Museum of Nature - Reptiles and others

Museum of Nature's current special exhibition is "Reptiles", and I have been there twice already (three weeks ago and yesterday) because reptiles are a group of animals that I interact with the least and I am fascinated by them.

The first animal that you will see in the exhibit is a fierce-looking Alligator snapping turtle (Macroclemys temmincki).  It is sad to see this large animal in a very small display area and is submerged in water all the time. 

Alligator snapping turtle (Macroclemys temmincki)

Canadian Museum of History & Tulip Festival

Since living in Ottawa, one of the museums that I have not yet visited is the Canadian Museum of History.  This afternoon, I took advantage of the free Thursday admission and visited the museum for the first time.  It is very similar to the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC with a primary focus on the history and culture of Canada's First Nations.  Personally I thought the collection at MOA is more diverse and interesting.

Here are some of the things that caught my attention (most of them are associated with animals in some way).

One part of "Poo wiltso; Whaler's Dream" (silkscreen) by Ron Hamilton.

Science by Night at the Museum of Nature (2016)

This evening, a free event called Science by Night took place at the Museum of Nature.  In addition to the usual Thursdays' free open house (in the evenings), there were activities where the visitors could extract strawberry DNA, see birds of prey up-close, talk to paleontologists and park scientists, and more.  Since I have been to the museum many times already, the activity that interested me the most was seeing the birds of prey from Falcon Environmental Services.

The Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus).

November update

I apologize for not posting anything until the end of the month, but life is getting too busy for me to take breaks just for photographs.  During this month, I bought a year-long student membership to the Museum of Nature (and went there twice already), took up swimming during lunch breaks, and went out bird-watching three times.

Early November when the temperature was still pleasant enough to sit outside.  I was sitting on a bench and studying for my biological modeling midterm before taking this photo.

Bug Day at Canada Agriculture and Food Museum

There was a free event today at Canada Agriculture and Food Museum called "Bug Day", which consisted of various activities introducing insects to the public, e.g. insect zoo, cockroach races, insect collecting, etc.  I went there mainly for the free admission into the museum, a place that I haven't visited yet here in Ottawa.

Ornamental Gardens at the Experimental Farm

Visiting Canadian Museum of Nature's Natural Heritage Campus

For a part of my PhD research, I will visit several herbariums and examine specimens in the genus Mertensia spp.  I will be studying at the relationship between morphological (reproductive and vegetative) and phenological (timing of flowering) traits in genus Mertensia.  Today, I took the bus to Canadian Museum of Nature's Natural Heritage Campus in Gatineau and spent most of the day looking at herbarium specimens.

The collection room.

City Park, New Orleans - must visit!

In addition to doing a swamp tour, City Park in New Orleans is definitely a place I recommend visitors to check out, and riding the streetcars to City Park is definitely worth a try - for just $1.25 per trip!  After attending to a couple of presentations on Monday morning and making sure there weren't presentations in the afternoon that I was going to miss, I headed out to the City Park right afterwards.  Once again, this blogger also visited the City Park and she had a slightly different (positive) experience than mine.

City Park gate.

Being a tourist in St. Louis

A cloudy day today.  Good enough to go outside and explore downtown St. Louis with most of the group.

Walking towards the Gateway Arch.


WOW!  It's more impressive than this photo looks.

Ottawa's Museum of Nature

Thursday evenings are supposedly "museum nights" here in Ottawa and they are free during this time of the week. So, after 16:00, many of the course participants packed up for the day and headed out to the Museum of Nature.

The entrance. The building from the outside looks like a castle.

Think back to two weeks ago...at NMMBA

As the rain continues to fall here in Canada, I sit warmly indoors trying to do work.

Then I think back to two weeks ago, where my co-workers and I were at sunny southern Taiwan visiting the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium (NMMBA). What an fantastic place! Personally, I think it is several times better than the so-called world famous Vancouver Aquarium. Besides the more reasonable ticket price, NMMBA is huge! With two different buildings full of exhibits and displays and wide spaces and gorgeous views to the ocean, one full day is not enough to see everything.

A beautiful water playground for both children and adults to enjoy.

A real-sized Whale Shark model (Rhincodon typus)

A more realistic Whale Plaza right front of the main building showing Sperm Whales and Humpback Whales! Here is someone's post (in Chinese) about the constructions for this particular plaza.

Here's one of the Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) performing its well-known breaching courtship ritual.

Outside the second main building was a beautiful artscape named "Giant Squids Swim Freely" by Arthur Yang - it featurs five giant squids swimming and "symbolizing the all-encompassing ocean".

Fantastic!

Scurrying toward the "Water of the World".

At the end of the day, we enjoyed the beautiful view and waited for the sun to set.

Good times!
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