Late Season Visitor

There are animals we expect to see at this time of year. Moose, deer, foxes, the last few Coots, spiders and the year-round birds are all familiar sights in and around the Sanctuary. One of the things that we don't expect, is a butterfly; especially when it's clinging to the screen on the inside of a window.

Yet, that's exactly what we found this morning.

This Comma (we think - it won't open its wings to allow us to see the colours) Butterfly has taken up residence on the inside screen of the windows in the programmers'-space here at the Nature Centre. It's not surprising that it's still alive; Commas overwinter as adults. It is surprising that it's indoors and not hiding in a woodpile or buried under leaf litter somewhere. At some point we'll likely have to catch it and move it. While they will overwinter, they do it in hibernation.

If you have an interesting nature sighting, email it to us at general@waskasoopark.ca

HOME

Spend an hour or so with us and immerse yourself in HOME, a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

Click this link to be taken to HOME on Youtube. Unfortunately we couldn't embed it right here.

Yann writes: "We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.

HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet."

We echo Yann. Share this incredible film amongst your friends and family.

Not all art shows are in a gallery...

So I promised a couple of kids last weekend that I would post their creations on our blog. Sunday was our Guerilla Nature Art Day, and though the weather was strikingly hot and sunny (a far cry from today's cloudy dreariness), the kids were still able to find inspiration from their surroundings. Here are the nature art "installations" from that event: I hope you enjoy them.

And thank you to Emily Neufeld, our Artist About Town that day, for patiently drawing the lovely pictures of the owl and fish while people watched. The lilac outline of one of our volunteers is also Emily's creation.

Incidentally, I took inspiration for this day from an English artist named Andy Goldsworthy who is world renown as an environmental sculptor, taking bits of nature and making them into fantastic, very beautiful creations. His website is well worth a look.

Until next time, happy creating!