Newt Day

Petting a garter snake.
A long-toed salamander.
In the fall, Tualatin Hills Nature Park hosts Newt Day, a cool event where kids can see some of the park's shy residents up close and ask questions.  The park has lots of rough-skinned newts, so naturally they have quite a few of those, both in and out of water.  This year they also had a marvelous display of long-toed salamanders, a garter snake, and lots and lots of slugs and snails. And someone running around in a giant newt costume!  A volunteer was there with a  handheld microscope camera, for viewing microscopic images on a computer screen. He was showing kids what a snail looks like in extreme detail. This year they had a scavenger hunt which involved exploring the trails, looking for clues.  This took us to parts of the park that we don't often explore.  This event is definitely a winner!  
Here's a long-toed salamander up close.
Jasper was very excited to find this big millipede (about 3 1/2 inches long).
He also found these funny frilly mushrooms.


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