Sciensational Sssnakes!!

We're back in Orillia!

Jeff Hathaway — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 08:46:10 PDT

Crystal and I have returned from the prairies, after seven weeks on the road! It is great to be back! I've been neglecting this blog a bit since it has been hard enough to keep up with the one on our prairie tour site, http://www.reptilesatrisk.org, while we've been on the road- internet access has been somewhat limited! I'll be sure to catch things up now that I'm back. Jenny, Amanda, Sean, and Britney will also get back late tonight from Ottawa, where they've been doing the Ottawa SuperEx for the last 11 days, and Megan returned from her Algonquin field course yesterday (just in time to do a program in Toronto with Graham!), so tomorrow we should all have a great day off together, before Graham and Amanda head back to the maritimes!

Blue Lake and Rocky Shore... [Flickr]

Jeff Hathaway — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:25:05 PDT

Jeff Hathaway posted a photo:

Like the song says... the Land of the Silver Birch! Great to be back in Ontario!

Red-sided Garter Snake [Flickr]

Jeff Hathaway — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:25:05 PDT

Jeff Hathaway posted a photo:

Here's a look at a red-sided garter snake.

Garter snake den, or hibernaculum [Flickr]

Jeff Hathaway — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:25:05 PDT

Jeff Hathaway posted a photo:

Here's a few garter snakes that have arrived at the hibernacula early. Later in the year, and then in the spring, it will be garter snakes everywhere!

Narcisse Snakes Dens [Flickr]

Jeff Hathaway — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:25:05 PDT

Jeff Hathaway posted a photo:

Here I am at the snake dens!

Red-bellied Snake [Flickr]

Jeff Hathaway — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 23:05:10 PDT

Jeff Hathaway posted a photo:

Red-bellied snakes are the smallest Canadian snake species, and are found through much of eastern Canada. We've seen lots in Ontario, but it was pretty neat to see one in Manitoba!

Staff Profile: Sean Espinola

Jeff Hathaway — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:38:17 PDT

Sean has volunteered with us for about 4 years now, and this is his first year on staff. We've been telling him for a year now to get started on learning to drive so we could hire him, but we've got so many programs booked for this summer that we simply couldn't wait! I suspect he'll be well on his way to his driver's license by the end of the summer, though!

Sean lives in Burlington, and attends high school there where he is going into Grade 11. He is bright, considerate, and always helpful. He is also very knowledgeable about reptiles- recently he's gone to a couple of programs with Graham and Amanda, and he's answered most of the questions from the public at the end of the show!

Here's a picture of Sean- http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/189578833/

Update from Pukaskwa National Park

Jeff Hathaway — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 10:01:46 PDT

What a busy time! I'm north of Lake Superior, at Pukaskwa National Park today, and Jenny and crew are doing lots of programs in central Ontario as well. Last week turned out to be much busier than anticipated- good thing we've hired Sean to help out. I'll try to get a profile up for him soon!

Don't forget to check out our Reptiles at Risk on the Road Prairie Tour blog at http://www.reptilesatrisk.org for regular updates from Crystal, Megan, and I as we head west!

Staff Profile: Amanda Thibodeau

Jeff Hathaway — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:05:24 PDT

Amanda also joins us this summer from the Maritimes on a Young Canada Works grant. She hails from Fredericton, New Brunswick, where she is studying law at UNB. Her friends say they never would have expected her to get a job teaching people about snakes, but she's been doing fabulously so far! Amanda's adventurous spirit is up for any challenge, which I'm sure is a great attribute for a future lawyer! You can see a photo of Amanda at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/188152634/

Day 4 in Sudbury

Jeff Hathaway — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:48:10 PDT

We're doing a show right now at the Copper Cliff branch of the Sudbury library system- actually Graham, Amanda and Megan are doing it without me while I'm writing this update! After rotating through various portions of the program, today they have started to take on the challenge of performing the entire program. The afternoon show went very well, and I'm sure this one will, too!

In between shows today we stopped in at Home Depot to get some plywood cut for shelving in the back of the van. We continue to customize things here and there to improve it for our trip out to Saskatchewan. We also created a ceiling-mounted fishing rod rack!

