Best Birding

Please note: This section doesn't list all the options for each activity - just the best ones.  There's something for everyone, all ages, all physical abilities and all skill levels.

Medicine Beach Nature Sanctuary  

At the end of the gravel lane off Aldridge Rd. Parking lot. Short trail with platform and benches. Best time of year: Spring and summer. 

Birders will spot Great Blue herons, Bald eagles, Red-winged blackbirds and Osprey that nest nearby-and the keen eye may catch a glimpse of the Virginia Rail, a bird more often heard, ticket-ticket, than seen. The Virginia Rail breeds on the ground in the marsh during summer.

Hope Bay  

Clam Bay Rd. Park along road or at Hope Bay Store. View birds from rocky shoreline or public Hope Bay dock. Best time of year: Winter, particularly interesting at low tide when the mud flat is exposed. 

You’ll see Bald eagles, that have a nest in the trees on the east side of the bay, Belted kingfishers, Great Blue herons, plus a variety of gulls and cormorants. Pacific and Common loons, grebes and ducks, including the Hooded merganser, swim at the mouth of the bay. Listen for the low-pitched, owl-like coo-coo call of the Band-tailed pigeons coming from the underside of the dock.

A little bit more about: Medicine Beach Nature Sanctuary

The brackish (ie. slightly salty) marsh at Medicine Beach boasts a wide range of plant species and is habitat for numerous bird species. Cattails and other aquatics flourish here due to the freshwater inflow. As fresh water flows toward the beach, it mixes with salt water and the nature of the plant population changes. First Nations named the area to reflect the medicinal uses they found for the wide variety of plants. 

When the marsh was threatened by development in the mid 1980s, Pender Islanders were stirred into action. An ecosystem study undertaken and submitted to the Islands Trust, the land use governing body in the Southern Gulf Islands. They ultimately rejected the developer’s proposal. The Pender Island Conservancy Association acquired an option to purchase the 8 ha parcel of land and, after the people of Pender Island raised almost $200,000 of the $380,000 needed, PICA secured ownership of this rare coastal wetlands area.