We were there two years ago, and a bit earlier than this year. A weather was kind of rainy in March and we wanted it to be sunny; however, this time it was too late to see some birds because they were already gone – snow geese left about two weeks before which is, to say the truth, quite a bit late for them. Also we’ve seen less bird species than before – no woodpeckers, no pintails, even raptors were just a distant shades in the sky. But sandhill cranes made themselves really at home there – last time there were only couple of them; this time I think there were 6-8 of them, maybe even more. And they are very tame 🙂
In order to keep them in sanctuary, staff closed a part of the trail where they were nesting, and hopefully it will be productive.
This time there were much more chicks than during our first visit. We’ve seen mallards:
canada goose:
wood ducks:
and we could see that tree swallows were very busy feeding their young ones
Male wood ducks were kind of shy,
Mallards and Canada Geese were demanding food in return for the safe passage
but this little guy really made my day 😀
This is the best photo of the hummingbird I made so far and I hope there will be more of them in the future 🙂
More photographs here.
gdare 
Very nice, productive trip, Dare … I’ve always liked woodies, and you’ve got some nice shots of them.
I haven’t seen a sandhill crane for years … ran across a couple on my exploration of a local unmarked road quite a while back, and I’ve heard they were coming back, but haven’t seen any evidence of it. It’s good to see these.
To say the truth, I haven’t seen sandhill cranes anywhere else in BC so this sanctuary might be just a side stop for them on the way to north or south. I don’t know. But it was for sure nice to see them.
Wood ducks are always a treat 😀
actually this i didn’t see such kind of bird birds before” sandhill cranes ” i will call them the royal birds and of “Male wood ducks” with its shining feathers , looks like a waxwork
But the last picture is the most beautiful only if it were a little closer.
Rania, the last photo could’t be closer, I was about 2 meters from the bird 😀 They fly so fast and in so unpredictable direction, I needed to have lenses opened a bite wider to get to this. I made two photos but in a matter of time of two fast automatic shutters it was gone, nothing on a second photo. Plus, the bird is about 5cm long 🙂
So many animals. 😀
The cranes are lovely. Kind of stern looking, almost like an angry librarian.
lol
Well, they might look angry, less than a minute before I made those photos, a couple of kids tried to catch one of them and I was close enough to stop them and prevent more damage. I literally stopped one kid by placing my hand on his chest which in return gave me an angry look from his father. A looked back and he decided to stay quiet 😛 Then I could go back to photography 😀
Now when I think about what you’ve said, is “angry librarian” a common expression in England? Are they all the same? 😛
To be honest, I don’t think anything I say is a common term in Britain. They should be as I have a knack for being oddly accurate. There’s a sort of person you imagine if you’ve been to a British library, especially during the 80s, and that is what the birds bring to mind.
I always hated that sort of parenting. “I’m not going to do a damn thing to stop my kids causing trouble, but god help anyone who does it for me.” If a kid is doing that sort of thing then they get stopped. Simple as.
Well done with the hummingbird! I can see from that just how difficult they must be to photograph. And so small. The cranes are impressive birds.
Words, when I was making photos of barn swallows a looked at my camera to see a result and that very same moment a hummingbird floated right in front of me for about a two seconds, less than half a meter away. And on the same direction I was photographing swallows. In just a moment I missed a prefect opportunity to make an excellent photo of it. The next moment it was gone. The one I did manage was a result of 5 minutes standing in front of the water tank, being ready with focusing and holding finger on a shutter. I guess, if I ever want to make a really good one, I would need to be more patient and maybe a tripod would come in handy 😛
Those Canadian geese can be really hostile to people. Once I found myself cornered by a half dozen of them trying to get into my car.
Fantastic pictures! 😎
Oh yes, they are like that. We needed to pay them in food for safe passage several times 😉