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Vanderford's
Travels
By
Bill Vanderford
A hidden treasure on the Canadian
coastline
Just before the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, I was
exploring the Pacific coastline between the host city and Washington
State when I happened upon a bird watcher’s paradise! The George C.
Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary near Ladner in the Fraser River
Delta is no more than an hour from downtown Vancouver on Westham
Island. This gorgeous wetland property includes 850 acres of managed
wetlands, natural marshes, and low dikes in the Fraser River
Estuary.
 When
George C. Reifel obtained this land in 1927, it was cutoff from the
main island by a series natural river channels and tidal creeks. It
was necessary to build dikes and causeways for the waterfowl
habitats and for road access to Westham Island. This allowed the
family business to become successful in real estate and a brewery
business, and during World War II, the Reifel Farm supplied
one-third of the sugar beet seed production in Canada.
During the 1960s, Reifel’s son granted the first
lease to British Columbia for a bird sanctuary to be named for his
late father. Ducks Unlimited of Canada came in at that time as a
management partner and has remained.
Back in the early 1970s, the Reifel family agreed to
a combination land sale and donation program with the Canadian
government on the condition that this land would continue to be
managed for the benefit of waterfowl. With this agreement, the
sanctuary became the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary.
Today, millions of migratory birds use this protected
sanctuary during their annual migrations along the Pacific Coast. It
is especially busy during the height of movement from October to
early December with geese, ducks, and swans. The arrival of 30 to 80
thousand lesser snow geese, known as the “Fraser Skagit,” that
migrate all the way from Wrangel Island in Russia, is a spectacular
show! These birds begin arriving in October and remain in the
sanctuary until April.
For the avid bird watcher, plenty of sandhill cranes
nest here, and one might see barn swallows, bushtits, marsh wrens,
gadwalls, great horned owls, barn owls, tree swallows, rufous
hummingbirds, greater and lesser yellowlegs, long-billed dowitchers,
western sandpipers, and a few black-crowned night herons and
gyrfalcons. During the winter months, visitors often see the tiny
saw-whet owl in tree branches that shade the walking trails. In
total, more than 268 species of birds have been recorded at the
sanctuary.
Children and those who are young at heart are always
excited when feeding all the ducks and black-capped chickadees by
hand. It’s also fun to peek out of several small buildings used as
“bird blinds” to observe the bird activity near the trails or to
climb the two-story observation tower for an unobstructed vista of
the shallow ponds, the intertidal marshes of the Fraser River
Estuary beyond the dikes, the Strait of Georgia, and distant
landmarks of Vancouver.
Today, washrooms and picnic facilities are located
near the parking lot, and the dikes and trails are wheelchair
friendly. It is a fantastic family area, and nobody leaves here
without having a wonderful experience with nature!
Bill Vanderford has won numerous awards for his
writing and photography, and has been inducted into the National
Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame as a Legendary Guide. He is a member
of SATW, NATJA, OWAA, SEOPA and GOWA.
He can be reached at 770-289-1543,
JFish51@aol.com or visit:
www.fishinglanier.com.
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