As we had a nice weekend at home, we thought we’d make our first trip to Reifel this year to see what was going on. We had not been since last fall, partly because we were busy, but partly because we could not get there for most of this year!

Reifel is on Westham Island, which as the name suggest is an island off the mainland that you have to get to by driving over a bridge. The Westham Island Bridge is a historic, 116-year-old wooden truss bridge connecting Westham Island to the Delta mainland. We’ve been doing it for years without giving it any thought. That changed at the being of the year, when The Westham Island Bridge was damaged following a severe barge strike in January 2026. The bridge suffered major damage to its piers when it was struck by a tugboat and barge. During its two-month closure, crews installed temporary support structures, replaced the damaged pier, and rehabilitated the deck. Because the wooden bridge is well past its intended lifespan, planning for a new modern replacement is already underway.

SO, we really couldn’t have gone for most of the spring, but we were happy to notice that it was opened a few weeks back and we have been waiting for a free weekend to go for a wander. The other thing we discovered while we were there was that January had been a very bad month for them. During the King Tides the sanctuary got severely flooded and a bunch of the trails got washed out. They are still doing major repairs, and some of the trails are still closed. Crazy.

I don’t have a lot more to write, so we’ll just go with bird photos for the rest…

As were driving up the driveway to the parking area, there was a photographer with his lens on a tripod, off to the side of the road. Curiosity piqued, we wandered up. He had seen this red tailed hawk on it’s nest!

And right near the front entrance, there was a bald eagle up in the tall firs.

There was only one, lonely sandhill crane. We were hoping for chicks, but no such luck.

There were lots of tree swallows around. We think this one was a juvenile, as it didn’t really seem to be ready to fly.

Male wood duck.

We watched this chickadee go back and forth to the bird house a bunch of times.

With a bit more of close cropping, you can see the caterpillar and spider in his beak!

OK, so not all bird photos…

This little wren was making so much noise!

We think this might be a marsh wren nest. It was right along side the river bank.

Singing it’s little heart out!

We stopped to watch this barn swallow building up it;s nest. It would leave and come back with a mouthful of mud, and layer it on.

And there were lots of hummingbirds around, as usual.

After our stop at Reifel, we headed into Ladner and did a bit of shopping. There was a local festival going on, so it was a bit of madness. We got what we needed and headed out. Our last stop for the day was to have some lunch on the patio at Barnside Brewing, which was perfect on this lovely, sunny afternoon.

There were a number of swallowtail butterflies about and Justine got some great photos!