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