Winter Visitor

We get our fair share of critters who make the Nature Centre and the Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary their seasonal home. There are a couple of Little Brown Bats who roost over the back door each summer. Countless thousands of waterfowl take up residence on the lakes each spring. The beavers live year round in their lodge. The list is seemingly endless. And, as familiarity breeds more familiarity, we start to take the animals for granted; sort of a mobile part of the background.

Every once in a while though, we have a visitor that for whatever reason, be it curiousity on our part, curiosity on their part, great timing or some other tilt of circumstance, catches our eye and distracts us like little children.

This "little" guy is currently getting all our attention.

Yes, it's a moose. We'll try to get a better picture up here. He(?) seems to have developed a fascination with the Nature Centre - or more properly with our full bird feeders. This sub-adult moose is apparently separated from it's mother as she has only been seen once in the last couple of weeks. Not to worry. He(?) has an ample food supply (poplar branches and sunflower seeds) and seems to have a great flight response. Barring anything unfortunate - like coyotes - this little moose will probably be OK.

As an aside, it's an entertaining illustration of the times when a group of naturalists sees an animal and instantly starting whipping out their camera phones to get pictures.

Seeing stars

I thought I'd remind everyone that our brand new Starlab portable planetarium is up and running. Well, not literally up and running (we don't keep it inflated at all times, of course), but it is available for school and youth group bookings. We can do star shows here at the Nature Centre or, if you have several groups and a suitable space, we can take the shows to you.

Please give us a call at (403) 346-2010 for information on rates and space requirements.

We are planning to offer public shows in the upcoming months as well, so if you'd like to see the planetarium in action keep an eye on your local papers and this blog for dates and times.