Amanda took yesterday off to visit a life-long friend who has moved to Sudbury, so Graham, Megan and I did the two library shows and then headed up to Halfway Lake Provincial Park for the evening program. Good thing we got there in time to have a swim before the show, since it has been very hot for the last few days.

Tomorrow should be interesting. In addition to the two library shows (which should be big ones, last year nearly 300 people showed up for the Valley East branch), we will be picking up a new snake from the local OSPCA shelter. We did a reptile training workshop for their staff last year, so when the snake came in this week, they decided to contact us to see if we could adopt it. Handily enough, they discovered that I was already in town!

Staff Profile: Graham Dixon-MacCallum

Jeff Hathaway — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:34:41 PDT

Graham has joined us this summer from Halifax, Nova Scotia, under a Young Canada Works grant. We're happy to have him aboard, and will certainly make good use of his bilingual skills while we're up here in northern Ontario, and in Ottawa later this summer. Graham is a biology student at Acadia University, and has previously worked in Gros Morne National Park and the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. At 6' 3", he's a tall guy; good thing he knows how to get down to the kids' level! You can see a picture of Graham on our Flickr gallery at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/188152637/

On the road again!

Jeff Hathaway — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:59:39 PDT

We're back in Sudbury! This is Day 2 of 5 days here doing programs at the Sudbury public libraries. I meant to get a post up last week but we had way too much to do to get ready to go, since this is only the first week of 7 for me to be on the road! From here, we go to Foleyet and Timmins, and then out towards Lake Superior. After that, we'll head out to northwestern Ontario, and on to Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Hopefully I'll be able to put frequent updates on the site!

Staff members Graham, Amanda, and Megan are with me right now, and Crystal and Sean are still in Orillia with Jenny- they've still got lots of bookings to keep up with! Next week we rotate the animals and the staff; Crystal and Megan will be with me after that.

It should be a busy but fun trip- no doubt lots of stories to tell! Today has been great, 2 shows so far and one more in about a half hour. After the second show, one family that has seen the program several times brought us home-made chocolate chip peanut butter cookies- how cool is that!!!

Back from Michigan, and on to the Volunteer Weekend!

Jeff Hathaway — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 05:43:04 PDT

I spent most of this week in Michigan, travelling around looking for snakes! Lots of fun, and we found lots of snakes as well! We visited a couple of people who came to the Pelee Island trip in 2002, Terry in northern Michigan and Eddie in southern Michigan. They showed us around; it was especially interesting to see the habitat projects that Terry has done on his land, and the high numbers of snakes around that seem to have resulted from his efforts. Here's a list of species encountered: snakes- eastern and Butler's garters, northern ribbon, northern water, brown and redbelly, ringneck, eastern milk and eastern massasauga, turtles- midland painted, common snapper (DOR), Blanding's (DOR), frogs- green, leopard, wood, spring peeper, gray treefrog, american toad, salamanders- spotted, blue-spotted, red-backed, four-toed and tiger. Tons of neat stuff! I was accompanied by staff members Crystal and Megan, and Steve Marks; a great time was had by all!

And now we're back, and ready to dive into the volunteer weekend, which officially starts in a few minutes... better get going!

Spring Volunteer Weekend, June 17-18

Jeff Hathaway — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 05:49:19 PDT

As mentioned in the previous post, this spring's volunteer weekend will be June 17-18. As in previous versions, volunteers from across Ontario (and possibly Quebec) will descend on Orillia to do various projects here, with the goal of moving Scales Nature Park closer to operational capacity! We hope that you will be able to join us!

The projects that will be worked on will vary with the weather, the number of people arriving, etc. We are determined to finish the outdoor red-eared slider pond this time around! The ELP students, with some guidance from Hangar Rick, installed the chain-link fencing, but we still need to put the fine mesh around the bottom (extending underground) and then backfill the trench. We could have turtles in the pond by Sunday if all goes well. Other possible projects include: bridge construction, the outdoor wood turtle pond, continuing construction of the main pond viewing/teaching platform, firewood stacking, exotic vegetation removal, and lots of other fun stuff. There are some indoor projects, too, in case it rains. Please note that there is no rain date this year; the other weekends are all booked with outreach programs.

