What can you buy for 50 cents?

Interestingly, there is no easy key stroke to get the cent symbol anymore. Maybe that was just on typewriters.

So you're probably saying there is nothing you can buy for 50 cents... but there is something very valuable that provides for many minutes of enjoyment. It's bird seed!

We went to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary on Tuesday. It was a frigid -6 degrees celsius (yes, in Vancouver that's too damned cold and no one is used to it) and there was snow on the ground (which also doesn't usually happen in or around Vancouver) but it was sunny and it's a great time of the year to take photos of birds. So we braved the cold to take some photos. Because it is winter and it's very hard for birds to find food under the snow, we opted to get a couple of bags of bird seed at the entrance gate. It was 50 cents a bag!

When we got the bird seed the woman at the entrance said the birds would be happy to see us because very few people had been there in this weather. The mix of seed was good for the birds right now, so they could use the food and we were sure it was all good for them. Typically we don't get bird seed because it's not a great idea to make wild birds dependent on humans. Unfortunately, that's why the birds are at the sanctuary, so they already are dependent.

We saw many little sparrows and chickadees, the ubiquitous mallards, coots, and pintails, and 3 sandhill cranes! The sandhill cranes were almost as tall as me! They are graceful grey birds that introduced themselves by walking on water - the frozen water in one of the ponds. After a great photo shoot they flew off and we followed them. They were near some handy benches, so we got the bird seed out and had a wonderful time feeding the cranes (and some ducks too). The cranes have long thin beaks and very good aim to collect the bird seeds on the ground. So we took even more pictures.

It was good for the birds, and good for us too. So that's what 50 cents will buy.