George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary
We had a chance in the spring of 2010 to visit the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary at the mouth of the Fraser River on Westham Island just west of Delta, BC. It's an astonishing series of salt and freshwater wetlands at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, and is home to numerous species of both resident and migratory birds. Because we were flying, we only had our small Canon G10 camera (which only has the equivalent of a 150mm lens). But that didn't seem to matter, as many of the birds are habituated to people (this is helped by the fact that the sanctuary sells birdseed at the front office!). Here are pictures of some of the birds we saw.
The fields on the way into the sanctuary were literally covered by flocks of hundreds of Lesser Snow Geese. These are apparently resident at the sanctuary during the winter months, and migrate north to Wrangel Island in Alaska during the breeding season. We particularly liked the lone "blue" morph bird in the foreground (interestingly, the white phase birds are all homozygous recessive, while the dark phase results from a single dominant gene).
The most astonishing thing happened when we walked along one of the dykes adjacent to the ocean, however. We heard a whoosh behind us and turned around to find that a female Sandhill Crane had landed only a few feet behind us (the male joined her a few minutes later, but stayed further back). The birds stayed beside us for a good 10 or 15 minutes, allowing us to take a few unbelievably close portraits, until they were satisfied we didn't have any food.
The most astonishing thing happened when we walked along one of the dykes adjacent to the ocean, however. We heard a whoosh behind us and turned around to find that a female Sandhill Crane had landed only a few feet behind us (the male joined her a few minutes later, but stayed further back). The birds stayed beside us for a good 10 or 15 minutes, allowing us to take a few unbelievably close portraits, until they were satisfied we didn't have any food.
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