We expect to get started fairly early on Saturday, around 9:00, though depending upon driving distances some will arrive later. And you don't have to come for the whole weekend- some people only come for the Saturday, or just Sunday afternoon, etc. If you do want to stay for the night, we have lots of room for tents, floor camping, and possibly even a couple of beds available!

This time around, food will be donated by Ontario Waterway Cruises, and possibly some local restaurants and stores as well. Don't forget your bathing suit for the ever-popular Saturday night pool party!

If you aren't familiar with our plans to convert the property into a conservation education centre focused on Ontario's reptiles, amphibians, and fish, check out the Scales Nature Park link on the left side menu of this page to see some more details and some pictures, including some from previous volunteer weekends. Please let me know if you are interested in participating, and feel free to pass on the invitation to anyone you think might be interested in helping out.

A busy spring!

Jeff Hathaway — Wed, 31 May 2006 06:04:40 PDT

It certainly has been busy; hopefully now that our summer staff are getting started I will have more time to post more regular updates! Much has happened since my last post- I'll try to catch everyone up. First of all, a huge thank you to the students of London's Catholic Central High School Environmental Leadership Program! These enthusiastic volunteers were hard at work within an hour of arriving, and accomplished quite a bit during their time here. Thanks for all your efforts, ELPers, and we hope to see you again in the future!

After the ELP class left, I headed out on the road for Indiana. Crystal and Melanie accompanied me in the search for various species of reptiles and amphibians. The purpose of the trip was to find some species which are not bred in captivity, and are rare up here, but common farther south where the climate is less harsh. Our intent was to collect a few individuals of these species and bring them back to expand our live collection. This is obviously a little bit controversial, but the fact is that there is currently no other way to acquire live specimens of things like Fowler's Toads. It is certainly not our preference, but we do feel it is justifed in some circumstances. We were partly successful in our quest, and did bring home some new animals. We also set a new record time, for me, of over 3.5 hours to get through the border with the various inspections. There are lots of regulations to follow carefully for importing animals (not to mention legally collecting them), so please don't do it unless you learn them and follow them!

A few days after getting back, I left again to do some school programs on the Six Nations Reserve along the Grand River. Lots of kids crammed into two days! Major thanks to Crystal and her sister, Amanda, for helping me out there! It was really great to talk to the kids there, since they do have some habitat for rare reptiles on the reserve, and have some opportunities to really help these species out.

And then the Pelee trip- once again a great time had by all! Good weather, lots of snakes (300+), and some good times around the camp fire. A little less volunteer work than usual as the Wilds of Pelee is in transition right now and not actively undertaking any projects for us to help with. We continued the work of some previous projects: removing invasive plants, creating nesting sites for snakes, cleaning out bird nesting boxes, etc. but nothing too strenuous.

We've got some new volunteers which is always great. I'll try to post some volunteer profiles in the future!

And speaking of volunteers, it looks like the spring volunteer weekend is going to be June 17/18 this year. More about that in the next post...

Jeff

Pelee Island Trip, May 20-22

Jeff Hathaway — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 08:47:19 PDT

Yes, it's almost that time of year again! This will be the sixth edition of the ever-popular Pelee Island trip! There has been a fair bit of interest over the winter, so hopefully we'll get lots of people out. In the past, we've usually had 15-25 volunteers attending from throughout Ontario, Quebec, and Michigan. We'll be doing various habitat restoration projects related to herps, and spending time in the field observing them and exploring the island's unique ecological communities! In previous years, we've built hibernation sites, basking & nesting sites, ponds, firebreaks, removed exotic vegetation, collected seeds, planted trees/shrubs/wildflowers, counted/measured/weighed/PIT-tagged snakes, modified buildings, and various other projects. We've also toured nature reserves such as Stone Road Alvar, Fish Point, and Lighthouse Point. Perhaps one of the biggest advantages to going with us- we have access to some private properties which are excellent habitat for some great herps! In the past, we've seen virtually every species to be found on the island; usually most of them in a single trip. We've never failed to find four of the five snake species (garters (including melanistics), browns, Lake Erie waters, eastern fox snakes) and three out of the last five years, at least some of the group has seen a Blue Racer or two. Smallmouth salamanders and various other herps are quite common. It wouldn't be unreasonable to see 100+ herps (even 100+ snakes) over the weekend of 10 or 11 species. We get lots of work done, but I think anyone who has gone can attest that we spend lots of time herping! Be prepared to work hard and get dirty, though.

