Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta, BC) where chickadees eat from your hand

After a severe allergy reaction to dental molding compound (Jan 22) and a small sinus infection caused by the congestion from the allergy, I was *finally* well enough to actually go on the local Audubon trip to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Canada on Feb 1.  Reifel is famous among birding circles as having a large variety of birds but I'd never been before.  Now that it's a daytrip,  I felt it was time to rectify this problem.  And it was definitely worth the effort. 

One of the secrets to the sactuary's appeal to birds is they sell bird seed at the visitor's center.  This means there are wandering groups of ducks who gather around if you stand still for any length of time.The groups we saw included mallards, wigeons and wood ducks.  I was particularly pleased that I got such closeup views of the wood ducks as I love their plumage.  Here's the best shot I got of one duck.

In addition to the roving bands of ducks, there are flocks of small birds including chickadees, towhees, sparrows of all types and red-winged blackbirds who will gather if you stand on the trail with seed in your hand.  The chickadees are the most fearless in grabbing some food but if you stand long enough, all but the towhees will venture onto your hand too.  It's amazing to feel how light the birds are and to be that close to them.

There are several bird species seen at Reifel that are not easy to find here in western Washington.  Black-crowned night herons and sandhill cranes are 2 of them that we saw.  The night herons were roosting with their heads tucked under their wings so not that photogenic but the sandhill cranes were right out there with the ducks grabbing the free food distributed by the school field trip there at the same time as we were.   I usually have to go to Othello in eastern Washington to see them and even there, it's not as close a view as we got at Reifel.

The black bird with the white beak to the left of the crane is an American Coot and the bird on the right side of the photo in the background is an American Wigeon.  The white stripe on their forehead is the giveaway.

If I had had the sense to stop after lunch instead of going back out, my feet & calves would have been much happier.  I walked over 5 miles during the trip and after essentially a month of inactivity due to flu, allergies, etc, this was not a great idea.  To prep for spring birding, I'll be doing more frequent but shorter birding trips.  And I'll try Reifel again later on when the migrants are coming through.  Because I expect it will be amazing.