Wildlife & nature
Each spring tens of thousands of brant geese stop on the Parksville–Qualicum Beach shoreline to feed on herring spawn on their way to the Arctic. The festival organises guided walks, viewing stations and talks over several weeks in March and April.
The herring spawn turns the shallows milky-white for a few days in March and brings in sea lions, eagles and the geese; the timing is set by the fish, so the festival runs as a season rather than a single weekend. The exact programme is on the organiser's site.
Around the same trip
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Canada's Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October. On the island it coincides with the salmon runs, the last grizzly departures from Campbell River and the first autumn storms on the Pacific coast; ferries and accommodation fill for the three days.
Checked 6 Sept 2026
Every autumn tens of thousands of chum salmon return to the Goldstream River, twenty minutes from downtown Victoria, to spawn and die in the shallows beside the trail. Bald eagles follow. It is one of the most accessible salmon runs on the coast and free to watch.
Checked 6 Sept 2026