This year's trip will be a little different, as we will not be able to camp at the Wilds of Pelee Outdoor Centre for Conservation since the Nature Conservancy of Canada has now purchased the property and public use has been suspended pending the resolution of some issues with the township. So we'll be camping at a nearby campground instead. I have some extra camping gear available if anyone needs it; just let me know. All meals are provided, so that everything can be reasonably co-ordinated. If you have dietary restrictions, allergies, or serious dislikes, we'll find a way to accommodate you. However, we tend to frown on simple 'pickiness'. Trip reports from the last few years can be found at http://www.ontarioherpers.org/pelee/. If you haven't come on the trip before, I encourage you to check them out and see what you'd be getting yourself in for. I've put up a couple photos as well- a blue racer (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/10656120/) and a group shot from 2001 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/10654856/.

This year's cost will be determined once we know exactly how many people are coming, etc. I expect the cost to be in the neighbourhood of $100 per person. The trip is done on a cost-sharing basis, and is a pretty incredible deal compared to other guided trips to the island. I have some space in the van for people who need a ride. Please let me know ASAP if you would like a seat. Other car pooling possibilities are likely as well. We discourage people from bringing their cars to the island- it is generally unnecessary and more expensive. If you feel the need to do so, be prepared to explain why.

Please let me know if you are planning to come, and if you know of anyone else who might be interested, feel free to let them know. If possible, please do all communications by email so that it is easier for me to manage.

Staff Profile: Dan Hoops

Jeff Hathaway — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 13:48:05 PST

Dan has been with us as a staff member for two summers now, and he was a volunteer for the four years before that! It has been interesting watching him gain experience and develop skills with both the animals (the easy part) and the programs. At this point it is hard to believe that only a couple of years ago he was nervous about doing a program for a day care centre- now he’s comfortable on a stage in front of hundreds of people! Sadly, we have to say farewell to him, as he is headed off to McGill University, complete with a scholarship for academic achievement. Congratulations, Dan, and we’re sure you’ll do well in Montreal!

It's been a long time...

Jeff Hathaway — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 13:47:25 PST

It is amazing how time can fly! Sorry for the lack of updates here; we've had some computer issues, most notably that the USB ports on my computer have ceased functioning. I've been unable to get them working again, and the computer is not only beyond warranty, the manufacturer's tech support hotline doesn't support it anymore even for a fee! So I am still unable to transfer pictures, etc.

However, I didn't intend to let things go this long, so I guess I should try to catch everyone up- it has been a busy winter. The fall volunteer weekend went very well; amongst other participants were members of the University of Guelph Wildlife Club. Former staff Christa and Katharine were both members of this club, as were Jenny and I quite some time ago. A discussion at the volunteer weekend evolved into planning for a club trip to Everglades National Park and other spots around south Florida during the spring break. The students and I spent 11 days exploring various subtropical ecosystems; Jenny stayed home to look after the animals, the wood furnace, etc. Highlights of the trip included sightings of an eastern diamondback rattlesnake, a hawksbill sea turtle, and florida box turtles.

Enclosure construction continues, and the lab area is nearly operational. I'm hoping that we'll get more stuff done now that the March break week is over; it was fairly busy with programs, as it usually is. We spent three days doing school programs in Lanark County in February, courtesy of the local stewardship council and naturalist's club. The search for funding for our cross-Canada tour project (in partnership with CARCNET and Laurentian U.) continues, and I'm still optimistic that we'll be out in western Canada over the summer.

Thanks to the warmer than usual winter, we even still have a little firewood left in the wood shelter!

The volunteer weekend is here, and the sky is clear!

Jeff Hathaway — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 04:48:11 PDT

Wow, the Massasauga Symposium at the Toronto Zoo was great! I'll try to write more about it next week, since now I'm fully back into project mode. Despite forecasts of grey skies and rain, the sun is coming up this morning to reveal a clear sky- it looks like all the rain passed by overnight. I hope it stays nice and sunny, as we have about 40-45 people expected to show up today for the volunteer weekend! This promises to be the biggest one we've ever had, by far. We should be able to get lots done!

