Invasion... of the good kind

Excuse the fuzzy cameraphone picture, but it was the best I could do at the time.

I was at McKenzie Trail watching a pond study today, and couldn't help but notice that the picnic shelter was being invaded.  Many, many (it will probably be hundreds, by the end of it) dragonfly nymphs were crawling out of the pond and up the shelter.  The students doing the pond study were lucky enough to see several of them split their skins and begin to emerge as adult dragonflies.  Pretty cool demonstration of metamorphosis there, don't you think?

If you happen to be down at McKenzie pond in the next week or so, be sure to keep your eye open for the emerging dragonfly nymphs.  They may be hard to spot at first since they blend in so well with the wooden deck, but once you first see them you'll start finding them all over the place.

Trail report (of sorts)

This slightly fuzzy cameraphone picture was taken yesterday on the Dr. George Trail. It seems that our recent rainfall helped make the abandoned river channel not-so-abandoned. Right now this section of the path isn't walkable (it is, however, wade-able), so if you're headed out for a stroll in the Sanctuary in the next couple of days you may want to go through the grassland to access the Wishart Trail.

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.