Saturday, August 19, 2006

Tobermory 2006: farewell

Good news – Melody is all better, and I’m back in the saddle.

I started nighttime roadkill monitoring two weeks ago. On the Tuesday and Thursday, I had fragmented days at work, so that I would work in the mornings and get the afternoons off to head out in the evening with my supervisor, Melissa. We are hoping to see a difference in the number of live occurrences on the road. So far, it hasn’t been very eventful.

However, on Friday we had an exciting morning since the one Massasauga who we were monitoring on Cove Island gave birth recently. We observed three babies – they were less than 20cm long, with a little button of a rattle, and were quite aggressive. We caught them and took measurements, which was fun. The babies stay with their mother for about 3 days before venturing out on their own.

Tuesday and Wednesday were busy days last week with preparations for the Grand Opening of the new Visitor’s Centre. All Young Canada Works students and many staff members helped out on those days – setting up chairs, cleaning, last minute completions of the exhibits, etc. The Opening Ceremony was memorable. Chiefs of neighboring native reserves, MP’s, CEO’s from Parks Canada’s National Office, other Parks staff, and approximately 500 visitors attended the event. Speeches were made by people of importance, native drummers were performing, caterers were giving out free food, flying squirrel and snake demonstrations took place. One of my jobs was to provide water, complimentary on part of Parks Canada to everyone who wanted some. I gave out so many bottles of water - it was crazy! Wednesday night’s party was awesome. Staff, family and friends attended for great food and raucous times.

I am now approaching my final week in the Bruce – no doubt I’ll miss it here, but I look forward to returning to Guelph and B-town to see you all.

No comments:

Post a Comment