NEAR DELANO, Calif. -- Tucked north of Lost Hills and west of Delano sits a man made oasis in Kern County, an oasis designed specifically for migratory birds.

Since 1960, the Kern National Wildlife Refuge has called northern Kern County home, where U.S. Fish & Game floods fields to provide birds a place to eat, rest and play.

For most of the year at the end of Garces Highway at Corcoran Road sits the man made bird oasis.

From several species of swallows to every kind of duck you can think of, even pheasants and other more land dwelling animals.

At any given time, there could be 70,000 to 80,000 birds on the refuge's 10,000-plus acres and over the course of winter millions of birds pass through.

Now if you're still asking yourself why there would be a man made refuge west of Delano, the answer is pretty simple, it use to be natural. However, the first settlers in the 1800s diverted water from places like Tulare Lake, Buena Vista Lake and Goose Lake, all dry lakes today, and the native marshlands of the valley disappeared until the federal government began pumping water into the fields.

"In a normal year, there would be more than 500,000 acres of wetlands and marshes here, that sort of thing, at this end of the valley, today we have less than one percent of that left," said Dave Hardt, Refuge Manager. "That's the reason Kern Refuge was established, to replace what was lost when Tulare Lake was drained. One of the reasons why the Kern Refuge is so important, is that we are the last link in the Central Valley chain of wetlands."

The chain links to Northern California and Oregon to the north and Southern California and Mexico to the south.

So, you could call the Kern National Wildlife Refuge a pit stop for one of natures more fascinating phenomena's, bird migration.

"The little shore birds, they'll burn 60-percent of their body weight during migration, if you lost 60-percent of your body weight over the course of a few weeks, you'd fall over dead," Hardt said.

Fortunately for us, the only migration required is a drive to the refuge to see some well traveled avians.

"The birds that we have through here, spend the winter in Southern Mexico, Central America and then they go all the way back to near the Arctic for spring and summer to nest," Hardt said.

But like everyone in the state, the refuge is dealing with the drought and they're expecting the water to dry up a little earlier this summer. And crews have already started to drain some of the units within the refuge, which is normal. In fact, draining parts of the wetlands benefits the marshlands for the next season, as what's called "Timothy" grows on the floor of the marshes and the various birds dine on it.

The refuge is open sunrise to sunset everyday and on Saturday April 4th, the refuge is holding a special "Connect with Nature Day" from 8am until 2pm.

For more on the Kern Refuge and and "Connect with Nature Day", you can call the office at 661-725-2767 or visit their website at www.fws.gov/kern

And if you know of an interesting, historical or fascinating place we should explore, let us know, e-mail Chris Van Horne at chris@turnto23.com