Friday, October 22, 2010

wetlands trip

the group getting a briefing from the Ranger before heading out into the wetlands...

This is in a drained pond ... looking for tracks ... we found some! Another highlight was seeing some coyote scat (poo!). It was pretty fun walking about in the drained pond in amongst the tall reeds, exploring through the tall grass was a highlight for Ben...
After the walk around the wetlands, lo0king for animal signs, insects and pond life, the kids got to dissect an owl pellet - the chart is so you are able to match up the bones and figure out just what the owl had eaten...
We also went for a drive around a Tulie Elk reserve ... here is the Ranger that showed us around and gave a talk ... the Elk were too far off in the distance to photo well, and so he had some antlers to look at up close...


I don't have a photo of them, but, the mosquitoes were huge and swarmed us ... luckily Leah had given us a heads up to bring along repellant ... we must have used a third of a bottle over the day as they followed us... I hadn't realised that they'd bite us through our clothes at first ... once I realised that - well, when Leah informed me that the back of my shirt was covered in them - I sprayed us from head to toe including our clothes and although they still swarmed around we didn't get too many more bites.

The worst thing was for Chris, when he needed to go into work that evening in the car, he got in and was attacked by the squadron that had hitched a ride home with us!!

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