Thanks to our local sponsors we'll be able to feed everyone. So, a virtual round of applause, please, for Swiss Chalet, Bygone Days Fish & Chips, Domino's Pizza, East Side Mario's, Top's Pizza, Theo's Eatery, Little Caesar's, Wendy's, A&W and Burger King for providing food. Once again, No Frills has provided drinks to keep everyone hydrated!

I've got to get back to getting preparations made, but hopefully we'll get some progress reports and pictures up over the weekend!

Massasauga Rattlesnake Symposium

Jeff Hathaway — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 15:38:23 PDT

Well, I'm off to the Massasauga Rattlesnake Symposium at the Toronto Zoo tomorrow. It should be very interesting. There are two overall themes for the symposium- population viability analysis and outreach education. Not surprisingly, I'll be attending the outreach education workshop!

I just wanted to say thanks to Ontario Waterway Cruises and the Ackert family for sponsoring my attendance at this symposium! Without their help, I wouldn't have been able to attend. Joy, Brenan, and everyone else- thanks for the opportunity!

Jeff

Fall volunteer weekend, Oct. 15/16

Jeff Hathaway — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 11:50:00 PDT

Greetings everyone!

Once again, volunteers from the local area, and various parts of Ontario, will be coming here to do various nature park projects on the weekend of October 15/16. We hope that you will be able to join us!

Projects will be quite dependent upon the weather, number of people, etc., but may include: bridge construction, fencing the slider pond, trail clearing, turtle enclosure retaining wall construction, continuing construction of the main pond viewing/teaching platform, firewood stacking, tree transplanting, and lots of other fun stuff. There are some indoor projects, too, in case it rains, though if the weather forecast looks really bad we may postpone the event until October 22/23.

We expect to get started fairly early on Saturday, around 9:00, though depending upon driving distances some will arrive later. And you don't have to come for the whole weekend- some people only come for the Saturday, or just Sunday afternoon, etc. We have lots of room for tents, and possibly even a couple of beds available!

Last spring, we again had all of the food for the weekend donated by local restaurants (Subway, Quizno's, A&W, Weber's, King's Buffet) and stores (No Frills), so we hope to be as successful this fall! Donations of food (and anything else) are always welcome!

And, of course, there will be the ever-popular Saturday night pool party, so don't forget your bathing suit!

If you aren't familiar with our plans to convert the property into a conservation education centre focused on Ontario's reptiles, amphibians, and fish, check out http://www.scisnake.com/features/scales.html for some more details and some pictures, including some from previous volunteer weekends.

Please let us know if you are interested in participating, and feel free to pass on the invitation to anyone you think might be interested in helping out!

We're back!

Jeff Hathaway — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 05:51:43 PDT

Actually, we've been back since Tuesday night, but it's been a little busy catching up on things. Eighteen days on the road leaves quite a bit to do at home! From Marten River, we headed north through Kirkland Lake and Timmins, and across through Foleyet to Pukaskwa National Park, our most distant venue. We enjoyed a day off in Pukaskwa, and as seems to be tradition, spent the day exhausting ourselves! We hiked about 20 km, 16 of which was the main hiking trail to (and from) the suspension bridge over the White River gorge at Chigamawinigum Falls- very spectacular!!! I'll post a few pictures if I can get the digital camera to start co-operating again; it hasn't felt like working for a few days. From there, we came back by way of White Lake PP and Wakimi Lake PP, with a final program at a day care centre in Sudbury on the way home. In total, we covered almost 4000 km in the van on the tour, performing 33 programs to ~3350 people (plus 6 shows and 1100 km if you count what Jenny and Christa/ Dan did on the way to and from Marten River for our animal and staff rotation).

We saw less wildlife this summer than the last couple of years, probably due to the heat. We did see 1 deer, 1 moose, and 1 bear, both while driving. From a herpetological perspective, we saw 1 painted turtle, 1 snapping turtle, 1 garter snake, 1 smooth green snake, and quite a few leopard, green, bull, and mink frogs, plus american toads. The heat was pretty intense- on two days we had to put bottles of ice (or stuff out of the fridge!) into the styrofoam boxes we use to transport the animals, just to keep the temperatures inside manageable. We've never had to do that before. We don't have air conditioning in the van, so we just endured the temperatures that ranged as high as 38C while we were driving with the windows open. Most days weren't quite that hot, though. The heat also apparently caused the fish to stop biting- at least that's what everyone kept telling us wherever we went. We were happy to accept that theory, as we certainly didn't have much luck. After Marten River, I caught only 1 little pike (really small, as in 20 cm) for the rest of the trip. Better luck next year, I hope!

