I have been spending a lot of time out near Owen Sound for work lately. We are starting a new precipitation monitoring site at the Kinghurst Nature Reserve near Chatsworth. The property is owned by Ontario Nature and this weekend they were having an amphibian and reptile count. As part of our outreach program, I was there to give a demonstration of our equipment and talk about why we are there and what we do. Here I am with the Mark Carabetta, Conservation Science Manager for Ontario Nature waiting for some rain. It turns out his wife works at the ROM with Mom and Dad’s old next door neighbour.

Afterwards I joined the group and went looking for Reptiles and amphibians. One of the Ontario Nature people is currently working on the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas. Joe Crowley is a wealth of information when it come to snakes and frogs. Here he is with a garter snake.

I spotted a water snake in the water and next thing you know he was in the water catching the snake.

Note the wet sleeve.

This little girl wanted to hold every snake they caught.

Here is a Ribbon Snake having a little swim.

A bigger Water snake, there were lots of Garter, Water and Ribbon snakes around the water’s edge.

The Nature Reserve has a large wetland area and one of the more impressive old growth forests in Ontario.

There were also lots of leopard frogs in the grass.

And some Green Frogs.

This was a Pickerel Frog.

Here is a small Red-bellied snake.

Most of the people there were birders and knew all the calls of the birds.

Some lichen in full bloom.

Another ribbon snake. The cloudy eyes indicate that it will shed its skin soon.

Part of the property is an old farmstead, there is still a well on the site. Mark said if you pump it long enough the water will come.

One last leopard frog before I left for home. The rest of the group were going to look for salamanders and more snakes. They were camping at a nearby conservation area and then they were coming back on the Sunday.