Our dear Katrina- the sweetest and most bendable girl on the team :) Katrina is a fun person to have around while on the road, or anytime for that matter. She just graduated from Guelph University (yep, another one!) in Wildlife Biology. Thanks to her herpatology field course at Queens U in Kingston, she is also our resident amphibian expert! She's great to have along on any trail, because she'll be sure to spot little critters sliding through the grass that anyone else would just breeze right past. One very cool thing about Kat is that she is actually a gymnastics coach! This has got to be a first for any of the Reptiles at Risk crew members- and boy does she rock those backflips. She's entertained some lingering crowds with her stunts here and there, but we've yet to start a show with a triple flip one-handed backspring with turtle in hand ;) Personally, I think it could be fun, but what do I know.
Katrina is always ready with a laugh, and keeps as all going with her sunny disposition. Of all her favourite things, the one we hear about most is her little puppy back home. Any time we pass other dogs you can be sure Katrina will be the first to 'awww' and tell us the latest adorable thing her pup has learned to do. Very cute! She is great at posing for ridiculous photos, and is a mean competitor in mini golf. Another of her favourite things I'd have to say is post-boxes. When she's not reading her 'Water for Elephants' novel, she's probably writing yet another postcard to be sent from our next small town stop.
One of Katrina's arch-nemesis' are, believe it or not, chipmunks. They have even been known to stalk Katrina in the night, crawling up through the wheel-well in our old trailer and onto her legs in her bed in the middle of the night. Never mind snakes- it's the rodents you have to watch out for!
Hard to believe our summer is coming so soon to a close, it's been fun times Katherine ;)
Katrina here. Over the past week the team was lucky enough to visit 2 more provincial parks, and stay 3 nights at each!
The first was Long Point, and we had a beautiful site right near the beach. This park is probably the sandiest one we've been to. We had two shows at the park on a rainy Sunday and we were lucky enough to have the rain stop in time for both our shows- what are the chances of that?
Monday we had a nice relaxing day off and drove to the town of Long Point where Amanda and I had a lovely mini-putt tournament. We both shot over par, but it was nice to change up our routine a little. (Amanda here- Katrina is just being modest, she actually kicked my butt). While playing mini-putt Adam explored the Arcade. On our way back to the park we stopped at a trail explaining some of the future plans for the Longpoint Causeway, to build eco passages for the animals. We walked the 2km trail and saw a great blue heron, a hawk and a couple garter snakes. I decided to pick up a garter, which of course meant the garter had the right to musk on me! It was really smelly!- note to self: that is why we don't pick up wild garters!
Turkey Point was our next stop: after shows in Port Dover and Port Rowan. Again we lucked out with a huge campsite- it was a pull-through with two picnic tables and quite a distance between other campsites. Our first night there we had a show in front of the campers at Turkey Point.... little did we know our boss Jeff and Robin were in the crowd filming us! We had a nice visit with Jeff and Robin and had a lovely evening dinner of chili and card-playing! Side note: we had a park warden come by and say we were being a little too loud with our music (AND this was in fact our forth encounter with park wardens at different parks after driving a short distance without seatbelts, having fires after 11pm and parking in a no parking area). This is proof that park wardens do a great job! :)
Which takes us to Wednesday... on Wednesday we had 3 shows at Simcoe Library, Waterford Library and Backus Conservation Area. Thursday we had a day off at Turkey Point where Adam and I dropped Amanda off at her great Aunt and Uncles' (Carole and Stuart). She had a reat time catching up and seeing old family photos and meeting the neighbour: Gregor Beck. Gregor Beck is involved in the reptile world and has helped with several publications- Amanda picked up a wonderful herp. conservation guide off him (which is one I actually purchased in Pinery P.P.). Adam and I then went to the town of Simcoe to explore and get our haircut.
Which brings us to today! Friday!! We are currently stationned outside the Port Dover Library doing our second last display as part of a sidewalk sale on the Main street. Tonight we will be in Selkirk- our last provincial park of the trip. We are almost done our Ontario adventures and it only feels like yesterday that we departed for the Georgian Bay Tour....
Big Red the van pays a visit to the 401, and carries us all the way to Woodstock. We wouldn't call a parking lot outside the slots the most ideal of places to sleep, but we did make the best of our stay. The Agricultural grounds in Woodstock also double as a racetrack and a slots casino, and so after Ray and Lorna the organizers (such lovely people!) helped us get settled in we stopped to enjoy some harness racing. With $2 bets you can't go wrong, and although only Katrina won back a bit of her cashola we had a fun time. The display went well at the market, and we had a steady stream of people visiting us all morning
We all couldn't wait to wander off to our next stop for the day.... Cow.a.polooza. Moo! We doubled up a display with our show, and enjoyed a milking contest beside us. Our milk snake, Angus, especially had a super time ;) You can bet we didn't miss that photo-op either! The Beagles, a Beatles tribute band that couldn't be older than 15 was a tough act to follow, but we presented to a nice audience, and hung around afterwards for a hilarious busking show. Enough of the city though, onwards to Longpoint as we drift further East along Erie...
