REPTILIA

Today I drove down to Whitby to pick Ron up at work and bring him back, so he could leave his truck in the yard instead of bringing it home.

After having breakfast, we ran a few errands in the area getting things that Ron needed for fixing things at the house, the barn and various machines and vehicles.















While we were at our last stop we saw a sign for REPTILIA located at 1400 Victoria St. E. in Whitby, Ontario, which is Canada's largest Reptile Zoo and Education Facility.

So we decided to stop and see what the facility was like and to view the animals.

It was wonderful to enter the bright, open and very clean, building.

We were surprised that Reptilia is open every day (except Christmas Day) from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p. m. with the exception of holidays where they are open from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p. m.

The staff was friendly, informative and outgoing.

They let us know the times for the next public feeding of the reptiles and the time of the next live show featuring three of the animals.

We started going through the Zoo which features over 250 reptiles, amphibians, a few arachnids and a Grey Parrot in its 15,000 square feet (1,394 square metres) of exhibits.
















Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)

It was not long before they made an announcement that they would have a demonstration of feeding a Red Spitting Cobra and members of the staff showed us where to go to view the Red Spitting Cobra being fed.

It is amazing the speed at which the cobra took the bait. If you blinked you would have missed the strike and how quickly it swallowed its prey.















Red Spitting Cobra (Naja pallida)

We continued walking through the wide corridors, stopping at each display; in some cases the animals were easy to find, whether they were moving around in their habitat, curled up by a rock, or draped over a branch relaxing.

Others you had to try and find them in among the leaves, in the water or behind a rock and in one instance, one of the snakes had buried itself the mulch at the bottom of its home with only the head peeking out as though laying in wait for prey.















Monitor Lizard

A while later there was a live show and with one of the zookeepers of three of the animals in the zoo; in this case a Pakistani Leopard Gecko, followed by an Alligator Snapping Turtle and lastly, a Caiman.

The zookeeper give information about each of the three animals, asked the audience questions about their knowledge of the animals and answered all questions asked by the crowd.

Each animal was brought through the audience and everyone was given the opportunity to touch the animals if we wished. I of course did and Ron declined.

From there we continued going through the zoo, finding more interesting animals at each display. My only disappointment was that the Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) stayed hidden.

Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii)

This just means that I will have to go back again and perhaps next time he will be willing to come out of his cave and get his photograph taken.

Once we had gone through and looked at each display, we entered into a children's play area, complete with mazes, climbers, slides, toys and many other things to keep them occupied. Including the big kids (I almost didn't make it out of the maze).















Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

As we were heading out we noticed that there were two birthday parties going on in different rooms each of which included a live animal show, a visit from REPTILIA's mascot Sir Chompsalot.

Our last stop was at their Gift Shop/Store where they sell supplies for reptiles and occasionally have a few ready to be adopted. I picked up a t-shirt to add to my collection of places I have visited.















Blanding Turtle (Emys blandingii or Emydoidea blandingii) is listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List.

Dark Water I - A Work in Progress

I came across this sketch that I did a number of years ago at the on a paint out with the KAGS Outdoor Painters' Group, while we were at the Peterborough Riverview Park and Zoo.

This was of a part of the small island on the lower level of the Park near the bridge.

I had a little bit of time and I started with the two pine trees at the edge of the water and the rocks at their base.

I will post this painting at a later date once more work on it has been completed.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Summer Trees 1

Today as I went to the Peterborough Riverview Park and Zoo and went down to the lower level by the Otonabee River where there is a footbridge leading to a small island. I wanted to work on a small painting, so I sat down to paint for by the river.

It didn't take long for me to rough in the main sections of the rocks, the far side of the river and the trees.

Wetting my paper first, I brushed in the sky and the river with French ultramarine blue.

While the paper was drying, I mixed various greens using Antwerp blue, raw sienna, new gamboge and aureolin.

I started by painting in the trees on the far shore of the river, this was followed by painting the areas of the leaves on the trees that were in the island.

















Using alizarin crimson and burnt sienna, I indicated where the rocks of the island would be located.

While the rock base was drying, using raw sienna I indicated some of the reeds in the water by the far shore.

I mixed a dark of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue and painted painted over the rock area, and using a palette knife I lifted some of the dark colour to create the rock shapes, with the under paint showing through.

Next, I painted in the tree trunks with the dark mixture.

Lastly, I added in a couple of gull silhouettes as they flew across the sky above the river.

This framed, original 3" x 3-1/2" watercolour painting is available for $85.00. SOLD

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.