Reptiles at Risk

A day off!

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on July 26, 2007 at 4:35 PM

Hey Guys! Sarah Jane here! Today was our day off, and man, was that nice. We all slept in (a wonderful thing! For those who know me, I am NOT a morning person). Once we were up, Sarah B. went to the beach to tan, Mary-Ellen stayed at the campsite to do some schoolwork and clean up, and Jeff, Andy, and I went on the Shoreline trail, down by the boat launch. And what a great walk it was!

We stopped every few minutes to identify or photograph some cool plant, tree, dragonfly, or other living thing (by the way, there are some really cool tree species at Charleston Lake that you usually only see further south, it’s definitely worth the trip there). Once we got to the swamp, Jeff and Andy waded right in to look for stinkpot turtles. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any turtles, but we did see a baby water snake, and photographed some really cool baby gray tree frogs, which had just metamorphosed from tadpoles. They were bright green, despite their name- gray treefrogs can change their colour from gray to green and back!

We continued on our walk, and came to the place where the big rocks slope down into the water- an amazing place to swim. Apparently, a few other people knew about this place as well, as there was a small crowd swimming there. A bunch of the people there recognized us as “the snake people”, and we were regaled with all sorts of reptile sighting stories. Some people had even seen black rat snakes in the park recently! A feat our group has yet to accomplish.

At 2:00 we pulled out and headed to Montreal. I was sad to leave Andy, but I was soon consoled with the thought of poutine and real Montreal bagels (mmmmmmmmm), and seeing friends and family.

It looks like I’ll be the navigator for the next week, which may be quite an interesting task… I wonder if Jeff and the girls know what they’re in for with Montreal drivers/roads? We arrived at my aunt’s place in Otterburn Park around 7:30, and had a delicious dinner of BBQ’d steak, corn on the cob, and fresh veggies. It was great to see my aunt and uncle again.

Sarah Jane