We arrived at the refuge at high tide. We began by walking the Twin Barns Loop on the West side. Here we saw many frogs of various sizes, a snake,a Peid-billed grebe, and a sparrow. We went west to walk the dike to the boardwalk before completing the Twin Barns Loop. Northern shovelers, Northern-pintails, green-winged teal, Greater white -fronted geese, Canadian geese, gulls, and 2 herons were some of the birds seen. After walking about 1/2 mile on the boardwalk and seeing very few birds, we turned around to walk the dike to the river viewing area and then returned to the parking lot via the Eastern side of the Twin Barns Loop. We saw no ducks on the return to the parking area, but did see 2 red-breasted sapsuckers.

We arrived at 11:30 to an almost full parking lot. We spent 5 hours enjoying the beautiful, sunny day and viewing the birds in the area. Other than gulls we saw very few birds when walking the boardwalk to the viewing area at the end. We saw one eagle, a few heron, a variety of ducks, many, many geese, an adult great-horned owl, a northern harrier, and tree swallows during our visit. We heard, but did not see, a Virginia Rail. We talked to a gentleman who had taken a nice picture of it when it made a brief appearance. There were several frogs and a turtle sunning itself on a small log.

Our boys really enjoyed seeing birds, ducks, and other animals.

I took my wife on an overnight trip to the area. There were young Canadian Geese and varieties of ducks everywhere. The Great-horned Owl with her three fledglings were in the vicinity of the nest tree on the loop trail. The herons are as tame as ever. The parking lot was full and the trails were busy, but it is always a good place to visit.

The baby great horned owls hatched early this year! Probably all that warm weather? One is definately much bigger than the other. I watched weather closley and saw a 1 hour window of no rain and went for it! Paid off they were awake and pretty active, mom was very close on branch watching her babies. Won't be long before they fledge, i would guess 1 week or so and they will be moving about. The location is behind and much higher than last year off the boardwalk. Just look for the people gawking and you will know the babies are close.