I can’t believe the first week of August has come and gone already. The nice weather, cold ice cream and the great people I get to talk to and work with is making the summer fly by. Last week I expounded upon the stars above so I thought that this week I would introduce you to one of our local stars right here in Rondeau!
It takes a lot of people to make everything run smoothly at the Visitor Centre. Everyone sees all the naturalist staff that spend their days running programs, interacting with people at our festivals, and talking with everyone who comes into the Visitor Centre. What you don’t see is all the people that we need behind the scenes that are invaluable to us. These include all of the park staff from the administration at the main office to the gate attendants, maintenance, park store and warden staff who have all helped us out at festivals or special programs. We also couldn’t hold a lot of our special programs without the aid of the Friends of Rondeau. Through their tireless work and support we raise money and have the volunteers to run our Monarch Migration Festival, the Wings of Spring Festival and the Festival of Flight, not to mention all the guest speakers they have brought in throughout the years. And finally we have our other volunteers who come out and lend their enthusiasm and expertise for the betterment of the park. One of the foremost among them is Dale Wurker.
Friends of Rondeau volunteer Jim Ondrovcik barbequing at our Monarch Count day.
Dale has been volunteering his time at Rondeau for the last 18 years. His contributions have ranged from helping out with our Wings of Spring festival to recording scientific data. One of the most important things that Dale has done over the years is to take new and old staff out into the part and share his knowledge and expertise on different aspects of the park. Personally, Dale has taken me out on a number of occasions and helped me to identify bird songs and taught me many things about butterfly migration. Monarch migration is where Dale’s help is truly invaluable. Dale has dedicated hundreds of hours to the Monarch tagging program since it started here in 2002. Dale has tagged butterflies, recorded data, enlisted new volunteers, and collected recapture results. Through his tireless efforts we have strong, valuable data about the migration of Monarchs through Rondeau. Out of the 63 tagged Monarch Butterflies that have been recovered in Mexico 46 of them were tagged by Dale’s own hand. The best part is that he is still going strong. As I write this update Dale is out in the park with two of our naturalists monitoring the Monarch hotspots within the park and getting ready for the fast approaching tagging season. All of the naturalist staff at Rondeau would like to thank Dale for his willingness to share his knowledge, the amazing work he has done, and good times we’ve had with him here at the Visitor Centre.