Greetings from Amanda! Another beautiful Ontario Park under our belts- Rondeau was a perfect place to cool our heels after the Petrolium fields of the south west. We enjoyed the scenic drive from Sarnia with more and more wind turbines peppering the landscape along the shores of Lake Erie, and were sure to stop for some sunset photo at the roadside.
We spent the next few days zig-zagging around the region, starting our day at the Ridgetown Library. This group was a real treat, and probably the more polite and well-behaved group of kids we've ever seen. Blenheim drew some large crowds for a small town, and we ended our day at Wheatly Provincial Park. We were jealous of some of the parks staff there, having spotted a Fox snake in their maintenance shed that very day! Shame they couldn't have just had him wait there for us, but oh well ;)
It was rough going Wednesday morning, with a 5:30am wakeup call to mosey over to the Chatham Farmers Market. It was quite a rustic little market, and we enjoyed the fun vendors, like Mr. Pickle, as well as the Railway Newfie blaring his country-music cover album all day. We met some very nice people there, however I found the number of people gasping and detouring wide circles around our tent a little disheartening. We've all got our fears, but what a shame that snakes draw such extreme reactions. Of course that's why we're out here on the road, dispelling as many myths and misconceptions as we can as we go along. On to the Chatham Library we were given a lovely thank-you card and even a Tim Hortons gift card... such a thoughful gesture from the library staff!
The show at Rondeau that night was a big hit, with all 3 of us presenting like a well-oiled machine ;) Katrina got to reconnect with her old TA from her Queens U herpatology course, and we got to take a peek at their baby Spiny Softshell turtle (rescued from a listing on Kijiji of all places!). It was great having the next day off after such a jam-packed week. Katrina and I took one of the parks canoes for a paddle around the marsh, and were thrilled at spotting an adult Map Turtle, as well as (maybe?) a Least Bittern bird. haha we hope! Regardless we felt very lucky to be there in the middle of it all.
Ciao for now!
Hello again, Adam here! While at the Pinery, we watched a movie called Waterline. This movie followed the course of the Great Lakes Watershed, with a focus on all the various pollutants and other factors affecting marine life in our waters. One of the places featured was the
Aamjiwnaang First Nation, just south of Sarnia. The reserve is in an area known as Chemical Valley, and was being featured for the birth rate of more than 60% females in the community. The hypothesis is that this is due to many estogen-like compounds being released into the water from cities upstream (Chicago, for instance).
It was fitting that the very next day we headed to the same reserve, and even met a few of the people featured in the documentary. There was a good turnout from the community, and everyone had a good time handling the snakes. The reserve itself was quite nice, but just across from the baseball diamond and park loomed an oil refinery puffing smoke into the air. Their community center is surrounded on many sides by oil refineries and other factories, and all of us felt the weight in our lungs as if we had been smoking cigarettes for our few days in the area.
While there, we were talking to people who had fed their pet Ball Pythons (an intermediate pet choice) with mice and rats raised on tap water and grains from the area. The Ball Pythons had died after consuming the rodents. Whether this was a direct effect or mere coincidence was never proven, but it is very clear that the area is heavily polluted. felt guilty driving through the area as I knew that my driving contributed to the problems that these people and this area are facing. With our reliance on fossil fuels, every cent spent at the pumps generates the profit that allows the industry to thrive, and our health and environment to suffer.
As we left Aamjiwnaang, the refineries slowly faded from the agricultural landscape and were replaced by windmills. Compared to the oil refineries, wind turbines seemed to be the most beautiful thing ever. If only it were that simple...
Wind Turbines are an extremely controversial issue in the areas where they appear. People complain that they are unsightly, that they are noisy, and that they are dangerous. A 3-year-old at the Ridgetown library answered the question, 'why are 7 of 8 Ontario turtles are at risk?', was because of windmills! It was pretty hilarious, but there's no doubt someone in her family complains about them a lot. In terms of conservation, windmills provide a very real threat to migratory birds.
Obviously this issue is complex. Whether it is an oil refinery, or a 'green' wind turbine, many communities across Canada are being affected by our society's reliance on energy. Conservation is about more than just saving individual animals. We can all do our part to save Ontario reptiles by decreasing our energy usage, which will in turn help the environment
that these reptiles need to survive.
So far you’ve only been introduced to one member of our trio, so I think this is a great opportunity to tell you all the dirty details about our one and only Amanda Ammon.
