The ROM Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Ontario| Main | Archives |
Featured Entries
Essex County Schools Next Week
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on December 1, 2006 at 9:06 PM
One more week will finish off the program portion of the Reptiles at Risk on the Road project for 2006! Next week, we will be visiting seven schools in southern Essex County, one of the most important areas of Canada for species at risk reptiles!
Narcisse: The World's Highest Concentration of Snakes
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on August 22, 2006 at 10:18 PM
After leaving Portage la Prairie, we took a side trip up to the famous garter snake hibernation site at Narcisse. Many people over the last few weeks have been asking us about them, and we recently spoke with someone who told us that the snakes have started to return to these hibernation sites, or hibernacula, already. So, we decided to check it out for ourselves. Considering we had only seen one live garter snake since leaving Ontario a month ago, it was pretty amazing to see so many snakes!
Prairie Skink Research with Dr. Pamela Rutherford
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on August 21, 2006 at 1:55 AM
We left Saskatchewan late Thursday night, after doing programs in Weyburn and Estevan, and drove over to the Spruce Woods area. We had arranged to meet with Dr. Pamela Rutherford, from Brandon University, who is conducting research on the prairie skink, early the next morning. Since we didn't arrive until very late (about 3AM), we just went straight to the study site and slept in the back of the van. The new fold-flat seats sure are great! We met Dr. Rutherford, her family, and one of her students, Jory, in the morning, and set off for the site to find some skinks!
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on August 9, 2006 at 9:39 PM
Cypress Hills was the westernmost venue for our 2006 tour, near the border of Alberta. We got to the park very late, after doing the fireworks festival in Moosomin. One advantage of driving at night is the increased chance of seeing wildlife, though that can also be a hazard. We try to minimize driving at night in northern Ontario due to the risk of collision with a moose! That isn't really a problem in southern Saskatchewan, as moose are found in isolated areas here. We hear that hitting a cow is a possibility, but more so in rural areas than on the highway. Anyhow, that night it was a benefit, as Crystal got to see a cougar and a burrowing owl, while Megan and I slept.
Moose Mountain and Moosomin, Saskatchewan
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on August 7, 2006 at 11:33 PM
We arrived in Saskatchewan Friday night, and went to Moose Mountain Provincial Park, which had a very nice campsite waiting for us. On the way out to Saskatchewan, we stopped at the Future Shop in Brandon, Manitoba, where I bought a laptop computer so that I can keep up with these dispatches once Megan leaves us this week. We're putting her on a bus in Swift Current so that she can get back to Ontario in time to start her Field Ecology course at Algonquin Park.
Some Praise We Received by Email
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on August 1, 2006 at 12:24 PM
We get various emails and comments from people we meet on the road. Questions are always great, too, if there's anything we can help anyone out with! We can't put them all up on our website, but this one was especially great!
So You Want to Be a Herpetologist
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on July 28, 2006 at 2:50 PM
We get asked a lot about careers involving reptiles! Kids often want to know how to become a herpetologist, which is a person who studies reptiles and amphibians. It isn't easy! The first advice we'd have to offer is to stay in school, study hard, and get good grades! Jobs in this field require post-secondary education, generally at the university level, though some college programs can also be a good choice. High school courses in sciences and maths are typically required for entry in these programs, and often there is competition for limited spaces, so reasonably high marks are necessary to get accepted into a program. This doesn't mean you have to be a genius- hard work can take you a long way!
Introducing Bertha
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on July 24, 2006 at 5:58 PM
You get to hear some interesting exclamations when you drive around with big signs about snakes on your vehicle! The van does get funny looks from some people, but lots of compliments as well. So, we thought we'd tell you about her! Now, we don't normally name our vehicles. We've had a succession over the years, many of them fondly remembered despite the lack of personal titles. But late in 2000, we retired our second Nissan Multi and bought a used Suzuki Sidekick (the 4 door version, even we couldn't manage to pack a reptile display into the 2 door). The Suzuki came with the appropriate name Suzy from her previous owners. Within a month, we also bought this van, a 1988 Dodge B3500 12 passenger van. Quite the beast! The B certainly could stand for 'BIG', so we decided to call it Big Bertha, which quickly got shortened to just 'Bertha'.
Some Stormy Teamwork
Posted by Jeff Hathaway on July 18, 2006 at 11:14 AM
Monday morning was not destined to be the beautiful send off that we imagined. We awoke to a dark sky, with thunder in the distance.