Trip to Riefel Waterfowl Sanctuary – Dec. 30, 2010

Thought it was time to post something a little more current….

On December 30th we decided to make the trek into Riefel Waterfowl Sanctuary in Delta B.C.  This is something we try to do at least once a year, but it is a 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive and a bit tricky in that we have to take the dogs with us as it is too long to leave them at home, but they aren’t actually allowed in the sanctuary so have to be left in the car, which means it can’t be too cold or too hot….it also means that we have to stop somewhere before we get to Riefel to give the dogs a good walk…

That somewhere…is the dyke at Boundary Bay….where there were thousands of these little Dunlin shorebirds.

The other side of the dyke is all farmland – well except for the golf course further up.  You can actually walk this dyke for miles…

We parked at the Boundary Bay Park parking lot where there are  bathroom facilities – an important factor after a lengthy car trip.  These Bald Eagles were perched in this tree at the entrance to the parking lot.  With the dogs exercised it was time to head to Riefel, after a stop at Subway for some lunch!

On the way in we came across 30 or so vehicles parked at the side of the road – there has been a Hawk Owl in the area for several weeks and birders were coming from all over to see it.  Standing around at the edges of someone’s front yard with a bunch of people, most sporting cameras with humongous lens and looking down their ‘lens’ at anyone whose camera equipment doesn’t compare, is not my idea of bird watching.  We stopped long enough to take a peek with binoculars and continued on.

This isn’t the Hawk Owl – it is a Peregrine Falcon that was perched over looking the slough as you enter the sanctuary.

One of the reasons for going to Riefel is to get good close pictures of various duck species – unfortunately, for some reason, about the last 3 trips we’ve made have been when it has been cold and all the ponds are pretty much frozen over so there has been very little in species variety – you can’t count the hundreds of very well fed Mallards that you have to tip toe through at the entrance!

The above is a Northern Pintail drake that was in one of the open areas of water although you can see the ice floating in the water…

This male Mallard was ‘walking on water’

and just in case you’ve never been to Riefel, here is one of the large ponds that you can walk around.

Another attraction at Riefel are the Sandhill Cranes that have taken up residence there.  Although not as thrilling as spotting these birds out in the wild, it does give an opportunity to get ‘up close and personal’ with them.

Did I say ‘up close’?

here is another shot…

or how ‘bout that?

Continuing on we spotted this little congregation out on the only spot of open water…

here is a closer look…

Turned out to be a combination of American Coots (the black ones) and more of those Dunlin…

Hiding in the depth of a Holly tree was this little Owl – I think a Saw-whet rather than a Pygmy but I’m not really sure.  It was hard to get a good look as a volunteer was there keeping watch to make sure visitors – and there were a LOT of visitors that day – got a look but didn’t disturb the little guy.

Another attraction at Riefel is the colony of Black Crowned Night Heron that hang out right at the entrance.  Again, like the Sandhill Cranes, these birds are perfectly free to leave, but have chosen to remain and breed at this spot.

The usually spend the day sleeping, but it was getting on to late afternoon by this time and this guy at least was waking up.

Here is another good look before we head back to the car…

Now, of course after being cooped up in the car for 2 or 3 hours, we have to head back to the dyke to give the dogs another break before making the trek for home.  This location is by the golf course and was the area that a few years ago was inundated with Snowy Owls…no Snowy Owls this year.

N.W.T. Trip – 2005 – Enroute to Yellowknife

From Fort Providence, it is approx. 350 km to Yellowknife.  The highway, which is paved, is called the Frontier Trail (we’re back to ‘trails’).  Right at the start is a sign warning you to use extreme caution because of the potential for Buffalo to be on the road.

and it didn’t take long to find them!  The vegetation is kept well back from the highway, on both sides, which gives a grazing area and room for the Buffalo to roam..

That is a pretty young Buffalo calf, one of many….

 about a third of the way along the ‘trail’ we reached this day use area at Chan Lake.  It was a beautiful day and we’d made good time, so decided to rest for a while and threw the canoe in the water…

First Ernie and Dave tried their hand at some fishing…with not much success….then Ernie and I headed out, across the lake, just to see what we could see…

there, in the distance…were a pair of Sandhill Cranes!

We crept as close as we dared, without upsetting them too much….something I am always very mindful of not doing…besides these are BIG birds…I wouldn’t want one coming after me!

 

If you look very carefully, towards the bottom on the left hand side…you will see a fledgling….I have no idea what the correct term is for a baby crane…

I do know that after spotting this baby and snapping one quick photo, we veered away and headed back over to the day use area.

Here is a close up of a Blue Flax which is a wild flower found in a lot of places…including this far north.

Another hundred kilometres or so and we reached another large day use area at North Arm Territorial Park

we are now back on the shores of Great Slave Lake..looking eastward in the direction of Yellowknife, another hundred kilometres away.

this view was looking sort of south west, pretty much in the direction we had come from.

there were a few of these Ring-billed Gulls here, but what thrilled me the most were these tiny little…

Arctic Primrose!  That is a dime there for size comparison.  I’ve since seen them in Northern B.C. and the Yukon….as any of you who have followed our Yukon Trip adventures will now…but this was the first time I’d ever seen them.  They were growing right at the edge of the lake where the bank was eroding from the waves, and the plants were getting constantly splashed from the wave action.

Back on the road, as the day wore on…and then got longer as the last 50 kilometres or so of the road were under re-construction and travel was extremely slow and the road extremely rough….it took so long that this was the only time on the entire trip that we had to pull out our reserve supply of gasoline…we might have made it…but we would have been running on fumes!