George Reifel Bird Sanctuary

I have wanted to get to the Bird Sanctuary for almost two years. I kept putting it off as I didn’t think going during the busy periods would be appreciated since I wasn’t coming to view the birds.  In the off season it just didn’t seem to come to my attention. Well, this time my friend Jim also wanted to go there and as we would be operating out of his truck our impact would be minimal. Jim called their office as their site recommends getting a parking reservation. They said mid-week should be fine and not busy. They were also quite receptive to our activity.

A bonus to operating in the Sanctuary is that it is within a larger reserve, the Alaksen Wildlife area. Alaksen is also on the POTA list and so today would give us a two-fer. Each contact counts for two – one for each park. One further point of interest is the number assigned to the Alaksen reserve. It is CA-0001. That alone would make operating it an interesting target for hunters. So, we expected to have a successful day.

We left my house at 10am and drove straight to the reserve. Jim having been a First responder in the Ladner area knew the region well and we made good time along the roads while he pointed out a number of interesting buildings and stories. Soon we were crossing the one lane bridge onto Westham Island where we were greeted by an interesting sign warning of dire consequences for mis-behaviour. Once past the sign we continued along the final stretch of road to the reserve. We entered the driveway of the sanctuary and made our way in as a couple of others were heading out. Arriving at the parking area we saw that there were only a few cars in it so we had a good selection of places we could use. We selected a spot facing east where a narrow grass strip bordered the lot. It was an ideal location for our setup.

Having selected a location, we wandered over to the office to introduce ourselves. The lady there was quite interested in our activity and wished us well. We then set about raising the mast and antenna and setting up Jim’s radio. We scanned the 10m band and found a pair of operators at a park near Reno Nevada. Then we selected our own frequency and began calling. Responses started piling in from the mid-west and eastern portions of the US. It was a great run, and the band was working well.

After a go of around 50 minutes things slowed down and we decided to do some hunting on other bands. We tried the 12m band and was able to work a station in Kentucky. We then tried 15m and reached a chap in Florida, but conditions were not great here. Moving to the 17m band we reached a chap in Wisconsin and then we had several more respond to our calls. We now had 50 in our log and felt it had been a good day. Jim noticed another activator on 15m that he wanted to try. We were able to reach him and as he was in two parks like us we each ended with a nice 4-way Qso.

Done with operating we packed up our equipment and decided to go visit the main visitor area of the Alaksen reserve. The entrance is right beside the Reifel entrance but this time we take the right-side driveway. The facilities here are mainly for research and there are no gift shops or ticket booths. We drove around the area a little and then stopped to gather a few photos of the newly improved visitor area. They had put up a number of information signs talking about the birds and wildlife area. After looking over the presentation we set out to find a spot for lunch.

Lunch happened back at our home area mall, I guess we lacked a sense of adventure. Jim wanted to eat at the pizza store in the mall. I had never been there and so it was a nice adventure for me. The pizzas were made to order and a good size for lunch. It was a nice way to end our adventure, chatting over pizza and drinking a coke while planning our next location.