Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/514227
92 Wonders of the air all migration season in Manitoba is sure to give you goosebumps. Catch one of nature's most incredible spectacles when hundreds of thousands of Canada geese descend on lakes and marshes at sunset, finding safety in numbers as they fill watering holes to capacity in September and October. As many as 500,000 cackling geese, ducks, gulls and blackbirds pass through Oak Hammock Marsh daily during the height of the migration season, and the 36-square-kilometre marsh, north of Winnipeg on Hwy 220, offers rooftop viewing at its interpretive centre. Open year-round, Oak Hammock offers educational programs and activities for all ages. A special lift lets visitors with reduced mobility paddle a canoe and you can join a bird-banding expedition, stroll on the boardwalks and explore 30 kilometres of trails, where you might see badgers, coyotes, muskrats and rabbits. FortWhyte Alive is a magical setting for sunset goose flights in southwest Winnipeg. Visit the interpretive centre and watch for deer, muskrats, foxes, skunks and waterfowl along seven kilometres of trails at the 600-acre site. You can paddle a canoe, fish on one of five lakes or dine on Manitoba pickerel and bison at the Buffalo Stone Café. FortWhyte's unique ecotour A Prairie Legacy, the Bison and its People lets you get up close to a brawny herd of 30 plains bison as you learn about the vital role they play in Manitoba's culture and history as sources of food, warmth and even cooking utensils. In Whiteshell Provincial Park, Canada geese have nested at Alf Hole Goose Sanctuary since 1939, when outdoorsman Alfred Hole hand-raised four orphaned goslings. See new goslings with their parents in early summer and swing by from late August to mid-October, when geese gather in large numbers for migration flights. > oakhammockmarsh.ca > fortwhyte.org > manitobaparks.com F OAK HAMMOCK MARSH