All in all a great trip! Many thanks to the Ontario Parks, public libraries, and other venues that worked with us to co-ordinate the scheduling, and especially to Dan, Crystal, and Christa for their effort, flexibility, humor, and sense of adventure along the way!

Northeastern Ontario Tour: Day 11

Jeff Hathaway — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 07:21:58 PDT

We've been basing out of Marten River Provincial Park since Friday, which has been great. This is a beautiful park for people looking for a taste of northern Ontario without having to drive too far- it's only half an hour north of North Bay. Convenient for us; we did shows at Finlayson Point, Samuel de Champlain, the Mattawa Voyageur Days, and the North Bay Public Library while leaving our wonderful tent trailer here. Our show here on Friday night exceeded even the standing room of the logging camp building, and the turnouts were very good at the other shows as well. Jenny and Christa arrived on Sunday night after a busy weekend in eastern Ontario, bringing a replacement crew of animals for our continued journey this week. Christa is coming with us now, and Dan has gone back with Jenny for some shows in the south.

Sunday, before our Finlayson Point show, we hiked a trail here that leads through a nice stand of old growth white pine trees- reminiscent of what the forest here looked like centuries ago. One of the trees has been checked and is over 300 years old- hard to imagine! We also saw a pretty garter snake while on the trail, and a few toads.

We actually had the day off yesterday, having convinced Jenny and Dan to do the North Bay show on their own on the way home, so we went canoeing, fishing, swimming, and the girls had long naps! I caught a smallmouth bass in the morning, which was a nice addition to our big brunch before Jenny and Dan left.

Today we have to say goodbye to the warm hospitality of Marten River, and we head north towards Kirkland Lake, to Esker Lakes Provincial Park. We're planning a stop in Temagami to climb a restored fire tower, which should be neat!

Northeastern Ontario Tour: Day 7

Jeff Hathaway — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 10:51:11 PDT

We're still in Sudbury, about to start our last library program. We're off to Marten River Provincial Park tonight, and then the Mattawa and North Bay area for a few days.

Everything is going great; lots of comedic moments between myself, Crystal, and especially Dan... Don't have time to post much here right now though, as the show starts in a few minutes. I wish I could post pics of Crystal and Dan in the wireless headset "Madonna mics" last night at Grundy Lake Provincial Park- definitely needed a sound system there since we had 350 people come out to the show!

Northeastern Ontario Tour: Day 4

Jeff Hathaway — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 06:53:36 PDT

Here we are in Sudbury, on Day 4 of our 18 day tour of northeastern Ontario. We started on Saturday at Mikisew, Restoule and Killarney Provincial Parks. We actually had a day off on Sunday at spent it relaxing (during the morning rain) and then hiking along one of Killarney's famous quartzite ridges, also known as the LaCloche Mountains. We were rewarded with a beautiful view of the surrounding area while we had lunch, and Dan found a good-sized smooth green snake as well! After a refreshing swim we hit the road for Windy Lake Provincial Park, where we're staying this week while we do all of the Sudbury library branches. We did three libraries yesterday, and will be doing two more today, plus a program at Halfway Lake Provincial Park tonight. Crystal and I did a little fishing last night, and Crystal caught a couple of small brook trout which we had for dinner. Hopefully we'll have even more luck later in the trip when we have a bit more time to spare!

Staff Profile: Crystal Robertson

Jeff Hathaway — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 12:17:45 PDT

Crystal has been volunteering with us for about five years, and we are happy to have her finally join us as a staff member! Currently an Ecosystem Management student at Sir Sanford Fleming College in Lindsay, Crystal's career plans definitely involve reptiles. Her other interests include dogs, camping, travel and fishing. Check out a picture of Crystal in our Flickr photo gallery at the right of the page.

Green Iguana enclosure is operational!

