For National Wildlife Refuge Week, October 11-17, we have some choices. In the New York City area, there is Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, home to 330 species of birds and horseshoe-crab mating in the spring. At Boyer Chute National Refuge, near Omaha, Nebraska, you can see migrating mallards, blue and green winged teal, northern pintail, American wigeon, wood ducks, Canada geese and pelicans.  

At Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, near San Francisco, biologists and educators will be showing some of the things to do at the bayside park. Their events will include Shark Day! On October 17.

Among the cypress knees and dark waters of the Trinity River National Refuge, in Dayton, Tex., you can canoe or participate in a Butterfly Count. 

National wildlife refuges have existed since 1903, when that rip-roaring outdoorsperson President Theodore Roosevelt founded the first refuge on Pelican Island in Florida. The latter is a great home to waterfowl and three kinds of sea turtle. These days, you can also take a look at Pelican Island's osprey watch

The refuge system makes up 150 million acres of the U.S., including 563 refuges and 38 wetland management districts. There is a refuge within an hour's drive of most major cities.

If you'd like more choices of activities for refuge week, go to the Fish & Wildlife Service website here.

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