Spring 2026: Volunteering with Grey Sauble Turtle Conservation
This spring I began volunteering with the Grey Sauble Turtle conservation group in Grey County. My role is to locate nesting turtles, record observations for research, and install nest-protector screens over the eggs. These protections help reduce predation, prevent compaction from passing vehicles, and encourage hatchlings to head toward the ditch instead of the road — giving many a much better chance of survival.
What I’ve noticed so far
Nesting activity tends to peak on warm, wet evenings.
On stretches of road where new erosion-control technology has been installed, turtles struggle to dig through gravel and tar to reach sand — it’s heartbreaking to watch them try.
Predators clearly take advantage of nesting sites; it’s not just human eyes watching.
Properly placed 2 ft × 2 ft frames with a screen and spikes work well when positioned carefully, protecting eggs without blocking hatchling exit routes.
Female covering her nest
How you can help
Volunteer as a nest spotter and observer — more eyes mean more nests found and protected.
Help build nest-protector frames; there’s a consistent need for more of them.
Heading to the Beaver River after laying eggs on the sandy bank
For more information on volunteering opportunities and how to get or build frames, visit Grey Sauble Conservation’s website or contact their volunteer coordinator.
We had so much fun attempting to photograph these sharks at Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto, again the goal was to make it plausible that they are in the wild … I’ll be back for sure!
What a delight to be able to capture some Sea Turtle images that I missed on my snorkelling vacation – and not to require scuba gear at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. It seemed to be an easy task however the goal was to make it appear to be in the wild, it took some time and lot’s of waiting.
I don’t go out of my way to photograph the many deer in the Beaver Valley as I figure that they are better off being afraid of people and steering wide of gardens, cars, and people in general. I do love watching them and seeing the little ones in the spring and getting to recognize family units, who are the leaders and which guard the young, I find it really interesting. We had a small family live for many years in our apple orchard until they became hunted and I really miss them, so I was thrilled to see a new herd visit.
This beautiful herd was right at home. Using my car as a blind I quietly rolled down the driveway to a good vantage point … of course they noticed the rolling car and gazed my way briefly before departing back into the valley.
Introduced from the west coast, these fish have made themselves at home in Georgian Bay, swimming up rivers like the Beaver River to spawn. They made it to the second their falls at Slabtown, where 50 or 60 sat under the falls with tails too long to fit, then they attempted to swim up the falls which were entirely the wrong angle for their efforts, most faded due to exhaustion and floated back down stream. In some of the photos you can see how the heavy fish would jump the first tier just to land heavily into the cement. It was kinda sad to watch, this dam could easily be re-engineered to help the fish.
Fish were moving up the Beaver River during the fall spawning Run to get to the nesting areas. Rarely do I see so many jumping, so tonight was special. There seemed to be Chinook Salmon and Rainbow Trout. Why are the Rainbow Trout with the Salmon? Because they are actually wrongly named Salmon! These fish were jumping at the Slabtown Dam, so they had already made it through the Thornbury Fish Ladder, and Clendenam Dam. In the calm eddies you could see many larger fish resting.
This photo above is one of the very few that made it 🙁
Above: Chinook and a Trout leap at the same time, the heavier fish landed with a thud on the cement and the trout made it to the second stage of the falls.
While on the Bruce Peninsula I learned some interesting Monarch info… they currently flying south along the shore line, we saw at least a dozen, perhaps more. They overnight in the cedars and sometimes will cluster in them. While some will make the whole trip to Mexico, along the journey 7 generations are produced. The extra little bug in the first photo is an Syrphid. Next time your up in the Bruce Peninsula look in the cedars for sleeping Monarchs, you might be surprised how many you find.
