On July 12 her human supporters were celebrating the successful return of purple martins to Vancouver Island, with the help of nesting boxes at places like the Ladysmith Community Marina, but this mother bird celebrated her own way, with a beak full of wasps to feed to her young.
Ladysmith Marina is home to the largest active colony of purple martins in BC.
Close to extinction by 1949, purple martins had disappeared from the Lower Mainland, and by 1985 only five breeding pairs remained on Vancouver Island.
The colony in Ladysmith has increased in size to about 60 breeding pairs.