Amanda has blonde hair and blue eyes and loves long walks on the beach... :) Although this is all true let's get to the better stuff:
Amanda is the oldest member of our team (not including our travel trailer). She graduated four years ago from McMaster University majoring in Anthropology, which is funny considering both Adam and I are University of Guelph students taking Biology. She came into this job though because of her love of animals and teaching. And now, after being on the road, she can probably tell you anything you ask of Ontario's reptiles.
We are lucky to have Amanda as part of our team because she has just come back from some worldly travels and has a lot of wonderful stories to share. In her travels she has been to New Zealand as well as South Korea where she worked as an ESL teacher.
Amanda loves to read! She will often be seen reading up on world news, or sipping her tea reading a good book. She is one of the most eco-friendly people I know, trying to keep her carbon footprint as small as possible: recycling and reusing whenever possible.
Fun Fact: Amanda so far this trip is that her shoulders are double jointed and she can actually circle her arms from the front of her to the back holding her hands together. Which I find quite fascinating being a gymnast myself and not even coming close to that!
Amanda has been a really great person to get to know this trip. She is very kind hearted and will come up with the best jokes to brighten my day!
-Katrina
We left the lovely town of Oro Medonte Friday evening to start our trek back on the road. This time we have been set out to the Southern parts of Ontario. Friday night we arrived at Pinery Provincial Park and set down our camper to prepare for a 3 night stay. We even have a few new members of the team- a hognose and fox snake (who we haven't had since our Georgian Bay adventures) and a lovely little spotted turtle named Dotty.
Early Saturday morning our crew went to Grand Bend for the day to set up a display at Aquafest. We had lots of visitors come over to see our lovely animals and even got a whole baseball team to come join the fun and hold some of our snakes. We could not have asked for better weather! We were lucky enough to have the night off which we spent exploring the Pinery. Adam and I rented bikes and set out to find a hognose snake... and with our luck we didn't even see a garter :( We did have a lot of fun biking and we even found a hairy-tailed mole on our hike! We all went to the beach which was BEAUTIFUL! There was a boardwalk to get to the beach since it is over some dunes which are being preserved due to the amount of endangered plant species found there. Amanda also thoroughly enjoyed the Oak Savanna on the Cedar trail, and although did see an Easter Towhee bird, but sadly no hognoses either. That night Adam and Amanda set out to watch a documentary about water at the amphitheater and I had a quiet night of reading in the camper.
Sunday was a long day for the team. We started out going to Huron Shores Marina where we set out our second display. One family stayed the whole time our display was there! The two boys even fished for minnows to feed the turtles. We love to get kids as involved as possible and it is a great learning experience for them when they get to be our helpers :) This display was followed by our first show of the trip at Rock Glen Conservation Area. While waiting for the show to start Amanda and I were lucky enough to see a peregrine falcon landing in the tree above our heads. Adam set out on a hike to explore the park and saw a Virginia opossum. We have been lucky with all sitings but reptiles it seems, which is why we do what we do. They are hard to find because they are not doing well in these areas. We were lucky enough to have had this show set up inside because it POURED! After the show we headed back to our campsite where we had a show. Over 200 people showed up to see us at the park and again we were lucky with the weather and the rain held out during the whole show. We had some kids start off this show for us with a song about getting eaten by a Boa, which we informed the audience that we have no boas and that they don't eat people, but it was very entertaining.
Which brings us to today... Today we have visited 2 libraries for shows: the forest library and the sarnia library. We are so lucky to have all these libraries hosting us and we have had wonderful turn-outs! We have one more show today before heading to our next campsite at Rondeau Provincial Park.
Until next time... :)
-Katrina
What better way to end a 3 week roadtrip than a rodeo? The roadteam was due to wrap up our tour in Barry's Bay on Friday, but we added on a weekend at the Tweed Stampede and Rodeo. Jeff came up from Orillia and switched out with Katrina so she could enjoy her weekend off at the cottage. Jeff, Adam and I spent a few days of cowboy fun in Tweed. It was a beautiful summer weekend and we had a lot of families visit our display in the kids area. Some of the other displays included an elderly farmer offering sheep shearing and dog herding presentations, a chainsaw carver, and lots of bouncy castles. The real fun was all about the rodeo of course! With country fans all around us, Jeff even bought his very own leather cowboy hat and fit right in. We had some laughs watching some serious cowboys and cowgirls roping calves, running barrel races, and bullriding. Pretty wild stuff these guys do, that's for sure. The only bull we rode was a mechanical one in the kids play area, definately worth the pulled muscles. ;)
From there we all enjoyed our time off, and are now gearing up to head back out on the road, this time to Southern Ontario. Summer is flyin by, and we are loving it!
Cheers,
Amanda