain ranges means that the marine climate surrounding the islands is quite different from that of the adjacent mainland. Mild, wet winters and dry summers result in a diverse range of plant life. Meadows and forests left moist by winter provide ideal spring growing conditions for plants to flower and set seed. Read about the Southern Gulf Islands’ wildflowers, wild edible berries, and Western redcedar trees.
INTERTIDAL LIFE
INTERTIDAL LIFE
Intertidal life in the Southern Gulf Islands.
“The Pacific Northwest coast is one of the world’s richest, most diverse habitats for intertidal marine life.” (D. Sept, 1999 & 2024). Wow, not many places can say that. The variety of animals living in the Southern Gulf Islands’ intertidal zones, like sea stars, anemones, limpets, barnacles, crabs, urchins, and jellies, to name just a few of the hundreds of species and subspecies, is waiting to be uncovered. It’s well worth the search. But please remember the four rules of observing nature’s intertidal life: 1) Step carefully, 2) Restore their habitat, 3) Handle live creatures with care, and 4) Take no souvenirs.
bottom of page