Bird Sanctuary

On Wednesday, we went with friends to the George C Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. We've had a membership there for years. I used to take the kids when they were little, bring a stroller and a snack and just wander around. It's a great place for littles to walk because it's flat. There are also numerous benches on the trails so you can take a break, have a small snack (there are no garbage cans and you need to bring out all your litter), listen to bird song, consult your field guide, and practice focusing your binoculars.

The ducks are friendly and will feed from your hand.

The three kids who were with us that day are "big kids", ranging from 10 to almost 14, but they all got a huge kick from getting black-capped chickadees to feed from their hands. You do have to be very still and patient but for good seed, they will come.

Tip: if you want to make your toddler or young child happy, and save money, bring your own seed from home. The sanctuary sells tiny packets of seed at $.50 and while I don't begrudge them the money, and while I also understand that over feeding certain species creates ecological difficulties, few things beat the thrill of kids getting to feed the birds. Buy proper seed please - either a blend or black oil sunflower seeds. Do not feed the birds bread or other scraps from your lunch! When the kids were little, for a 2 hour outing, I used bring about 4-6 cups of seed for 2 kids. Put an adult in charge of a big container of seed & just give the kids small containers which you refill regularly. This way, if they trip and spill seed, you won't have to fight off a hundred hungry mallards and Canada geese to frantically pick it back up.

Also note that it's not permitted to feed the birds by the parking lot and near the entrance. Wait until you're well into the sanctuary grounds to start the feeding frenzy.

My other tip for fall-spring visits is to bring extra clothes. It's by the ocean, so often the perimeter trails can be quite windy and cool if you're not dressed for the weather. In the summer, it can be quite hot and since large chunks of the trails are through exposed marshy grasslands, you'll want a good sunhat and sunscreen.

The last tip is to bring a camera.

Ahem.

I forgot mine on Wednesday.

We saw three of these:

(Wikimedia Commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Nycticorax-nycticorax.jpg)

Well, the reality is I wouldn't have got a shot like this anyway. Not being serious birders, we don't have fancy cameras or scopes. Not to mention that we didn't know what this was at first and had to ask the serious folks, with tripods and gigantic cameras and vests with lots of pockets.

It's a black-crowned night heron. It's supposed to be mostly nocturnal. One of the ones we saw was sleeping with its head tucked in a wing, but another one was preening.

The snow geese have arrived but they were out at the far beaches. We could hear them from one of the bird blinds but all we could see was swirling patches of white, way out by the ocean.