Last day

Woke up on our last day to grey skies and heavy rain, not the finale we were hoping for.  Braving the elements, we went down to the George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary, just south of Vancouver by which time the rain had stopped.  The reserve is a bit like Martin Mere with a lot of Mallards expecting to be fed in some areas but in others, they are very flighty, some of the American Wigeon, Pintail and Wood Duck too are the same.

American Wigeon

Wood Duck

It's not only the waterbirds that expect to be fed, if you stop anywhere for long enough you get mobbed by Black-capped Chickadees which will happily feed out of your hand.

One thing I have not seen a lot of on this trip is American waders, but thankfully that was put right with a good selection on the marsh, mostly Long-billed Dowitchers and Lesser Yellowlegs but also a few Least and Western Sandpipers, Greater Yellowlegs and single Stilt and Pectoral Sandpipers.

Long-billed Dowitcher

Stilt Sandpiper

There was quite a lot of other stuff to see, with several Great Blue Herons and a Night Heron around the pools and quite a few Spotted Towhees, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, Lincoln's and Fox Sparrows, Golden-crowned Kinglets, a few Bushtits, a Cedar Waxwing and a couple of skulking Marsh Wrens around the bushes and Cooper's Hawk, at least 3 Northern Harriers and a Peregrine hunting around the area.

Cedar Waxwing

As we were leaving the reserve, we found a group of 16 Sandhill Cranes by the road along with 3 Lesser Snow Geese.

Sandhill Cranes