Salato Wildlife Center

Hello again,
The Coleman family tried to find something fun and cheap to do on a beautiful 82 degree day this weekend. We decided to visit the Salato Wildlife Center in Frankfort. It is close to home and free (you can't beat this combination) .

As soon as we got out and saw some folks who work for Fish and Wildlife out mingling with an Owl and a Snake! They were discussing the animals lifestyle, abilities, and habits. Sarah was quite taken with the owl (she said it was looking at her while he talked). She has always had quite a love affair with owls. "Hoot" was one of her first sounds as a baby. Chris and I even touched the snake! (Sarah was terrified and buried her head in Chris's chest.) I hope to add some photos later of the snake (taken with a throw away camera found in the trunk of our car...cross your fingers and hope that it is not ruined by the heat, but I am not holding my breath...)
We visited the indoor part of the museum where we looked at fish, frogs, snakes, and lots of stuffed wild animals like owls, turkeys, deer, ducks, etc.
Watch out!

Next, we moved to the outdoor exhibits.

The first outdoor exhibit we visited was the bald eagle. Sarah was instantly interested. Her favorite show (Little Einstiens) has an episode in which the Bald Eagle snatches Leo's baton and they must rescue it. We recreate this episode quite often in the Coleman household. Seeing a real bald eagle was pretty cool for this little girl! We even heard him talk! The ladies around us said they had never heard them make a sound before!
We watched the black bears groom one another and play for a while. Then we moved on to the water features.

The waterfall and pond exhibits were fun.

In the streams, we saw some fish native to Kentucky.

As usual, Sarah was drawn to water. She must take rocks and throw them at all costs. When she found a waterfall and small stream, she sat right down and spent quite a while playing happily. That is, until we made her move along.

Chris decided to jump rocks to cross the stream. I think he is reverting back to his childhood in the mountains.

Then we moved on to the deer and the wildcats.

We rounded out our visit to Salato with the Dragonfly marsh. I didn't see many dragonflies, but it was nice to sit on the bench and listen to nature. It was a great visit. We plan to go back before the end of the season. They have cool things going on every weekend in September and some Halloween events in October. This will probably not be the last you will see of Salato.

Bye for now.