Jeff Hathaway — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 15:28:58 PDT

Finally, our first public display enclosure is operational! Eggo, an adult male green iguana we took in last year, has now moved into his permanent home, and so far he seems to like it. This enclosure is quite large (you can walk into it) and features a waterfall and pond as well as environmental controls. I put a photo of the enclosure up earlier today, check out our photo gallery on the right side of the site!

Staff Profile: Christa Maitland

Jeff Hathaway — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 19:34:43 PDT

Christa is a University of Guelph zoology student (and Wildlife Club member) who has just completed her 3rd year of studies. Reptiles are a special interest of hers, so she was happy to get a job with us for the summer of 2005! She has toured the province extensively with her family in the past, and is looking forward to spending time on the road exploring some new places while teaching people about snakes. A photo of Christa at one of our displays in June is in the Flickr photo gallery. Christa's position is supported by the Government of Canada's Summer Career Placement program.

Summer plans, etc.

Jeff Hathaway — Sun, 26 Jun 2005 08:06:33 PDT

A few things I wanted to mention briefly:

The Eastern Canada Tour for summer 2005 has now officially been cancelled as our funding did not come through. We are still planning our joint effort with CARCNET to do a cross-Canada tour and look forward to getting back into writing funding and sponsorship proposals in the fall after the busy summer season is behind us. And it is going to be a busy summer! Check out the Upcoming Events page for details of where we'll be, and that's just the events that are open to the public- most of our events are private! Our northeastern Ontario tour in July looks like it will now be 18 days long, with ~35 shows from North Bay and Sudbury to Timmins, and new for this year- Pukaskwa National Park.

Good thing we've got three full-time staff this summer to help out- Christa, Crystal, and Dan (yes, he's back for another year!). Watch for their staff profiles to be posted this week.

Volunteer weekend pictures are now up on our Flickr gallery; currently they're in the most recent shots shown on the right side of our home page, but soon they'll be bumped out. Click on the More of Jeff's Photos link if you want to see them- they are titled Spring '05 Volunteer Weekend...

I was in a competitive birdathon event last weekend, the Carden Challenge. Our team didn't win, but we had a lot of fun, and combined the eight teams raised $10000 for the Couchiching Conservancy's campaign to purchase the 1600 acre Windmill Ranch property on the Carden Alvar. They are now only $5000 away from the $110K target, and we're hoping to get them closer on Canada Day. At our display in Orillia on Friday, July 1st, we'll be taking pictures of people with a snake for a donation, with the proceeds going to the Windmill Ranch campaign. We've done this a few times in the past with this amazing conservation organization, and so far we have raised nearly $2000 for this campaign through these photos. So come out to the Canada Day display and get your picture done!

A hot and sweaty volunteer weekend!

Jeff Hathaway — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 09:39:07 PDT

Despite the heat and humidity, another successful volunteer weekend is done! A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who came out, and to our food and drink sponsors (Quizno's, Subway, A&W, Burger King, Weber's Downtowner, Orillia Bakery and Deli, King's Buffet, and No Frills) as well!

Projects included digging the trench for the fence around the outdoor red-eared slider enclosure (now if we can just find a sponsor for the fence!), backfilling and grading of the outdoor wood turtle enclosure, sanding the drywall compound in 8 of the custom enclosures in the main exhibit area (eastern fox snake, blue racer, eastern indigo, bull snake, western hognose snake, eastern hognose snake, black roughneck monitor and prehensile-tailed skink), siliconing the viewing windows in the green iguana, burmese python, and boa constrictor enclosures, concrete patching, firewood stacking, moving bricks and timbers, planting trees, shrubs, and a few tomatoes, and sorting bark slabs for use in some of the enclosures and an upcoming fence project. We were busy! I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Attendance was a little lower than in previous years, but we still had a solid group of regulars along with some new faces which is great to see! After dinner on Saturday, everyone was eager to cool off in the pool, and a vigorous game of basketball ensued which we think was won by the guys this time. Since we quit working a little early due to the heat, we still had time for a movie after getting out of the pool. Sunday afternoon saw us back in the pool again to cool off before things wrapped up!

I'll try to announce the date for the fall volunteer weekend a little bit farther ahead so that more people can plan for it. It should be sometime in October. I hope we'll see you then!