We have been very lucky this summer, to have been sent some wonderful volunteers from a Toronto-based organisation called 'Red Leaf '. Earlier in the year we had our Swiss friends, Lea and Markus, Lea did the Tagebuch for us, then another Swiss young lady who worked with the summer program staff. Now we have a young French man and three Japanese young ladies who are doing an incredible job of maintaining the trails. What hard workers they are! 

We have other volunteers who come in and help,  there are groups of people with challenges who regularly fill the bird feeders and help to keep the Park litter free and there are others who give us their time to help in the Wildlife Garden or with Trail Maintenance at weekends.

And all of that is without even mentioning the incredible amount of time and expertise given by the Society's board members to actually run the Nature Park Society and to represent it at Special Events and fundraisers. 

I feel that summer volunteer Keefer may be avoiding me - understandable since every time he has entered my office I've tried to get him to dress up as some beastie of the Nature Park. Well, ok, we don't actually have bears here. Rob, however, was willing to put on the owl costume so that I could take a picture for the blog. They've both been great sports, so thank you lads!

There has been a shift change by the robins. The smaller, darker American Robins have now moved on.  Today, Kris pointed out to me that the larger, lighter-coloured northern ones have arrived in the park, possibly in front of the most recent weather system. 

Another group of birds preparing to move south, are the Warblers,  which have been seen gathering in the trees around the Nature House and bathing in the puddles by the pond. They will soon fly south, another sign that Fall is on its way.

Our summer programs are almost over and it will be strange not to have Angela, Maribeth and their volunteers around. Outside, we have two new Japanese volunteers helping with a few special projects around the park.  

A slow week, as temperatures in the Park, as at YVR, have hovered around 30 º, but whilst we mammals try to keep cool in the heatwave, the reptiles love to bask in it. The turtles have been lounging on the side of the pond and there have been more sightings of beautiful Garter Snakes, including one swimming.  When they swim, which they love to do, they just zip across the water, as though jet-propelled. 

The blueberries are ripening, more and more each day, providing food for many birds and small mammals. Warm-blooded creatures can more easily access the energy stored in vegetation than cold-blooded creatures can, and they tend to have more complicated digestive systems to be able to do so. Snakes, on the other hand, only eat meat, it is a far more energy efficient food for them because of their cold blood. Another benefit is that they have smaller amounts of faeces, important when you are an easily predated animal.  

Red Leaf in Toronto have sent us two new volunteers from France, Anna-Livia and Carlos. Anna-Livia is helping with the wildlife garden and trail maintenance and Carlos is assisting with the summer porgrams. For part of the week, we are lucky to have Rob back. He was the School Programs assistant last year after he completed his initial teacher training and then ran the summer programs for us along with Kat. 

Posted by Janis.