by Keith and Heather Nicol
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Kristie feeding a duck |
On Monday, October
9 we were visiting our son and daughter, Michael and Kristie for the Thanksgiving Long weekend
and decided to check out the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary near Vancouver, B.C.
Both Kristie and Michael live in Vancouver but had not been to the Reifel Bird
Sanctuary so given the good weather forecast we decided to see what birds were
there. The Reifel Migratory Bird
Sanctuary is located in Ladner and is about is about a 45 minute drive from downtown
Vancouver. The sanctuary is family friendly and we saw many people with their
small children out enjoying the fine fall weather. One popular activity at the
Reifel Sanctuary is feeding the birds and the ducks , red wing blackbirds and
black capped chickadees were getting their version of a thanksgiving feed on
this day.
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Wood ducks are one of our favourite ducks |
There are many
treed pathways through the 300 acres of land that comprises the bird sanctuary
as well as ponds and intertidal marshes and it is perfect habitat for many different
birds. In fact close to 300 bird species have been recorded in this area. Our
highlight was a great horned owl located high up in a tree as well as the
colourful wood ducks. There were lots of people with big telephoto lenses since
this area is known as a good place to
photograph many different species. Although mallard ducks seemed to be the most
common birds we also saw many shorebirds including one large congregation of
long billed dowitchers.
The Reifel
Migratory Bird Sanctuary is open year around and is a real bargain to visit
since adults are just $5 to enter. They also have a large picnic area and we
had lunch in the sun after our visit. For more information on this special area
see:
http://www.reifelbirdsanctuary.com/
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There were many families out to experience the bird life |
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