AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Daly Point Nature Reserve is a 40-hectare coastal sanctuary on the edge of Bathurst Harbour in northern New Brunswick, where salt marsh, old farm fields and mixed Acadian forest meet Bathurst Bay. Created in 1989 as a stewardship partnership and now cared for by the City of Bathurst, it has grown into a beloved local escape and a genuine birdwatcher's paradise, laced with about 6 km of easy, well-signed trails and boardwalks.↗
In a single stroll you can walk from young birch-lined fields out to a boardwalk over the marsh and along the shoreline, climb to a lookout tower over the bay, and watch songbirds that are so used to visitors they will eat seed from your hand. Daly Point is also the eastern trailhead of the famous Nepisiguit Mi'gmaq Trail, a 150-km backcountry route that runs to Mount Carleton—making it both a gentle family outing and the starting line for serious adventurers.↗
A birdwatcher's paradise by the bay
Few places pack so much feathered life into so short a walk. The reserve's mix of salt marsh, freshwater edges, fields and different forest stands creates habitat for hundreds of species of plants, flowers and animals, but it is the birds that draw people back again and again. Along the field and woodland trails, feeders attract chickadees, nuthatches and other songbirds that are remarkably tame—many visitors report birds landing close enough to take seed from an outstretched hand.
