Burns Bog Facts
How Big is Burns Bog?
- At 3,000 hectares (8,000 acres), Burns Bog is eight times bigger than Vancouver’s Stanley Park! Compare the two satellite pictures below to see just how big Burns Bog really is.
 Burns Bog (Delta, BC) |
 Stanley Park (Vancouver, BC) |
- Burns Bog is the largest raised bog on the west coast of the Americas. Compare the satellite picture of Burns Bog with these other bogs in the Fraser River delta.
- Burns Bog covers 17% of Delta’s land. Almost half of Delta is farmland. 10% is for houses, and another 10% is for parks. The rest is a mix of uses, like schools and businesses.
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Who Lives in Burns Bog?
Many special plants and animals make their home in Burns Bog. Here are just a few:
Greater Sandhill Cranes
 Greater Sandhill Cranes in Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
 Greater Sandhill Cranes over Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
This bird has very large wings than can span over two metres. This means that they are able to soar in the air for a many hours with very little wing flapping needed, just like eagles do. This helps a lot for their very long migration route from Alaska to California. Scientists watched one of the Burns Bog Sandhill Cranes fly to Portland, Oregon in only seven days, and then to Sacramento, California just five days later! That’s some pretty impressive flying.
Like humans, these birds are omnivorous. In and around Burns Bog, the Sandhill Crane eats things like insects, berries, small mammals (such as voles and shrews), amphibians (such as frogs), and grains on nearby farm fields.
You can visit these birds up close and personal at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary on Westham Island in Delta. There are a couple of “resident” cranes who stay in the sanctuary all year round, instead of migrating south for the winter. Sometimes they walk around on the trails, and you can go right up and take a picture of them. Just be careful not to get too close, because those beaks are sharp and they move fast!
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Black-tailed Deer
 Black-tailed Deer in Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
 Black-tailed Deer in Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
We see lots of deer in Burns Bog, especially on foot trails and old roads. Just like humans, animals like to take the easiest walking path whenever they can. Some of the old wood-chip roads in the bog make great pathways for humans and animals alike. When humans come around, the deer have no problem jumping off the road into the bushes, sometimes leaping over big ditches and tall vegetation. We like to think that we are pretty clever as humans, but there’s no way we could catch up to those deer as they bound off into the bog! We’d likely end up in the ditch.
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Insects
 Friendly Moth in Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
 Damselfly on a sundew plant in Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
There are many unique and beautiful insects in Burns Bog. In the year 1999, scientists found over 400 species of insects in the bog during a short study. From that number, they estimated that there are actually about 4000 different insect species in Burns Bog. That’s a lot of bugs.
 Dragonfly on a blueberry bush in Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
 Web of funnel spider in Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
The insects we see most often in Burns Bog are pretty common: flies, bees, wasps, ants, and spiders. However, there are also some bugs that you don’t often see outside of the bog: rare butterflies, damselflies, dragonflies, and unique insects that like to live in bog waters. One special type of spider spins a web that looks like a funnel, which makes other insects fall down into the centre where the spider is waiting – like free pizza delivery! Another bug, called the water boatman, has legs that look like boat oars, which it uses to glide across the water’s surface. Even though we get kind of creeped out by bugs sometimes, you have to admit they can be pretty cool.
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Eagles
Eagles are a common sight in Delta. They use the tall trees that grow at the edge of Burns Bog to build their nests and hunt for food. In winter, lots of eagles show up in Delta to roost. During a winter drive through the Vancouver Landfill, which sits inside Burns Bog, we counted over 200 eagles in five minutes. The most common eagle seen in Burns Bog is the Bald Eagle, but scientists have also found the Golden Eagle. Eagles eat fish from the Fraser River and Boundary Bay. They also eat birds like seagulls and ducks, as well as small mammals, snakes, and turtles. |
 Adult eagle in Burns Bog (Photo: Erin Riddell) |
 Young eagle on a pine tree in Burns Bog (Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
 Baby eagles in their Burns Bog nest(Photo: Marcel LaBreche) |
One of the baby eagles pictured above fell out of his nest a few years ago and broke his wing. Metro Vancouver bird experts came to the rescue. They captured the bird and brought him to OWL for help. In a few months, his wing was as good as new. He was given a tag on his leg, so we could identify him again in the future, and released back into the bog.
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Black Bear
Even after all the disturbances to Burns Bog over the years, like peat mining machines and fires, the bears are still there. Scientists think that there could be 5-10 bears in the bog, but they are good at hiding - we don’t even have a picture of one! Bears are omnivores, so they eat both plants and animals. Most often, bears eat plant parts (stems, leaves, roots, flowers, and berries) but they can also eat insects (ants, wasps, bees), deer, dead animals, amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals. There is plenty of food to support bears in Burns Bog. Territory (bears like lots of space) and the lack of connections to other bear populations are probably what keep the Burns Bog bear population small.
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