Iona Beach Regional Park

This guide to Iona Beach Regional Park in Vancouver explains how a four-kilometer jetty built over a sewage outfall pipe became one of the most reliable places on the Pacific coast to spot the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper, a bird that breeds near Siberia. You'll hear how lagoons meant only to settle sludge sit inside the rich Fraser Estuary feeding grounds, drawing rare Asian vagrants like the great knot and red-necked stint far off their usual routes. Listen for jets lifting off the nearby runway as you walk toward the shelters marked along the trail.